Three "experts" fail to notice huge error on radio show about Bitcoin
I recently listened to this radio show segment on our local station in Philadelphia talking about “The Rise of Bitcoin”, as I am generally interested in hearing what types of things are being discussed and told to the general public about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. With three “experts” on the show I didn’t expect there to be any misinformation conveyed, but boy was I wrong!
At about 33:30 into the segment they take their first question from a caller who says:
“My question is, given there are over 12 million Bitcoins, and a Bitcoin is $18,600, that’s about $230 Trillion of value. How do you justify that?...” (emphasis mine)
Before turning it over to the “experts”, the host then very clearly repeats the $230 Trillion number. I laughed immediately at hearing the caller get his math wrong by only a factor of 1,000 and waited expectantly for the “experts” to correct him. I simply could not believe it when all three “experts” (and yes I am going to use quotes every time I write that word referring to these people) went on to answer the question as though there were nothing wrong with it!
I cut the clip so it starts right at the segment in question which you can listen to here.
I don’t know how many people in the Philadelphia area listened to this, but anyone who did is now walking around thinking the market cap of Bitcoin is $230 Trillion. Sigh.
The “experts” on the show are:
- JOHN COLLINS, former head of policy at Coinbase
- JOSHUA ASHLEY KLAYMAN of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance Legal Working Group
- ANGELA WALCH, law professor at St. Mary’s University
I really just don’t know what else to say...
Since I'm not far from you, I'm sorry I missed this show. I expect better from "HYY" but this doesn't surprise me at all. The constant disinformation, FUD and just plain ignorance involving Bitcoin and other cryptos currently hold sway.
Can't just stop laughing. Like I said in the first no one is above mistake including the so called expert. Is just a sorry case.
Hey, where are you located? Would love to have you out to one of our Philly Steem meetups if it's not too far of a trip for you!
Near Reading. However, since I'm a student, I hardly even have time to post much. I get about one or two posts a week out. But who knows? I would've loved to have attended SteemFest in Portugal when I was in Germany.
Just goes to show that most people don't listen to it. There was a pretty funny Scrubs episode that talks about how most Dr's just listen to the first x amount of seconds of the patient's conversation and then start thinking of something else. Not excusing the mistake, but I would be more upset if they got a bitcoin-related question wrong and not just a simple math error.
This is brilliant. There are so many 'experts' out there no wonder so many people jump in the deep end of the crypto pool with no clue about what they are actually investing in.
Alot of people just invest in crypto because of FOMO and dont even know the basics of the blockchain.
If you havent check out Doug Polks youtube channel. this video is priceless and shows there is a lot of bad advice going around!
Idk why ppl have such a hard time with millions, billions, trilllions, etc. Sure I’m an engineer and I’m mathematically inclined. But of those 3 ppl one of them should have caught and corrected the error quickly. They shouldn’t overlook 3 orders of magnitude in a public forum. Smh.
@cryptokeepr. I seriously agree with you this. Atleast one person should have seen it all coming wrongly. Well that is to show to you that even the so called expert can make mistake and not see the most important. I also think it may be due to wrong taken of note when they were preparing.
One thing is clear here, no one is perfect.
@yabapmatt. you don't need to say anything again because you've said enough. Lol.
Yea, I mean I completely expect the caller (representing the general public) to make that mistake, and I don't expect the host of the show to notice the error - in fact it sounds like the host may not have quite believed it since she specifically repeated that number to the "experts" - but there is no way anyone can possibly be called an expert in cryptocurrencies and not immediately notice and correct that.
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You got a 100.00% upvote from @smartwhale courtesy of @yabapmatt!
Funny since GDP of USA in 2016 was 18.57 trillion...
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happy to get to know you closer 😊😉
Oh well maybe that should convince us that we should use terms millibitcoin and microbitcoins as the public are only used to dealing with fractions as small as one one hundredth.
M-day was several years ago when a mBTC was worth 0.01 USD and we hit the point where a μBTC was worth 0.01 USD last December. Someone who works with numbers like these often like an economist in the US or a car salesman in South Korea prolly would have caught the error.
These were experts in law based on the positions they hold.