Is wider exposure of Hive and, more generally, the use of blockchain technology for anything other than finance transfer and crypto scams positive?
Yesterday I was rightly proud of getting Hive its first ever mention in a mainstream media outlet and that being positive. If I'm wrong on this claim and you can show me Hive being talked about positively in a top 5 English language newspaper site, I'll give you 5 Hive on the spot.
This seems to have triggered the notorious Bernie and his accounts to smother me in downvotes, insults and the rest of his repertoire of antisocial behaviour. I'm not his first target and I'm sure I won't be his last.
I don't need to justify myself to Bernie but I do want the wider community to know what I'm doing. My approach to things on the Internet I don't like is most often to ignore. Every now and then I will propose an alternative view if the other side seems capable of a conversation, but arguing with abusive people isn't my thing.
I was speaking on a YouTube livestream with another blogger in the Israel/Jewish world called Elder of Ziyon. After talking about Israel and conservative focused issues for the start of his show, I wanted to introduce his audience to our Crypto Class Action.
I understand some people in Crypto don't think we have a chance and we're wasting our time trying to hold Google, Facebook and Twitter to account for blatant monopolistic practices in a way that no world government has yet managed, but we are doing it and you can either chose to ignore it or join up and see if we ever win you some cash. It's like an airdrop: you can always chose to ignore the tokens you get.
Here's the exact sentence I said which seems to have triggered Bernie so acutely:
"Sites like Hive, which back then was called Steem, they they had been growing and growing and growing, suddenly they couldn't advertise on Facebook and get new new users it caused enormous damage"
This was transcribed verbatim by the Daily Mail journalist who wrote her whole piece before contacting me, based largely on that interview and various other bits she pulled together from my public social posts. She did contact me before publication and read my quotes back to me, but I did not see the full piece before publication (this is how the media are supposed to work). It took a few weeks to get this through the Daily Mail's editorial and legal processes.
This is the full context of what I said in explanation of our law suit and the wider issue of big tech censorship when speaking to a completely crypto-unaware audience (transcript below1).
What you'll hear if you watch it, is a much wider discussion on the problems with censorship and central control. Everything we here on Hive know and which we directly countered when the community left Steem and Justin Sun behind after his attack.
All explained without much, if any, reference to forks, crypto, wallets, encryption, keys and the rest of the paraphernalia which hinder mass adoption.
I know some want to keep this club small and exclusive, but that's not how anyone is going to compete with Facebook, Google or Twitter.
If you think you can or have done better at explaining these two topics to a non technical audience, show me or tell me what I should have said. Hive is maxed out on people who get crypto: I was trying out there to bring people in.
I still can't think of a better way to explain how you can see a 2019 post of mine on any Hive front end when Hive came into existence spontaneously in 2020. My best, quick, explanation for this was that Hive used to be called Steem. I'd obviously never say that for an audience who knows what a Hard Fork is. But that's a tiny number of people. For the rest of the world, Hive used to be called Steem, get over it.
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1: YouTube auto transcribe text
29:57
let's switch gear ok this is a bit of a
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story this is that this is worth worth
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your time everybody in America one of
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the other problems that's going on with
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the right wing is that there's a
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perception that all of the social media
30:11
is stacked against us and I don't like
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me personally I've been banned from
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Facebook I wasn't just bad actually
30:16
my entire presence on the site was
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deleted one night because of an
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association with someone in the UK who
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Facebook was told has to get rid of so
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you know you don't own your stuff when
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you're posting on Facebook you don't own
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your stuff when you're posting on
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Twitter your account can be taken away
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another friend of mine our Jewish friend
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he told a Nazi to eff off and that tweet
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got his you know it was the third
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offence and he had his account deleted
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for telling a literal Nazi somebody with
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an actual swastika in his bio of bio
30:57
so so everybody's trying to find some
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way you know the American Trump's trying
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to work out what
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can he change can he change section 230
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can he change the law
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Praeger Alex Jones they've all had shots
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Laurel Ouma they've all had shots at
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suing Google or Facebook or Twitter or
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Apple or all of them and nobody's landed
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a blow yet nobody's landed a significant
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legal blow because essentially these
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companies are private companies so
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they're not constrained by the First
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Amendment but they even got an extra
31:31
protection saying that they they can't
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be held responsible for what users post
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on them and that's a necessary
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protection for the internet you know so
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I couldn't run a blog with a comment
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section you you couldn't run a blog with
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a comment section without the protection
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that American law gives you that you're
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not responsible if somebody says
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something differently in your comment
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section as long as you delete it when
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it's brought to your attention you're
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safe
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anyway what actually happened was though
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something different in 2018 in fair in
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January of 2018 Facebook decided to ban
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all advertising from an entire industry
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and the entire industry was the
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cryptocurrency industry and they they
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they just banned it they they put in
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their terms and conditions an example of
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an advert you couldn't run it sort of
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click here to learn more about a
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cryptocurrency that allows you to send
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money instantly and cheaply to anyone in
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the world that if you wanted to try and
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advertise like that that well and a few
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weeks later Google same terms and
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conditions and a few weeks are for that
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Twitter same terms and conditions and
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when you've got Facebook Google and
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Twitter all banning basically an entire
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industry from using the largest online
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advertising platforms in the world in
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almost every market that's not good for
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an industry and what actually happened
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was in 2018 the price of Bitcoin fell
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off a cliff
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in fact it dropped within days of the
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first facebook ban Anik drop further
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when Google banned any dropped further
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when Twitter banded and then the graphs
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are quite dramatic
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and the thing is America doesn't really
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have the right laws for this but
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Australia does and my friend is an
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Australian lawyer and he noticed this
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and he was working in crypto at the time
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he was making some money doing mining of
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crypto crypto currencies and he was
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involved with some businesses and
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startups that were you know trying to
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get off the ground and what most people
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don't understand is the bitcoin is the
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thing you've heard of it's the money but
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behind that and underneath it there are
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a lot of technologies that could one day
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replace Facebook I use for example a
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social network called hi I get paid for
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my post and nobody can take my posts
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down I have the keys to the account it's
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like there's a power to it it's
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decentralized it's not controlled by a
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central authority called Mark Zuckerberg
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and these technologies were set back
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dramatically when they banned all
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advertising sites like hive which back
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then was called steam they they had been
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growing and growing and growing and
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suddenly they couldn't advertise on
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Facebook and get new new users it caused
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enormous damage and in fact the hold my
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friend the music so you're saying that I
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mean I mean I can I can sort of
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understand even though I don't agree
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with it why uh you know why the social
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media companies would ban advertising
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for the cryptocurrency but you're saying
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they also banned it for any blockchain
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based social media as well yeah if you
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basically if if your business had as a
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component of it anything that looked
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like a cryptocurrency it was caught in
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the same net so maybe you'd get a few
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adverts few but eventually they do a
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review and then your account would be
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blocked
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was hive also a cryptocurrency besides
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being a hive is back yes hive is based
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on a blockchain when you write something
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it gets written into a blockchain and
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you get rewarded with a currency called
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hive and I can take change that into
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actual real dollars or real Bitcoin okay
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so reading the blockchain from one from
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currency but you're saying that's part
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of that I got it okay it's it's built
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into the system so you know when some
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when people like my posts I actually get
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money I mean that's where I post my
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videos mmm now the thing was once they
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banned all of this my friend was working
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in the field and he's an Israeli Jewish
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lawyer but he qualified in Australia and
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he used to work in competition law in
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Australia especially specifically in the
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big telephone companies or the big
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telephone company that was you know the
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public company that was then spun out
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and he worked in his first job actually
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as a junior lawyer was making sure that
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that company didn't do anything wrong
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according to the Australian anti cartel
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laws and he looked to this and he said
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you know there's a case here and he
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started putting this case together and
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it's got stronger and stronger and
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stronger and we started adding up the
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damages and the first time he told me
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this was over a year ago he said it was
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about half of half a trillion dollars
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and I said you can't say that to anyone
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that's ridiculous okay today we're
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working on a number that's about three
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hundred billion dollars now to put that
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in perspective the largest ever class
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action case anywhere in the world that I
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can find is the 206 billion dollar
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settlement which was big tobacco against
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every state in America right so we're
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and we're kind of conservatively pegging
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our damages at 300 billion that's for
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everybody who is working in crypto in
37:01
2080
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if they want to join the case so far
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we've got about 600 million dollars of
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people who have signed up to be part of
37:10
the case and we're going through legal
37:12
reviews very very high levels with QCs
37:15
in Australia and and the purpose of that
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then is to land the financing to
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actually file the documents in court but
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we're actually closer to that we're
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reasonably close to that but it's a big
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case and they've broke an australian law
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it's it's just absolutely because what's
37:34
crucial here is that each company has
37:37
got a contract
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with the other company you might not
37:40
realize this but Facebook put this ban
37:43
on advertising not in
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contract that it's signed with an
37:46
individual but in the general terms and
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conditions that everybody watching this
37:52
who is on Facebook has clicked except
37:54
right so and Google did the same and
37:59
Twitter did the same so if you're on
38:00
Facebook Google and Twitter you have
38:03
accepted a contract that says you won't
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advertise cryptocurrency now that also
38:09
means that Google has a contract with
38:10
Facebook and Facebook as a contract with
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Twitter and Twitter as a consumer
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they wore were interrelated contracts
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which is what we need to show the
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Australian cause and this like it's it
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sounds so simple but it's actually
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devilishly they're stuck they're really
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stuck and they don't know what's coming
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for them we've sent them letters Google
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actually Australia Google Australia did
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reply to us and Google Australia funnily
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enough should not have replied to us but
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they did they replied and they said it
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wasn't us it was Google America um
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because possibly Google Australia's
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lawyers are smart enough to know that
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there's a criminal component to what
38:53
they've done and they're trying to pass
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the back buck back up the chain we're
38:59
not going after them criminally if the
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Australian legal system wants to go
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after them criminally they can but so
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our case will be a civil action and
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that's that's I've spent a lot of time
39:12
on this now see that no I mean again
39:14
that's obviously a little bit sealed
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from my normal topic over here but you
39:19
know sounds like a long shot successful
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this back yeah you know we've
39:25
centralized power I think Facebook is
39:27
too powerful to exist in the world
39:29
I honestly think it's a danger to the
39:31
world I don't want there to ever be
39:35
another social network to replace
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Facebook I would like there to be lots
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of small little sites lots of
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communities that are not necessarily
39:44
under one umbrella something like that
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and that's that's sort of the thing that
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could could crop up with the kind of
39:51
decentralized technology that the crypto
39:55
industry is working on today and
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the problem now comes when we've
40:00
centralized onto Google we've
40:02
centralized on and we're seeing this you
40:04
know the nonsense over hydro
40:07
hydroxychloroquine you know and banning
40:09
anybody who says who goes against the
40:12
orthodoxy and then the Landsat prints an
40:14
article and and three weeks later
40:16
they've got to completely retract it
40:18
these people are not fit to be the
40:22
gatekeepers yet we have made them the
40:24
gatekeepers with enormous wealth and
40:26
enormous power and our case that the
40:29
reason we're bringing our case is not to
40:31
get rich it's to transfer some of this
40:34
massive concentration of wealth and
40:37
power that's there in Google Facebook
40:39
and Twitter out to a whole myriad of
40:43
other technologies that could rise up
40:46
and be the places where we have these
40:48
conversation that's very interesting and
40:52
it and again it would affect your right
40:54
it would affect a lot of things
40:56
including you know this this crazy
41:00
political correctness that is that we're
41:02
seeing now you know like the New York
41:04
Times saying oh we can't you know this a
41:06
badge is a terrible thing and we're
41:07
doing that or any of this of this
41:10
stupidity that we see in which you're
41:12
not allowed to say certain things is
41:15
this is actually very interesting so
41:18
that's good luck with that it's uh we'll
41:21
see what happens but anyway yeah if you
41:25
held any crypto contact me I'll give you
41:27
the sign-up form it's free it's a no-win
41:29
no-fee thing from people you've sign up
41:32
and one day maybe you'll get your share
41:34
of 300 billion dollars if we do a
41:36
settlement with them oh yeah well
41:40
somebody's got to try honestly and and
41:43
you know we've reviewed Andrew and I
41:46
have reviewed the American attempts to
41:49
rein in these big companies I mean you
41:51
remember you're old enough to remember
41:52
the Mike you know that the the 10 years
41:55
of the Justice Department going after
41:57
Microsoft and by the time they actually
42:00
rendered a judgment Google had come from
42:03
nowhere and eaten everything anyway you
42:05
know it was totally irrelevant
42:08
whether Microsoft bundled Internet
42:10
Explorer anymore it didn't matter people
42:13
with downloading chrome so and that if
42:17
we wait if we wait even for trump even
42:20
for my friend trump he won't be able to
42:23
do anything with these people because I
42:25
don't think America America's Got anti
42:27
cartel laws but it's all about price
42:29
fixing but just think of the complexity
42:31
of this in terms of online advertising
42:34
Facebook is both a supplier of the
42:40
adverts but then you have to go to them
42:43
to buy adverts and then if you run a
42:45
website you'll maybe contract to take
42:48
Facebook's adverts and put them on your
42:50
website but not if you're using Google
42:53
adverts because they don't like living
42:55
with each other right so you know for
42:59
those of us who are like small we call
43:01
and prosumers in our case somebody who's
43:04
both a content producer so wants to
43:06
monetize their content on YouTube but
43:09
then has a website you want to run some
43:10
Google adverts but you're relying on
43:14
Facebook to send all your traffic
43:16
because you share your it's like they've
43:19
got everybody and they're holding the
43:22
whole system so tightly we have to break
43:27
that up and I don't and I don't think
43:28
the American government knows how to do
43:30
it or and the other problem and this is
43:32
why Australia is so much fun for us
43:36
Facebook Google are so powerful in
43:39
America they've been spending millions
43:41
or even billions on lobbying for years
43:44
whereas in Australia they're hated truly
43:47
hated because the politicians in
43:50
Australia have realized that all that
43:51
Facebook and Google and Twitter do is
43:53
they suck money out of the economy they
43:55
barely employ anybody they are they even
43:58
have a legal department to check their
44:00
terms and conditions comply with
44:01
Australian law for example and all they
44:04
do is Australians have to buy adverts on
44:07
Facebook to sell their stuff and the
44:09
money just ships itself straight off to
44:11
Ireland to a low tax zone and net
44:15
benefit to the Australian economy is no
44:17
local newspapers anymore
44:19
you know the same as everywhere else
44:21
yeah so these companies are not now
44:25
popular but in America they've bought
44:28
popularity okay I hear you guys they
44:33
said good luck
44:34
we're out of time at this point but
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thank you very much this was a very
44:39
entertaining I just saw the comments
44:41
Brian does need a heck yeah I'm gonna be
44:44
going to more shed
44:45
soon of course Moshe is my hairdresser
44:47
oh very good again thanks a lot and for
44:54
now I am elder of Zion thank you very
44:56
much and we will see you guys next time
44:59
take care bye bye