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In an episode of the Unchained Podcast, the author of the Dirty Bubble Media Newsletter, James Block, reveals why he believes crypto projects support fraud, and why he considers Ethereum as “Scam as a service.”
James Block, a doctor with a passion for finance and financial fraud, joined the crypto space back in 2021 and started investigating Tether stablecoin USDT. Today, he runs Dirty Bubble Media, a crypto newsletter that focuses on frauds and scams in the blockchain industry.
The first topic of the podcast involved the problems surrounding the legitimacy of crypto projects. James believes most projects nowadays don’t face consumers (either by selling tokens or other investments) in a legitimate way.
Speaking about legitimacy in crypto projects, Block said:
Any opportunity that’s offered to retail investors to actually invest in these things, to me, seems to be smoke and mirrors. And that is sad, but that’s the reality of the situation.
Regarding exchanges, Block believes that even though some may be legitimate and regulated, they still harm the industry by unwillingly facilitating scams for other parties. Prices in these exchanges are usually controlled and manipulated by offshore and unregulated operators, resulting in prices determined by fraud, according to Block.
When talking about Bitcoin’s price, Block is skeptical about investing in Bitcoin and believes there is no real answer to whether Bitcoin has intrinsic value or not. “The real problem to address is how the crypto market operates, and once it is solved, only then will there be a fair system determining the real value of the asset.”
As for Ethereum, Block exclusively monitors the Ethereum blockchain, as he thinks “it’s probably the first time in history where you can track fraud real-time publicly.” About the activity on the network, he also believes the majority is “transacting in Ponzi schemes and frauds.”
You have software as a service (Saas), which is a major category of business, to me, Ethereum and other blockchains like it are scams as a service… Name one project using the Ethereum blockchain that actually generates cash-flow, or generates something of value, I haven’t found it yet!.
When Shin asked Block whether he thinks crypto will “take off” as a technology, Block mentioned that private blockchains have been around for thirty years now, since the nineties. For decentralized blockchains, such as Bitcoin, upcoming regulations will play a major role in the industry, modifying it from what it is today.