{"id":5529,"date":"2020-06-03T12:35:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T16:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/?p=5529"},"modified":"2020-08-09T10:08:27","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T14:08:27","slug":"lizard-people-invented-bitcoin-crypto-conspiracy-theories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2020\/06\/03\/lizard-people-invented-bitcoin-crypto-conspiracy-theories","title":{"rendered":"The Lizard People Invented Bitcoin: Crypto is a Hotbed for Conspiracy Theories"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April 2020 Vin Armani packed up his family<\/strong> \u201cand got on the last flight to an obscure island in the middle of the Pacific\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cryptocurrency influencer suggested to his 14,000 Twitter followers, many times, that the pandemic is being used to impose \u201ctotalitarian tyranny\u201d on America. As the CTO of CoinText, he was worried that his outspoken views and links to the crypto industry meant he could be \u201cdisappeared\u201d by the \u201cGestapo\u201d. He now <\/span>lives in Saipan<\/span><\/a>, population 50,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn’t the end of what’s happening,\u201d he says, citing the historical precedent of the Jewish people fleeing Germany before World War II. \u201cOur ability to travel is going to be greatly restricted and you’re going to be trapped. And it’s going to be at the points of transit \u2026 where the undesirables get mopped up. The people who are on the list.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTotalitarianism always starts out of an emergency.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While many in the crypto community share his fears about the erosion of civil liberties during the pandemic, Armani has gone further than most. Six thousands miles further.<\/span><\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t see himself as a conspiracy theorist \u2013 just someone questioning society\u2019s assumptions about money and power. Armani says the Bitcoin White Paper is often the catalyst that \u201cwakes\u201d people up and sets them on a journey of discovery.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I hate conspiracy theories,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause you don’t need a conspiracy, all you need is a perverse incentive. The world just works in a certain way. People act in their own self-interest. Lord Acton (said): ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. I think that what you see in the crypto community is people who have read economic texts… you see people who recognize what the government is, what the state is and who the people are in pursuit of state power.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Armani appears to have embraced what some call \u2018<\/span>the paranoid style<\/span><\/a>\u2019 in American politics. He is a big fan of notorious English conspiracy theorist<\/span> David Icke<\/span><\/a> and interviewed him twice on his YouTube show. He credits Icke with “<\/span>waking me up<\/span><\/a> when I first came across his work 15 years ago… David has been absolutely spot on for 30 years.”<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>Icke on the mic<\/h3>\n

Icke believes the world is run by a bunch of shape-shifting blood-drinking reptilian aliens from Alpha Draconis, one of whom is masquerading as the Queen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Armani says Icke\u2019s views have \u201cevolved\u201d \u2014 though Icke was recently<\/span> booted<\/span><\/a> off Facebook and YouTube for spreading 5G coronavirus conspiracy theories.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another Bitcoiner interested in …. \u2018unorthodox hypotheses\u2019<\/span> is Caleb Chen, who works in content marketing for a popular VPN provider. Although he\u2019s \u201cundecided\u201d about most conspiracy theories, he still spends part of each day trawling through<\/span> conspiracy forums<\/span><\/a> on Reddit looking for “alternative explanations” for what\u2019s <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> going on in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

He says the crypto community was where he first encountered conspiracy theorists in the wild. “The first Bitcoin meetup I went to was in 2013. And yeah, it’s right around there when I started running into these people,” he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’d never met someone who didn’t believe that the moon landing happened, or that believed in the flat earth conspiracy, until I started going to Bitcoin conferences and Bitcoin meetups.”<\/span><\/p>\n

5G or not 5G?<\/h3>\n

Kirby Ferguson, the writer\/director of documentary<\/span> This Is Not A Conspiracy Theory<\/span><\/a> says there\u2019s a definite strand of conspiratorial thinking within the crypto community, although price speculation and gossip are the major preoccupations.<\/span><\/p>\n

“There certainly is that subculture of conspiracy theory in there,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel like it’s a combination of anti-establishment spirit, that spirit of dissent that is in cryptocurrency, and the dubious media sources that are mixed in there.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The subculture is big enough to be noticeable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost half a million people have watched Crypto Chico\u2019s YouTube video in which he explains a complicated crypto meets COVID-19 conspiracy theory titled “<\/span>Global Pandemic Planned<\/span><\/a>“.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When <\/span>Bitcoin Ben<\/span><\/a> isn\u2019t pumping the BTC price on YouTube and Twitter, he likes to<\/span> post about<\/span> QAnon<\/span><\/a> \u2014 which The Washington Post described as the idea “there is a worldwide cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who rule the world\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that 5G stuff that<\/span> one in eight<\/span><\/a> people apparently now believe? You know, how the pandemic was faked to cover up the health impacts of 5G so that Bill Gates can microchip everyone with his vaccine? That whole story was dreamed up by a<\/span> crypto-loving pastor<\/span><\/a> from the small town of Luton in the UK; a guy who has advised African central banks on digital currencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crypto publication Trustnodes has run with the theme, devoting large amounts of space in recent months to stories with headlines like “<\/span>America on the Verge of a Dictatorship<\/span><\/a>” that suggest lockdowns are about \u201ckeeping humanity down, chained and enslaved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One editorial said: “No wonder people flock to the likes of Alex Jones …”<\/span><\/p>\n

Crypto conspiracies<\/h3>\n

One possible reason the cryptocurrency space is so conducive to conspiracy theories is that there really are<\/em> bad actors doing shady stuff in the space. There are whales out there manipulating the markets, which is why the SEC keeps knocking back Bitcoin ETFs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The theory that Tether isn\u2019t actually backed 1:1 with US dollars has been shown in court to <\/span>be correct<\/span><\/a>. Many ICOs were elaborate fictions, constructed to fleece gullible investors of their cash. And there is so much doubt over the circumstances surrounding the death of Quadriga\u2019s CEO \u2014 which left the exchange \u2018unable\u2019 to access $145 million in crypto \u2014\u00a0 that there have<\/span> been legal moves to exhume the body<\/span><\/a> of Gerald Cotten. (Or \u2018Gerald Cotten\u2019, if you prefer.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery conspiracy theory, there’s always some sort of truth behind it, some sort of fact hidden in it which makes it easier to believe,” says filmmaker Torsten Hoffman, who covers the conspiracy theory swirling around Bitcoin development company Blockstream (replete with cartoon Lizard People) in his new<\/span> documentary Cryptopia<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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