Forbes Crypto Rich list is a Make-Do story for clicks

Last week, Forbes released a list of the richest people in Crypto. The list had only prominent names because it was not a legit Crypto Rich list. It was a list of people we know to have invested early in Cryptocurrencies. There is no way to verify how much they hold since only a few of them agreed to prove their wealth.

This list is a poor attempt from Forbes to cook up a random list of influential people in cryptocurrencies who are also rich rather than a list of people who are actually rich. With the decentralised nature of Cryptocurrencies, there is absolutely no way to verify how much a person owns or who owns a vast amount of Cryptocurrencies unless they come forward and disclose it themselves.

There are so many Millionaires and Billionaires from Crypto out there, and it’s just not possible to find who they are. Also, Forbes claims to have honed their methods in 36 years of tracking the world’s richest people which makes them the right person to compile a list of Crypto Rich people.

We’re not sure why such a list is needed when there’s no way to verify accurately verify Crypto Wealth and the numbers are way off the mark. But the article mentions a bunch of reasons like ‘Fortunes of this magnitude should not be allowed to lurk in the shadows’. This is no reason to put out an article which is full of inconsistencies and has no science behind it. Forbes is not actually listing out the rich people who are hiding in shadows because they don’t know how to. Instead, this is just a list of people everyone know to be rich for investing early in cryptocurrencies and random numbers next to them.

Another reason Forbes Editor gives for such a list is, ‘Our list provides a snapshot of a pivotal moment, part of the transparency needed to pull crypto away from its provenance as the favourite currency of drug dealers and into the adolescence of a legitimate asset class.’

No. Cryptocurrencies are already an adolescent asset class due to the futures options launched in multiple markets, and it is estimated that a very small amount of transactions are done by drug dealers. But there is no way to verify this, and similarly, there is no way to verify the money being used by Drug dealers in the form of cash for decades.

Cryptocurrencies have always been backed by Blockchain. It does not need an inaccurate list from Forbes to make them legitimate.

This list just looks like a PR stunt to cash in on the clicks from writing on Cryptocurrencies. Most mainstream media sites have been cashing in on hits from poor representation of Cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are worth something and a lot of people have been losing money due to poor journalism from the media sources they trust. It is important we bring some standards while reporting about Cryptocurrencies since a bad piece of information can cost someone their savings. We’ve been calling out poor journalism and will continue to do so in future.

Originally published at www.crypto-news.in on February 8, 2018.