is a writer and lecturer in digital cultures in the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. She is the author of Tokens: The Future of Money in

Selling itself as the new American dream, crypto exposes the vulnerable to fraud and scams, and loads risk onto the poor

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2024-02-10 08:00:04

is a writer and lecturer in digital cultures in the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. She is the author of Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform (2023).

The 2021 Crypto.com ad aired during the Super Bowl and was called ‘Fortune Favors the Brave’. ‘History is filled with almosts,’ says the actor Matt Damon, gliding through a museum set like an eager docent, ‘with those who “almost” adventured, who “almost” achieved, but ultimately for them it proved to be too much.’ He halts reflectively at an effigy of Ferdinand Magellan dissolving into the waves. ‘Then,’ he says, moving swiftly on to the other, more inspiring exhibits (a climber, a Wright brother, two replicants kissing in a night club, a troupe of racially diverse astronauts stepping proudly onto a gangway in a scene from nowhere in history), ‘there are others, the ones who embrace the moment and commit. And, in those moments of truth, these men and women, these mere mortals – just like you and me – as they peer over the edge, they calm their minds and steel their nerves with four simple words that have been whispered by the intrepid since the time of the Romans: “Fortune favors the brave.”’

The first recorded use of the phrase is indeed from Roman times, but Damon’s speech did not age as well. The ad was removed from Crypto.com channels in 2022, less than a year after its release. And had you bought $1,000 worth of bitcoin on the day the ad aired in October 2021, by the time of writing (two years later), you would have just $400.