Author: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong just fell for the oldest trick in the crypto-twitter playbook.
When Harry Potter author J.K Rowling made a surprise entrance to the Bitcoin space this weekend, Armstrong attempted to welcome her in. When Rowling apparently made a $100 BTC purchase, Armstrong told her to get over to Coinbase and urged her to check out all the other crypto assets on offer.
Coinbase CEO’s Bitcoin Mistake
Only the account Armstrong replied to was a fake one. J.K Rowling did not purchase any Bitcoin at all. The fake account has since been deleted, but the cryptocurrency corner of Twitter continued to poke fun at Armstrong’s mistake.
Cryptocurrency developer and Twitter user ‘icebergy’ suggested that if Armstrong can fall for a fake account, anyone can. They wrote: “If the CEO of Coinbase fell for this no wonder why noobs get scammed all the time.”
Twitter impersonators remain one of the most utilized forms of scams in the crypto space. Almost every high-profile crypto personality has its Twitter profile swarmed by legions of imitators, all looking to siphon funds from gullible followers.
Another leading persona in the crypto space is the founder and CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ). The Binance chief tweeted the following message to (the real) J.K Rowling, which many observers found to be just as ridiculous as Armstrong’s:
Zhao’s tweet has since been deleted from his Twitter feed, but does its lingering effect remain? One thing that’s clear from J.K Rowling’s surprise appearance in the crypto space is that bookish and techie types don’t always mix.
Armstrong and Zhao probably meant well, but neither achieved the effect they were hoping for.
But Maybe That’s The Beauty Here
You can also see this situation from another perspective – we are living in a world that those leading positions are reachable within a mouse click.
This is the beauty of it, and yes, humans make mistakes. In this case, despite the quick deletion, there are always the ones who already saved it as a screenshot. They just need to understand they are under a magnifying glass.
After all, this is not limited to crypto – Donald Trump’s major communication channel is his personal twitter account.
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