They’re Coming For Crypto… Again
So I was scrolling through r/Cryptocurrency this morning and stumbled on a thread that was absolutely on fire. The topic? Actor Ben McKenzie (you know, the guy from The OC) has a new documentary where he basically claims that all of crypto is built on lies. His big argument is that traditional money is based on trust, and crypto is based on deception.
As you can probably guess, the community had some strong opinions on that.
Here’s What Reddit Had to Say
The overall vibe was a massive eye-roll. A lot of users immediately brought up that McKenzie’s whole anti-crypto crusade apparently started after he got burned buying Dogecoin at the top. As one commenter put it, he “dumped some money in to crypto shit coins and lost it all, and from that took the opinion ‘All crypto is a scam’.” Ouch.
Then came the tech arguments. The community correctly pointed out that his reasoning is just… weak. One user highlighted how McKenzie tried to argue you can’t trust Bitcoin’s code because Sam Bankman-Fried “changed the code on FTX.” That’s like saying you can’t trust the US Dollar because Bernie Madoff ran a Ponzi scheme. They are two completely different things! FTX was a shady, centralized company; Bitcoin is decentralized, open-source code.
Of course, people were quick to point out the hypocrisy. One of the top comments reminded everyone about the 2008 bank bailouts and the money printers going into overdrive during COVID. The user asked, “If you can print fiat out of thin air, and give massive chunks of it to your friends sight unseen, then it's based on more lies than crypto.” It's a solid point. Which system is really less transparent?
But the best counter-argument was the simplest one, summed up by a user who just posted: “Don’t trust, verify.” That’s the entire point. Crypto isn’t about trusting a person or a company; it’s about having a system where you can check the math for yourself on a public ledger.
My Two Gwei on This Mess
Look, is this guy completely wrong? No, not completely. Let's be real: the crypto world is FILLED with scams, rug pulls, and loudmouths selling you worthless tokens. A user in the thread nailed it: “Crypto doesn't lie, but the loudest people in the community selling it to you often do.” This is why the average person is skeptical, and honestly, they should be.
But McKenzie makes the classic mistake of confusing the shitty actors with the technology itself. He’s blaming the hammer for the crooked nail. The Bitcoin ledger is just a tool. It does exactly what it's programmed to do with near-perfect accuracy. It doesn’t lie. People lie.
His argument that crypto has “no value” is just lazy. He even told a story himself about an Afghan woman using crypto because the Taliban won't let her have a bank account, and then in the next breath said it’s worthless. The cognitive dissonance is staggering. Tell that woman it has no value.
At the end of the day, this is just more FUD from someone who didn't take the time to understand what he was getting into. He trusted the hype instead of learning the tech, and he paid the price. The core idea of crypto has never been “trust us.” It’s always been “Don’t trust, verify.” That’s the most honest system there is.
What’s Your Take?
Is Ben McKenzie just salty he lost money on a meme coin, or does he have a real point about the scams in the space? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
