Wednesday, March 14th 2018
Google To Ban Crypto-Related Advertisements
Google has surreptitiously announced, via an update to its financial services-related ad policies, that cryptocurrency-related ads on its services will be banned before long. As both public and regulatory bodies have become increasingly aware of cryptocurrencies' successes and shortcomings, the company has decided to take a stance until the as-of-yet deeply unregulated cryptocurrency field becomes clearer for users, and is less of a metaphorical minefield. While blockchain is one of the most promising technologies in recent years, and is definitely here to stay, the path for cryptocurrencies is much less clear, and there have been enough warning shots fired across the bow.
As there are veritable cybernetic graveyards of scams and failed crypto endeavors that ruined millions of peoples' lives, Google won't be facilitating these events. As Google's director of sustainable ads, Scott Spencer, told CNBC, "We don't have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but we've seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it's an area that we want to approach with extreme caution." The new approach will be brought upon initial coin offerings (ICOs), wallets, and trading advice alike, starting in June this year.Adding to the equation is the fact that even good old John Oliver is now making crypto-related pieces that are sure to push knowledge of these to the mainstream, and the scenario paints itself up pretty quickly. Of course, the argument could be made for people not to jump blindly into these kind of "investments" and to only use the money they actually can lose - instead of getting themselves in debt for FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), but that's another kind of discussion entirely.
This hardline approach by Google is debatable. On one hand, Google makes most of its revenue from advertising - as such, it wants to protect its advertising garden from players that could reduce confidence in their whole advertisement platform as a whole, spurring adopters to look for greener, less crypto-loving pastures. However, that argument pales when one looks at many of the spammy, really inglorious advertisements that can sometimes be delivered by Google themselves across various websites (those that look at your PC's IP and tailor the same sentence over and over just by replacing your countries' name, for instance).
Of course, while some crypto-related ads really do bring up the worst of the market (Ponzi schemes and just good old, take-your-money-and-run-away scams), this hardline approach will also cut off from advertisement real businesses, with real added value for blockchain technology as a whole. Granted, it would likely be difficult for Google to successfully filter out the relevant and irrelevant ads for blocking - but with all the fluff regarding AI and neural networks these days, by none other than Google, you'd expect them to be one of the few companies that would actually be able to do it.
As there are veritable cybernetic graveyards of scams and failed crypto endeavors that ruined millions of peoples' lives, Google won't be facilitating these events. As Google's director of sustainable ads, Scott Spencer, told CNBC, "We don't have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but we've seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it's an area that we want to approach with extreme caution." The new approach will be brought upon initial coin offerings (ICOs), wallets, and trading advice alike, starting in June this year.Adding to the equation is the fact that even good old John Oliver is now making crypto-related pieces that are sure to push knowledge of these to the mainstream, and the scenario paints itself up pretty quickly. Of course, the argument could be made for people not to jump blindly into these kind of "investments" and to only use the money they actually can lose - instead of getting themselves in debt for FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), but that's another kind of discussion entirely.
This hardline approach by Google is debatable. On one hand, Google makes most of its revenue from advertising - as such, it wants to protect its advertising garden from players that could reduce confidence in their whole advertisement platform as a whole, spurring adopters to look for greener, less crypto-loving pastures. However, that argument pales when one looks at many of the spammy, really inglorious advertisements that can sometimes be delivered by Google themselves across various websites (those that look at your PC's IP and tailor the same sentence over and over just by replacing your countries' name, for instance).
Of course, while some crypto-related ads really do bring up the worst of the market (Ponzi schemes and just good old, take-your-money-and-run-away scams), this hardline approach will also cut off from advertisement real businesses, with real added value for blockchain technology as a whole. Granted, it would likely be difficult for Google to successfully filter out the relevant and irrelevant ads for blocking - but with all the fluff regarding AI and neural networks these days, by none other than Google, you'd expect them to be one of the few companies that would actually be able to do it.