Tech
Friend.tech is the latest cryptocurrency craze. It’s terrible, but first things first
In the world of cryptocurrencies people talk about Bitcoin to control their image. The BitClout app was short-lived and is likely under investigation by the SEC.
You won’t be surprised to learn that Friend.tech has no privacy policy and that its legal status is murky at best. A few days ago, the company changed the name of what it sells from a person’s “shares” to “keys,” but it’s hard to imagine that doing much to reassure securities regulators. Meanwhile, there’s talk of a potential “airdrop” that would involve Friend.tech dropping a token that users could flip.
In short, Friend.tech is terrible. It takes the worst attributes of social media and cryptocurrencies and combines them into an app that likely has little appeal to ordinary people. I explained this to my wife and she actually recoiled.
While Friend.tech is shaping up to be another cryptocurrency horror show that will likely wipe out in a few weeks when the current speculative frenzy subsides, the app has one thing going for it: It’s easy to sign up and use. You can sign up by simply connecting your X (formerly Twitter) account and the only money you need is Ethereum. And once activated, the interface is quite smooth and intuitive.
This is a big step forward from BitClout and previous cryptocurrency-based social media services. Now, if Friend.tech could only find a use case that doesn’t involve buying and selling people.
Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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