Tech
Friend.tech review: an ethical disaster
The world of cryptocurrencies is abuzz with a new app called Friend.tech which proudly presents itself as “the market for your friends”. It offers a social media forum where you can buy other people’s shares on the platform and in exchange receive the right to enter a private chat forum with the person and others who own them.
Prices rise and fall in response to the person’s popularity. I signed up and am currently trading for 0.02 ETH, which is about $33 per share. I didn’t want to shell out a whole ETH (about $1,700) to buy access to one of the cool influencer types on Friend.tech, so I decided to buy a guy named William R. for $9.
If this makes your skin crawl, you’re not alone. There is something abhorrent about turning human beings into commodities, and if you know even the first thing about US history, you can understand why advertising a “market” for people is questionable. The app claiming that the people you purchase are “friends” doesn’t make things better.
Friend.tech is certainly not the first to try something like this. In 2015, a startup called Klout launched a platform that billed itself as “Yelp for people” that was met with widespread disgust. And in 2021, a cryptobrother launched the infamous BitClout, which stole people’s Twitter profiles without permission to create a social media platform and then charged you Bitcoin to check your 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
DECENTRALIZED NEWS
The Department of Justice indicted the creators of the Ethereum mixer Tornado cash with criminal conspiracy related to sanctions violations and money laundering that occurred on the open source platform. (The limit)
New court statements suggest this Sam Bankman Fried will claim he followed legal counsel’s advice as part of his defense against fraud charges. (WSJ)
Bitcoin jumped above $26,000, enjoying its biggest daily gain in six weeks. (Bloomberg)
XRP has given up nearly all of its gains since the price nearly doubled in mid-July after a favorable ruling in the SEC case against Ripple. (Fortune)
THE FBI he warned him The Lazarus of North Korea The hacking group will attempt to cash out $40 million in Bitcoin and has asked crypto firms to be vigilant in screening transactions. (The block)
MEME OF THE MOMENT
“You Cannot Physically Own What Is Valuable,” by Adam Sacks:
This is the web version of Fortune Crypto, a daily newsletter. Sign up here to receive it for free in your inbox.