Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google bans cryptocurrency ads

support.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 379 posts

Re: Google bans cryptocurrency ads

#21

Post by MadSudaca »

neals wrote: post #8
blattimwind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You buy into an investment because you expect a capital gain. You don't buy shoes in expectation of a capital gain.

It's never that easy though: I can invest in a pair of shoes to get a job that makes me more money. It's a slippery slope and with the decentralization revolution that is happening, this will only keep on getting more blurry.

I agree with the other commenter. The same could be said about anything you buy for yourself. I buy food so that I can keep my body functioning, in order to be able to produce value and make money. So buying potatoes is a kind of investment.

Re: Google bans cryptocurrency ads

#22

Post by hobofan »

blattimwind wrote: post #7
amelius wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't most products be viewed as investments, from a house or car to a pair of shoes?

You buy into an investment because you expect a capital gain. You don't buy shoes in expectation of a capital gain.

Sure you do. You buy higher-end business shoes and suits to be eligible for management positions that pay better. Might not be the case in SV and the startup world, but it certainly is at most other companies.

Re: Google bans cryptocurrency ads

#23

Post by kasey_junk »

_aeneas wrote: post #3

I believe this to be a good decision. Investment should not be driven by advertisement but by facts. In my experience, any investment advertisement tying to appeal to mass audiences is fraud. This is no different for cryptocurrencies and reminds me of the penny stock scams.

The entire index fund & etf industries spent lots of advertising dollars educating the market about their products, including Vanguard.

Those are clearly not fraudulent.

That said, the crypto ads are less like that & more like the auction prize site ads, so good riddance.

Re: Google bans cryptocurrency ads

#24

Post by riffraff »

robotbikes wrote: post #14

I was listening to terrestrial radio the other day and was surprised to hear a radio advertisement beckoning retirees to cash in their 401ks to join the cryptocurrency future of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The bubble is too big for Google to slow it down and it has grown beyond the realm of tech savvy geeks into something fueled by hype and hubris.

in Italy, which is not the heart of tech bubbles, there have been reports (I got a call too!) of telemarketers cold calling people to invest in cryptocurrencies.

This genuinely frightened me.

Re: Google bans cryptocurrency ads

#25

Post by John_KZ »

yani wrote: post #16
John_KZ wrote: post #13

I hate scams myself, but what gives google the right to judge on this matter? Shouldn't they be following the guidelines of local governments?

They are a service provider and can decide what to allow and disallow on their platform.

Not really. They can't decide to disallow bussiness run by black people or Slovenians. There's a law against that.

For a large monopolies like that, it might be wise to expand anti-discrimination laws to include more things. At least that's my opinion. What if Google decides to disallow all mentions and all possible advertisements of a certain political party? What if it deletes all your emails without warning, because it deemed you as an uprofitable customer? Google is a privately run public utility at this point. Can the water company arbitrarily reject clients? Should it?

Re: Google bans cryptocurrency ads

#26

Post by gnode »

hobofan wrote: post #22
blattimwind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You buy into an investment because you expect a capital gain. You don't buy shoes in expectation of a capital gain.

Sure you do. You buy higher-end business shoes and suits to be eligible for management positions that pay better. Might not be the case in SV and the startup world, but it certainly is at most other companies.

That's not what capital gain means; you're not expecting to sell the shoes themselves to make a profit.

Re: Google bans cryptocurrency ads

#27

Post by astura »

_aeneas wrote: post #3

I believe this to be a good decision. Investment should not be driven by advertisement but by facts. In my experience, any investment advertisement tying to appeal to mass audiences is fraud. This is no different for cryptocurrencies and reminds me of the penny stock scams.

Pretty much all legitimate brokerage firms advertise to consumers. Quite a lot.

Re: Google bans cryptocurrency ads

#29

Post by edent »

Good. I accidentally turned off my ad-blocker a few days ago. Almost all the ads I saw were variants on "Be paid for using your phone - download our app to mine crypto!"

I've worked in ad-tech. Part of the problem is the scale is too large for advertising networks to check all the adverts. If you run a newspaper, you get to see and approve the ads before running with them.

Online, at best, an advertising network might see the initial ad & landing page, but then it is rapidly changed once live.

Post reply on HN