On March 11, British comedian John Oliver dedicated his Last Week Tonight program to cryptocurrencies. He spoke about what cryptocurrencies are, blockchain technology and focused on showing the current mania in the market, as well as how irrational their ecosystem can be, with cases of inconclusive projects that have raised billions of dollars. Also, he called for caution when investing in these assets.
His Last Week Tonight program, according to HBO, reports more than 1 million viewers at the time of its presentation and more than 4 million views in the week on various platforms. This means an immense exposure of the subject to the entire mass of his followers.
He started his program explaining what cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and blockchain technology are in a fairly simple way for his audience -without ignoring his satirical tone- highlighting the interestingness of the concept and mentioning what speculation it can be, as well as the difficulties faced as payment method.
Followed, showed the irrational side of the ecosystem showing the current exaggerated valorization of joke cryptoactive Dogecoin, the exuberance in the collection of billions of dollars of the EOS project, which does not have an active blockchain so far, and the new Internet meme about the former Bitconnect spokesperson, Carlos Matos.
He even used part of the jargon that is used in the ecosystem like FOMO and other words. In the point about EOS he highlighted the apparent little knowledge of his project by one of his investors, Brock Pierce, and showing a bit of his luxurious life.
He closed his episode recreating the presentation of Carlos Matos with Bitconnect, made by the actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key. In a funny way, he called for financial responsibility when dealing with cryptocurrencies, "invest only what you are willing to lose" and above all be "Creaful", a word game with "Careful" recommending care.
The exposure of cryptocurrencies in the way John Oliver did balances all the euphoria that currently exists in the cryptoactive community. Because he called on his audience of more than 1 million people to be very cautious when investing, without discrediting the value proposition of this technology.
