Chase the Bitcoin, Buy the Exchange

The rhetoric at work in Coinbase’s “Break the Cycle” ad and debates concerning crypto

In last week’s post, we looked at Microsoft’s Copilot commercial. This week, we’ll reflect upon Coinbase’s “Break the Cycle” ad.

What is Coinbase? In essence, Coinbase is a crypto exchange that allows you to trade your cash for crypto (e.g., Bitcoin) or vice-versa. It was founded by Brian Armstrong, who is a billionaire (keep that in mind as you watch the ad for populist appeals).

Here’s the commercial published to Coinbase’s YouTube on December 1, 2023:

As you can see, the ad follows a young woman from birth until she gets married and starts looking for a house, a car, etc. The opening lines, which come out of a baby’s mouth, are: “We are born into a system.” The remainder of the commercial tracks her through the system: to her school, to her job, and then to her attempts to buy things, especially those things that make you “real” (e.g., a home, a car, etc.).

Of course, the ad draws upon several painful commonplaces that hit all too close to home for many today. Despite doing incredibly well in school, you will nevertheless lack the funds for a car (new or used), a house, or even an apartment. For many today, owning a home is simply impossible.

At one point, a guy says, “Debt is so good.”

Elsewhere, someone says, “Starting a family means you need two or three jobs.”

The primary metaphor that the commercial draws upon is that of “the system.” Put otherwise, the economy is a system (perhaps an operating system). And if we “update” this operating system, then everything will be better. The ad suggests that we’ll no longer have to wait in DMV lines, talk to banks, take out student loans, etc. We all hate these things. Many particularly despise bureaucracy, and crypto will rid us of this ominous feature of contemporary life.

Coinbase never explains precisely how crypto will get rid of these problematic institutions. It is simply taken-for-granted that it will.

Essentially, Coinbase wants us to play a new game with different tokens. The old game, which has its own rules, its own cards, its own chips, its own umpires, needs to go. The question is, are you ready to play a new game?

Bitcoin and the Dissoi Logoi

Now, of course, you can buy and sell more than just Bitcoin on Coinbase (e.g., the crypto Ethereum). But since many are most familiar with Bitcoin, even if they don’t precisely know how it works, I want to reflect just a bit on this form of crypto in relation to the ad itself.

Is Bitcoin (BTC) a good thing?

Marshall McLuhan once observed the following with regard to the advent of a new technology:

“…I have noticed over and over again that when people ask in the middle of some effort to chart an actual development, ‘Is this a good thing?’ they always mean, ‘Is this a good thing for me?’ ‘How does it affect me? – I’m a doctor.’ Or ‘How will it affect me? – I’m an architect.’ They don’t mean, ‘Is it good?’ They mean, ‘What will it do to me?’” (p. 37, The Medium and the Light)

For McLuhan, premature value judgment can severely blunt our insights into the effects of any given technology. If we’re not careful, we can label this particular form of technology either as a blessing or as a curse without perceiving the hidden effects of that new technology on us and our institutions. What McLuhan wants (and I think this is a good idea) is a textured understanding of technology.

So, why should we hesitate to call Bitcoin (or any crypto) “good” or “bad”?

Because as the anonymous Sophist of Dissoi Logoi teaches, every argument has two sides. Death is bad for the one doing the dying but good for the undertaker. Bitcoin is bad for the environment (perhaps insofar as it relies upon electricity to mine Bitcoins) but good for those oppressed by governments that manipulate the price of currency on a whim.

Bitcoin is perhaps bad for Warren Buffett (unless he is actually Satoshi Nakomoto) but good for Joe Populist. Since Buffett is already playing a different game (and winning), it would make sense that he wouldn’t like Bitcoin. He’s part of “the system” that Coinbase wants to update, is he not? It is easy to dismiss Buffett on account of his being part of the current problem. However, Buffett also makes interesting points about Bitcoin as a non-productive asset in this now five-year-old interview:

Beyond Buffett, there’s /r/Bitcoin, which eulogizes the currency. And then there’s /r/Buttcoin, which, well, as you can guess by the name, does precisely the opposite.

Watching these two reddit forums go to war is very instructional. When Bitcoin rallies and goes to the moon, /r/Bitcoin gloats and vice-versa when BTC descends to the depths. When you read arguments from both sides, you see how the adoption of any given technology is truly rhetorical.

In many ways, the whole discourse around Bitcoin and cryptocurrency unfolds in a deliberative manner of speaking: We ought (or ought not) to adopt Bitcoin because X, Y, and Z reasons. Thus, the current debates around crypto offer excellent artifacts for rhetorical analysis.

McLuhan teaches us that every technology is just a figure on a ground of other technologies and services. Expo markers presuppose white boards and ink and literacy. Cars presuppose roads, highways, mechanics, driver’s licenses, speed limits, and so on. And in like manner, cryptocurrency presupposes digital wallets, seed phrases, and especially crypto exchanges. In short, crypto brings with it a new system and infrastructure, as the Coinbase ad above suggests.

As the old saying goes: Don’t chase the gold, sell pickaxes. This proverb draws our attention to the infrastructure, to the hidden ground that any new technology creates and relies upon. Warren Buffett might say, “Don’t buy Bitcoin, buy pickaxe companies.” And Coinbase says, if only implicitly, “Chase the Bitcoin, buy the exchange.”

I’m not out to orange pill anyone. And I’m not arguing against Bitcoin or crypto, either. I’d only suggest that people enter the fray of this current dispute with rhetoric in mind. It’s more fun that way.

Thanks for reading, whomever you are. I wrote this for you. If you think others might find it thought-provoking, why not share it with them? And also, why not leave a comment or a question or a provocation below? You’re allowed to do that, you know. If I’m not mistaken, Douglas Rushkoff talks about the economy as an operating system in Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus. It’s also worth mentioning that Coinbase has used “It’s time to update the system” in other ads, as well (e.g., here and here). And finally, there’s simply not enough time to talk about the hidden effects of media in just one short Substack post. But if you’d like to read more about the hidden ground of media effects, check out Laws of Media.