The incentive to scam

Whenever there is something to gain, there will always be abuse and we see this everywhere, not just on Hive or in crypto. The entire global economy is a system of scam where the value is manipulated and directed by the very few into their own pockets, most of which is through a process that many do not understand and are blind to.

I have said before, that I think that part of the problems people have on Hive in regard to the behavior of others, is that the transparency here allows them to witness the same things that have been hidden away from them in the "real world" economic and government systems. While this upsets many as most would rather take the ignorance is bliss approach, the difference on Hive is that as we can see it, we can also have a chance to deal with it.

But as said, whenever there is value scammers exist - even if it isn't for monetary gain.

I used to play FPS games and the amount of people using hacks like aimbots, wallhacks, glitches, map views and the like was massive - even though there was no money in it. While there might be money in gaming, there is not in cheating. However, people still cheated because there was value to do so, personal value, the feeling of "pwning" others. But, how empty must that feeling be when one knows definitively that minus the hack, they are skill-less?

This doesn't seem to stop many people and this seems to be exacerbated by anonymity or in areas where there is no or low cost to being caught. I used to play Words with Friends with a person who I thought was very good as nearly every move was a high score - then discovered that there are multiple cheat sites for these types of games. I asked him in chat if he had ever heard of anyone using them - and he never started another game with me. The funny thing was that I played against him for over a year, and I improved a lot.

I think that this is one of the things with cheating the games that many do not consider - cheating becomes a habit that lowers required skill. We saw this for years on Steem through the bidbots, where people boosted their post and earned something without actually having to do much - once the bidbots stopped - they had nothing, no community, no interaction, no friends. It has also been the same with many of the circlejerks from the old days, where once the bidbots took the stake away from autovoting content, they were left high, dry and complaining about how things used to be better.

Cheating lowers skill, and the longer it goes undetected, the more reliant one will become on the crutch, weakened and possibly forever limited. Letting go of the crutch means to fall and likely requires rehabilitation, as it has been so long that some people have lived under assistance.

There is a saying that, cheaters never prosper, but economically this is likely not true at all - but from a personal value standpoint, it is likely very true. It would be hard for most people to psychologically and emotionally prosper when there is the intimate knowledge that the only reason for success comes through cheating. To be able to be okay with this, would likely require being a psychopath or having narcissistic personality disorder, where no matter what one does or how one gets there - the success is attributed to the self - an inflated sense of their own importance.

"Who are these nonames flagging me, don't they know who I am?"

The problem with cheating is that one can actually be highly talented, but once discovered, it will tarnish the reputation forever and bring every past and future result into question. Think about Lance Armstrong, who was a talented rider - what is he remembered for?

Maybe for some it is a desire for outcome and the journey means very little. This is perhaps why some people are able to justify making money from child labor and human trafficking, where the ends justifies the means - regardless of the costs paid by others on the path to get those ends.

This is also likely driven by our worship of those with money without caring about how they actually got it. We see this on Hive where people are seemingly blind to some of the most abusive accounts because, they have never looked any deeper - just at the surface wallet. As a society, we tend to look up to and admire those who have more than us and accredit them with skills they do not actually possess.

"I am no doctor, but you should take these drugs. Try them. They are great. I might even take them myself."

And we do. We seem to think that making money in a narrow field gives generalized knowledge and the wisdom to use it. We think that if someone has managed to acquire more than us, they must be skillful and their advice is worth more than that of others and, we scrutinize that advice less.

We live in a world that has simultaneously pushed maximization of the individual and disconnection from community, then wonder why there is so much anti-social behavior. We give space to trolls who cost value and criticize those who are trying their best to generate value. We vote liars and thieves into positions of power and want those who work toward real solutions minimized.

While Gandhi said "be the change you want to see in the world", the fact is that while everyone should try their best, most do not have the skill or platform to do things at scale - being the change is a groundswell movement. However, people should also consider that part of them being is their actions and interactions with others - and supporting the change you want to see in the world has a massive amount of impact.

It is an interesting conflict. We want more people to act for the communities in which we live, to help those in need, to create cures for diseases and technological solutions - and then we go and pay celebrities hundreds of millions each year to entertain us. Through our consumption habits, it is us who incentivize social behavior and for the most part, we support low-quality, minimal effort and useless - on and off the blockchain.

We are all driven by incentives and therefore, we should all take a look at what we incentivize in others.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]