Hello Steemians,
I am concerned about the influence of certain ne'er-do-wells on cryptospace. I'll assume if you're reading this that I don't need to go into more detail on that. Following the stellar research of our own @newsandviews I've been looking into the symbolism of some of the more popular offerings, and found something interesting.
So, back in 2014 the lovely people at ethereum.org decided to have a contest to determine the product's logo. Two people submitted entries which were almost identical to the 'example' provided by ethereum and lo-and-behold they were selected as winners! One is an anonymous user who apparently created an account solely to submit his entry and hasn't posted since, the other is Gianni D'Alerta, Director of Marketing and Branding at Jaxx.
The play:
- Announce contest to 'crowdsource' logo.
- Provide 'example' of desired final logo.
- Submit identical proposal under fake name or via proxy.
- Reveal 'winning design'.
The city of Portland did something similar a few years ago when naming a new bridge.
This was the 'example':
This is skybuilder's entry:
And this is Gianni D'Alerta's entry:
If you click on the link above you can verify that skybuilder has only the single post. If you check out Gianni's LinkedIn profile you can confirm that he is at least a graphic designer (and industry insider). It also seems that he got his job at Jaxx after submitting one of the winning entries. I'd say that's a fair indication of his talent (or ability to copy+paste), but it could be a reward for loyalty.
As an aside, looking at the example entry, you really see the similarity between the ethereum and EOS logos via their inclusion of a hidden (crypto-) pentagram.
Now, why would they do this? I think this happens a lot following the formula I've laid out. Another example is when Games Workshop's publishing arm Black Library holds open submissions to find new authors, and then ends up hiring people who already work for them. In cases like this, I think it's a form of advertising by making people feel included in the decision-making process. In ethereum's case, I think it's an example of plausible deniability, a term coined by the CIA to describe the practice of distancing certain people or groups from certain actions by assigning those actions to a subordinate or apparently unaffiliated person or group.
Well, that's that. I hope I'm not repeating what somebody else has already noticed. Please check out @newsandviews for a more comprehensive discussion of the symbolism.
Thank you for reading, please upvote, resteem, follow, and comment!
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