Sometimes I get the impression that token shillers surround me. I think that the reason for this circumstance is simply the overuse of words like “FUDer” and “Shiller”. Not everyone who says something negative about a crypto project is a FUDer and not everyone who says something positive about a project is a shiller.

Let me explain.

There Is Not Only Black And White

In my previous post with the title When Valid Criticism Gets Silenced As FUD — A Short Story of Pantera “A Real Green BCH Warrior”, I explained the phenomena of how critics are being labeled as FUDers.

Somehow similar overused is the term “Shiller”. It seems that everyone who is speaking in a positive way about a crypto project is a shiller. It reveals some kind of black-and-white thinking that only sees the extremes on both ends of the spectrum.

Maybe not everyone has the same definition of the term “shiller”.

What Is A Shiller?

During law school, I learned the importance of definitions. When it comes to definitions in the cryptocurrency space, the first place to go for me is the CoinGecko Glossary for Cryptocurrency Terms.

Here I can find the following definition for shiller. A shiller is

One who poses as an enthusiastic customer to swindle others as a form of covert advertising.

A shill acts to spread the buzz about a project or token by personally endorsing it in public forums or in the comment sections of posts and videos by posing as a genuine customer. 

This is different from normal advertising as they do not disclose their relationship with the organization. In most countries, this kind of advertisement is not allowed and the word “shiller” rightfully has a negative connotation.

This means when a project is marketing itself openly or via ambassadors then it is not shilling because the relationship is disclosed and you know that is some kind of advertisement.

So is it possible that CZ Binance is shilling BNB on Twitter? I would say no because everyone knows that he is the CEO of Binance. He surely promotes BNB but he does not shill it. 

What About Shilling Referral Links?

Already the wrong question. When it is disclosed then it is not shilling, it is promoting. 

However, referral links may appear spammy. This is the case with long referral link lists unrelated to the article or video.

On the other hand, if you use just one that is also related to the article then it is in most cases beneficial for both parties. For example, the use of an invitation link to a cryptocurrency exchange like Binance can give you a reduction of trading fees or an invitation link to CakeDeFi gives you an extra $10 on top of the regular sign-up bonus.

See, it is in most cases beneficial to use an affiliate link for signing up for a service to receive additional benefits. Sometimes I even search the internet to find a referral link that I can use to sign up so that I can get additional benefits like a signup bonus or fee reduction.

Not using such a link for signing up and not sharing such a link in a related post would be not very intelligent and another word for not very intelligent is stupid.

My Final Conclusion

I hope that I could point out that not every critic is FUD and not all promotion is Shilling. These are just the extremes on both ends.

Finally, I am also interested in your opinion on sharing referral links. It would be awesome if you leave your opinion on this topic in the comments.

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You may also like: When Valid Criticism Gets Silenced As FUD — A Short Story of Pantera “A Real Green BCH Warrior”