I'm back, and angsty as always. Here's a set of questions derived from my recent experiences in the cryptoverse. Maybe you've asked them too.

1. Do captcha services hate everybody? I don't know about everyone else, but I can never guess if that last bit of the bicycle tire belongs in the picture or not. Every time I guess it does, it's wrong, but when I guess it doesn't, somehow, that's wrong too. I'm starting to think that if you do too many captchas in a day, then nothing you choose is right!

2. Why are most ICOs rugpulls (or as I call them, pump-and-dump ops)? The confidence tricks are obvious. I can't cash in my coins unless I invite 5 people (multi-level marketing anyone)? I can't obtain my coins unless I pay first? It's so close to a classic 409 email scam that I wonder why people fall for it. Monero, here's looking at you.

3. Why are faucets so anti-privacy? Faucets ask you to trade your data for crypto which leaves you eventually feeling like a whore. If I sell my privacy to get into a privacy utopia, what do I have left to protect? The offerwall companies are the worst -- they range from barely ethical to skeezy. My bet is that they profit by collecting data and then selling it on to big corporations and governments; we are, in some part, funding our own slavery.

4. Are there any crypto games that are about actual gameplay? Every crypto game I've played is first and foremost about divorcing the players from their money. The graphics and sound are just more effective means than sketchy dudes with neck tats. Now, I've always thought of in-game purchases as a scam, so that ecosystem doesn't work for/on me. I'm a "pay once and play forever" guy -- no subscriptions, no endless buying. (The more subscriptions you have, the less control you have over your finances, I feel.)

In crypto games, the player is just another target, another mark, another consumer trapped in an endless cycle of consumption, until the devs cash out and abandon the project or some government shuts it down. When I find a crypto game, I get the feeling of being in a border town saloon playing a fixed poker game; the house always wins.

If anyone were willing to make an open-world subscription-based RPG with a free tier, that would show the world how it's done. Sadly, the reason why much of the cryptoverse stays juvenile is uninterest in any projects except for vampiric wealth-transfer systems.

5. Are mining pools really just low-tech shorting operations in disguise? I'm starting to think that places like freetrx.cc fall into this camp. As  TRON continues to rise, will the mining tiers shift upwards? Of course they will. I don't begrudge people making money from such a concept, ok? What annoys me is the lack of transparency. Just SAY that's what you're going to do so that everyone who joins in knows what to expect and how it works. Put another way: every crypto operation is designed to financially benefit someone, and the ones that hide their intentions do so for a reason.

This is just what I've seen, and if it's not true everywhere or I'm missing something, drop me a comment below. Thanks!