[layer8]

I think I have to reluctantly agree. At least you can mostly just ignore “crypto” (unless you’ve been in the market for high-end graphic cards I guess), which is more difficult to do for ads. Ads also cause the engagement maximization dynamics of social platforms, dynamics which arguably have turned out to be a huge societal net negative.

[latexr]

> At least you can mostly just ignore “crypto”

But you can’t ignore its effects, such as the environmental impact. If cryptocurrencies had zero effect on the people who don’t use them, there wouldn’t be such a large opposition.

[layer8]

You are right, but I believe that ads are overall still much worse in their negative effects. It also wouldn’t surprise me if ad tech consumes more energy worldwide in browsers than bitcoin mining does.