Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel had some of its wilder moments in 2020: from hitting it with the YouTube ban hammer to experiencing firsthand the antics of Crypto’s most eccentric personalities. Here are some of our favorite blooper moments from this year – we hope you enjoy them more than we do!
Bitcoin Halving Party Livestream YouTube Strike
2020 was a premiere year for many: the first year of the new decade, an unprecedented global pandemic, and Cointelegraph’s first YouTube strike. And to be honest, we’re still pretty confused about it. The strike took place in the closing minutes of a seven-hour live virtual stream event that Cointelegraph hosted on May 11th to celebrate the third halving of Bitcoin. The stream featured industry experts, top-class investors and well-known personalities from all corners of the cryptosphere. Some notable moments:
Everything went as smoothly as expected until the last panel of the day: the crypto influencers. This panel featured a number of prominent crypto personalities including Altcoin Daily, Bad Crypto Podcast, Altcoin Buzz, Naomi Brockwell, Bitboy Crypto, Layah Heilpurn, and especially Chico Crypto.
After commissioning, the panel fell into chaos immediately. In the middle of the host’s introduction, Crypto Chico started yelling at the other guests, calling them Shills, and dropping several F-bombs. After he finished his tirade, he disappeared from the board and was never heard again – at least not on one of our channels.
The panel resumed as best it could, but 20 minutes later, YouTube suddenly and permanently removed the livestream and YouTube channel from Cointelegraph for the first time. According to the warning, the live stream was removed for violating YouTube’s community guidelines. The specific violation concerned the creation of “harmful or dangerous content”. Cointelegraph’s appeal on the strike was denied and no further clarification of the exact reason for the strike was received. Given Crypto Chico’s antics and their proximity to the strike, it is possible that his behavior played an important role in YouTube’s decision. But it is impossible to know for sure.
Check out the livestream highlights here:
Cringe and Craig Wright
No year is complete without a significant amount of terrifying content … and unfortunately, Cointelegraph is no exception.
Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel got off to a good start in this department with the release of a video interview with applicant Craig Wright by Satoshi Nakamoto. The video received over a thousand comments, with many pointing to the awkward interaction between the host (me) and Craig Wright. One of the most popular comments on the video came from a little YouTuber named River:
This interview was awkward. That is not satisfying. As a moderator, I felt it pretty strongly during the recording. The reason for the awkwardness, however, wasn’t what most people seemed to think. I do not despise Craig Wright or, despite his bold claims, feel no hostility towards him.
In fact, the interview was conducted using a well-known technique called mirroring. To get more information and details out of him, I often paused after his answers or repeated his last topic of conversation. The result was an interview that looked nervous, and possibly even hostile, but very effectively revealed Wright’s personality traits and revealed some of his bolder claims.
You can find the full interview here.
John McAfee poses for our former Head of News with his AK-47
John McAfee is notorious the world over for his eccentric hobbies and larger than life personality. In the crypto space, the American computer scientist is best known for his numerous candidacies for president, outrageous price predictions, and wager (now nicknamed “The D * ckening”) to eat his own genitals on live television when Bitcoin $ 500,000 Dollar not reached by the end of 2020. He even managed to stay active on Twitter despite currently living in a Spanish prison where he is being extradited to the US for tax evasion.
Cointelegraph is therefore no stranger to covering McAfee’s wild side. Because of this, no one on the video team was surprised when McAfee (upon request) brandished his AK-47 during a virtual video interview with Dylan Love, former Cointelegraph news chief. In the same interview, he claimed he was 99% certain of Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity and also described how he traumatized a visiting journalist by faking a game of Russian roulette. McAfee may get older, but his stories never do.
You can find the full interview here.
I thank you!
At the end of the year, the Cointelegraph video team would like to thank you, the viewers, for supporting the channel and watching our content. In 2020 the Cointelegraph YouTube channel …
- 140 videos published
- Had nearly 2 million unique views
- Gained 30,000 new subscribers
- Had almost 250,000 hours of observation
From all of us on the Cointelegraph video team, we can’t wait to see what the next year brings and we hope you stay with us. As always, don’t forget to like, subscribe and hodl!
