i think it's similar to Multi-Level Marketing schemes. People have put hopes and dreams into it now that they think it's a vehicle to get rich, plus significant investment costs to build the infrastructure.

They need to keep a straight face and create an army of believers in order to succeed with their profiteering.

> losing sight of reason

That's precisely my issue. If you go to /r/bitcoin the conversation is often more focused on "How do we get past these annoying speculators to actually realize the dream of a cryptocurrency?". I respect that. But 90% of the people involved at this point are NOT that.

As a side note yes I thought "mofo" was totally mild too and the whining led me to post much harsher comments lol. I hate cultures that try to silence they're detractors. Good news for me is HN karma is pretty low on my list of priorities.