Japan's Latest Sensation is a Cryptocurrency Pop Group (engadget.com) 57
An anonymous reader quotes Engadget:
If you're starting a pop group in Japan, where giant rosters and virtual superstars are par for the course, how do you stand out? By tying yourself to something trendy -- and in 2018, that means cryptocurrency. Meet Kasotsuka Shojo (Virtual Currency Girls), a J-pop group where each of the eight girls represents one of the larger digital monetary formats. Yes, you're supposed to cheer for bitcoin or swoon over ethereum (what, no litecoin?). The group played its first concert on January 12th, and naturally you had to pay in cryptocurrency to be one of the few members of the general public to get in. The group's first single, "The Moon and Virtual Currencies and Me," warns listeners about the perils of fraud and extols the virtues of good online security.
"It isn't clear how French maid outfits symbolize cryptocurrency or blockchain technology," notes Quartz, "but they're popular costumes in Japan's anime and cosplay circles."
"It isn't clear how French maid outfits symbolize cryptocurrency or blockchain technology," notes Quartz, "but they're popular costumes in Japan's anime and cosplay circles."
Wait.. (Score:2)
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Not much dumber than the crypto bubble....
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And probably a lot more stable.
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What?
Is this for real?
I'm still not entirely convinced that Japan is real. ;)
Damit Japan (Score:2)
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Weird is relative (Score:3)
It seems that the Japanese want to anthropomorphize everything. If you watch any anime you are familiar with this.
Maybe the most extreme example I have seen is Kantai Collection [wikipedia.org]. The story is full of cute girls. Each one is a Japanese war ship. Not, mind you, a symbol for or otherwise a representative of the war ship but actually THE war ship. And they take on physical attributes for example the carriers have big physiques and the destroyers are all little younger girls. Aside from being cute girls they have deadly battles.
One is left to wonder if the fan base is supposed to (or actually does) fantasize about having sex with a battleship (or a carrier, or a destroyer).
This seems fairly normal in comparison.
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The Shinto religion assigns 'spirits' to just about all inanimate objects. You can commune with them, in much the same way as a Christian communes with the voice in their head that they call 'God'.
In principle I don't see why you shouldn't also have sexual urges toward them. Dreaming of bonking a battleship is not the most harmful fantasy I can imagine.
Incidentally, this is also one reason why Japan is so far ahead of the west in robotics. There's much less soul-searching about "creating life" and suchlike
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*Facepalm*
OK everyone. Ready? 1. 2. 3! *Over a city sized megaphone*: "Rule 34!"
And it's a good thing. Whatever it is, you can either make fun of it or , well..., join. I will definitely have a look at the battleships. The cryptocurrencies look like they have huge moustaches so "Ha Ha!"
Of course they do, and yes it *does* exist. (Actually Identity death, and corruption seem to a theme with this one. No bleeping clue why though....)
Back to TFA though...
Why is this on /.? Yeah it has a theme of cryptocurrency, but that's the extent of it. A theme. If the performers had chosen anything else, we wouldn't be talking about it here.
Yes. We are talking about it here, because cryptocurrencies are
a science/IT/"news for nerds" related subject. Seeing what the "muggles" take away from those subjects, is an issue. Do they embrace it, do they make fun of it,
do they get the concept at all? Are we heading to a new buzzword
Peak stupid money reached... (Score:3)
Or is this actually the other side, peak being the cryptocurrency milk. [bitcoinexchangeguide.com]
I presume that a crypto-cheese [cheesecoin.tk] derivative is also in the works.
they left out the really silly ones (Score:1)
No Dogecoin, I observe. Perhaps that'll come later, when the initial surprise dies down (estimation: eight days) and they grow desperate for attention. Perhaps they're saving the unmasking for then, although I remember having KISS take off their make-up didn't impress anyone.
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Better that way. You buy bitcoins now for a few thousand bucks and in the end you'll probably not even get a nickle back.
Bitcoin girl = slut (Score:5, Funny)
I think that Bitcoin girl is a total slut. It seems like every other day I hear someone new has forked her.
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Virtual +1 Funny.
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Sweet. Thanks. It's only been 5 minutes, and that's already worth +2.
Still a better investment than cryptocoins (Score:3)
Still a better business proposition than investing in cryptocoins, at this point. Nobody has yet made a *useful* cryptocoin - Bitcoin is proving to be an absolutely horrid transaction processor, Ethereum is trying to be something else, and nobody I have seen will accept anything else. Without the utility value of a currency enabling transactions, cryptocoins have only speculation value - and things with only speculation value trend towards zero.
Meanwhile, J-Pop idol groups are pretty bog-standard entertainment, from an economics standpoint at least. "Entertainment" does have intrinsic value, after all. I don't know if they'll be successful, but it's at least *possible* for them to succeed. And when cryptocoins crash, they can switch to some other gimmick.
In other words, I would much rather invest by buying shares in whatever music label owns this band, than in any cryptocoin company.
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I am not down on blockchain technology. It's nifty tech.
But I've written transaction-processing systems. I know how to get tens of thousands of transactions per second out of the cheap-ass repurposed desktops some people insist on using as financials servers. Bitcoin is an absolute wreck as far as being able to exchange it for goods and services (ie. being a currency) goes. None of the other cryptocoins I've seen have told me how they want to fix that problem. Most of them won't even tell me what they do di
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Japanese pop bands are often used a bit like those talent shows on western TV, like "[Country]'s Got Talent" or "X Factor". The members are often already involved in other stuff, like being on TV variety shows, or just just trying to get started with a career in entertainment.
Either the band as a whole or the individual members can become popular with fans and then move on to other things. They use social media and in-person appearances. There is a whole culture built around it.
The maid uniform thing is har
I have to wonder (Score:2)
Is this group really a "pop sensation" once you get away from the virtual pages of Engadget?
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This ^
A one-off show in what looks to be a basement, with poorly choreographed dancing. Stupid drive-by media lined up to interview them as soon as they're done 'performing'.
Fake news indeed.
this is stupid (Score:2)
not /. worthy news.
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/. is promoting bitcoins, if you didn't notice, so anything related is fair game. How else is /. going to make bank off their investment?
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If they were into wrestling (Score:1)
They would call themselves the Ted DiBinarybases.
Here in the twilight zone... (Score:2)
... this isn't the most ridiculous use of cryptocurrency that's in the news.
Here we go again (Score:2)
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I don't doubt that a lot of early adopters are libertarians who whole-hardheartedly believe in bitcoin. But from the outside, it looks a lot like, well, a snake-handling cult. People who are in either community can be good people, but I just don't grok the reasons you say or do things.
And your defense actually reads like how I would expect a (techno-)cult's salespitch to read. One part subtle
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I'm actually not sure how PoS works. Happy to learn if you care to explain or point me to some documentation, but nothing I've read about it makes sense.
And yes, by comparison normal dollars, etc, use no currency. Because all the examples of things that need electricity exist in both cases. The only difference is the work of mining itself.
A pop group? (Score:2)
Pfft. Wake me when there's Cryptocurrency Hentai.
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http://www.cryptodata.market/a... [www.cryptodata.market]
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When it's invented, it will be called Lolicoin.
Latest maybe... (Score:2)
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I've been there 6 times (my wife was born in Aichi) and each time there's something new that catches me off-guard.
At least the "weird Japan" articles are usually about innocent fun, the "weird US" articles usually revolve around someone being killed in some new way....