Having A Gas: This Week In Crypto Pop Culture, December 24-28

December 28, 2018 8:08 PM

It’s Friday, December 28, everybody! Hopefully your week hasn’t been marred by too many hook-wielding, meat-stealing Yule Lads, but if you were unfortunate enough to receive a visit, ETHNews is here with Having A Gas, bringing you some holiday cheer with a roundup of a few lighter stories for this week in crypto and blockchain news.

Crypto Concussions

On December 27, the Litecoin Foundation announced a partnership with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The partnership makes Litecoin the “Official Cryptocurrency Partner” of the upcoming December 29 match between former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and UFC light heavyweight Alexander Gustafsson. During the fight, the Litecoin logo will be displayed on the canvas of the octagonal fighting cage.

The announcement specifically notes that Litecoin and UFC are similar in how they’ve “evolved from a tiny grassroots movement to a global phenomenon.” The similarities don’t stop there either. The abbreviations rhyme – LTC and UFC. Coins are round, and a UFC match has at least five rounds. Litecoin is well known for its short block times, and I bet in a UFC match there’s a short amount of time a fighter has in order to successfully block a punch after it has been thrown.

Oh yeah, and both Litecoin’s founder Charlie Lee and UFC’s former president Dana White have sold away their product, both of which are extremely risky products to be a part of.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Prow of a Brigantine

If you thought Robot Santa was evil, wait until you hear about Pirate Santa.

Crypto Coins, a Discord community of crypto and blockchain enthusiasts, is holding a treasure hunt this weekend in which participants have to find Pirate Santa, Santa’s evil twin brother who has stolen all of the Christmas presents and kidnapped Mr. Claus. According to the tweet, participants have the chance to win dogecoin and something called mousecoin (MIC3), among other strange tickers.

The treasure hunt’s premise sounds terrifying, but let’s think this through. Like the Twitter post said, no one knows about Pirate Santa. He’s been cast to the Christmas shadows, forced to endlessly sail the seven seas without cookies, without milk – just moderate-to-severe scurvy and a wet stocking. I bet Santa Claus doesn’t even visit his brother because ships don’t have chimneys. Maybe Pirate Santa just felt it was time to take Santa Claus down a peg (leg) or two.

Plus, what were Pirate Santa’s parents thinking when they named one of their children “Pirate Santa?” Seems like they doomed him from the start.

Kids Say the Darndest Things About Virtually Eliminating Third-Party Tampering

Savii Publishing, part of Savii Digital, a crypto- and blockchain-centric marketing agency, tweeted a preview of it upcoming publication, “Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Activity Book.” Aimed at children looking to learn more about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, the book’s activities include crypto-themed word searches and connect-the-dots featuring Blocktrain, the main character in Savii Publishing’s children’s book “Meet Bob the Blocktrain.”

Teaching children about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology is fine and all, but who actually reads physical books anymore? The educational medium needs to be taken even further. Remember “Schoolhouse Rock?” Well, I’m thinking maybe a Netflix original called “Schoolhouse Block.” If “Conjunction Junction” taught me how conjunctions work, why not a song called “Blockchain Adoption” to teach kids about the growing technology? Something like: Blockchain adoption, what’s your function? / Hooking up data in chronological order. / Blockchain adoption, what’s your function? / A decentralized site for peer-to-peer transactions.

I’m not a songwriter, but you get the point.

That being said, I can’t decide what would be worse during extended family holiday visits: your weird uncle, or your seven-year-old nephew who won’t stop explaining how blockchain tech will revolutionize the shipping crate industry.

That’s it for Having A Gas. Join us next week, and remember, [insert clever catchphrase here].

Nicholas Ruggieri studied English with an emphasis in creative writing at the University of Nevada, Reno. When he’s not quoting Vines at anyone who’s willing to listen, you’ll find him listening to too many podcasts, reading too many books, and crocheting too many sweaters for his dogs, RT and Peterman.

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