Celebrity culture is a high-volume perpetuation of celebrities' personal lives on a global scale. It is inherently tied to consumer interests where celebrities transform their fame to become product brands.
The core of celebrity culture is that people are products. In celebrity culture the reputation of the celebrity translates into the marketability of that celebrity. Celebrities have to take care not to upset their advertisers, fans, etc. Translated for developers, a developer would be concerned about their stakeholders which may include current and future users and or investors. As more people on-board to platforms such a Steemit, Ethereum, and others, the developers associated with these products, platforms, and tools, may become increasingly more famous. In my opinion this process has already started with popular figures such as Vitalik Buterin, and perhaps to a lesser extent. At what point do developers reach the phase in popularity where they become as famous as Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, etc?
More importantly, are the developers in this space prepared for the day when that happens? Steemit marketing seems to be preparing for this by going the route of transparency. Is this the right decision to make strategically? A sign of the times will be when hardware wallet manufacturers offer to pay Vitalik Buterin, Dan Larimer and other semi-public figures to publicly endorse and use their products in the same way celebrities are paid to endorse products.
References
Hirschman, E. C. (1987). People as products: Analysis of a complex marketing exchange. The Journal of Marketing, 98-108.
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But how much would they pay? These people live on reputation, and no price is worth that. Says me.
If you were paid more to post with hardware wallets, and be in advertisements for various apps, than you could make writing code? We are talking millions of dollars in endorsements, just like athletes get.
Ohad is the next celebrity. lol i'm kissing ass
From what I know about him he is one of the people who would not want to be that. He certainly has the opportunity to do so if he chooses though.
Ohad is cool as hell! If you talk to him, he is a very down to earth person, but I believe that he is the perfect type of person to represent crypto. Doesn't talk over people's heads.
I communicate with him daily so I know. But he does not seem interested in being a representative or politician.
but that is PRECISELY why he would make a great representative for the PEOPLE :)
the reluctant leaders are the best
Not if coercion is involved. I think also there is a difference between celebrity and leader. Celebrities lead from the front and are seen as "role models" but are not necessarily leaders. In the decentralized space I don't see a benefit for central authority figures that we commonly recognize as leaders, unless it is thought leadership. In terms of thought leadership Ohad is already a thought leader, so is Dan Larimer, Vitalik Buterin and many others, but it is possible to be a thought leader without being a celebrity or even having a fixed identity.
"Celebrities lead from the front and are seen as "role models" but are not necessarily leaders."
I think there is a paradox in this existence which the celebrity involvement in "elections" causes people to have problems with.
If a celebrity can be seen as a "role model" and "lead from the front" without the long term responsibilities that come with "leadership", then they get to have the "influence" of "leaders" without having to worry about their reputations necessarily being harmed...
"Code is law" turned into "It was just a test" because he is a "celebrity" and not a "leader"...
now, I don't have a problem with the latter statement, but the issue now becomes he has completely contradicted himself and seemingly gained credibility along the way...THAT seems to have some negative consequences if this is extrapolated beyond one person...
If people are not responsible for how they use their influence, you might have people investing 160 million into something off a reputation that completely goes belly up over-night...
Wait...
I think this will happen sooner than we think. The decentralized economy will give rise to more and more people that are not vested under a massive corporation. I am talking here about Vitalik but rather developers that build upon a layer and they themselves share a piece of the glory. We already see this with youtube stars.
I've watched a few videos with Vitalik and he knows his stuff, apparently his IQ is over 200, if it's to be believed?
His IQ certainly is not over 200. Statistically that is incredibly rare and only a few people out of billions have an IQ like that. But I would say he's certainly very smart, but you can say that about many people in this space. No need to quantify it by IQ.
I think this is very accurate OP.
Also, there is much irony in this considering the entire movement was started by someone who remains anonymous.
Vitalik seems like a reasonable guy.. on top of being a genius. I have yet to see a legitimate reason to not revere him.
They say Vitlalik has a IQ of 257. I saw him on youtube speak to a KPMG crowd in Hong Kong -- they were putty in his hands.