At the end of the day, we're all trying to negotiate what is and isn't real. Facebook's decision to ban all cryptocurrency ads on the grounds that cryptocurrencies are commonly associated with scams is, on its surface, an attempt to build goodwill with users and governments by claiming that this move protects users from fraud. But the other side of the coin is that Facebook is also researching how to apply cryptocurrencies for its own benefit. Facebook is framing the debate by positioning its own efforts in a favorable light in comparison to what it has decided should and should not be allowed on its ad networks. Earlier this week I had a chance to discuss this issue with Naomi Brockwell (@skycorridors). I've embedded the video here with her permission, and am including the link to her original post [here](https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@skycorridors/why-did-facebook-ban-bitcoin). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA3wcrqnCXk Whether Facebook wants to admit it or not, it's technologies have a tremendous amount of influence on how people perceive the world. By banning cryptocurrency-related ads, which also includes ads from cryptocurrency bloggers, Facebook is negatively impacting a nascent industry. The irony of this ban is that it happened to an incredibly vibrant and creative industry. There are already efforts to innovate a solution that makes Facebook's intervention utterly meaningless in the long term. Thank you for reading, Josh

^{Josh Peterson is a writer living in Denver, CO. He is a 2016-2017 Robert Novak Journalism Program Fellow for The Fund for American Studies, studying the impact of artificial intelligence on democracy. He is also an advisor to PassageX, a blockchain startup tackling the secondary event ticket market, and the founder and publisher of The Coin Dispatch, a news and opinion site covering cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. Follow Josh on Steemit and Twitter. Keybase for secure chat. PGP Fingerprint: 4507 3000 1A40 2691 DAB8 ED65 A3EA 3629 73FD B7FF. BTC: 14LE7Jv4NZXgtWq876RUdSUVKfZs7rcnzf}