The Download: Opting out of the crypto hype, and the gig workers resisting oppressive algorithms

Billboards surround the Bay Area and line LA highways, and you can't catch a train in NYC without running into an ad for a coin or exchange. A-listers like Gwyneth Paltrow are pushing crypto platforms, and this year's Super Bowl broadcast was studded with big-budget crypto spots, each trumpeting the opportunity to strike it rich. But despite their ubiquity and lavish expense, these ads routinely omit any description of what crypto is, or what any of the crypto companies that have paid to plaster our landscape are actually selling. While the industry has been good to lucky speculators with the disposable cash to risk and the time to figure out how to do so, it has little to offer the average person today. Crypto enthusiasts claim that the industry will revolutionize financial systems by decentralizing commerce, grabbing the reins from the banks that have betrayed us in the past and the Big Tech gatekeepers.