I went looking for the AI weed vape that gives you Bitcoin for smoking
A reporter investigates a suspicious advertisement for 'Gudtrip,' a vape device that purportedly rewards users with Bitcoin for every hit. The investigation reveals the product to be a bizarre and likely fraudulent intersection of cannabis culture and cryptocurrency marketing.
Why it matters
The story highlights the prevalence of 'scam-tech' and the increasingly absurd ways companies attempt to leverage crypto-incentives to market consumer goods.
The crypto weed vape found me on 4/20, the high holiday of cannabis enthusiasts everywhere. It arrived over Slack with the thumbnail of a man exhaling a plume of vapor, the words "every hit delivers Bitcoin" emblazoned across it. It claimed to be advertising a device called Gudtrip, and I thought everything about it sounded fake. So I went looking for it. What I eventually found, after weeks of searching, dozens of emails, and a reporting effort that spanned continents, was somehow even dumber than I'd imagined. My first port of call was Gudtrip's website , which only made the vape seem more like a prank. The company's description of the pr … Read the full story at The Verge.
The author uses a skeptical, investigative tone that is appropriate for exposing potential scams, focusing on the absurdity of the product rather than political or social ideology.
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