Two Sides of the Same Coin: Amit Bhardwaj’s “Cryptocurrency for Beginners” Is A Poorly-Written Instrument of His Shady Business Schemes

12 August 2017
The promotional campaign for “Cryptocurrency For Beginners” included front-page advertisements in several national dailies, as well as sponsored posts on prominent business-and bitcoin-oriented websites.
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The promotional campaign for “Cryptocurrency For Beginners” included front-page advertisements in several national dailies, as well as sponsored posts on prominent business-and bitcoin-oriented websites.
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On 9 July, the Times of India’s Sunday edition carried a full front-page advertisement for Cryptocurrency for Beginners: an e-book written by the entrepreneur Amit Bhardwaj, priced at a steep Rs 1,499. The ad boasted that the book was “Introducing everyone to the world of cryptocurrencies and how it is changing the financial landscape.” Around the same time, Bhardwaj also issued front-page ads in other major dailies, including The Hindu, the Economic Times and Dainik Jagaran.

The promotional campaign for Cryptocurrency for Beginners has been extensive. In addition to the newspaper ads, sponsored posts ran on several publications—prominentIndianoutlets such as NDTV’s Profit, Hindu Business Line, and the Indian Express, as well as cryptocurrency-focussedwebsitessuch as the Bitcoin News and News BTC. The official site on which people can purchase Bhardwaj’s book even displays links to effusive tweets about it from a handful of celebrities, among them the actors Shilpa Shetty, Vir Das and Nargis Fakhri.

Aria Thaker is a journalist who reports on the intersection of technology and politics for Quartz India. She was formerly a copy editor at The Caravan.

Keywords: economy Bitcoin Gainbitcoin Amit Bhardwaj cryptocurrency blockchain Ethereum ICO
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