We’re still very much in the age of incredibly stupid cryptocurrency stunts, orchestrated by tech dudes who extremely want you to know about Bitcoin and every single other coin they’ve invested all their time, labour and savings into. But rarely do such stunts result in someone literally dying.
Well, not any more. According to the Financial Times, a group of Ukrainian cryptocurrency enthusiasts pulled off a stunt as promo for an initial coin offering (ICO) in which they literally buried a hard drive full of tokens at the top of Mount Everest. Sounds wonderful, right?
First of all – and perhaps unsurprisingly – the team faced difficulty getting to the top of Everest, which you might expect given the fact it is not necessarily a simple task to do so. This comes from a press release from ASKfm, the social media platform which sponsored the stunt:
Of course, there were issues… two guys were stuck at above 7,000 metres with no reserve oxygen for all of that time. Under extreme temperatures and unable to descend, they had during the second day to call for a helicopter squad to rescue. Now they’re both safe and receiving treatment. And strong having made such a move.
But that’s not the end of the story. According to the blog of Everest watcher Alan Arnette, who keeps a record of basically everything that goes down on the mountain during climbing season, there was literally a fatality. Lam Babu Sherpa, who was assisting the team on their climb, died after contracting ‘snow blindness’ – a painful temporary loss of vision caused by extreme UV rays reflected off the snow.
Here’s Arnette’s account, in which he describes the sherpa’s death as ‘preventable’:
Lam Babu Sherpa is a very confusing case. He was supporting a Ukraine team. 4Sport.ua has an account with very different themes. One of the climbers with Lam wrote a report but using Google translate is difficult to decipher exactly what happened. I confirmed the events the day of the death with Gyanendra Shrestha, the Ministry’s representative at EBC who said he had snow blindness, went “missing” and the rescue team stationed at Camp 2 was unaware of the incident as it was happening. I find it hard to understand how the 45 year-old Sherpa developed snow blindness, was reported to be staggering and no one was able to help him.
One of the climbers, Taras Pozdnii, told the FT when contacted that he didn’t know how Lam Babu Sherpa died.
“He was behind us, so we don’t know what happened to him. We were going fast and the Sherpa wasn’t coming with us. He was coming behind, so we didn’t see him,” he said.
So, what about the tokens themselves? They’ve gotta be worth heaps to justify the trip, right? Well, not particularly. ASKfm claims they’re worth $50,000 – and have encouraged other climbers to get to the top and claim that jackpot – but there’s really no way of verifying that, and for all intents and purposes they’re worthless.
Well. Another successful marketing campaign, obviously.
