«Stay strong», «work hard»,  «Make it happen».  Walking into Walter’s apartment is like leafing through a cheesy motivational quote book. His near-top-of-the-line laptop, knockoff ‘limited edition’ watch, and credit-bought exclusive-brand clothes make him look like a real winner. Walter doesn’t love life, life loves Walter.

With an ego bigger than his list of supposed flings, our dear Walter is the self-proclaimed leader who boasts a horde of followers who buy into and live by his dogma.

It was only a few months ago that he started his streaming channel to milk the little crypto knowledge he had. «This is my last chance to make my dream come true and become an influencer«, he thought. He’d tried numerous times before: a couple of motivational quote accounts, a gaming stream channel, and even tried talking about travel when the furthest he’d ever been was 250 miles from his house. Nothing had worked, and he was latching onto the crypto boom because he sensed the crazy FOMO online was enough to grow his account…and he was right. Walter, unlike Omar and Ray, was not only not anonymous online, but he loved having hundreds of likes on his selfies (although he claimed it to be in the thousands).

What content does he produce? You might ask. The answer’s in the garage. He meets with Omar every week, who updates him on the latest ICOs and their potential, and Walter just transcribes his words into first-person videos, with his trademark confidence and ego. Omar finds it amusing, sees no harm in his actions, and knows that in the long run, Walter isn’t going anywhere, «This crazy FOMO is just a fad that will fade away…» Insights from someone who knows his stuff.

Just when he thought he’d really have to start working for making a living, he’d managed to grow an account with enough potential, Walter thought, to live off of it. For now, it was more a dream than a reality, despite his appearance and attitude suggesting that he was an influencer with lots of zeros in his account, thanks to his community and the crypto investing success he talked about in his videos… All smoke and mirrors.