Is Pied Piper Serious? How HBO Inspired Crypto's Most Confounding Coin

Thus began CoinDesk's attempts to determine the identity and intent of the individuals behind "Pied Piper Coin," a parody Twitter account inspired by the HBO series "Silicon Valley." Chronicling a plucky startup that suffers hilarious slings and arrows in its quest to remake the internet, the TV show had its characters conduct an initial coin offering in May. So, no one was exactly surprised when, a couple of days later, a Twitter account for the fictional token, Pied Piper Coin, showed up.

If a has-been confectionary can capture the social zeitgeist, why not HBO? But if that was the case, corporate had given Pied Piper Coin a long leash.

In private messages, Pied Piper Coin told us that Craig Wright was behind the account, that XRP was a security, and that yes, the airdrop was real.

As time went on, Pied Piper Coin's enthusiasm for stoking crypto animosities made HBO backing seem less and less likely.

Others were inspired to follow their lead, with the crypto-meme ecosystem expanding beyond Pied Piper Coin.

Amid all the jokes, Pied Piper Coin appeared to be serious about doing an airdrop.

Neeraj Agrawal, the head of communications at the cryptocurrency policy think tank Coin Center and a powerful engine of crypto-memes in his own right, laid into Pied Piper Coin days after its appearance.

Whether Pied Piper Coin is remembered as a scam will likely depend on whether it follows through with its masked founder's increasingly ambitious promises.

While corresponding with Pied Piper Coin's creator, it became clear he was serious - or at a minimum, serious about convincing us he was serious.

Pied Piper Coin's founder appears to share a similar set of priorities, and was quick to decry the warped motivations he sees as taking over crypto.