Eggplant.place

1y

just spotted this post by a coiner on r/buttcoin

it's remarkable how quickly things have changed since when i started writing about #crypto — largely BECAUSE most media outlets weren't covering it critically

Why do people come on a forum just to talk negatively about a technology / crypto / coin or whatever? Why not just refrain from buying the coin or being involved? What is the use of coming here and making fun of crypto?

The reason why I ask is because mainstream media is already full of news narratives that talk down on crypto. Most of the world thinks crypto is a scam. To me, there doesn't seem to be the need for a dedicated reddit community to reinforce an already extremely popular world view.

ALT

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1y

i would say it's aged very well tbh, but they'd have to watch the talk to know that

https://blog.mollywhite.net/is-web3-bullshit/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #bitcoin

So far, the primary successes of web3 have been in shiny marketing selling people the opportunity to invest in vaporware. In regulatory arbitrage, exploiting the fact that regulators have been slow and hesitant to act on unregistered securities offerings. And in outright scams and grifts. Many people in crypto say they welcome regulation—again, you’ve heard that here— as though it is not the lack of regulation that has enabled so many of these projects in the first place. So many problems in today’s web are driven by capitalistic forces driving ruthlessly towards the enrichment of monopolistic tech companies rather than the betterment of society. You’ll have to excuse me for doubting that our utopian web dreams will be achieved through the introduction of a hypercapitalist technology that aims to financialize everything on the web even further, and exposes user data on public ledgers where it can be scraped by even more tech companies than are profiting off data today.

ALT

There will be a web3. The web has been evolving ever since its inception, and there is no doubt in my mind that we are overdue for a fundamental shift. Will it be blockchains and crypto? Venture capitalists and blockchain startup founders really hope that you think so. I hope that the rest of us will continue working towards utopian goals like the ones I mentioned earlier—the ones that many people who are working in web3 and on web3 projects share—without necessarily being shackled to a technology that holds little promise for the web. Revolution is possible. But it’s unlikely that we will be fighting for revolution alongside the same venture capitalists and tech companies who helped to get us into this mess in the first place.

ALT

As technologists, our duty is to develop responsibly, and we should be striving for more in the web, pushing to evolve it into whatever web3 may turn out to be, and chasing those ideals that could make the web truly wonderful. But when presented with lofty promises we have to remember to distinguish the steam-powered computers from the truly revolutionary. Dig deep. Ask the hard questions. Criticize the flaws. And cut through the bullshit.

ALT

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1y

Sam Bankman-Fried has just been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

#SBF #SamBankmanFried #crypto #cryptocurrency

Edited 1y ago

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1y

Even though one of cryptocurrency's highest profile cases has just concluded with the sentencing of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, there are a ton of other lawsuits underway against groups including Coinbase, Gemini, KuCoin, Terraform Labs, and Tornado Cash. Catch up on those and more:

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-54/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #newsletter #CitationNeeded #Coinbase #Terra

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42d

The team behind Trump's World Liberty Financial project has proposed lifting restrictions on the WLFI "governance token" to make it tradeable. I predicted shortly after its launch that if Trump succeeded in gutting the SEC, he would do this.

This would lift the substantial restrictions on the token (non-US or accredited investors only, locked tokens with no secondary sales) that were aimed at sidestepping attention from the previous SEC, and could be enormously lucrative for Trump.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpol #USpolitics

Proposal: Make $WLFI Token Tradable
General
Jul 4
1m

WLFI_Team
1d
Summary

This proposal is presented to solicit community input and formally initiate the tradability of the token. This would mark a major milestone in the development of the World Liberty Financial ecosystem and opens the door for broader community participation, access, and protocol development.

⸻

Proposal Objectives

• Make $WLFI transferable, thereby enabling broader community access to governance participation, whether through peer to peer transactions or secondary markets
• Transition the WLFI ecosystem from closed to open participation
• Enable greater token utility access
• Begin the next phase of community ownership and engagement
• Align long-term token incentives with protocol adoption and success

⸻

Early Supporter Unlocking

• A portion of WLFI supply was sold to early supporters
• A portion of these tokens will be eligible to be unlocked upon launch of tradability
• The remainder of the tokens will be subject to a second vote by the community to determine the unlock and release schedule
• Founders, team, and advisor tokens will not be unlocked initially and will be subject to a longer unlock schedule than early supporters to demonstrate long-term commitment and alignment with the success of the protocol
• Timing and any eligibility requirements for unlock to be determined subsequently.

ALT

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1y

“Crypto researcher Molly White skewered [Chris Dixon’s Read Write Own] with the delight of Pete Wells after downing an Almond Joy cocktail at Guy Fieri’s Flavortown.”

😂

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-05-06/silicon-valley-crypto-investor-chris-dixon-wants-to-overhaul-the-industry (paywall)
https://archive.ph/BDP2I (archive)

#ChrisDixon #web3 #crypto

Edited 1y ago

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88d

Coinbase was aware that support reps were suspiciously accessing customer data when its CEO tweeted that the CFPB should be "deleted". Among other things, the CFPB has pursued legal action against financial companies that failed to secure sensitive customer data.

#Coinbase #crypto #cryptocurrency

Tweet by Brian Armstrong @brian_armstrong on February 8, 2025
100% the right call

The CFPB is unconstitutional on the face of it. And even if it wasn’t, it should be deleted as we already have DOJ to prosecute fraud, and (many) other financial services regulators. It’s an activist organization that has done enormous harm to the country.

Quoted tweet: Kekius Maximus @elonmusk
CFPB RIP 🪦

Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The Supreme Court, ruled (7-2 decision) that the CFPB's funding mechanism does not violate the Constitution. Justice Thomas wrote the majority opinion, stating that the CFPB's funding fits w/in the framework of congressional appropriations.

ALT

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1y

The two candidates in today's primaries that received substantial backing from cryptocurrency PACs both won their primaries.

1. John Curtis defeated Trent Staggs in the Republican Utah Senate primary, with the help of $5 million in crypto industry funding.

2. George Latimer defeated Jamaal Bowman in the Democratic primary for NY H-16, with the help of $2 million in crypto industry funding.

#USpolitics #crypto #cryptocurrency #CryptoLobby

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1y

How will recent Supreme Court decisions affect the crypto world? Also, more absurdity from the crypto lobby, and some new regulatory actions. Catch up in my latest newsletter: https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-61/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #CitationNeeded #newsletter #USpolitics

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364d

Newsletter: As parts of the crypto industry scramble to court the Harris administration with events like “Crypto4Harris”, others insist it is Harris who must “bend the knee”.

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-64/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #newsletter #CitationNeeded

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1y

TECH BROs v. THE OCEAN:

CRYPTO: let's boil the oceans to create fake money for criminals. We'll fleece the rubes and make miillions. LOL you own that JPG now. Sure you do.

LLMs: let's boil the oceans to create pure garbage out of people's intellectual property. We'll steal from everyone and make millions.

THE OCEANS: brb making some hurricanes

#crypto #llm #ai #techbros #climate #idiots

Edited 1y ago

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1y

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal weighed in on my reporting about the company’s apparent campaign finance violations, arguing that Coinbase is not a federal contractor.

I have updated the article to include his comments, and I’ve also noted that this argument does not seem to square with the law.

The article, with these updates, is here: https://citationneeded.news/coinbase-campaign-finance-violation/

More to come soon.

#CitationNeeded #Fairshake #Coinbase #USpolitics #USpol #crypto #cryptocurrency

Tweet thread by Paul Grewal (paulgrewal.eth, @iampaulgrewal):
1/3 Whether intentional or not, this is misinformation. Coinbase is not a federal contractor under the plain language of 11 CFR 115.1. USMS isn’t paying us with appropriated funds—something it made clear in the public RFP.

(Quoted tweet by Molly White sharing the article)

2/3
Screenshot of 11 CFR 115.1:
§ 115.1 Definitions.

(a) A Federal contractor means a person, as defined in 11 CFR 100.10 who—

(1) Enters into any contract with the United States or any department or agency thereof either for—

(i) The rendition of personal services; or

(ii) Furnishing any material, supplies, or equipment; or

(iii) Selling any land or buildings;

(2) If the payment for the performance of the contract or payment for the material, supplies, equipment, land, or building is to be made in whole or in part from funds appropriated by the Congress.

3/3 Screenshotted image: All funds associated with this RFP will be paid out of the Assets Forfeiture Fund.

ALT

Coinbase’s response
A Coinbase spokesperson, reached on July 30, declined to answer questions about which entities were associated with the government contract or the political contribution, or to respond to broader inquiries about the apparent campaign finance violation. They stated only that “Coinbase complies with all applicable laws, including campaign finance law.”

Two days after this article was published, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, took to Twitter to argue that the company’s political contributions were not in violation of campaign finance laws. He further condemned this article as “misinformation”, which he insinuated may have been “intentional”.

Grewal asserted that Coinbase is not a federal contractor, and thus is not subject to the prohibition, pointing to a definition of the term within the Code of Federal Regulations as those who are paid “in whole or in part from funds appropriated by the Congress”.14 He also pointed to a Q&A document that was published as an update to the request for proposals (RFP) on April 18, and which contains questions between (unidentified) prospective contractors and answers from the US Marshals Service. One such Q&A entry identifies the Department of Justice’s Assets Forfeiture Fund as the source of the funding for the contract ultimately awarded to Coinbase. “Coinbase is not a federal contractor under the plain language of 11 CFR 115.1. USMS isn’t paying us with appropriated funds—something it made clear in the publ

ALT

(Screenshotted image:) What is the source of the funds used to pay for the Cryptocurrency Management and Disposal Services requested under this RFP? All funds associated with this RFP will be paid out of the Assets Forfeiture Fund. The Fund receives proceeds from the sale of property forfeited to the U.S. Government under the Department of Justice Asset Foreiture Program.

While this Q&A document seems to be what Grewal is drawing upon for his claim that the Marshals Service “made clear in the public RFP” that they would not be “paying [Coinbase] with appropriated funds,” there does not appear to be any statement within the RFP that explicitly addresses whether the funds for the contract are appropriated from Congress or not.

Lawyers at Public Citizen weighed in: “Grewal’s argument that funds in the Assets Forfeiture Fund are not ‘appropriations’ is incorrect. Just this year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a similar contention, making clear that an appropriation is simply ‘a law that authorizes expenditures from a specified source of public money for designated purposes’. Consistent with the Court’s holding, a report16 published by the Congressional Research Service explicitly describes the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Fund as appropriated by Congress.”

ALT

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1y

An extra long newsletter today, because things have been about as wacky in crypto as everywhere else. Featured: Coinbase’s Stand With Crypto Alliance fudges the numbers, a (former) industry CEO has a meltdown, and an exchange suffers a nine-figure hack.
https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-62/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #CitationNeeded

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336d

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has just appealed his conviction. He argues, among other things, that the judge didn't like him.

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69143697/28/united-states-of-america-v-bankman-fried/

#FTX #SBF #crypto #cryptocurrency

These observations are borne out by the record. As explained in this brief, many of the judge’s rulings were not just erroneous but unbalanced—repeatedly putting a thumb on the scale to help the government and thwart the defense. But that is not all. The judge continually ridiculed Bankman-Fried during trial, repeatedly criticized his demeanor, and signaled his disbelief of Bankman-Fried’s testimony. See supra at 17-18. Equally troubling, he repeatedly mocked defense counsel and discredited their cross-examinations in front of the jury. E.g., A-756 (“let’s stop that, please”; “What part of ‘let’s stop that’ was obscure?”); A-745 (“Could we get to the point.”); A-879 (“This is not an exam for new eyeglasses. I assume he can read it just as well as everybody in the jury box can read it…You can ask him who Johnny Podres was. Let’s move along. He pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers.”).

ALT

Edited 336d ago

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332d

#Barron Bails On His #Trump #Crypto Launch Speech Because Dad's #Blathering Took Too Long

In what may be the most perfectest Trump product launch ever, Barron (evidently eager to prove #KamalaHarris right about his Dad’s rallies) decided to bail on his presentation as the “visionary” behind the project because his Dad’s blathering took too long. Perfect. So so perfect.

#idiocracy #grift #weird #insane #Nonsense
#CommonSense #sanity #RealityBasedPolitics #HarrisWalz2024
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/17/2271082/-Barron-Bails-On-His-Trump-Crypto-Launch-Speech-Because-Dad-s-Blathering-Took-Too-Long

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203d

What could contribute more to government efficiency than securing lucrative contracts for your crypto donors to implement inefficient technology that is uniquely suited to solving problems you don’t have?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-25/musk-exploring-blockchain-use-in-us-government-efficiency-effort

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

Edited 203d ago

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182d

UPDATE!

Shit happens.🙃

We have rescheduled #CryproBarons on the #DCG201 LIVE Stream for Sunday, February 16th at 3pm EST!

We'll be #hacking the #Soneium #blockchain and #web3 ecosystem!

@defcon #fediverse #mastodon #crypto #playstation #stateofplay

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78d

#SEC Drops #Binance Lawsuit Days After #Crypto Exchange Lists #Trump’s #Stablecoin

The Securities & Exchange Commission dropped a lawsuit against Binance on Thursday, days after the crypto exchange began listing a stablecoin created by #WorldLibertyFinancial, one of Trump’s #blockchain ventures.

#law #corruption #billionaires #Broligarchy #plutocracy #kleptocracy #fraud #crime #felon47
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2025/05/29/sec-drops-binance-lawsuit-trump-stablecoin-listed/

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115d

The House Financial Services Republicans and the White House (now deleted) tagged either a hacked or fake account in their announcements that Paul Atkins was sworn in as SEC Chair. The "Atkins" account immediately started asking for crypto.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

Tweet by an account named Paul S Atkins, with a blue check and a parody label. "Hi crypto believers! I'm all in on this revolution 🚀 Let's keep the dream alive-send some love my way:" (followed by several blurred wallet addresses, and an AI image of a bull exploding from some bitcoins)
Tweet by an account named Paul S Atkins, with a blue check and a parody label. "Hi crypto believers! I'm all in on this revolution 🚀 Let's keep the dream alive-send some love my way:" (followed by several blurred wallet addresses, and an AI image of a bull exploding from some bitcoins)

ALT

Tweet by The White House
@WhiteHouse

🇺🇸 @PaulSAtkins has officially been sworn in as the Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, @SECGov, by @SecScottBessent in the Oval Office!

ALT

Tweet by Financial Services GOP

@FinancialCmte

NEW: The Committee congratulates @PaulSAtkins as he was sworn in as the next Chair of @SECGov. He will bring a common-sense approach to regulation and usher in an era of prosperity and innovation to make U.S. capital markets the envy of the world.

sec.gov/newsroom/press...

ALT

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158d

Newsletter: Crypto reserves: no public good, no principles

The formerly anti-government bitcoin movement abandons its principles in favor of number-go-up, applauds federal plan to stockpile seized crypto with no clear benefit to national interest

https://www.citationneeded.news/crypto-reserves-no-public-good-no-principles/

#bitcoin #crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

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60d

just checking in on the financial revolution that was meant to sidestep banks, tech giants, and the state

#crypto #cryptocurrency

Headline: Walmart, Amazon Mull Dollar-Pegged Stablecoins in the US: WSJ

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151d

Frankly I think the majority of the crypto backlash to the anti-trans Solana ad was because they made it too obvious that they've realized anti-woke MAGA reactionaries are the latest marks

#crypto #cryptocurrency #Solana

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183d

Newsletter: Dubbing it “Operation Choke Point 2.0”, cryptocurrency companies have co-opted legitimate concerns about banking discrimination to fight regulation — and Congress is buying it.

https://www.citationneeded.news/crypto-industrys-debanking-smokescreen/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol