SBF testifies he knew 'basically nothing' about crypto before starting company | Hacker News Reader

SBF testifies he knew 'basically nothing' about crypto before starting company

cnn.com

33 pointsrmason19 comments

They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics. I said I have a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard!

lol best line from fallout.

I cited the transitive property once to transfer credits 4 school systems away. Each school transferred to the next but did not recognize a schools course two schools away. It worked.

Don’t you need to pay each school per credit transferred? I hope you weren’t in the US.

I am very impressed by SBF. Pure entertainer, no dull moments when he is around. Posesses the right qualities to be US president, he will have my vote for certain.

SBF for president!

Lady Caroline for Veep!

He sure knew how to divert funds for his own use though.

The more incompetent people we see in executive level offices, the more it makes society want to completely destroy/overthrow/obliterate the executive level class.

The thing that makes me a lot more angry is criminals feigning ineptitude to get away with it. Doesn't matter for the little guy. If you inadvertently defrauded people by being incompetent at sales tax law, you'd go to prison. Do it at a billion dollar scale and suddenly "see I'm just a big dumb dumb and can't remember things" is enough to get off scot-free. That's not acceptable.

I'm no SBF fan by any means, and I think his actions were wrong.

That being said, not knowing anything at the start about the industry you build a company in yields 0 signal about someone's competence. How much did Brian Chesky know about hospitality or marketplaces before starting Airbnb? The Lyft founders about taxis? Zuck or Page/Brin about ads?

If you dig in his testimony the last two days, his answer when he meanders his way there is he didn’t know for almost everything that went wrong and that he trusted other people like his legal counsel and other employees. He is trying a variation on the Ollie North “I do not recall.” defense but he can’t help himself and keeps on running his mouth - the judge stopped him multiple times during his speechifying and made him just answer questions from his own lawyer.

The largest signal that's present in that set is antisocial behavior, not competence

Inclusive of SBF

So I had been flying private jets, buying real estate, giving away millions, living in Bahamas, had a girlfriend even.... and one day it all disappeared!

There are properly run, drama free, organizations in the crypto space, consumers need to choose to use them or ask for the information that would help them choose them. Whether by education or regulatory mandate.

Its really up to the consumers.

Caveat emptor has been working great in that space. People love to make up happy stories.

Ultimately we need to continue this trend of shaming specific companies, like FTX and its management, than masquerading that as “crypto”. Just like we do for every other industry.

What use is of crypto if not for the entertainment? And of course for buying pizza.

I’m fine with it being the entertainment sector

2 trillion dollar industry in the US on its own, squashes most nocoiner valuation arguments by itself

> 2 trillion dollar industry in the US on its own, squashes most nocoiner valuation arguments by itself

That's so utterly ridiculous - you are calling a 10 trillion dollar industry a 2 trillion dollar one? It's like you just dont believe in crypto.

I’m a heretic, I’m building the disney of crypto, call A16z /s

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