Hacker News Reader

Comment by tombert | Hacker News Reader

This makes me very happy. I was honestly slightly worried that if I ever saw SBF in person, I would be unable to stop myself from kicking him in the nuts. Since I was a victim of the Winklevoss twins' GUSD unregistered security scam (Gemini Earn) [1], there has not been a day since ~November 2022 that I haven't wished something kind of bad happened to SBF.

To be clear, I genuinely am not advocating for violence, but I'm saying that if he walked free, and if I were to see him just casually sauntering along in NYC, I think I would have an overwhelming compulsion to hurt him, and then I would go to jail, which I don't think I'd enjoy, so it's a much better outcome for me personally if he's behind bars.

Well, upon typing this out, I guess if he gave me the 13 grand that was taken from me, I'd be willing to forgive him.

[1] I've posted about this before, but just to reiterate, not my opinion, but the SEC's https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-7

View on HN

Totally normal post

Heh, I'll acknowledge it's a weird post.

Basically, the FTX stuff blew up at the very worst possible time for me personally. I had just been laid off (really fired) from my job in November 2022, and I had naively believed the kind of hand-waivey advertising about Gemini Earn and GUSD being safe, so a lot of my cash reserves were stored in GUSD, but the day that I need to use it to pay for my mortgage, I'm unable to withdraw it because apparently Genesis Holdings was in bed with Alameda Research, which in turn was in bed with FTX and thus SBF was throwing my money away.

Now, I'm one of the fortunate ones, because I didn't keep all (or even most) of my savings in GUSD and Earn; I keep most of my savings in the form of low-risk ETFs (VOO and VTI), so there was never a risk of me being homeless or anything, but I did have to sell a good chunk of them at a loss in order to pay for my mortgage and for my food, and that wasn't fun. The entire ordeal really depressed me, and I've been upset with SBF for the last year for exacerbating an already frustrating experience.

> Now, I'm one of the fortunate ones, because I didn't keep all (or even most) of my savings in GUSD and Earn; I keep most of my savings in the form of low-risk ETFs (VOO and VTI)

Is this a US thing or what? Don’t keep money you may need in the short term (< 5 years, at least) in stocks. A stock ETF is not low-risk, cash and bonds are.

Well, I didn't keep money I would need in the short term in stock; I kept it in GUSD and Gemini Earn, because I believed their marketing.

I'll admit that I definitely should have done more investigating on my end, and I'll take my share of the responsibility on that, but that doesn't absolve the Winklevoss twins and SBF from responsibility. An "obvious" scam is still a scam.

EDIT:

Just to clarify, I actually agree with your point. It's good practice your short-to-mid-term savings in FDIC-insured savings accounts, bonds, and treasury bills; basically stuff with nearly-zero risk. Since the fiasco with GUSD I've been saving my shortish term stuff in treasury bills specifically for this reason (and because they're a bit more tax efficient in a place like NYC).

What's wrong with wishing something bad happens or feeling like retribution towards someone who was the cause a large injustice towards you? It's a normal human emotion.

Yeah, just to reiterate, I genuinely, sincerely, and unambiguously do not advocate any violence for SBF. I believe in the justice system, and much as I enjoy Batman comics, I do not think vigilantism is actually a good idea.

But of course, when someone personally wronged me, I think I'm entitled to a little bit of vengeful fantasies.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com