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Comment by danans | Hacker News Reader

It's probably difficult to find out (but someone here could probably analyze the blockchain), but it would be interesting to know the mean and median stake of the investors who got wiped out.

If the mean is large, it's mostly an off-the-books bribery scheme. If the average stake is small, it's mostly a pump-and-dump con of regular people.

But it was probably just a gambling scheme with just one big bet, where as ever, the house always wins.

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It can be both. Use the "Contributions" from "Donors" to make it appear that the coin is going to the moon and then dump it once enough credulous victims buy into the scam. Reward the donors with their appropriate tit-for-tat and then pocket it all.

> It can be both. Use the "Contributions" from "Donors" to make it appear that the coin is going to the moon and then dump it once enough credulous victims buy into the scam.

Sure, and cynically, just like in traditional casino gambling, the wipe-out could be viewed as the price of "entertainment".

If there is no class action lawsuit, then we know that the people who got wiped out thought the price was worth whatever they got for it, whether favors or fun.

It's probably just too early for the class actions. There are a couple suits against Bannon and Trump for the "Let's go Brandon" coin.

Those contributions are by the way, the direct bribe. Just send confirmation of your wallet and when Trump pulls the rug the bribe is paid and the pardon (or whatever) is done.

Yeah, even worse is that you can leverage the contributions of the briber to make the coin appear to be increasing in worth over time and dupe people into investing in it. This allows you to make ten times more than the amount of the bribe.

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