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It baffles me that Altman picked up such a creepy, woo-woo tech project. It's not like the guy is desperate for cash, he's already really rich and has a stellar

It baffles me that Altman picked up such a creepy, woo-woo tech project. It's not like the guy is desperate for cash, he's already really rich and has a stellar reputation from running Y Combinator (formerly) and OpenAI (currently) as well as investing in many other startups...it's just weird

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
JeremyBanks 5y ago
verisimi 5y ago
Have you seen the creepy interview of Altman and Zuckerberg? Upright posture, hands on thighs... the borg talking with itself... https://www.facebook.com/YCombinator/videos/10153993693829107/ https://www.facebook.com/YCombinator/videos/1015399369382910... its on Facebook, but no need to log in
tomatowurst 5y ago
Not so far off when Paul Graham also vouched for Coinbase, which CFTC ordered it to settle on its False, Misleading, or Inaccurate Reporting and Wash Trading. It's quite unbelievable that this type of grift is defended by YC. When the crypto mania ends and the obvious consequences from tens of thousands of people who have been destroyed by Coinbase are realized, they will be just as quick to distance themselves. I'm really disappointed in YC, especially in its founders. When Paul Graham mentioned that he specifically looks for Founders who break the rules but not outright illegal, I had no idea he meant a break from moral ethics and brushing very close with US securities law. I just don't get how some people can look away at what's truly happening in crypto—it is a systematic wealth transfer via digitized ponzi. any money you make in crypto comes directly from somebody's loss and this is NOT at all like the financial markets where pricing mechanism are enforced and regulated for price discovery on real world assets that is widely adopted. Yet this will not stop thousands of applicants who apply to YC for their chance at riches. It's a shame how we glorify grift and enrichment through the destruction of others. It is this specific culture that we chose not associate ourselves with YC, others are already aware of the grift that YC founders have publicly supported, invested, and vouched for. What saddens me is that many YC hopefuls and commenters will look the other way because of what they seek to gain. If you drink from water that others had muddied, you too are dirty.
- tediousdemise 5y ago
  > tens of thousands of people who have been destroyed by Coinbase Could you elaborate on this part? Are you referring to people whose crypto was stolen?
  - soared 5y ago
    Likely referring to normal people who lose money with coinbase. Trading stocks has at least some amount of protection because stocks have some legal requirements/vetting/etc to get on the major exchanges. Where as there are a whole lot of shitcoins, rugpulling, fraud/etc enabled by coinbase.
    - csee 5y ago
      Not to mention the exorbitant monopolistic fees they can get away with because regulation keeps competitors out of the US, compared to the extremely low fees associated with trading stocks.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
  I’d stomach the holier than thou attitude more if we didn’t just experience the SoftBank WeWork era of “real” companies being just as fraudulent and pumped by hype as dogecoin.
  - qualudeheart 5y ago
    The startup bubble will be the next dotcom. Only the best, led by nietzschean Musk clones, will live.
  - sealeck 5y ago
    Except that there are legitimate and non fraudulent "real" companies. Consider percentages and probabilities rather than anecdotes.
  - zemo 5y ago
    dogecoin was invented as an intentionally inflationary currency as a joke on financial speculation; it was literally designed to stay worthless. THAT was the joke. The doge was a reflection of laughing at overly serious people. Dogecoin at its outset was a really fun and entertaining project and scene, because the entire thesis was about removing the get-rich part of crypto to just play around and experiment. It has, over time, warped into something else entirely.
gfodor 5y ago
Having a proof-of-human system for crypto which avoids storage of biometric data and allows pseudonymous wallets would be a massive win that would change literally everything about what's being developed right now. It's a pretty big and important problem.
- pen2l 5y ago
  You don't offer a convincing argument. We're witnessing the current real estate system destroy society before our very eyes, to propose then this idea that an inherently deflationary currency system is going to be a win is, I say as respectfully as I can, abhorrent. Let's please learn this and just move on: the ones who got in early are rich just like it is with housing, just by virtue of having gotten in early; at this point it is only defrauding the ignorant. I couldn't have come up with a better way to fuck humanity as efficiently as cryptocurrency manages to if I was paid to.
strgrd 5y ago
SA: "The thing most people get wrong is that if labor costs go to zero... The cost of a great life comes way down. If we get fusion to work and electricity is free, then transportation is substantially cheaper, and the cost of electricity flows through to water and food. People pay a lot for a great education now, but you can become expert level on most things by looking at your phone. So, if an American family of four now requires seventy thousand dollars to be happy, which is the number you most often hear, then in ten to twenty years it could be an order of magnitude cheaper, with an error factor of 2x. Excluding the cost of housing, thirty-five hundred to fourteen thousand dollars could be all a family needs to enjoy a really good life.”
- akyu 5y ago
- davidivadavid 5y ago
  So Sam Altman has never heard of the hedonic treadmill, I guess.
- dgellow 5y ago
  Do you have a source?
  - hiq 5y ago
    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-manifest-destiny https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-ma...
    - dgellow 5y ago
      Thanks!
- gowld 5y ago
  > an order of magnitude cheaper, with an error factor of 2x. How can anyone take this person seriously, spewing pseudomathematical woo like this.
mbesto 5y ago
Quite the contrary. When you're rich, you start doing projects that have impact that are not necessarily tied to money, but rather power. Bezo's owning WaPo Elon taking board position at Twitter Zuck/Gates giving away net worth to charity etc. etc.
- solarkraft 5y ago
  For sure. But I fail to see the impact here. If the crypto currency element is not intended to be a get-rich-quickly scam, how else will this thing benefit anyone? The value proposition looks ... funky.
  - mbesto 5y ago
    Impact? They're talking about providing a universal global currency. The geopolitical power and capabilities there are enumerable.
- imtringued 5y ago
  Charity didn't stop Gates from becoming richer. It's weird. In my opinion the biggest problem in the world is that people don't want to step down and let someone else have fun.
gowld 5y ago
SA and PG only have a stellar reputation in entrepeneuer-religion circles. To the rest of the world they are just annoying billionaires rotting society.
morelisp 5y ago
> It baffles me that Altman picked up such a creepy, woo-woo tech project. As the kids say today, maybe check your priors.
akyu 5y ago
Doesn't baffle me at all.
ryanSrich 5y ago
Outside of HN, publications like the NYT/Buzzfeed/etc, and maybe far-left twitter, crypto isn't hated that much. So what seems like woo-woo tech to you, in reality is a fairly valid crypto project. I think HN's hatred towards crypto is borderline irrational, and will likely be similar to the infamous dropbox launch comment over the next decade.
- wittycardio 5y ago
  Didn't the Dropbox launch comment end up being true in the longer run ? I don't hate crypto, but most of it is just mania that VCs are exploiting. There's a couple of nice ideas that may live on in other forms
- mcguire 5y ago
  "Worldcoin says it eventually wants to erase the iris images to protect the privacy of those who sign up for its currency. If perfected, the company says the technology will distill the image of each set of irises into a unique string of letters and numbers, called an iris-hash, to be stored in Worldcoin’s database. As the company’s data consent form states, data gathered by the Orb will be used for “purposes such as training of our neural network for the recognition of human irises.”"

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

JeremyBanks 5y ago

verisimi 5y ago

Have you seen the creepy interview of Altman and Zuckerberg? Upright posture, hands on thighs... the borg talking with itself... https://www.facebook.com/YCombinator/videos/10153993693829107/ https://www.facebook.com/YCombinator/videos/1015399369382910... its on Facebook, but no need to log in

tomatowurst 5y ago

Not so far off when Paul Graham also vouched for Coinbase, which CFTC ordered it to settle on its False, Misleading, or Inaccurate Reporting and Wash Trading. It's quite unbelievable that this type of grift is defended by YC. When the crypto mania ends and the obvious consequences from tens of thousands of people who have been destroyed by Coinbase are realized, they will be just as quick to distance themselves. I'm really disappointed in YC, especially in its founders. When Paul Graham mentioned that he specifically looks for Founders who break the rules but not outright illegal, I had no idea he meant a break from moral ethics and brushing very close with US securities law. I just don't get how some people can look away at what's truly happening in crypto—it is a systematic wealth transfer via digitized ponzi. any money you make in crypto comes directly from somebody's loss and this is NOT at all like the financial markets where pricing mechanism are enforced and regulated for price discovery on real world assets that is widely adopted. Yet this will not stop thousands of applicants who apply to YC for their chance at riches. It's a shame how we glorify grift and enrichment through the destruction of others. It is this specific culture that we chose not associate ourselves with YC, others are already aware of the grift that YC founders have publicly supported, invested, and vouched for. What saddens me is that many YC hopefuls and commenters will look the other way because of what they seek to gain. If you drink from water that others had muddied, you too are dirty.

tediousdemise 5y ago
> tens of thousands of people who have been destroyed by Coinbase Could you elaborate on this part? Are you referring to people whose crypto was stolen?
- soared 5y ago
  Likely referring to normal people who lose money with coinbase. Trading stocks has at least some amount of protection because stocks have some legal requirements/vetting/etc to get on the major exchanges. Where as there are a whole lot of shitcoins, rugpulling, fraud/etc enabled by coinbase.
  - csee 5y ago
    Not to mention the exorbitant monopolistic fees they can get away with because regulation keeps competitors out of the US, compared to the extremely low fees associated with trading stocks.
JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
I’d stomach the holier than thou attitude more if we didn’t just experience the SoftBank WeWork era of “real” companies being just as fraudulent and pumped by hype as dogecoin.
- qualudeheart 5y ago
  The startup bubble will be the next dotcom. Only the best, led by nietzschean Musk clones, will live.
- sealeck 5y ago
  Except that there are legitimate and non fraudulent "real" companies. Consider percentages and probabilities rather than anecdotes.
- zemo 5y ago
  dogecoin was invented as an intentionally inflationary currency as a joke on financial speculation; it was literally designed to stay worthless. THAT was the joke. The doge was a reflection of laughing at overly serious people. Dogecoin at its outset was a really fun and entertaining project and scene, because the entire thesis was about removing the get-rich part of crypto to just play around and experiment. It has, over time, warped into something else entirely.

gfodor 5y ago

Having a proof-of-human system for crypto which avoids storage of biometric data and allows pseudonymous wallets would be a massive win that would change literally everything about what's being developed right now. It's a pretty big and important problem.

pen2l 5y ago
You don't offer a convincing argument. We're witnessing the current real estate system destroy society before our very eyes, to propose then this idea that an inherently deflationary currency system is going to be a win is, I say as respectfully as I can, abhorrent. Let's please learn this and just move on: the ones who got in early are rich just like it is with housing, just by virtue of having gotten in early; at this point it is only defrauding the ignorant. I couldn't have come up with a better way to fuck humanity as efficiently as cryptocurrency manages to if I was paid to.

strgrd 5y ago

SA: "The thing most people get wrong is that if labor costs go to zero... The cost of a great life comes way down. If we get fusion to work and electricity is free, then transportation is substantially cheaper, and the cost of electricity flows through to water and food. People pay a lot for a great education now, but you can become expert level on most things by looking at your phone. So, if an American family of four now requires seventy thousand dollars to be happy, which is the number you most often hear, then in ten to twenty years it could be an order of magnitude cheaper, with an error factor of 2x. Excluding the cost of housing, thirty-five hundred to fourteen thousand dollars could be all a family needs to enjoy a really good life.”

akyu 5y ago
davidivadavid 5y ago
So Sam Altman has never heard of the hedonic treadmill, I guess.
dgellow 5y ago
Do you have a source?
- hiq 5y ago
  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-manifest-destiny https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-ma...
  - dgellow 5y ago
    Thanks!
gowld 5y ago
> an order of magnitude cheaper, with an error factor of 2x. How can anyone take this person seriously, spewing pseudomathematical woo like this.

mbesto 5y ago

Quite the contrary. When you're rich, you start doing projects that have impact that are not necessarily tied to money, but rather power. Bezo's owning WaPo Elon taking board position at Twitter Zuck/Gates giving away net worth to charity etc. etc.

solarkraft 5y ago
For sure. But I fail to see the impact here. If the crypto currency element is not intended to be a get-rich-quickly scam, how else will this thing benefit anyone? The value proposition looks ... funky.
- mbesto 5y ago
  Impact? They're talking about providing a universal global currency. The geopolitical power and capabilities there are enumerable.
imtringued 5y ago
Charity didn't stop Gates from becoming richer. It's weird. In my opinion the biggest problem in the world is that people don't want to step down and let someone else have fun.

gowld 5y ago

SA and PG only have a stellar reputation in entrepeneuer-religion circles. To the rest of the world they are just annoying billionaires rotting society.

morelisp 5y ago

> It baffles me that Altman picked up such a creepy, woo-woo tech project. As the kids say today, maybe check your priors.

akyu 5y ago

Doesn't baffle me at all.

ryanSrich 5y ago

Outside of HN, publications like the NYT/Buzzfeed/etc, and maybe far-left twitter, crypto isn't hated that much. So what seems like woo-woo tech to you, in reality is a fairly valid crypto project. I think HN's hatred towards crypto is borderline irrational, and will likely be similar to the infamous dropbox launch comment over the next decade.

wittycardio 5y ago
Didn't the Dropbox launch comment end up being true in the longer run ? I don't hate crypto, but most of it is just mania that VCs are exploiting. There's a couple of nice ideas that may live on in other forms
mcguire 5y ago
"Worldcoin says it eventually wants to erase the iris images to protect the privacy of those who sign up for its currency. If perfected, the company says the technology will distill the image of each set of irises into a unique string of letters and numbers, called an iris-hash, to be stored in Worldcoin’s database. As the company’s data consent form states, data gathered by the Orb will be used for “purposes such as training of our neural network for the recognition of human irises.”"