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It's funny how after being exposed for insider trading (before this formal indictment), this guy went on to launch another NFT startup https://www.coindesk.com

It's funny how after being exposed for insider trading (before this formal indictment), this guy went on to launch another NFT startup https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/03/31/opensea-exec-who-quit-after-insider-trading-scandal-is-back-with-nft-platform/ https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/03/31/opensea-exec-wh...

itsoktocry 4y ago
>this guy went on to launch another NFT startup a16z just put $80 million into Adam Neumann's new crypto idea. Everybody is, shamelessly, out to get theirs.
- dvtrn 4y ago
  I have a friend that I am watching in real time literally bankrupt themselves trying to find the golden NFT ticket that will turn them into a millionaire. They’ve openly said as much. If it happens I’ll eat my proverbial shoe but so far all I’ve seen come from it is them losing their job, home and college scholarship in the span of about 6 months. It’s…tragic.
  - fullshark 4y ago
    Hey it beats working for the man for 40+ years, enjoying a modest retirement, then dying.
    - dvtrn 4y ago
      Yeah on the one hand I’m not against trying to get out of the grind and achieve that sweet financial independence. Would I throw $25,000 into NFT’s to get there though? Eh. Probably not.
    - beepbooptheory 4y ago
      Maybe this is a little sarcastic but i do honestly think this argument has a lot traction to especially younger people. You can yell to your red in the face about how its all a scam, its immoral, its built to crash, but I think a non negligible amount of people still think its a better ride than any other options available to them. Its not right or wrong, just is what it is.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - fleddr 4y ago
        You're absolutely right and this is the part that many do not understand about crypto culture. Its players are fully aware of most of it being a casino. They play anyway. They do not want to be "rescued" by your moral preaching or regulation, they willingly take big risks, often lose it all, and then do it again. Crypto, as they see it, is the only asymmetrical bet of their lifetime. The only way to "make it". And making it doesn't even have to mean millionaire status, it could just mean any type of life improving wealth. So "adults" preaching about why they can't just be "normal" and financially sane, are deeply out of touch. "Normal" as in...student debt, stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, healthcare costs that can bankrupt you, double digit inflation, one crisis after the other (9/11, financial crisis, COVID, war), job insecurity, climate change, political boiling pot...that kind of "normal"? Many if not most young people cannot get ahead by doing "normal". They can't even reach middle class. If doing all the right things leads to a miserable result, any escape hatch is embraced.
        jazzyjackson 4y ago
        totally agree with you, but I wonder if things would be different if the players of the casino were aware that the jackpot winners were plants, fakes, renting lamborghinis or worse, actually profiting on money laundering schemes while passing it off to their instagram followers as being a good day-trader. just shaking my head that anyone thinks putting their life savings into an alt-coin has any chance of going well for them
        fleddr 4y ago
        There's two camps here. On Crypto Twitter and Reddit, the space being ridden with scams and fraud is widely acknowledged and even accepted as part of the game. Some take it even as far as to congratulate the scammer, although most don't. There's also people actively researching and documenting scams, and doing good in warning people. But overall, one can say that this public outlet of crypto is very much aware. They know in what type of casino they're playing. We won't ever hear of camp 2, the silent majority that bought into the scam and lost their money. "just shaking my head that anyone thinks putting their life savings into an alt-coin has any chance of going well for them" There actually is a chance that this goes VERY well for them, which is of course the fatal attraction. During a bull run you can buy almost any altcoin and it will rise with the tide of the crypto market as a whole. Watch Bitcoin's trajectory in a 1 minute chart and compare it with almost every other chart, it's nearly identical, because it's algorithmically traded. You're still right though that you should only put in what you can afford to lose.
    - SilverBirch 4y ago
      This is such a naive take. It's not "Well maybe I'll lose some modest savings I have, maybe I'll hit the jackpot and make $1m". It's not a 1% chance you make $1m. It's not 0.1%. It's not 0.0001%. That 1 in a million chance? It's not even 1 in a million. It's more like a 0% chance. You're taking your modest savings and you're trading them for the incorrect hope that someone is going to hand you $1m for nothing. You're buying magic beans but you don't live in a fairy tale. Do you know what happens after you throw your money into the wishing well? You work for the man for 40+ years and you won't enjoy a modest retirement.
      - fullshark 4y ago
        True young people are naive and overestimate their chance at success, it's why they can be so charming some times, and clueless other times.
      - duxup 4y ago
        Reminds me of the film "The Graduate". Benjamin's dad was trying to get him in to a career "plastics" where Ben might have some freedom / financial freedom. Ben had no interest in it and instead by rejecting it is heading for a far less desirable outcome, even from Ben's point of view.
      - wly_cdgr 4y ago
        :shrug: I made about $80k off a ~$5k risk speculating/gambling during one of the earlier crypto waves. Did I know what I was doing? Hell no lol. Was I aware that there were a ton of people out there manipulating these markets using any and all insider info they could get their hands on? Of course But the fact of the matter is, that $75k profit was incredibly useful to me that year, whereas having or not having that $5k wouldn't have made any difference. And gambling on crypto was my only chance to get the 10x+ return I needed in such a short time span Playing the lottery can be a perfectly sensible and rational strategy if it is your only chance of escaping wage slavery before 60+, as is the case for the majority of people, and you are someone who values financial independence highly enough
        jjnoakes 4y ago
    - seattle_spring 4y ago
      Lucky for him and everyone else, there are more than just these 2 options.
    - duxup 4y ago
      That's what he is headed for, maybe sans modest retirement...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - exdsq 4y ago
    Should have used that money to trade several of the same brand of NFTs to build the trading volume up :P
  - onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
    It seems it'd be a lot easier to just get a jog at FAANG for 2 years...
  - TaylorGood 4y ago
    As someone who got into BAYC during mint week, I knew it was 2021's version of CryptoPunks, but still couldn't have told you it would surpass X amount in value.. Doodles, MoonBirds, freakin' Goblins... surprised nearly every time.
- giarc 4y ago
  What I don't get about Neumanns new project is it actually solving a problem? As I understand, the problem with carbon offsets is not that you can't track them, it's that you can verify that X company actually planted a tree etc. Is Neumanns company solving this, or just simply putting a record of Y company purchasing 1000 carbon offsets on the blockchain?
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > a16z just put $80 million into Adam Neumann's new crypto idea. Everybody is, shamelessly, out to get theirs a16z f/k/a Andreeseen Horowitz is, even more than Tiger Global and SoftBank, at the vanguard of moral vapidity. The only thing weaker than their spines may be their returns.
TaylorGood 4y ago
As someone very active in that space, he went dark after the OpenSea incident and it's not widespread that he started something new. This is also news to me.
- dropnerd 4y ago
  it surfaced for a day or two on my twitter timeline and then disappeared
  - exolymph 4y ago
    ayo, you don't have contact info on your profile so i'm commenting here. I want to interview you for the company blog: https://blog.hedgehog.app/ https://blog.hedgehog.app/ if you're interesting, hit up sonya@hedgehog.app
    - dropnerd 4y ago
      hi sonya! i'm not currently taking interviews but i'll reach out if this changes. thanks for the interest! dropnerd

itsoktocry 4y ago

>this guy went on to launch another NFT startup a16z just put $80 million into Adam Neumann's new crypto idea. Everybody is, shamelessly, out to get theirs.

dvtrn 4y ago
I have a friend that I am watching in real time literally bankrupt themselves trying to find the golden NFT ticket that will turn them into a millionaire. They’ve openly said as much. If it happens I’ll eat my proverbial shoe but so far all I’ve seen come from it is them losing their job, home and college scholarship in the span of about 6 months. It’s…tragic.
- fullshark 4y ago
  Hey it beats working for the man for 40+ years, enjoying a modest retirement, then dying.
  - dvtrn 4y ago
    Yeah on the one hand I’m not against trying to get out of the grind and achieve that sweet financial independence. Would I throw $25,000 into NFT’s to get there though? Eh. Probably not.
  - beepbooptheory 4y ago
    Maybe this is a little sarcastic but i do honestly think this argument has a lot traction to especially younger people. You can yell to your red in the face about how its all a scam, its immoral, its built to crash, but I think a non negligible amount of people still think its a better ride than any other options available to them. Its not right or wrong, just is what it is.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - fleddr 4y ago
      You're absolutely right and this is the part that many do not understand about crypto culture. Its players are fully aware of most of it being a casino. They play anyway. They do not want to be "rescued" by your moral preaching or regulation, they willingly take big risks, often lose it all, and then do it again. Crypto, as they see it, is the only asymmetrical bet of their lifetime. The only way to "make it". And making it doesn't even have to mean millionaire status, it could just mean any type of life improving wealth. So "adults" preaching about why they can't just be "normal" and financially sane, are deeply out of touch. "Normal" as in...student debt, stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, healthcare costs that can bankrupt you, double digit inflation, one crisis after the other (9/11, financial crisis, COVID, war), job insecurity, climate change, political boiling pot...that kind of "normal"? Many if not most young people cannot get ahead by doing "normal". They can't even reach middle class. If doing all the right things leads to a miserable result, any escape hatch is embraced.
      - jazzyjackson 4y ago
        totally agree with you, but I wonder if things would be different if the players of the casino were aware that the jackpot winners were plants, fakes, renting lamborghinis or worse, actually profiting on money laundering schemes while passing it off to their instagram followers as being a good day-trader. just shaking my head that anyone thinks putting their life savings into an alt-coin has any chance of going well for them
        fleddr 4y ago
        There's two camps here. On Crypto Twitter and Reddit, the space being ridden with scams and fraud is widely acknowledged and even accepted as part of the game. Some take it even as far as to congratulate the scammer, although most don't. There's also people actively researching and documenting scams, and doing good in warning people. But overall, one can say that this public outlet of crypto is very much aware. They know in what type of casino they're playing. We won't ever hear of camp 2, the silent majority that bought into the scam and lost their money. "just shaking my head that anyone thinks putting their life savings into an alt-coin has any chance of going well for them" There actually is a chance that this goes VERY well for them, which is of course the fatal attraction. During a bull run you can buy almost any altcoin and it will rise with the tide of the crypto market as a whole. Watch Bitcoin's trajectory in a 1 minute chart and compare it with almost every other chart, it's nearly identical, because it's algorithmically traded. You're still right though that you should only put in what you can afford to lose.
  - SilverBirch 4y ago
    This is such a naive take. It's not "Well maybe I'll lose some modest savings I have, maybe I'll hit the jackpot and make $1m". It's not a 1% chance you make $1m. It's not 0.1%. It's not 0.0001%. That 1 in a million chance? It's not even 1 in a million. It's more like a 0% chance. You're taking your modest savings and you're trading them for the incorrect hope that someone is going to hand you $1m for nothing. You're buying magic beans but you don't live in a fairy tale. Do you know what happens after you throw your money into the wishing well? You work for the man for 40+ years and you won't enjoy a modest retirement.
    - fullshark 4y ago
      True young people are naive and overestimate their chance at success, it's why they can be so charming some times, and clueless other times.
    - duxup 4y ago
      Reminds me of the film "The Graduate". Benjamin's dad was trying to get him in to a career "plastics" where Ben might have some freedom / financial freedom. Ben had no interest in it and instead by rejecting it is heading for a far less desirable outcome, even from Ben's point of view.
    - wly_cdgr 4y ago
      :shrug: I made about $80k off a ~$5k risk speculating/gambling during one of the earlier crypto waves. Did I know what I was doing? Hell no lol. Was I aware that there were a ton of people out there manipulating these markets using any and all insider info they could get their hands on? Of course But the fact of the matter is, that $75k profit was incredibly useful to me that year, whereas having or not having that $5k wouldn't have made any difference. And gambling on crypto was my only chance to get the 10x+ return I needed in such a short time span Playing the lottery can be a perfectly sensible and rational strategy if it is your only chance of escaping wage slavery before 60+, as is the case for the majority of people, and you are someone who values financial independence highly enough
      - jjnoakes 4y ago
  - seattle_spring 4y ago
    Lucky for him and everyone else, there are more than just these 2 options.
  - duxup 4y ago
    That's what he is headed for, maybe sans modest retirement...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- exdsq 4y ago
  Should have used that money to trade several of the same brand of NFTs to build the trading volume up :P
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
  It seems it'd be a lot easier to just get a jog at FAANG for 2 years...
- TaylorGood 4y ago
  As someone who got into BAYC during mint week, I knew it was 2021's version of CryptoPunks, but still couldn't have told you it would surpass X amount in value.. Doodles, MoonBirds, freakin' Goblins... surprised nearly every time.
giarc 4y ago
What I don't get about Neumanns new project is it actually solving a problem? As I understand, the problem with carbon offsets is not that you can't track them, it's that you can verify that X company actually planted a tree etc. Is Neumanns company solving this, or just simply putting a record of Y company purchasing 1000 carbon offsets on the blockchain?
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> a16z just put $80 million into Adam Neumann's new crypto idea. Everybody is, shamelessly, out to get theirs a16z f/k/a Andreeseen Horowitz is, even more than Tiger Global and SoftBank, at the vanguard of moral vapidity. The only thing weaker than their spines may be their returns.

TaylorGood 4y ago

As someone very active in that space, he went dark after the OpenSea incident and it's not widespread that he started something new. This is also news to me.

dropnerd 4y ago
it surfaced for a day or two on my twitter timeline and then disappeared
- exolymph 4y ago
  ayo, you don't have contact info on your profile so i'm commenting here. I want to interview you for the company blog: https://blog.hedgehog.app/ https://blog.hedgehog.app/ if you're interesting, hit up sonya@hedgehog.app
  - dropnerd 4y ago
    hi sonya! i'm not currently taking interviews but i'll reach out if this changes. thanks for the interest! dropnerd