4 ms·
Ask HN: Why didn't HN spot SBF?
- joshxyz 4y agowell by his physiognimy the guy doesnt even lift, so what's to spot?
- shaburn 4y agoThis is the truest thing said yet. The real flag was vegan.
- Ice_cream_suit 4y agoBecause HN is just yet another fanboy forum. Too much hype, too little domain expertise...
- theCrowing 4y agoThat's the perfect comment right in the middle that both sides can agree thinking it's actually about the other half.
- fred_is_fred 4y agoIs this supposed to be a forensic accounting forum?
- shaburn 4y agoIntellectual software business super analysis. Or so most proselytize.
- shaburn 4y agoI think HN overwhelmingly dislikes crypto. I see little overlap.
- throwaway0asd 4y agoPolarization. People that see crypto as a Ponzi scheme would never invest time or money into something like SBF. End of story. On the other hand the people that actively invest in crypto would have had no reason to dismiss SBF. It’s a money making scheme and he was making money.
- mduggles 4y agoWhat do you mean by “spot”? I feel like half the articles on this site have been “crypto is an insanely dangerous pyramid scheme”.
- shaburn 4y agoPoint given. But really these guys could be ponzing and stealing chicklets.
- binarynate 4y agoWe didn't know what the balance sheets of FTX and Alameda looked like, and most of us don't know enough about the space to guess this was happening. Brian Armstrong (founder of Coinbase) was on the All-In podcast yesterday and said he was curious how SBF had so much liquidity, but even he admitted he didn't see this coming in the slightest: https://youtu.be/Id7cNqwqt1I?t=2612 https://youtu.be/Id7cNqwqt1I?t=2612
- keithalewis 4y agoCharlatans have exited for as long as recorded history. As have suckers for them to exploit. "Spotting" them won't change that.
- shaburn 4y agoI think the last part is false. Twitter kinda busted Madoff 2.0 in like 2 years vs a life time. In that way. We kinda did.
- h2odragon 4y agoI suspect there have been some comments here suggesting that SBF was less than totally honest and FTX etc were not completely open in their accounting. Does that count as "spotting"? Does it count when those comments were downvoted? I think it does. Its like asking "why didn't anyone suggest COVID might've escaped a lab via someone selling bats?" Someone did.
- aaron695 4y ago
- bromuro 4y agoI did not even know who he was before of these events :)
- yellow_lead 4y agoIt's not like their accounting was public.
- shaburn 4y agoBut their investors and auditors are.
- solardev 4y agoCrypto going bust isn't surprising, it's just expected at this point.
- shaburn 4y agoWhy do people keep talking about Crypto as a default. This could have been any asset, especially intangibles.
- egorfine 4y agoI believe it comes down to signal-to-noise ratio here. It seems to me that almost every post about crypto drowns in "crypto bad" comments which aren't useful and hinders any legit criticism that may be.