6 ms·

SBF posting 1 letter tweets to evade delete detection bots?

116 points by memish 4y ago

insaneirish 4y ago
Well, hey, at least we know it’ll be another fun part of Matt Levine’s next post.
iudqnolq 4y ago
Technically kinda clever in a stupid way. Seems in character.
lob_it 4y ago
nashashmi 4y ago
Who else is having a hard time thinking the worst of this guy? I seriously want to think he was not a fraud. But the more I learn about ftx, the more I realize they strayed far from their mission of world philanthropy.
- bordercases 4y ago
  It was a scam in the first place. Please stop giving scammers more moral sympathy than they are due. It sustains their existence.
- frupert52 4y ago
  I would caution everyone to be extremely wary of anyone who actively promulgates the idea that they themselves are virtuous, selfless or altruistic. I cannot think of any genuinely good reason someone would want do this. Instead, when it comes to these kinds of traits they should only be considered as possibilities after observing what a person does rather than what they say. Actions rather than words. If they are using words good chance they are forgoing the actions. Otherwise why would they need to be telling you what they are?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- AccountAccount1 4y ago
  No-one else. This guy is one of the greatest pieces of shit to ever walk the earth; just imagine the sheer panic of one user being unable to withdraw their funds in FTX, then multiply that by a thousand.
  - AccountAccount1 4y ago
    Not to even mention all of their investors (including teacher's pension funds for example) who have already marked their investment to 0.
    - bmitc 4y ago
      I couldn’t care less about any of the investors. They have little to blame but themselves. Someone else mentioned that the teacher’s pension fund could even be bailed about with tax money. So in the end, it’s lower and middle class people that pay for all these mistakes and fraud.
      - nashashmi 4y ago
        And the whole ecosystem gets overwhelmed with greater doubt on the major players.
- FileSorter 4y ago
  Everyone in the industry knew this guy was a rat long before this implosion. https://rekt.news/ftx-yikes/ https://rekt.news/ftx-yikes/ https://twitter.com/lightcrypto/status/1302559496309485568 https://twitter.com/lightcrypto/status/1302559496309485568
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  It is genuinely perplexing to me that anyone believed SBF. Nothing has ever added up, and frankly he gives off very strange vibes. The entire thing was so unsettling. I suppose my concern though is that Will MacAskill was knowingly involved in this garbage. I didn’t realize how close he was to SBF or for how long. Now that I know, I have a creeping suspicious that he could be implicated in this. His organization received significant funds from SBF. Like you, I’d like to believe will isn’t hypocritical jackass and that EA genuinely matters to him.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
memish 4y ago
Sam's explanation: Shortly before the interview, Mr. Bankman-Fried had posted a cryptic tweet: the word “What.” Then he had tweeted the letter H. Asked to explain, Mr. Bankman-Fried said he planned to post the letter A and then the letter P. “It’s going to be more than one word,” he said. “I’m making it up as I go.” So he was planning a series of cryptic tweets? “Something like that.” But why? “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m improvising. I think it’s time.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/technology/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-crypto-bankruptcy.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/technology/ftx-sam-bankma...
- gasull 4y ago
  This NYT puff piece is a shame. It doesn't mention the fraud committed of using users' funds, servers wiped out, etc. And put this in the context of the NYT writing negative pieces for 10 years on almost every tech founder. EDIT: A Twitter thread on how SBF is well-connected with the New York Times. https://twitter.com/JagoeCapital/status/1592311592875597826 https://twitter.com/JagoeCapital/status/1592311592875597826
  - kache_ 4y ago
    It's almost as if NYT is extremely biased
  - MangoCoffee 4y ago
    NYT reporter have an hour with SBF. https://twitter.com/yaffebellany/status/1592353938099302401?s=20&t=MZj3t4xgKW-5vMkb_D5N-w https://twitter.com/yaffebellany/status/1592353938099302401?... Nothing about fraud or crime. https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1592349684471037955?s=20&t=MZj3t4xgKW-5vMkb_D5N-w https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1592349684471037955?s=... then someone on Twitter found the connection between SBF and WEF, his aunt. "As for the WEF, its ties with Bankman-Fried extend to his family as well. His aunt, Linda P. Fried, an epidemiologist who serves as the dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, is listed on the WEF’s website." https://nypost.com/2022/11/14/how-world-economic-forum-others-are-hiding-past-ties-with-ftx/ https://nypost.com/2022/11/14/how-world-economic-forum-other... SBF seem to have a lot of connections with the elites of our society. This FTX fiasco look more and more like Thaneno.
tablespoon 4y ago
Apparently "SBF" is Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of one of those cryptocurrency companies that is imploding right now.
- blinding-streak 4y ago
  I've been purposely ignoring crypto news and drama for the past couple years. Seemed so pointless. But this FTX thing blew up so big it took over all my feeds and I decided to learn about the company and the founder. Had zero clue about any of this stuff like 10 days ago. What a saga.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
lob_it 4y ago
That wasn't very nice in base64 :p V2VsbCB0aGF0cyBub3QgdmVyeSBuaWNl Kinda funny at the crypto spam level (Original post in base64 was flagged for the crypto sarcasm I guess.. A base64 pun exchange would have been glorious on this topic)
- lob_it 4y ago
  Still laughing that the normie mods couldn't distinguish between base64 and gibberish. Thought this was a geek site :p
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Karrot_Kream 4y ago
Seems like SBF isn't deleting Tweets with this trick but others that RTed his stuff are deleting theirs, causing his tweet count to go down. Tom Brady seems to be a big one. According to this source at least. https://twitter.com/cmsintern/status/1592372634955976704 https://twitter.com/cmsintern/status/1592372634955976704
- chrchang523 4y ago
  Does not explain https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1592344609912672256 https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1592344609912672256 . EDIT: suspending judgment again after seeing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33605431 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33605431 .
  - Karrot_Kream 4y ago
    Sure but he wasn't using this alleged trick to cover up those deletions.
  - auct 4y ago
sigmar 4y ago
the person who posted it realized they were wrong later: https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1592378315431550977 https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1592378315431550977 It wouldn't even make sense to hide tweets like that (a bot can easily download all your tweets without watching for you to delete them... and deleting illegal tweets doesn't make them disappear from twitter servers)
- chrchang523 4y ago
  No criminal knows everything. Just because it "wouldn't even make sense" doesn't mean a criminal wouldn't try it. Caroline Ellison did delete her Tumblr accounts a few days ago. (Though if she actually wants more attention and is trying to exploit the Streisand effect... well played, Caroline, well played.)
  - Zarel 4y ago
    I'm pretty sure Caroline deleted her Tumblr accounts because a Twitter mob was digging through them and doxxing her friends (many of my friends were scrambling to hide their connections to her).
- sgammon 4y ago
  Doesn't explain deleting tweets about GAAP and cash on hand from this current scandal.
p-e-w 4y ago
Why is research AI so amazingly advanced but production AI so incredibly primitive? We have software that generates complete fake scientific papers that fool experts on a first glance, but spam/abuse detection bots get stumped by someone hammering on a keyboard? This makes no sense. Considering the (academic) state of the art of AI, spam and all other kinds of nuisances should have been a solved problem years ago.
- klodolph 4y ago
  This is surely a limitation of the deletion bot designed to work with Twitter API limits. You can only scrape so much before you get put in the naughty box.
- spaceman_2020 4y ago
  I feel this is a problem of misaligned incentives in legacy organizations. If you can accept some degree of spam without completely alienating your users, you get to inflate your usage metrics - crucial if your revenue model depends on showing higher growth/impressions. I've always been surprised by the discrepancy between Google's AI research and the quality of Google's search results. Google search should be so much better given all the incredible AI work Google and other AI researchers have already done. But then I also realize that if Google were to somehow incorporate AI-powered search agents (say, something like Adept.ai), the current ad-driven revenue model would collapse.
- aaron695 4y ago
infotogivenm 4y ago
When I saw his posts, my first thought was “this is a dead man’s switch”. Glad to see he did an NYT interview since.
notch656a 4y ago
yashg 4y ago
More research and analysis is being done on this guy's tweets than was done by the investors before giving him billions of dollars.
- notch656a 4y ago
  All the people buying up houses sight unseen without appraisal/assessment or due diligence was just an analogy for what was happening in the entire market during the near 0 interest rate frenzy of circa-2021. The fed created incalculable damage with their short sighted policy.
fareesh 4y ago
This person used stolen money to partially fund the campaign of the President of the United States as well as other American politicians. He also placed bets on the outcome on the Presidential election. The parties should return these amounts to a fund that goes towards making the exchange's users whole again.
- dibt 4y ago
  The Trump bet was the other side of this guy's trade: https://nitter.net/GCRClassic/status/1591108154775212040 https://nitter.net/GCRClassic/status/1591108154775212040 https://nitter.net/GCRClassic/status/1591109004042043393 https://nitter.net/GCRClassic/status/1591109004042043393 I don't know that Alameda would have the position if GCR didn't ask for it. Like he says in the tweet, he thought they hedged it.
- Consultant32452 4y ago
  "FlexPort is returning $400,000 that FTX donated to support our Ukrainian refugee relief efforts as soon as we can figure out where to send it back that won't get stolen." Ryan Peterson seems to be a pretty stand-up guy. https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1592248022372880384 https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1592248022372880384

116 points by memish 4y ago

insaneirish 4y ago

Well, hey, at least we know it’ll be another fun part of Matt Levine’s next post.

iudqnolq 4y ago

Technically kinda clever in a stupid way. Seems in character.

lob_it 4y ago

nashashmi 4y ago

Who else is having a hard time thinking the worst of this guy? I seriously want to think he was not a fraud. But the more I learn about ftx, the more I realize they strayed far from their mission of world philanthropy.

bordercases 4y ago
It was a scam in the first place. Please stop giving scammers more moral sympathy than they are due. It sustains their existence.
frupert52 4y ago
I would caution everyone to be extremely wary of anyone who actively promulgates the idea that they themselves are virtuous, selfless or altruistic. I cannot think of any genuinely good reason someone would want do this. Instead, when it comes to these kinds of traits they should only be considered as possibilities after observing what a person does rather than what they say. Actions rather than words. If they are using words good chance they are forgoing the actions. Otherwise why would they need to be telling you what they are?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
AccountAccount1 4y ago
No-one else. This guy is one of the greatest pieces of shit to ever walk the earth; just imagine the sheer panic of one user being unable to withdraw their funds in FTX, then multiply that by a thousand.
- AccountAccount1 4y ago
  Not to even mention all of their investors (including teacher's pension funds for example) who have already marked their investment to 0.
  - bmitc 4y ago
    I couldn’t care less about any of the investors. They have little to blame but themselves. Someone else mentioned that the teacher’s pension fund could even be bailed about with tax money. So in the end, it’s lower and middle class people that pay for all these mistakes and fraud.
    - nashashmi 4y ago
      And the whole ecosystem gets overwhelmed with greater doubt on the major players.
FileSorter 4y ago
Everyone in the industry knew this guy was a rat long before this implosion. https://rekt.news/ftx-yikes/ https://rekt.news/ftx-yikes/ https://twitter.com/lightcrypto/status/1302559496309485568 https://twitter.com/lightcrypto/status/1302559496309485568
steve_adams_86 4y ago
It is genuinely perplexing to me that anyone believed SBF. Nothing has ever added up, and frankly he gives off very strange vibes. The entire thing was so unsettling. I suppose my concern though is that Will MacAskill was knowingly involved in this garbage. I didn’t realize how close he was to SBF or for how long. Now that I know, I have a creeping suspicious that he could be implicated in this. His organization received significant funds from SBF. Like you, I’d like to believe will isn’t hypocritical jackass and that EA genuinely matters to him.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

memish 4y ago

Sam's explanation: Shortly before the interview, Mr. Bankman-Fried had posted a cryptic tweet: the word “What.” Then he had tweeted the letter H. Asked to explain, Mr. Bankman-Fried said he planned to post the letter A and then the letter P. “It’s going to be more than one word,” he said. “I’m making it up as I go.” So he was planning a series of cryptic tweets? “Something like that.” But why? “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m improvising. I think it’s time.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/technology/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-crypto-bankruptcy.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/technology/ftx-sam-bankma...

gasull 4y ago
This NYT puff piece is a shame. It doesn't mention the fraud committed of using users' funds, servers wiped out, etc. And put this in the context of the NYT writing negative pieces for 10 years on almost every tech founder. EDIT: A Twitter thread on how SBF is well-connected with the New York Times. https://twitter.com/JagoeCapital/status/1592311592875597826 https://twitter.com/JagoeCapital/status/1592311592875597826
- kache_ 4y ago
  It's almost as if NYT is extremely biased
- MangoCoffee 4y ago
  NYT reporter have an hour with SBF. https://twitter.com/yaffebellany/status/1592353938099302401?s=20&t=MZj3t4xgKW-5vMkb_D5N-w https://twitter.com/yaffebellany/status/1592353938099302401?... Nothing about fraud or crime. https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1592349684471037955?s=20&t=MZj3t4xgKW-5vMkb_D5N-w https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1592349684471037955?s=... then someone on Twitter found the connection between SBF and WEF, his aunt. "As for the WEF, its ties with Bankman-Fried extend to his family as well. His aunt, Linda P. Fried, an epidemiologist who serves as the dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, is listed on the WEF’s website." https://nypost.com/2022/11/14/how-world-economic-forum-others-are-hiding-past-ties-with-ftx/ https://nypost.com/2022/11/14/how-world-economic-forum-other... SBF seem to have a lot of connections with the elites of our society. This FTX fiasco look more and more like Thaneno.

tablespoon 4y ago

Apparently "SBF" is Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of one of those cryptocurrency companies that is imploding right now.

blinding-streak 4y ago
I've been purposely ignoring crypto news and drama for the past couple years. Seemed so pointless. But this FTX thing blew up so big it took over all my feeds and I decided to learn about the company and the founder. Had zero clue about any of this stuff like 10 days ago. What a saga.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

lob_it 4y ago

That wasn't very nice in base64 :p V2VsbCB0aGF0cyBub3QgdmVyeSBuaWNl Kinda funny at the crypto spam level (Original post in base64 was flagged for the crypto sarcasm I guess.. A base64 pun exchange would have been glorious on this topic)

lob_it 4y ago
Still laughing that the normie mods couldn't distinguish between base64 and gibberish. Thought this was a geek site :p

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Karrot_Kream 4y ago

Seems like SBF isn't deleting Tweets with this trick but others that RTed his stuff are deleting theirs, causing his tweet count to go down. Tom Brady seems to be a big one. According to this source at least. https://twitter.com/cmsintern/status/1592372634955976704 https://twitter.com/cmsintern/status/1592372634955976704

chrchang523 4y ago
Does not explain https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1592344609912672256 https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1592344609912672256 . EDIT: suspending judgment again after seeing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33605431 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33605431 .
- Karrot_Kream 4y ago
  Sure but he wasn't using this alleged trick to cover up those deletions.
- auct 4y ago

sigmar 4y ago

the person who posted it realized they were wrong later: https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1592378315431550977 https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1592378315431550977 It wouldn't even make sense to hide tweets like that (a bot can easily download all your tweets without watching for you to delete them... and deleting illegal tweets doesn't make them disappear from twitter servers)

chrchang523 4y ago
No criminal knows everything. Just because it "wouldn't even make sense" doesn't mean a criminal wouldn't try it. Caroline Ellison did delete her Tumblr accounts a few days ago. (Though if she actually wants more attention and is trying to exploit the Streisand effect... well played, Caroline, well played.)
- Zarel 4y ago
  I'm pretty sure Caroline deleted her Tumblr accounts because a Twitter mob was digging through them and doxxing her friends (many of my friends were scrambling to hide their connections to her).
sgammon 4y ago
Doesn't explain deleting tweets about GAAP and cash on hand from this current scandal.

p-e-w 4y ago

Why is research AI so amazingly advanced but production AI so incredibly primitive? We have software that generates complete fake scientific papers that fool experts on a first glance, but spam/abuse detection bots get stumped by someone hammering on a keyboard? This makes no sense. Considering the (academic) state of the art of AI, spam and all other kinds of nuisances should have been a solved problem years ago.

klodolph 4y ago
This is surely a limitation of the deletion bot designed to work with Twitter API limits. You can only scrape so much before you get put in the naughty box.
spaceman_2020 4y ago
I feel this is a problem of misaligned incentives in legacy organizations. If you can accept some degree of spam without completely alienating your users, you get to inflate your usage metrics - crucial if your revenue model depends on showing higher growth/impressions. I've always been surprised by the discrepancy between Google's AI research and the quality of Google's search results. Google search should be so much better given all the incredible AI work Google and other AI researchers have already done. But then I also realize that if Google were to somehow incorporate AI-powered search agents (say, something like Adept.ai), the current ad-driven revenue model would collapse.
aaron695 4y ago

infotogivenm 4y ago

When I saw his posts, my first thought was “this is a dead man’s switch”. Glad to see he did an NYT interview since.

notch656a 4y ago

yashg 4y ago

More research and analysis is being done on this guy's tweets than was done by the investors before giving him billions of dollars.

notch656a 4y ago
All the people buying up houses sight unseen without appraisal/assessment or due diligence was just an analogy for what was happening in the entire market during the near 0 interest rate frenzy of circa-2021. The fed created incalculable damage with their short sighted policy.

fareesh 4y ago

This person used stolen money to partially fund the campaign of the President of the United States as well as other American politicians. He also placed bets on the outcome on the Presidential election. The parties should return these amounts to a fund that goes towards making the exchange's users whole again.

dibt 4y ago
The Trump bet was the other side of this guy's trade: https://nitter.net/GCRClassic/status/1591108154775212040 https://nitter.net/GCRClassic/status/1591108154775212040 https://nitter.net/GCRClassic/status/1591109004042043393 https://nitter.net/GCRClassic/status/1591109004042043393 I don't know that Alameda would have the position if GCR didn't ask for it. Like he says in the tweet, he thought they hedged it.
Consultant32452 4y ago
"FlexPort is returning $400,000 that FTX donated to support our Ukrainian refugee relief efforts as soon as we can figure out where to send it back that won't get stolen." Ryan Peterson seems to be a pretty stand-up guy. https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1592248022372880384 https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1592248022372880384