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There's pretty broad consensus that Craig Wright is a pathological liar. And I'm not using that as an idiom for "dishonest person", I mean it in the psychiatric

There's pretty broad consensus that Craig Wright is a pathological liar. And I'm not using that as an idiom for "dishonest person", I mean it in the psychiatric term of art sense [0]: he probably has an actual compulsion to lie stemming from some kind of psychological damage, which doesn't stop even when he's caught red-handed (he just invents new even more outrageous lies, even when that's nakedly against his own self-interest). This is confirmed not just by all his behavior re: Bitcoin, but his own mother said at one point he has been like this his whole life. It's. In earlier days of Bitcoin it was causing actual problems, but these days everyone treats him as a carnival amusement and nothing more. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_lying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_lying

bitnorbert 3y ago
A bunch of bitcoin developers are still facing lawsuits from him, and it still requires a ton of attention from them and is causing them anguish. He may not keep launching lawsuits against random community members, but one of them still has one appeal case and one separate lawsuit against him, for having been mean to him on Twitter. It's true that most people consider Wright a silly clown these days, but the chilling effect against Bitcoin development is hard to quantify and, I think, wholly real. This is why his latest loss makes today a good day.
rideontime 3y ago
From watching the trial, it does seem to be an innate behavior for him, effortlessly spinning "plausible" stories to account for everything he's challenged on, that would sound convincing to somebody without the technical knowledge to understand what he's talking about.
- Nathanba 3y ago
  I haven't watched it but surely, hopefully pathological lying in court can get someone in real trouble regarding perjury instead of just the case being lost
rcxdude 3y ago
I've known a pathological liar. The thing is because people tend to default to trusting, especially because pathological liars will lie about things most reasonable people would not expect anyone to lie about, they will get away with it for a good amount of time (varying by how good they are at it). But their credibility in a given group quickly crumbles once one or two lies are exposed. Often they will then move on somewhere else where they repeat the progress.

bitnorbert 3y ago

A bunch of bitcoin developers are still facing lawsuits from him, and it still requires a ton of attention from them and is causing them anguish. He may not keep launching lawsuits against random community members, but one of them still has one appeal case and one separate lawsuit against him, for having been mean to him on Twitter. It's true that most people consider Wright a silly clown these days, but the chilling effect against Bitcoin development is hard to quantify and, I think, wholly real. This is why his latest loss makes today a good day.

rideontime 3y ago

From watching the trial, it does seem to be an innate behavior for him, effortlessly spinning "plausible" stories to account for everything he's challenged on, that would sound convincing to somebody without the technical knowledge to understand what he's talking about.

Nathanba 3y ago
I haven't watched it but surely, hopefully pathological lying in court can get someone in real trouble regarding perjury instead of just the case being lost

rcxdude 3y ago

I've known a pathological liar. The thing is because people tend to default to trusting, especially because pathological liars will lie about things most reasonable people would not expect anyone to lie about, they will get away with it for a good amount of time (varying by how good they are at it). But their credibility in a given group quickly crumbles once one or two lies are exposed. Often they will then move on somewhere else where they repeat the progress.