26 Dec, 2022
As we close out 2022, it’s important that we look back on the year and remind ourselves why we have Bitcoin in the first place.
Many of us came into 2022 expecting to see Bitcoin rally back through all time highs, through $100k and off to $250k.
While we pointed out shitcoins, scams and the like, we were well and truly caught off guard with the level of fraud and shenanigans underlying much of the frothy price movement.
Let’s list them out.
First we had the shitshow over at Luna with our friend Do Kwon. The Stablecoin superman who thought he could do what no central bank in history has ever been able to do - maintain a peg.
He was positioned as a wonderboy of the financial world. Mike Novogratz even tattooed Luna on his shoulder in classic frothy peak-cycle fashion.
Of course, this stupidity blew up and took a bunch of idiots with it.
The ramifications for Do Kwon? Unknown. He’s probably enjoying the money he scammed out of people, on some island somewhere.
Next we had 3AC and Su Zhu. Turns out they were leveraged up the wazoo, with Luna and a million other shitcoins. Within a month, we had the classic “contagion” effect. The tide began to recede and the world quickly saw who was still wearing pants.
Su Zhu decided to then disappear, with god-knows how much money, only to reappear less than 6mths later, continue tweeting and join into Twitter spaces !!
The Ramifications for 3AC & Su Zhu? Nothing. Nada.
Next…Celcius. Alex Mashinsky, one of the all time great-scammers of the internet age built this company up, printed money out of thin air with their CEL shitcoin, and when the “contagion” hit, they found that there was actually no real money there and they were likely using their customer funds to keep the business afloat.
At this point, it was becoming quickly evident that this entire “crypto” shitshow was just one big insolvent ponzi waiting to collapse.
Of course, Mashinsky and his ilk blamed the Bitcoin Maximalists like Cory Klippsten for causing the downfall. It’s like jumping off a cliff without a parachute and blaming the guy who told you about Gravity for your death.
Morons.
Ramifications for Alex? Unknown (to me at least), but the company went into bankruptcy and customer funds are basically gone. He did ‘resign’, but not before paying himself a massive bonus for his “efforts”.
More clown-world “jUsTiCe”
BlockFi was in this bucket too, but let’s leave them aside for the minute, because the real and final focus is on one of the greatest scammers of all.
Scam Bankman Fraud.
Man oh man. This kid comes out of nowhere, builds the second largest exchange in the world, in under 3 years while stuffing his face full of fake-meat sausages and soy, and living in a frat house with his 10 employees.
This was one of the most incredible swindles of the modern age. He put Bernie Madoff, Elizabeth Holmes and Enron to shame. Combined!
I won’t get into the details here, but he effectively defrauded tens of thousands of customers, of about $10bn. No two ways about it. Straight up internal movement of funds from one entity to the other, in the process gambling half of it away, and spending the other half on political donations and laundering it through Ukraine.
Absolute insanity. And here’s the kicker. He was walking around like nothing ever happened, doing podcasts and twitter spaces. He was hailed as the next coming of Jesus by the media, and even after this fraud all came out, the media kept PROTECTING his image! He was even going to speak at a finance event with Janet Yellen!!
He recently got “arrested” only to somehow post bail for $250m, which god knows where it came from, and is now flying around First Class because he can’t get any vegan food in the prison he was in.
You can’t make this shit up.
Steal $10bn, go fly first class. They just need to make him Time’s man of the year.
All these examples show but one thing. The world is morally, socially, and psychologically broken. Up is down, down is up. Bad is good, Good is bad.
Ross Ulbricht, who built a goddamn website for people to buy things off each other, albeit ‘drugs’ and ‘illegal goods’ as per the dictates of the state, is serving two life sentences.
He took nothing from anybody. And he’s suffering the severest of punishments.
Edward Snowden told the truth to the American people, and he’s living in exile somewhere in Russia, as if he’s a criminal.
Julian Assange is rotting in a cell somewhere for doing something similar to Snowden.
For literally reporting on the truth.
It’s hard not to get black-pilled in the face of such absurdity.
But I do believe there is some hope.
It sounds trite to just say “Bitcoin fixes this”, but in time, perhaps the institutions and organizations that have made such moral inversion possible, are economically eroded to the point where they can no longer perform such injustices.
It’s my hope, as a Bitcoiner, that this happens within the lifetime of Ross, Julian and Edward.
If there is a greater power out there and if Justice does ultimately prevail, then these three individuals will see freedom, while the prior 4 I listed shall pay reparations.
At the very least, in a future on a BItcoin Standard, perhaps in the age of our children or children’s children, governance will be far more economically accountable, and such stupidity will be harder to get away with. This is not something any of us can prove today, but it seems to make deep sense.
The balance of this decade will be a battle indeed. And one in which Justice must once again come to bear.
This is a guest post written by @WartimeBitcoin
26th Dec, 2022
Nothing sharpens the mind like money leaving your wallet.
Many maximalists forged from the huge 2022 dumpster fire.
All that capital should have flowed to bitcoin.
Cheap sats for the plebs, what better !?