71–80 of 324 posts
"CEO Jack Dorsey has publicly touted how Cash App is mentioned in hundreds of hip hop songs as evidence of its mainstream appeal. A review of those songs show that the artists are not generally rapping about Cash App’s smooth user interface—many describe using it to scam, traffic drugs or even pay for murder." Hindenburg made a music video compiling the references that is...uh...worth watching: https://www.youtube.co…
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I didn't know Square had changed their name to Block. Looks like it happened in December 2021: https://investors.block.xyz/news/news-details/2021/Square-In... That said this really seems overblown. The report seems to mostly just talk about Cash App. Square Payments, Weebly and TIDAL are not even mentioned. Afterpay is mentioned but that was a 2022 acquisition so the problems likely predate Block's involvement. It fe…
What feels weird that the top comment is by someone who didn’t even know the company changed its name 2 years ago. Can we do better? HN could be so much better.
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The report is extremely long, but having gone through the bullet points, the case seems quite overstated. There are in fact millions of people who use Cash App, though it's probably less popular overall than Venmo. I know this because my wife and her friends will mention it and Venmo when talking about splitting bills. (Given the technical challenges Wells Fargo has had lately, I'm not sure who trusts Zelle.) A lot o…
> The report is extremely long, but having gone through the bullet points, the case seems quite overstated. I've gone through it fully, not just the tl;dr. It's not overblown. They're not saying Block is doing anything illegal, only Block is valued much too highly. The bulk of it is Block skirting regulatory requirements to acquire more users easily, and those users doing illegal things with their Cash app accounts.…
Hindenberg is accusing Block of committing fraud. That's an allegation of criminal activity.
Block may be overvalued. I probably wouldn't buy it, and have my own beef with how Block operates.
Nathan Anderson is the founder of Hindenburg Research, a New York-based investment management firm, and a forensic financial investigator that is famous for releasing reports on alleged wrongdoing by companies. When publishing some of these reports, his company profits by short selling the target company's stocks (that is, by making a bet in securities markets that the price of the company's shares will decline). If all goes according to plan, the report itself will cause the price of the stock to decline, leaving Hindenburg Research with a profit from its short position.
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> Just about all of silicon valley seems to have run the longest and broadest grift we've seen. What do you mean by this
Silicon Valley creates companies with unsustainable business models that have to rely on tax/labor/regulatory loopholes. They pretend that profitability is due to actual technological innovation while negatively affecting actually functioning companies who don't have the same access to capital (bcs real companies can't pretend like they're capable of infinite growth). What most Silicon Valley companies wind up being…
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The “innovations” of many (but not all) post-2008 unicorns are more about creating a legal grey area to bypass regulation than they are actual technological advances. Uber and Airbnb are prime examples. If Uber was forced to used licensed cab drivers or Airbnb forced to use licensed hotels, you would see the breadth of what these companies actually bring to the table, which isn’t nearly as much as their valuations wo…
Yes, if Uber was forced to use the government cab cartel, then it wouldn't be better than the taxis. The entire point is they made taxis that actually work by getting around the taxi cartel.
I noticed one day that my books were off (down) by 1 penny. When I dug into it, I figured out that Cash App is providing their customers with conflicting reports for their stock sales.
In the app, the sales report rounds pennies up, in the actual sale, whose records are only available through more complex data export process, the penny in the sale is rounded down, and they are keeping the difference.
I found the rule in the legal terms which states that the calculation in the app presented to users is the correct one, and the penny is illegally missing.
This is for every trade for every one of their users. The aggregate amount of money is huge.
Edit: I just looked back at my analysis and now remember in some cases the missing money is more than one penny. If anyone would like to contact me one on one I can provide more proof.