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Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

hindenburgresearch.com

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Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#91
post #52

"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…

On the one hand it's obvious that the Hindenburg people are right on this when they say that Block's app is used for criminal activities and money laundering. On the other hand that's what we get for trying to push cash itself more and more outside the boundaries of modern society. That video in a way made me root for the bad guys, a no-cash society where petty crime doesn't happen because the powers that be control…

in USA politics, this approach to outrage among literate people is related to "Willy Horton" ads, which portray an obviously stereotypical, middle-aged black man with a long history of crime, being released into society and then in the same breath blaming the authorities politically. This famously backfired.

The intended outrage here is "ghetto males" doing illegal things with money, using the cell phone, and bragging about it. The parent post here points to major just-under-the-surface problems with this kind of personal, borderline racist attack at the societal scale. Definitely concur here that a perfectly-enforced police state is not desirable, mostly because it is not possible, and the more force that is used in the remaining edge cases, makes things much worse overall, at too high a cost.

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#92

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…

> It feels weird that they're using Cash App to indict the company as a whole.

Cash App is 60% of their revenue.

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#93
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Does Uber use government maintained streets as part of its business?

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#94
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.…

Well they are saying that Block is enabling crime and skirting regulations. Considering the overall regulatory climate change in the wake of SVB there is going to be impact on what they still can dare to do in the future. Growth limit #1. Then they are pretending to be small and thus demand big fees. If that stops profitability will be hit big tome. Growth limit #2. And their user numbers seem to be inflated. Growth…

Ehat did Baum say in the Big Short? Zero? Or at least somewhere close to it.

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#96
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you have anyone to blame if you give your phone with a logged in money app to a stranger who is begging for money.

It’s a high pressure situation in the middle of rush hour traffic. They like to target unsuspecting older white people, and unaware females. If you get aggressive, they will spit on your window, break your wipers off, and hit your car. Things can get really ugly if you get out of your car and try to confront them: https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/criminal-justic...

This is not CashApp's responsibility to fix any more than it would be the US Treasury's responsibility to fix if I hand them a $100 bill.

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#97

FYI if anyone is interested I can prove it -- Cash App is engaged in a massive stock trading fraud. 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 p…

This is at the core of Superman III. Richard Priors' character notices his paycheck gets rounded down, he writes an app to harvest up the rounded down tenths of pennies...

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#98
post #52

"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…

On the one hand it's obvious that the Hindenburg people are right on this when they say that Block's app is used for criminal activities and money laundering. On the other hand that's what we get for trying to push cash itself more and more outside the boundaries of modern society. That video in a way made me root for the bad guys, a no-cash society where petty crime doesn't happen because the powers that be control…

Are there more artists name checking Cash App that they missed?

Re: Block: Inflated user metrics and “frictionless” fraud facilitation

#100

Chesterton's Fence strikes again - every so often, someone has the bright idea of uninventing all the rules for just long enough that all of the reasons the rules were invented in the first place can regress back into existence.

I sometimes think that the absence of experience is an issue. Many of these Jurassic-scale disasters are ones that make me wonder "Were there any adults in the room, when this decision was made?" I suspect the answer is frequently "No."

They don't call it "the nanny state" for nothing.
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