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FTX – The fraud was in the code

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Re: FTX – The fraud was in the code

#11

Post by jjeaff »

jhobag wrote: post #9
bmitc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is insane how there wasn't a single shred of accountability. I just wonder who was giving them tens and hundreds of millions of dollars without any auditing or due diligence. It seems even the most superficial audit would have revealed it to be a sham.

Sequoia led their one of their rounds, everyone assumed sequoia did enough due diligence, everyone goes in and fills the round; it's assumed its a trustworthy platform for retail

That's exactly how most funds operate. They don't want to spend the time and money to do due diligence so they just wait around for one of the bigger funds to supposedly do the due diligence. So if they see them invest, they will join the round. it's so much easier to fill out a round one you get your first big VC on board.

Re: FTX – The fraud was in the code

#13

Post by lindq181 »

Centigonal wrote: post #4

The code snippet where they generated the FTX backstop fund's "current balance" displayed on the website by multiplying the exchange's daily trading volume by a random normal number is NUTS! This was the supposed crypto wonder-platform!

As someone relatively involved in the crypto space the past few years, no one saw FTX as anything to be proud of. It was a centralized exchange, basically a web2 company that handled crypto. Only the TradFi VCs (the Mr. Wonderfuls of the world) spouted rhetoric like that. The engineers building out the chain ecosystems & protocols on top of it never thought much of it other than another place to trade with orderbooks (i.e. centralized company).

Re: FTX – The fraud was in the code

#14

Post by xwolfi »

bmitc wrote: post #5

Pretty insane that Sam Bankman-Fried decided to plead not-guilty. And it's interesting that their defense is an implication that a witness is committing perjury for a lighter sentence without any evidence backing it up. And just what in the world were any of these people thinking? Sam Bankman-Fried isn't remotely charismatic, so I just don't understand why people would follow his demands and actively participate in s…

Perjury*

Sam is highly charismatic, especially when all you want to hear is that you send 2000$ and will receive 100k$ if only you listen to him and use his product. He's part of the mumbo jumbo guru crowd.

I'm a programmer in finance: I understand nothing when SBF talks, it's like complete random BS, totally different from the traders I work with who would use complex concepts but with always a visible thread: utility -> transformation adding value -> profit, with SBF it's all so fuzzy and unclear, it's like he pretends to talk like we're idiots to hide the fact he's the idiot who forgot that you need to sacrifice potential upside for downside insurance...

Re: FTX – The fraud was in the code

#15

Post by bmitc »

jhobag wrote: post #9
bmitc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is insane how there wasn't a single shred of accountability. I just wonder who was giving them tens and hundreds of millions of dollars without any auditing or due diligence. It seems even the most superficial audit would have revealed it to be a sham.

Sequoia led their one of their rounds, everyone assumed sequoia did enough due diligence, everyone goes in and fills the round; it's assumed its a trustworthy platform for retail

I honestly feel Sequoia should be held partially responsible for funding and marketing such a blatant criminal enterprise. I'm a little tired of these venture capitalists claiming all innonence when they should have a burden of responsibility. They want all the upsides and none of the downsides to throwing millions at people.

Re: FTX – The fraud was in the code

#16

Post by bmitc »

xwolfi wrote: post #14
bmitc wrote: post #5

Pretty insane that Sam Bankman-Fried decided to plead not-guilty. And it's interesting that their defense is an implication that a witness is committing perjury for a lighter sentence without any evidence backing it up. And just what in the world were any of these people thinking? Sam Bankman-Fried isn't remotely charismatic, so I just don't understand why people would follow his demands and actively participate in s…

Perjury* Sam is highly charismatic, especially when all you want to hear is that you send 2000$ and will receive 100k$ if only you listen to him and use his product. He's part of the mumbo jumbo guru crowd. I'm a programmer in finance: I understand nothing when SBF talks, it's like complete random BS, totally different from the traders I work with who would use complex concepts but with always a visible thread: utili…

I personally never found him charismatic at all, even before all of this got exposed. He has always seemed like a tweaker who thought himself smarter than he is, which is exactly what he turned out to be.

I honestly struggle to understand how anyone would listen to him for any length of time.

Re: FTX – The fraud was in the code

#17

Post by jhobag »

lindq181 wrote: post #13
Centigonal wrote: post #4

The code snippet where they generated the FTX backstop fund's "current balance" displayed on the website by multiplying the exchange's daily trading volume by a random normal number is NUTS! This was the supposed crypto wonder-platform!

As someone relatively involved in the crypto space the past few years, no one saw FTX as anything to be proud of. It was a centralized exchange, basically a web2 company that handled crypto. Only the TradFi VCs (the Mr. Wonderfuls of the world) spouted rhetoric like that. The engineers building out the chain ecosystems & protocols on top of it never thought much of it other than another place to trade with orderbooks…

the funniest part about FTX was how utterly awful it was. books were thin, and everyone knew alameda was hunting customers in the books, while listing perps for their farm and dump investments. really just a sham of an exchange/casino, so around average by crypto standards, but KOLs and mainstream comms praised them.

Re: FTX – The fraud was in the code

#18

Post by [deleted] »

bmitc wrote: post #15
jhobag wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sequoia led their one of their rounds, everyone assumed sequoia did enough due diligence, everyone goes in and fills the round; it's assumed its a trustworthy platform for retail

I honestly feel Sequoia should be held partially responsible for funding and marketing such a blatant criminal enterprise. I'm a little tired of these venture capitalists claiming all innonence when they should have a burden of responsibility. They want all the upsides and none of the downsides to throwing millions at people.

[deleted]

Re: FTX – The fraud was in the code

#19

Post by dilyevsky »

bmitc wrote: post #16
xwolfi wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perjury* Sam is highly charismatic, especially when all you want to hear is that you send 2000$ and will receive 100k$ if only you listen to him and use his product. He's part of the mumbo jumbo guru crowd. I'm a programmer in finance: I understand nothing when SBF talks, it's like complete random BS, totally different from the traders I work with who would use complex concepts but with always a visible thread: utili…

I personally never found him charismatic at all, even before all of this got exposed. He has always seemed like a tweaker who thought himself smarter than he is, which is exactly what he turned out to be. I honestly struggle to understand how anyone would listen to him for any length of time.

What if he paid you to listen? You know, hypothetically speaking
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