What’s funny is if he promises eternal rewards instead of $$$ this isn’t illegal at all.
That isn’t funny and there isn’t a widely accepted intrinsic value to eternal paradise. You’re just anti-religious and want the excuse to let us all know
Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command
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Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command
#42“Pastor for an online ministry” - the cool new way to say “televangelist,” and apparently just as trustworthy.
I didn't know televangelist were a thing until a year or two ago, and remember having my mind blown (in a "but why" way). How is that a thing. Why do so many people fall for it? How do these people get discovered. The only reason I know about them is because of a meme YouTube video where a reporter drilled a televangelist on camera. Aside: may I propose we style the Internet variety as eVangelists?
A lot of people live in bubbles and local networks that don’t have regular access to the normal tools of skepticism that you and I might take for granted. If you’ve been brought up to believe what you’re told, these people can be very convincing.
This is no longer an exclusively offline type of localism either. There is no shortage of online bubbles that are well insulated from outside perspectives.
It’s not even a “poor, dumb people” thing. We are all subject to the network effect and must make continuous active effort to avoid sinking into a comfortable echo chamber. I know so many people who grew up combatting religious fundamentalism, dispatching creationist arguments with expert logical fallacy-fu, only to later fall into their own malign belief systems, losing the ability to question. Even academia, where the foundation stones of skepticism and innovative thinking were laid, has bubbles of very smart people whose working environment is being drained of heterodoxy.
Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command
#43> Who knew God was a degen!
That is a great line.
> Regalado had told investors that the funds would be going to "widows and orphans", but spent most of it on himself and his wife.
Maybe his parents are dead and his wife was windowed in the previous marriage :)
He actually contradicts himself as he denies spending the money on himself and hiss wife, and admits spending money on a home renovation "the Lord told us to do".
I thought when someone said something like "your house looks divine" it was a metaphor!
Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Location. Like male circumcision it simply doesnt exist outside of the USA, unless you count random african countries like Ghana. No idea why, if anyone wants to enlighten me let me know.
Kinda a naive statement. Around 1/3 of males in the world are circumcised with highest rates in the US, Middle East, and South Korea. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/16194-circu...
Just to be clear, because the intro to that article is not, it's much more rare for circumcision to be required for purely medical or hygiene reasons. Let's not prepare that excuse.
This form of genial mutilation is most often performed on babies for no reason other than perpetuating religious or cultural expectations of the parents.
Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command
#45It would be a strong defense, except I heard that unfortunately the prosecutors were all told in a dream by God to prosecute him for fraud. Nothing they can do about it except move forward with the charges, it's just God's will that there be legal consequences for this. /j
Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command
#46Was there actually any cryptographic aspect to this, or was he even lying about it being a “cryptocurrency”? He’s taking money on Venmo and running an “exchange” that trades only in this coin.
It would be interesting if “cryptocurrency” is now this entrenched as a synecdoche for any scrip-y scam.
Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command
#47Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command
#48Followers of Jesus Christ are commanded and equipped to test prophets rather than blindly believing them. Here's God's Word on that:
"If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let’s go after other gods” (which you have not known) “and let’s serve them,” you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice. You shall serve him, and cling to him." (Deut. 13:1-4)
"But those who are determined to be rich (greedy) fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (1 Tim. 6:9-10)
More Scripture on that topic: https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/is-gambling-a...
Knowing these, we can look at the cryptocurrency market to see it's mostly gambling, get rich quick schemes, attempts to rebel at authority (esp IRS), unstable, and often with illegal activity. This would keep us away from most of that even if we'd consider it for legitimate instruments or smart contracts. Anything that's helpful, not sinful, is a gift from God who raises up many brilliant inventors to solve our problems. Even indirectly like how smart contracts inspired millions to be invested in tooling for verifying software.
With that general impression, we look at the guy starting a cryptocurrency with high skepticism. We'd say: "Brother, why would a man of God charged with preaching Christ dying for our sins and moving money to society's helpless need a cryptocurrency? Are you serving God or money? And should the church's money be focused on such things? If you lack a Biblical answer, then perhaps you have been tempted by the Devil to set your heart on the wrong things. Please pray God helps you overcome this, focus on what truly matters, and serve Him faithfully."
And we'd pray for them. And God would help them overcome temptation or set an example of who to protect His flock from.
Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command
#49Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command
#50How do you tell a scam coin from a non scam one? It's like a cult vs a religion, as far as I can tell the only difference is popularity.
In cases like this it is really easy to tell since the whole thing appears to have been some exchange website where you traded dollars for the supposed crypto coin but there was no way of taking those coins out (because the blockchain and coin didnt exist in the first place). In a sense it really wasn't an actual crypto scam, but a traditional ponzi scheme marketing itself with crypto buzzwords.
Not even a traditional ponzi scheme, that would be using new funds to pay returns to older marks. I can't figure out if just taking people's money and telling them it's going up but refusing to give it back has a name or if it's just, you know, lying.