Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison • Hacker News Board

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#571

Post by dheera » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:26 PM UTC

PhilipRoman wrote: post #525

I sincerely wish every centralized exchange had their own SBF to burn them down. The negative impact of "investors" has been terrible for crypto. They've turned what should have been a trustless medium into a caricature of traditional banking with all of its downsides and none of the benefits. Whats the point of computing all the hashes if you end up handing your coins to some guy who pinky promises to pay them back…

Actually, I wish we could burn down the IRS instead. I have to pay $1 of taxes to the US government for every $1 of Bitcoin I want to spend, because when I pull it out of my Bitcoin wallet (hardware, software, exchange, it doesn't matter) they consider it a "taxable event" and I have to pay taxes according to it's USD value, which ultimately makes its ecosystem still tied to USD, and makes me reluctant to spend crypto because of the taxation. Total bullshit. I'm just spending a currency.

Singapore doesn't tax this, you can spend crypto and transact crypto and none of that is taxable.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#572

Post by biftek » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:27 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #520

__loam wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't lose a penny and I'm giddy about it. Justice has been done.

> I didn't lose a penny and I'm giddy about it. Justice has been done. How can you be giddy about a human being locked in a cage for 25 years? Would you be giddy if he were being flogged, or hanged? As long as there has been recording, flogging and hangings were common punishments and usually defended as "justice has been done." Incarceration really isn't far from medieval punishments. I'm by no means suggesting that…

Our prison system is undeniable terrible but we also so rarely see white collar criminals get what they deserve. Most of these guys get a slap on the wrist and somehow fail upwards.

And he's almost guaranteed to serve a smaller portion of that time for "good behavior".

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#573

Post by KenArrari » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:27 PM UTC

k8svet wrote: post #293

I met a nice Israeli filmography couple (somewhat known in Israel, I think) in Tulum last summer. After conducting important business, they were telling me about how they were vacating on the back of a nice windfall -- they got paid upfront for an editting/production job which was unprecedented and generous. Implications of lots of money and some "image rehabilitation". They're acting a bit coy about it, and I'm feel…

Was it nas-daily?

I remember even before he got arrested it seemed bizarre how much PR there was about him. Allegedly it was organic but I'm sure he was paying for a lot of it in anticipation of when he got caught.

Lots of puff pieces came out after his arrest as well which also seemed bizarrely forced.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#574

Post by nemo44x » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:27 PM UTC

publius_0xf3 wrote: post #449

It's funny. I lost tens of thousands of dollars thanks to this individual, yet his sentence brings me no joy or arouses any emotion at all. I'm utterly indifferent to his fate for some reason and I don't know why. Yet if he had been a mugger who stole a much smaller amount of money from me on the street, I think I would've been far more vengeful. Should I feel vindictive? Or is it healthy to forget about it and move…

> Should I feel vindictive? Or is it healthy to forget about it and move on? I'm not sure.

However you feel about it is the right way to feel about it. Everyone copes with things differently. Regardless, it would appear some type of justice has been done in this case.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#575

Post by rendall » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:27 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #520

__loam wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't lose a penny and I'm giddy about it. Justice has been done.

> I didn't lose a penny and I'm giddy about it. Justice has been done. How can you be giddy about a human being locked in a cage for 25 years? Would you be giddy if he were being flogged, or hanged? As long as there has been recording, flogging and hangings were common punishments and usually defended as "justice has been done." Incarceration really isn't far from medieval punishments. I'm by no means suggesting that…

> Incarceration really isn't far from medieval punishments.

Sincere question: in your ideal world, what would be done in this case?

I, too, am dubious that 25 entire years serves justice. On the other hand, many victims' entire life savings wiped out, hard-working people impoverished. How do we deter or redeem, here?

To answer my own question, in an ideal world, SBF would voluntarily work every day to pay everyone back.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#576

Post by gjvc » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:27 PM UTC

s_dev wrote: post #478

MichaelRo wrote: post #468

25 years seems excessive. Funk, for murder they get 10 years in Sweden. Yes, fraud is bad but he didn't kill nobody. I think 5 years would have had been enough.

Three suicides make this crime a bit more violent than you give it credit for. Not to mention absolute destruction of 00s if not 000s of lives.

absolutely agree

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#577

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:28 PM UTC

khazhoux wrote: post #515

setgree wrote: post #176

An uncle once commented about a cousin of ours that he demonstrated how it's possible to screw things up so badly that you can't possibly recover. I think that's true for Sam. I hope it's not true for the people in his orbit; I hope they can get out from under this and try to find meaning, ideally from repairing the harm they've done. As Rick Heicklen writes, "We are not ever going to be Sam. But we could be Caroline…

> An uncle once commented about a cousin of ours that he demonstrated how it's possible to screw things up so badly that you can't possibly recover. Enough SBF talk. Let’s hear some cousin stories!

[deleted]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#578

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:29 PM UTC

PhilipRoman wrote: post #525

I sincerely wish every centralized exchange had their own SBF to burn them down. The negative impact of "investors" has been terrible for crypto. They've turned what should have been a trustless medium into a caricature of traditional banking with all of its downsides and none of the benefits. Whats the point of computing all the hashes if you end up handing your coins to some guy who pinky promises to pay them back…

[deleted]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#579

Post by ct0 » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:29 PM UTC

throwawayyyyy10 wrote: post #568

Many of the comments here about the utility of punishment is very utilitarian, which is ironically fitting since we're talking of SBF. What I never see acknowledged (or believed) by more lenient people is the fact that adequate punishment (sometimes harsh is adequate) serves to send a message not only to other offenders, but maybe most importantly to non-offenders, that the justice system is worth something. "Crime d…

Great opportunity to remind everyone to think of Ross today. https://freeross.org/ He just tuned 40 yesterday.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#580

Post by ragebol » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:29 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #537

PhilipRoman wrote: post #525

I sincerely wish every centralized exchange had their own SBF to burn them down. The negative impact of "investors" has been terrible for crypto. They've turned what should have been a trustless medium into a caricature of traditional banking with all of its downsides and none of the benefits. Whats the point of computing all the hashes if you end up handing your coins to some guy who pinky promises to pay them back…

Without centralized exchanges, do you think crypto would ever really have become a thing? I like to think it would, and that we don't need exchanges, because I too have a strong dislike for exchanges (if not a hatred), but I'm a fairly technical user and even for me it's not exactly easy to be deep into crypto without exchanges. Particularly when it comes to exchanging dollars for coins.

Exchanges or centralized exchanges?