Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court • Hacker News Board

Re: Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court

#11

Post by nullc » Sat, Jul 06, 2019, 6:56 PM UTC

revscat wrote: post #7

jnbiche wrote: post #4

The amazing things is that this guy -- an obvious fraud and conman -- has been invited to numerous high-level Bitcoin/Blockchain conferences as a speaker. It always stuns me how relatively few people are able to spot frauds (although it explains a lot about our current political situation). I'm guessing 40-50% of the population is susceptible to this kind of trickery.

It amazes me that a percentage of your percentage does so because to call out liars would be impolite and lead to discomfort.

Calling out fraudsters also gets you attacked and harassed and there is essentially nothing you can do to stop it.

Re: Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court

#12

Post by jnbiche » Sat, Jul 06, 2019, 6:59 PM UTC

BubRoss wrote: post #9

jnbiche wrote: post #4

The amazing things is that this guy -- an obvious fraud and conman -- has been invited to numerous high-level Bitcoin/Blockchain conferences as a speaker. It always stuns me how relatively few people are able to spot frauds (although it explains a lot about our current political situation). I'm guessing 40-50% of the population is susceptible to this kind of trickery.

Part of it has been the tribalism of him going against the obvious weasels that ousted the original Bitcoin team to keep the blocksize low, the transaction fees high and get VC funding for their company that they would market by saying it was the 'people that were in charge of bitcoin' Some of the people who hated those weasels decided that Craig Wright must be great since he says he is against the same people. Inste…

> Some of the people who hated those weasels decided that Craig Wright must be great since he says he is against the same people. Instead of everyone rolling their eyes and fighting an OBVIOUS con man interested in VC funding and patents some people thought everyone calling him a con man must be on the 'other side'.

That's an interesting summary of the situation, with parallels again to our current political situation.

Re: Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court

#13

Post by nordsieck » Sat, Jul 06, 2019, 7:00 PM UTC

jnbiche wrote: post #4

The amazing things is that this guy -- an obvious fraud and conman -- has been invited to numerous high-level Bitcoin/Blockchain conferences as a speaker. It always stuns me how relatively few people are able to spot frauds (although it explains a lot about our current political situation). I'm guessing 40-50% of the population is susceptible to this kind of trickery.

> It always stuns me how relatively few people are able to spot frauds (although it explains a lot about our current political situation). I'm guessing 40-50% of the population is susceptible to this kind of trickery.

It seems very likely to me that frauds and those who can detect them are locked in an evolutionary arms race. If that is the case, it would have to be true that there is a substantial number of people who can't detect frauds.

Re: Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court

#14

Post by Waterluvian » Sat, Jul 06, 2019, 7:00 PM UTC

jnbiche wrote: post #4

The amazing things is that this guy -- an obvious fraud and conman -- has been invited to numerous high-level Bitcoin/Blockchain conferences as a speaker. It always stuns me how relatively few people are able to spot frauds (although it explains a lot about our current political situation). I'm guessing 40-50% of the population is susceptible to this kind of trickery.

This is a feature, not a bug.

Healthy communities are comprised of people who are trusting and permissive by default. The cost is that on occasion these communities will be exploited.

Personally I think it's a very low price to pay for all its benefits.

Re: Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court

#15

Post by jnbiche » Sat, Jul 06, 2019, 7:01 PM UTC

revscat wrote: post #7

jnbiche wrote: post #4

The amazing things is that this guy -- an obvious fraud and conman -- has been invited to numerous high-level Bitcoin/Blockchain conferences as a speaker. It always stuns me how relatively few people are able to spot frauds (although it explains a lot about our current political situation). I'm guessing 40-50% of the population is susceptible to this kind of trickery.

It amazes me that a percentage of your percentage does so because to call out liars would be impolite and lead to discomfort.

I don't even expect people to call out fraudsters. But I do wish they would quit promoting them, or minimizing how much they are indeed fraudsters ("well, maybe he's not been totally honest about that, but what about...").

Re: Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court

#16

Post by clemensley » Sat, Jul 06, 2019, 7:04 PM UTC

I do not understand why everybody is hating the guy so much. Listen to what he sais. He does not want Bitcoin to be used for buying drugs and child pornography. He wants to use it to make companies more accountable towards their users and governments more accountable towards their constituents. What's so terrible about that?

Then there is his claim to be Satoshi. At this point, nobody knows if that is true or not. Yet everybody is acting as if they _knew_ he is a liar and a fraud. That seems to be the justification for hate. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

My take is: I do not know if he is Satoshi or not. I also do not care. I listen to want he thinks about Bitcoin and I like what I hear.

Re: Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court

#17

Post by nostrademons » Sat, Jul 06, 2019, 7:04 PM UTC

jnbiche wrote: post #4

The amazing things is that this guy -- an obvious fraud and conman -- has been invited to numerous high-level Bitcoin/Blockchain conferences as a speaker. It always stuns me how relatively few people are able to spot frauds (although it explains a lot about our current political situation). I'm guessing 40-50% of the population is susceptible to this kind of trickery.

It's also possible that the organizers of the conference know (or suspect) that he's a fraud, but invite him anyway because they know the controversy will generate buzz and attention around their conference, increasing its attendance.

Re: Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court

#18

Post by jnbiche » Sat, Jul 06, 2019, 7:05 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #14

jnbiche wrote: post #4

The amazing things is that this guy -- an obvious fraud and conman -- has been invited to numerous high-level Bitcoin/Blockchain conferences as a speaker. It always stuns me how relatively few people are able to spot frauds (although it explains a lot about our current political situation). I'm guessing 40-50% of the population is susceptible to this kind of trickery.

This is a feature, not a bug. Healthy communities are comprised of people who are trusting and permissive by default. The cost is that on occasion these communities will be exploited. Personally I think it's a very low price to pay for all its benefits.

> This is a feature, not a bug....Healthy communities are comprised of people who are trusting and permissive by default.

It's entirely possible to find a happy medium. You can be trusting without being totally naive about individuals with bad intentions.

Re: Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court

#19

Post by drcode » Sat, Jul 06, 2019, 7:07 PM UTC

clemensley wrote: post #16

I do not understand why everybody is hating the guy so much. Listen to what he sais. He does not want Bitcoin to be used for buying drugs and child pornography. He wants to use it to make companies more accountable towards their users and governments more accountable towards their constituents. What's so terrible about that? Then there is his claim to be Satoshi. At this point, nobody knows if that is true or not. Ye…

You enjoy his incoherent free association of tech terms every time he speaks? Or is it just that the rest of us can't appreciate his genious-level ideas?

Re: Craig Wright faces tough questions over forged documents in court

#20

Post by keymone » Sat, Jul 06, 2019, 7:09 PM UTC

samcday wrote: post #2

The whole story seems so bizarre. As far as I understand it, some kind of fraudster got caught up in a bunch of his own lies, of which being the inventor of Bitcoin happened to be one. We're only reading about it because "Bitcoin" happens to be a frothy buzzword that gets the clicks. Otherwise this would just be some local news case about a wacky person saying the darndest things. It's funny how we decide what's news…

no matter how skeptical you are of cryptocurrencies, they are no small thing and bitcoin is by far the largest. CSW is being sued for billions of dollars^, so that's also not a small thing. i don't understand, why be dismissive of things in a way that completely rejects the objective reality?

^ of course CSW is a fraud and doesn't actually have access to satoshi's stash. it's quite comical how if he proves he isn't a fraud he will owe somebody billions of dollars, assuming klein wins the case.