So, the conversation on debanking and “Chokepoint 2.0” has suddenly exploded into the mainstream, thanks to @pmarca in an appearance on Rogan. Debanking and financial censorship are the reasons I remain committed to the potential of cryptocurrency to build neutral, fair, and global financial systems, despite its many failings. I’m not a banking expert like @campbelljaustin. Instead, my background is in communication theory, history of technology, and the philosophy of money. From that perspective, financial censorship is an existential issue for long-term social progress, and possible solutions or mitigations like crypto deserve a lot of leeway. As I’ll explain, I came to this position partly through being in the music industry in the early 2000s and seeing the potential (and also risks) of Napster and other file sharing technology.

Reading through this now. For a start:

"As Bankman-Fried’s parents, Bankman and Fried exploited their access and influence within the FTX enterprise to enrich themselves, directly and indirectly, by millions of dollars, and knowingly at the expense of the debtors". #FTX

https://twitter.com/davidzmorris/status/1704088179890933810

Skipping ahead a bit because of references to a 2019 coverup. This is distinct from the 2018 coverup of SBF's personal behavior reportedly quashed in part by Effective Altruism leaders.

Bankman and Friedberg covered up allegations of market manipulation filed by unnamed lawyer.

Coming in a sec at #consensus2023 - Some news from Paypal? #paypal #crypto The announcement - Paypal, starting next month, will enable on-chain transfers from Venmo accounts, including to on-chain wallets.

Kind of crazy! #Consensus2023

First and foremost, Shatner at 92 could easily pass for 70 years old, what the absolute f*ck did they do to him in space

#Consensus2023 Orange Comet CEO cites experience producing shows like the Biggest Loser and interest in getting Hollywood onto Web3.

Livetweeting now - the actual Prime Minister of the Bahamas, The Honourable Philips Davis, talking about the impact of FTX collapse in his country. #Consensus2023 First, some prepared remarks. Davis making the case that the Bahamas is a well-regulated home for digital asset businesses, including high scores by evaluators of money laundering regulations. #Consensus2023

Now at #consensus2023: M. Casey with Kaitlin Long, Erik Voorhees, and Neha Narula dito discuss: Crypto's True Purpose @ErikVoorhees says he "fired himself" as CEO of ShapeShift last year, and at the risk of over-editorializing, my man is looking great. Moisturized, t-shirted, unshaven, thriving

As we kick off, a disclaimer - Grayscale, like CoinDesk, is part of Digital Currency Group.

https://twitter.com/davidzmorris/status/1651350627958550528

Shonnenshein kicks off with the crucial point: GBTC was designed and always intended to be an ETF. When the application for the ETF was denied last year, he says, their only option was to sue the SEC.

Starting now, @magdalenakala on best practices in engaging with fans through web3. Ten bullet points! I'll be hitting the highlights here. #consensus23 #web3. First bullet - Not all fans are customers! Not everyone who loves your product or service is going to actually buy it, but they still have value.

Hey #consensus2023 - do me a small favor: please subscribe to my Substack if you're not. It would really help sell my book.

It's where I go truly in depth. At least 1/mo, you'll get a bloated, scathing monster like this. In fact, next post coming soon.

davidzmorris.substack.com/p/ai-conscious… Here's another one of my favorites, on Do Kwon's made-up money as a Baudrillardian simulacra of productive finance.

davidzmorris.substack.com/p/nothing-is-t…

So over the weekend I executed my greatest troll ever, completely by accident.

TLDR: I made a joke about a technical limitation of Cardano, a bunch of NFT makers misunderstood it, and now there are copies of my Cardano troll embedded in the Cardano blockchain. 1/too many Here’s the tweet, tossed off in response to an equally tossed-off Frank tweet. 2/16

https://twitter.com/davidzmorris/status/1436521948310290434

Damn, "Machete" is a fantastic movie. They literally crucify Cheech Marin.

Juzt short of 20 years ago, I got in a van and went to D.C. to protest the invasion of Afghanistan. At the time, this was basically considered a form of insanity. And for many years after, I even kind of cringed at my young self. 1/ Afghanistan, remember, was the GOOD war, relative to Iraq, which informed people at the time knew was a lie.

In Afghanistan, we were going after the Taliban! They helped do 9/11!

Sort of! 2/

So, here's a new thing I have out today. I think the content is extremely interesting.

And if you click on it, you'll notice something else interesting.

1/12

fortune.com/2020/03/04/tes… That's right - Fortune now has a paywall. A pretty tough one to get through! You might not like that.

But let me take you on a journey to explain why it's not just good for Fortune (hopefully), and for me , but for you, too.

2/12

theatlantic.com/technology/arc…

I've experienced some dramatic professional and lifestyle changes over the last few years, and it has indirectly taught me a hell of a lot about the psychology of my favorite topic - graft, deception, and fraud.

A quick thread about my money, and other people's.

1/7 I spent my entire 20s making well under $30k/yr as a student - undergrad, then Phd. I was in full-on monk mode. (Note: don't confuse this with 'poverty').

After that, things got gradually but inconsistently better for five years or so as I built up a writing career. 2/7

I’ve been working on this story for two months. It is extremely disturbing, but important.

Bottom line: Russian authoritarianism has created a serious gap in global efforts to combat the sexual exploitation of children.

That gap is called Yandex.

1/10

fortune.com/2020/01/17/yan… Most major technology platforms rely on a shared database maintained by a nonprofit to block sexual images of children. These images have proliferated on the clearweb in a soul-crushing way, but it is a problem that major internet companies HAVE combated head-on. 2/10

So, I spent some time looking into @coinbase's latest acquisition, Neutrino. What I found, just by reading existing reporting, is insanely dark, and could/deserves to become a massive scandal for Coinbase. Thread. /1
breakermag.com/coinbases-newe… Neutrino's leadership is nearly identical to the leadership of Hacking Team, a long-running spyware firm. Hacking Team sold spyware to authoritarian regimes in roughly a dozen countries, including Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, and Bahrain. /2