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LatwPIAT posted:One of the reasons for this is that "professional hitman for hire" isn't really a thing. You're not paying a professional who's done hits before with a professional code and experience, you're hiring some rando who thinks he could kill for money. Or a federal agent, because you're going around telling everyone you're looking for someone to commit conspiracy to murder with. Hiring some rando to kill your wife isn't exactly subtle behaviour. "Job occupation: hitman" is definitely a thing crypto idiots would believe because they saw it on TV. quote:For a while, the new hotness in crypto (I want to say around 2017?) was "bitwashing" or "bitlaundry", a technique to make is harder to trace specific transactions by "cleaning" them. Which was exactly what it sounds like, cryptobros re-inventing money laundering, and — from my perspective as someone who used to work in financial crime — being laughably bad at it. Aside from attracting libertarians who don't understand finance (or really anything, as is typical of libertarians), it also attracted people who just heard it was "anonymous" and "decentralized" and therefore UNTRACEABLE.
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Feb 16, 2022 14:02
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Mors Rattus posted:Fighting financial crime or participating in it? A little from column A, a little from column B.
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Feb 16, 2022 14:15
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LatwPIAT posted:One of the reasons for this is that "professional hitman for hire" isn't really a thing. You're not paying a professional who's done hits before with a professional code and experience, you're hiring some rando who thinks he could kill for money. Or a federal agent, because you're going around telling everyone you're looking for someone to commit conspiracy to murder with. Hiring some rando to kill your wife isn't exactly subtle behaviour. I usually just picture this, but for murder, not drugs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcK_p1ca-u0
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Feb 16, 2022 14:40
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Warthur posted:Most of that stuff seems specifically along the lines of "VeVe are good, actually". If they put out a statement along the lines of "NFTs are rampant criminality and we made a terrible mistake in getting involved" they open themselves up for trouble from VeVe. Better to just disentangle themselves gracefully without giving VeVe reason to sue for defamation or whatever. Yeah, but what I'm saying is that they could have just gone 'yeah we listened to you, the fans and we're not doing this' instead of also going 'also veve is good and your complaints about nfts are unfounded, here's a link from Harvard'.
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Feb 16, 2022 14:57
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I feel like more people in general need to learn how to do a gracious climb-down when it turns out they're wrong about something.
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Feb 16, 2022 15:32
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https://twitter.com/BramKrypto/status/1493942896269172738 God imagine thinking this is a mic drop
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Feb 16, 2022 15:42
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If I purchased a digital representation of my favorite eldritch entity, I would simply stay sane and not become a cultist.
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Feb 16, 2022 15:47
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Leraika posted:Yeah, but what I'm saying is that they could have just gone 'yeah we listened to you, the fans and we're not doing this' instead of also going 'also veve is good and your complaints about nfts are unfounded, here's a link from Harvard'.
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Feb 16, 2022 16:26
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Coolness Averted posted:Cryptodudes keep getting caught trying to hire hitmen. That happened with silk road the drug marketplace too -unless that's a retelling of that story. One of the two guys running the site got cuffed, and went silent/state evidence so the other assumed he'd just scammed him and ran off with the bitcoin wallets he'd had when they were seized. Found the one I'd heard about : https://blog.malwarebytes.com/reports/2021/04/how-bitcoin-payments-unmasked-a-man-who-hired-a-dark-web-contract-killer/
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Feb 16, 2022 20:29
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Liquid Communism posted:It helps when you realize they think they're the next Elon Musk, and can get away with 'disrupting' IP law, while forgetting the reason that Musk and Co. get away with being open lawbreakers is that they are absurdly rich and can afford to stall in court and bribe politicians not to regulate them better. Kai Tave posted:You know how Sovereign Citizens think if they say the magic words then they'll become like Neo in the Matrix but for the legal system and never have to pay taxes again? The Venn diagram isn't QUITE a perfect overlapping circle but it's pretty close. These are actually interlocked points I hadn't considered before. Because I've dealt with sovcit stuff for work and yeah, it's all a chain of scammers grifting stupid/desperate people because we all have an inkling that some people have an unfair advantage over us. Except instead of it being the truth about billionaires stacking the decks in their favor, it's all secret social security stock markets and possibly Dark Forces (Jews) controlling the world, depending on how deep in they are. Crypto is just shifting that same sort of grift to a web medium. The Chairman posted:for DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) specifically, there is this pervasive belief that since nobody’s in charge and all the DAO stakeholders’ decisions are executed by a smart contract instead of a person, they are insulated from any kind of liability to anyone at all because you can’t sue a bunch of computers Ah, so completely magic thinking. Coolness Averted posted:Cryptodudes keep getting caught trying to hire hitmen. That happened with silk road the drug marketplace too -unless that's a retelling of that story. One of the two guys running the site got cuffed, and went silent/state evidence so the other assumed he'd just scammed him and ran off with the bitcoin wallets he'd had when they were seized. The Silk Road founder tried to hire hit men twice, once it was the FBI posing as hit men as part of a sting where they got his business partner to flip and they were faking the partner's death in exchange for his cooperation. Then the second time a scammer posed as Canadian Hell's Angels and offered to kill a blackmailer (who was also the scammer on another email account) and then kill another fake account he was posting on as well. There's a great video on the second incident here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpMP6Nh3FvU
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Feb 16, 2022 20:48
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Nuns with Guns posted:Ah, so completely magic thinking. Here's the timestamp of Dan Olsen's video where he starts talking about DAOs. With a bonus of the exact same issue of copyright and DAOs apparently having come up in the past.
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Feb 16, 2022 20:59
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I've already watched that video, but yes I should finish rewatching it because it's a lot to absorb at once.
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Feb 16, 2022 21:00
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"The Dark Side of the Silk Road?" Was it ever anything but a black market?
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Feb 16, 2022 21:05
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Halloween Jack posted:"The Dark Side of the Silk Road?" Was it ever anything but a black market? Yes but when it's being used by rich white techbros to buy drugs it doesn't count.
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Feb 16, 2022 21:50
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Mors Rattus posted:Fighting financial crime or participating in it? Working for a bank, so both. I was doing a bunch of interesting stuff around automated detection of various criminal schemes (things like large-scale money-laundering and card cloning), but it was still for a bank. I quit when they moved me into doing the same kind of work but with a goal of loving over poor people. This was 15 years ago so my hands-on knowledge is out-of-date, but financial crime remains something I try to keep up to date with, and seeing cryptobros coming up with the same poo poo that the real world has been doing for decades is hilarious. If I had maybe 20% fewer scruples, I'd run a crypto scam. After all, NFTs are just inflationary assets, so we're not properly up to pump & dump penny stock tricks, let alone hedging, short selling, or any of the glorious tricks one can pull with derivatives.
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Feb 17, 2022 00:06
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”WSJ” posted:◆ WSJ NEWS EXCLUSIVE I generally don’t bet on activist investors getting their way, but a re-independent WotC might be interesting.
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Feb 17, 2022 01:08
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Lumbermouth posted:https://twitter.com/BramKrypto/status/1493942896269172738 Absolutely overwhelming "I sleep in a racecar, do you?" energy here
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Feb 17, 2022 01:14
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Subjunctive posted:I generally don’t bet on activist investors getting their way, but a re-independent WotC might be interesting. ...and then in 3-5 years time, whatever is left will be gobbled up by the monstrosity that owns FFG.
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Feb 17, 2022 01:28
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Robert Facepalmer posted:...and then in 3-5 years time, whatever is left will be gobbled up by the monstrosity that owns FFG. At the moment, Asmodee (who had merged with FFG) was acquired (pending regulatory approval) by Embracer Group (formerly known as THQ Nordic). Hasbro is still currently bigger.
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Feb 17, 2022 01:51
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Yeah, if they think they can split WoTC off and get even bigger than they are currently, that sounds like old skool TSR ‘print a billion copies! What do you mean we sold 23?’, making them ripe for buying to loot IP assets.
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Feb 17, 2022 04:01
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Xelkelvos posted:by Embracer Group (formerly known as THQ Nordic) Aren't they the raving jackasses who gave 8Chan an interview on their projects.
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Feb 17, 2022 04:12
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neonchameleon posted:Aren't they the raving jackasses who gave 8Chan an interview on their projects. IIRC an AMA on 8chan was announced for some project and then quickly scrapped when everyone in the entire world went 
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Feb 17, 2022 07:39
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From Wikipediaquote:On 26 February 2019, THQ Nordic's public relations and marketing director, Philipp Brock, and business and product development director Reinhard Pollice, hosted an "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) questions-and-answers session on 8chan, a controversial imageboard website commonly associated with child pornography, racism and hate speech, including the Gamergate controversy.[48] The AMA was announced by Brock through THQ Nordic's Twitter account, and after receiving initial criticism for using the controversial website as host for the AMA, explained that a person named Mark would "take care of the nasty stuff".[49] On 8chan, both Brock and Pollice interacted with users asking about controversial topics, such as "lolis" and "social justice warriors", garnering further criticism.[50]
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Feb 17, 2022 07:43
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Subjunctive posted:I generally don’t bet on activist investors getting their way, but a re-independent WotC might be interesting. My main take-away from this is thinking that spinning off the most profitable division of a company would improve that company's health and bottom line is just further proof that capitalism is a failed scheme.
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Feb 17, 2022 15:22
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PeterWeller posted:My main take-away from this is thinking that spinning off the most profitable division of a company would improve that company's health and bottom line is just further proof that capitalism is a failed scheme. I think the thinking is that it would improve stock prices long enough for them to sell. The health and bottom line of the company after that doesn't matter.
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Feb 17, 2022 15:26
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PeterWeller posted:My main take-away from this is thinking that spinning off the most profitable division of a company would improve that company's health and bottom line is just further proof that capitalism is a failed scheme. It’s not really about improving Hasbro’s health. The idea is there are some people to want to invest in a fast growing collectible card company (Wizards) and some people who want to invest in a toy company (Hasbro ex-Wizards) and that the two separately are worth more than the sum of the parts
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Feb 17, 2022 16:59
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DigitalRaven posted:Working for a bank, so both. How does one get into the financial crime business, and is there a good way to get into the non-criminal, non-capitalist-running dog side or are those three spots where you might actually inconvenience a billionaire filled until the current occupants die?
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Feb 17, 2022 18:04
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NC Wyeth Death Cult posted:I think the thinking is that it would improve stock prices long enough for them to sell. The health and bottom line of the company after that doesn't matter. Yeah, I was being a bit facetious there. Adun posted:It’s not really about improving Hasbro’s health. The idea is there are some people to want to invest in a fast growing collectible card company (Wizards) and some people who want to invest in a toy company (Hasbro ex-Wizards) and that the two separately are worth more than the sum of the parts Thanks, this makes sense and doesn't seem so odious.
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Feb 17, 2022 20:23
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Typically when a subsidiary is spun off from a parent company, shareholders of the parent company receive shares of the spin-off. The parent company would of course be diluted financially, but shareholders would remain "whole". Often the parent company retains a minority stake in the spin-off, too. They can create tight contracts with each other as part of the spin-off, in order to maintain key shared products and services, etc. Spinning off WotC would presumably free Hasbro's execs from having to focus so much on their current cash cow. Perhaps the company would be an acquisition target, but perhaps it would e.g. spend more executive-level resources on developing their other brands, acquiring or developing new brands, etc. It can make sense. It can also be a disaster. There's been some notorious cases of acquisitions and spin-offs that crushed big companies. The details matter a lot.
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Feb 17, 2022 22:36
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Didn't Hasbro just promote somebody from WotC to head them? Seems like a weird time to break the whole thing apart. But what would I know, I'm not an "activist investor".
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Feb 17, 2022 22:41
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At least one of the activist investors/proposed board members is a hall of fame MTG player, arguably MTG's GOAT, Jon Finkel. He's also professionally a finance capitalist of some sort, so not like they recruited a top player off the street, but there's certainly a personal connection to the brand there.
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Feb 17, 2022 22:54
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Kickstarter has released a new statement regarding their blockchain plans which, much like their first statement regarding their blockchain plans, says absolutely nothing. https://twitter.com/Kickstarter/status/1494358159443603463 quote:We have many ideas about how a new protocol can help creators and backers, and we initially thought that a white paper would be the best way to communicate these thoughts. It's clear to us now though that before we do anything else, we need to listen to your feedback so that we can better address your concerns. This is blatantly untrue given that people have been extremely vocal about their feedback regarding this idea which is "stop fuckin doing it," up to and including migrating to other platforms. quote:We will not move Kickstarter.com onto the new protocol unless it has been tested. And this is just them saying they still plan on doing it, they're just going to continue being vague and buzzword-y about it and hope that's enough to obfuscate things. Notably, the whitepaper they promised last time is nowhere to be found so I guess that was also bullshit too. Seeing as how they're completely unwilling to actually come right out and say "yeah we're not going to do this" then you can assume it's a done deal and everything they say or do is just going to be dragging their feet so they can seem like they're "evaluating all options" and "taking your feedback into account" without actually changing anything about what they're doing. Like last time, everyone is unhappy with the response from Kickstarter, except for one noteworthy reply: https://twitter.com/rsdancey/status/1494417863628652547
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Feb 17, 2022 23:00
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What's AEG done for us lately?
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Feb 17, 2022 23:05
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Absurd Alhazred posted:What's AEG done for us lately? Does AEG even still exist?
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Feb 17, 2022 23:19
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Tsilkani posted:Does AEG even still exist? They sell Love Letter.
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Feb 17, 2022 23:23
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Tsilkani posted:Does AEG even still exist? They do in fact still exist, and make what I would describe as "mid-tier" board and card games. No more L5R, that went to FFG (I dunno what's up with it now that FFG is getting turned into a husk), their biggest claim to fame now is maybe Smash Up or...well no, not Love Letter anymore, seems that was passed over to Asmodee. So yeah, basically they make the sorts of games that are also on the shelves when you go looking for the game you actually want. I've played Thunderstone and Smash Up before, they suck.
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Feb 17, 2022 23:24
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Mors Rattus posted:They sell Love Letter. Not anymore, Z-Man does now.
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Feb 17, 2022 23:25
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Kai Tave posted:They do in fact still exist, and make what I would describe as "mid-tier" board and card games. No more L5R, that went to FFG (I dunno what's up with it now that FFG is getting turned into a husk), their biggest claim to fame now is maybe Smash Up or...well no, not Love Letter anymore, seems that was passed over to Asmodee. So yeah, basically they make the sorts of games that are also on the shelves when you go looking for the game you actually want. I've played Thunderstone and Smash Up before, they suck. AEG published War Chest (fantastic), Valley of the Kings Premium (which is great outside of some odd production choices) Tiny Towns, and the retail versions of Calico and Cascadia (which I haven't played but people like).
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Feb 18, 2022 00:24
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Kai Tave posted:They do in fact still exist, and make what I would describe as "mid-tier" board and card games. No more L5R, that went to FFG (I dunno what's up with it now that FFG is getting turned into a husk), their biggest claim to fame now is maybe Smash Up or...well no, not Love Letter anymore, seems that was passed over to Asmodee. So yeah, basically they make the sorts of games that are also on the shelves when you go looking for the game you actually want. I've played Thunderstone and Smash Up before, they suck. Cat Lady is a favorite for my board game group.
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Feb 18, 2022 02:20
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Kai Tave posted:Kickstarter has released a new statement regarding their blockchain plans which, much like their first statement regarding their blockchain plans, says absolutely nothing. It's fascinating to see how eager they are to burn years of accumulated goodwill. I hope whoever sold the c-suite on blockchain bullshit gave them a poo poo load of money to offset the massive opening they're creating to let someone else swoop in and eat up their market share without needing to do anything better than them beyond saying 'we're not involved in blockchain scams'.
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Feb 18, 2022 07:13
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