I haven't watched this video yet, but this channel "Soft White Underbelly" has some really incredible content especially around drug addiction in the US. Has helped me to humanize the headlines we see about the "opioid crisis" in recent years.
"A former blackhat hacker who goes by the name Gummo online claims to have amassed around $7 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC).<p>(...)<p>The latest comments came as part of a follow-up interview published on Saturday after the initial discussion occurred in late 2020. During the first video, Gummo stated that he built four supercomputers to mine Bitcoin when it was priced at around $200-300 back in 2013, and generated more than 80,000 BTC within a year and a half. According to his claims, he has now amassed roughly 179,000 BTC."<p><a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/truth-or-fiction-popular-former-hacker-claims-to-have-7b-in-btc" rel="nofollow">https://cointelegraph.com/news/truth-or-fiction-popular-form...</a>
I listened to this a few weeks ago and was amazed by this guy's story. He didn't have a great start in life but didn't let that slow him down in chasing after his interests. Also, it shows that having a supportive partner that believes in you can really change the course of your life for the better.<p>Does anybody know this guy? It would make me feel great that he reads Hacker News.
The original interview is from December 10, 2020.<p>The follow-up interview from March 12, 2022:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZtkMmVDNEo" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZtkMmVDNEo</a>
I watched the original interview (2020) and I found it interesting, most of the things sounded plausible.<p>At some point during the second interview he starts to digress about current society, inter-human relationships (or lack of) and technology, the "dangers" of the meta-verse and so on. This is ok, but it is more of an informal conversation between two individuals that are not experts on those fields, and it has to be put in perspective as such.<p>It also shocked me quite a bit when he went into details about his financial situation and I felt a bit disturbed about his vigilante-like statements regarding his hacking activity to "protect" the people that needs protection.<p>At some point in this second interview I was not sure if he was talking about actual concerns regarding society and technology or if he was just projecting his own personal struggles and worries about human relationships, isolation, and meaning of work, life and everything else.<p>(Edited to correct some spelling and grammar)
The mining supercalculator could be a cover story for doing black hat stuff (hacking exchanges, injecting miners, etc). Not saying he did, but nobody's perfect.
This channel is fantastic, some of the interviews they do are incredibly fascinating. Saying that, Gummo's accounts of his wealth always struck me as maybe a little on the far-fetched side.