I remember being called to a dinner which was paid for (figures). A couple well-dressed but fashionable guys tried to sell a crypto that ask you play a mobile game or something to earn coins which can be converted into real crypto? or something like that. There were a couple people at the dinner I know being constantly fallen into this kind of traps, including MLM, despite their success in their businesses. Well, the dinner was good at least and I found them kind of entertaining in a mentally-ill way.
I had a look at the community feed thingy on the right-hand side of <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/zerebro/" rel="nofollow">https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/zerebro/</a>, oh boy, never have I seen such a high concentration of scammers scamming each other in broad daylight. You'll find real gems like "Amazon" (shown as "Amazon" with Amazon logo, with the handle @nk1dfpb3fmjp conveniently hidden) announcing "the next era of digital transactions with the Amazon Token (AMZ), a blockchain-based asset designed to revolutionize e-commerce". Highly amusing, 10/10.
How do these scammers generate such big market caps for their coins? Offloading $1.4MM is a huge sum of money, more than 99.9% of people in the world would ever see at once.
How... how did he think this was going to turn out? You fake your death, then run to mommy & daddy's house, and hope no one finds you? And just keep the cash?
Jeffy's story is a cautionary tale for our times - apparently thus: young talented programmer makes something that hits the zeitgeist but quickly unravels as the lure of riches of corrupts.<p>Zerebro was building an AI agent framework (+ the obligatory coin) and also released AI-generated music. The music is lowest common denominator AI pop with cringe lyrics [1] but at one point achieved a respectable ~40k monthly listeners on Spotify.<p>Jeffy hit the crypto podcast scene (see his Blocmates interview [2]) and comes across as quite earnest, but there was a lot of hype too, for sure.<p>One thing that these thread comments are maybe overlooking is that Jeffy may have been genuinely frightened of being harmed, like kidnapped. Hence the fake death. Crypto kidnappings are more prevalent in Europe, so maybe they're going to take off in the USA now too ...<p>[1] <a href="https://youtu.be/5JTgWQq0who?feature=shared" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/5JTgWQq0who?feature=shared</a><p>[2] <a href="https://youtu.be/A-_cd7Ze8mE?feature=shared" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/A-_cd7Ze8mE?feature=shared</a><p>The lyrics to the music video betray a very shallow copycat misogyny.
Some good content for people who want to go down the Crypto Scammer rabbit hole:<p>Exit Scam (<a href="https://www.exitscam.show/" rel="nofollow">https://www.exitscam.show/</a>) -- Crypto exchange founders rip off their customers so much that it has an actual name, as infamous a grift as the The Money Box or The Big Store. This podcast explores a QuadrigaCX and its founder's likely faked death, digging into a few other crypto scams for parallel examples.<p>Number Go Up by Zeke Faux (<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/711959/number-go-up-by-zeke-faux/" rel="nofollow">https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/711959/number-go-up...</a>) -- this book, which reads as a cross between investigative reporting and New Journalism, tracks Sam Bankman-Fried's rise and fall, discusses the NFT grift, and explores the weird, wild world of stablecoins. Turtles all the way down on this stuff.
I believe in crypto, I think it will even protect people online when done right.<p>And not everything is scam, there are good projects. That being said the behavior of people and organizations in crypto is poor and will slow adoption. I still regularly see major crypto ecosystems rug pull their own developers. They simply can’t help themselves.
What caused the journalists at the SF Standard to pursue this particular story? This guy isn’t notable in any way, just another crypto bro as far as I can tell?
> “You can see the PTSD in my eyes, right?” he said before telling this reporter to leave.<p>He was dead, with an obituary even and now back to being alive. Why the PTSD?! He should be rejoicing! /s<p>But I wonder, is faking your death on social media a crime? If he still paid taxes I guess he might be legally out of the woods, just based on the faking part, not related to the scamming thing.
I hope he gets the help and relief he needs. In someways a brain with a penchant for software causes more trouble during mental health crises than one who doesn’t. Especially if they’re into crypto.