Do you have an eye for spotting criminality or shady behavior before it's exposed?
Many bitcoiners tend to have a knack for it. Why do you think that is?
River's Leishman comes to mind for me -- he and many others were calling out FTX, Celsius, BlockFi, etc. long before they imploded, but he was also calling out OpenAI long before what's recently unfolded. He has a good 'sus' radar, as Tuur Demeester put it:
What do you typically pick up on with these characters like Scam Bankman, Scam Altman, etc. that sets off your radar? (besides the obvious shitcoining and eyeball scanning...)
Red flags for SUS:
  • Word salady arguments with no real substance
  • Appealing to authority
  • Attacking the character of critics instead of their arguments
  • Likes to spend time with / be seen with celebrities and other public figures
  • Too confident, too fast (e.g. a lot of young CEOs)
  • Hews to all the popular narratives in society
  • Focus on the what instead of the how and the why. Examples:
    • We promise X% return vs. This is how we make returns
    • Your funds are safu vs. This is how we keep your funds safe
    • Bitcoin is going to the moon vs. This is why Bitcoin will win
And this is a big one:
  • I can predict what they're gonna say before they're gonna say it. This is true for so many politicians and influencers... just by knowing who their audience is and the type of persona they're trying to represent, you can always guess their positions. If you can always guess what a person is gonna say, they add no new information to you. People I trust are the ones who sometimes surprise me, and who appear to be able to form independent, coherent thoughts that they arrived at on their own.
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What makes me suspicious is the high rates of return, which are usually unsustainable.
My main red flag is when the corporate press is trying to get me to believe something.
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literally anything coming from live television lol
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ah couldn't forget tater tot too:
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you get 21 sats just for tater tot. That's hilarious.
However, he made all his money on investments, he got lucky with crypto and runs scam courses that help you break the matrix. Also this whole thing about him being arrested on suspicious charges is sus to me.
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Seems like the arrest was the only non-sus thing to me lolol, finally something made sense
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Waitā€¦ I didnā€™t mean the charges were sus - I meant its sus what he was doing.
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217 sats \ 1 reply \ @nym 21 Nov 2023
  • Promising Guaranteed Returns: Influencers guaranteeing high returns on Bitcoin investments are a red flag, as the crypto market is unpredictable.
  • Lack of Transparency: Be cautious of influencers who are not transparent about their investments or affiliations with crypto projects.
  • Pressure Tactics: Watch out for influencers using urgent language or pressure tactics, as this can be manipulative.
  • Overemphasis on Price Predictions: Excessive focus on Bitcoin price predictions is misleading, given the market's volatility.
  • Promoting Dubious Projects: Influencers promoting unknown or questionable crypto projects, especially those promising quick profits, should be approached with skepticism.
  • Lack of Financial Knowledge: Influencers without a solid background in finance or cryptocurrency may not provide reliable advice.
  • Constant Shilling: Continuous promotion of various coins or tokens may indicate an influencer is more interested in personal gain than genuine advice.
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These are all spot on
The incessant ā€œrisk freeā€ yield schemes of the last bull got so, so many wreckedā€¦I know multiple personally who got trapped
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My sus radar is simple.
As soon as I read "crypto" I know it's time to close the page.
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We only speak of cryptography here ser, the closest we allow it
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Calling out FTX, Celsius, BlockFi, etc. as sus isn't impressive. They're pretty obvious examples. And I don't think he was right about OpenAI.
It would have been more impressive if he saw how sus Wirecard was. Or Enron.
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Yep many could see right through that crap, just used a low hanging fruit, relevant examples. He may not have been totally right about openai but I certainly didnā€™t suspect it to be as ā€˜susā€™ as whatā€™s being revealed right now. Doesnā€™t mean criminal but definitely sus.
I agree tho, your examples would be more impressive
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My biggest SUS with anything is when they use too many "big" words or jargon to explain simple things. Usually when they are trying to convince you they are fixing a problem that you didn't know existed.
Basic story narrative marketing.
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In April 2022, a report from MIT Technology Review cited those from the community who accused Worldcoin of "taking advantage of students" and "targeting lower-income communities", and came to the conclusion that "it's just cheaper and easier to run this kind of data collection operation in places where people have little money and few legal protections."[4]
Plenty of signs way before his tweet about open a.i
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Like Bitstein said, everyone's a scammer.
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I don't know if my sus radar is very good.
I have become pretty good at detecting weak egos however. It's not too hard to spot them though because it mostly shows up in how a person responds to new truths - especially ones involving themself.
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How someone handles feedback speaks volumes to their character ā€” and if I venture, worldview at large too. Typically ā€œvictimsā€ or those who canā€™t do any wrong have very predictable views on other areas of life, as @SimpleStacker also suggested
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Personally, it seems one can take "Cramer" approach and a gut feeling... these two plus some wild rumors from Sun tabloid and one can have pretty much a good idea of what smells bad and what can be really legit. YMMV tho
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yep is more like a personality or mentality kinda thing -- informed by gut feeling that you've proven works in the past
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MY BS detector was trained and forged in fire many years in Bitcoinlandia... Very few times failed.
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Yes bitcoinlandia certainly has a lot more fraudulence taking place within its near proximity, so we are used to these things more often. Normies don't tend to experience/witness financial criminality like this as often as we do
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šŸŽÆ
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Interestingā€¦Need to develop my 21-word limit bitcoin elevator pitch..
ā€œTrust meā€ only works based on my relationship with the person
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Im sure the millions vaccinated will fall over from myocarditis any day now...
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Milions unvaccinated will fall over from covid any day now... if i stop posting, you know what happened to me.
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