Digital forgeries are hard \ stacker news ~bitcoin

Digital forgeries are hard mjg59.dreamwidth.org/69507.html

1994 sats \ 15 comments \ @elvismercury 15 Mar bitcoin

You may have seen that the Craig Wright trial is over and that he was found to have been lying about the things that everyone knew he was lying about for years now, except that for some reason only comprehensible to the best legal minds, it was somehow fine for him to lie about this, repeatedly, in court. I'm no genius, but one day perhaps I will understand how such a thing is possible.

If you read through any of the trial notes, you will have been overwhelmed by the examples of Craig Wright's fraud -- forged documents and the like. And you may have thought, as did I: how could a person whose reputation and perhaps literal freedom to move about unencumbered by handcuffs was on the line do such a shit job of performing all his frauds?

This article discusses some of those things.

view all related items

119 sats \ 5 replies \ @DiedOnTitan 15 Mar

This was the major takeaway for me on this case as well. Documents that used fonts that were not created at the time of the alleged date of authorship, notes taken on a paper template years before the manufacturer confirmed that that specific template was even created, and a litany of other discrepancies were meticulously uncovered revealing the depth of the fraud.

My conclusion differs a bit than yours. It's not that Wright did such a shit job, it's more that forging documents is really difficult to do well and forgery was clearly not Wright's area of expertise. A bit of Dunning-Kruger in this regard. Another takeaway impressed me, Wright has a ridiculous resume. He may be the most highly qualified cybersecurity expert in the world. Keyword qualified. His collection of certifications and degrees looks like an OCD overdose. A shame he threw all that away on his failed quest to usurp credit for the greatest innovation in money since the credit card.

215 sats \ 1 reply \ @arrivederci 15 Mar

it's more that forging documents is really difficult to do well

I think this is the right take. Paper forgeries are not at all easy to do well either, and mostly are only meant to stand up to fairly cursory scrutiny. We assume that digital forgeries would be easier than paper ones, and maybe they are to make, but under scrutiny their flaws can be detected too.

One of the many virtues contained in the moral maxim "Honesty is the best policy" is that honesty is a lot less work. Fabricating and maintaining lies is a lot of (misplaced) effort. Which also, sadly, can require a lot of effort from others to dispel and debunk.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 15 Mar

This is true of many other virtues, too -- the returns to being a good person are, in general, pretty high; and even higher at the margin, e.g., people are so hungry for kindness and thoughtfulness that even small investments pay off for years. And yet, somehow, the alpha remains un-harvested.

59 sats \ 1 reply \ @jgbtc 15 Mar

He's possibly the world's best example of credentialism.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DiedOnTitan 15 Mar

Well said. Have some sats.

16 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 15 Mar

A bit of Dunning-Kruger in this regard.

Dunning-Kruger is CSW's defining trait. But I think this is a good and measured take. Except:

Wright has a ridiculous resume.

As best I can tell, CSW is a bright guy who figured out how to self-present in a really masterful way to occupy a certain ecological niche; and enough to fool much dumber people (Ayers and, really, the entire BSV community) into holding his bags. That takes a very particular genius that he clearly has, but I think that's the only genius that he has. His resume and technical accomplishments seem to be mostly smoke.

108 sats \ 6 replies \ @kepford 15 Mar

I seriously wonder if this dude is mentally ill. The whole affair isn't a good look for the legal systems of the UK & US. Glad he's lost in court though.

141 sats \ 2 replies \ @south_korea_ln 15 Mar

Well, he's definitely ill. Even though things might have started as a way to avoid Australian taxes, there is no doubt in my mind he is sick. I'm no medical doctor, but narcissism, illusion of grandeur, mythomania, etc would be keywords I would not be surprised to find in his medical file and have led to this thing getting out of hand, badly. Add to that he's become Calvin's bitch over the years after screwing him over, it's a good thing he's lost. He needs to be out of the spotlights, for his and everyone's sake. Now, he'll probably be back, as long as he gets more funding to litigate.

41 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 15 Mar

Agreed -- there is no question in my mind, at all. I could have pity for the guy except he's been clever enough to use his chronic lying to weaponize the legal system toward other people.

So now I hope this is the beginning of him being utterly destroyed. I hope COPA and the assorted btc funders press their case until Ayers is out a hundred million dollars and Wright and his enablers are a smoking pile of wreckage.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 15 Mar

Which Calvin ?

37 sats \ 2 replies \ @freetx 15 Mar

He is obviously mentally ill. His mom admitted that he has lied continuously from a small child.

This is why its important that he be stripped of all of his assets (to pay his victims) + thrown in jail. He will not stop scamming people, so all that society can do is forcibly prevent him from having access to society at large.

Calvin should be included in this judgement, as he clearly knows CSW is a fraud and yet has continually funded him since it helps him with his money laundering problem.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 15 Mar

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/craig-is-satoshi-a-former-online-gambling-moguls-contentious-campaign-to-change-bitcoins-future-11641906128

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 15 Mar

Yes, BSV is Calvins method of laundering his illegal sportsbook cash. Primarily via the investments into mining / nchain / etc (take dirty cash, buy miners with it, and now you have a 'legit' tech company to extract the cash from it now cleaned).

The dynamic between CSW and Calvin in very interesting.....CSW undoubtedly thinks Calvin is just another one of his victims....but Calvin knows the ruse and encourages it. When the time comes, Calvin will throw his hands up and play the victim and Creg will be trotted off to jail.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 15 Mar

He is a waste of time for court. TBH, the court must not listen to such horrors as Craig is. But yeah, you are right. The whole world now knows that any forgery to show and claim that's not yours is not acceptable to Bitcoin. It's impossible to disguise and it's then impossible to forge into Bitcoin. Your identity is private key, I'd you don't have that, you are just an impersonator.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SaToSHiWoMaN 15 Mar outlawed

stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.