Scam Economy

Scam Economy is back! And just in time for The Golden Age of Grift. Host Matt Binder breaks down how the cryptocurrency industry bought the 2024 elections, how Trump's win has ushered in a golden age for grifters and scammers, the repeal of crypto regulations, President Donald Trump's memecoin scheme, and more!

Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

Visit: http://www.scameconomy.com

Scam Economy host Matt Binder breaks down the latest OpenAI scandal: an AI Voice Assistant that its CEO Sam Altman not so subtly tweeted "Her" about, resulting in a cease and desist from actress Scarlett Johansson. Is this just a voice impersonator or did OpenAI really use an AI voice trained on Johansson's? Visit: ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

Ed Zitron of the new podcast Better Offline joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to discuss Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies getting some a new life and pumping in recent weeks, what's going on with crypto lately? We also discuss the AI hype bubble and Apple Vision Pro. Check out Ed's new podcast Better Offline at https://www.betteroffline.com/ Visit: ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

MrBeast made a quarter of a million dollars by uploading a video to Elon Musk's X and in doing so revealed just how rigged the monetization system is. Scam Economy host Matt Binder walks through all the details of X Monetization, the little known X Amplify program, how Elon Musk and company pushed the famous YouTuber's content into social media feeds, and how basically no other creator can replicate MrBeast's earnings on the platform. Visit ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

Molly White of Web3 is Going Great joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to discuss the Sam Bankman-Fried trial. Molly brings us her first hand account from the days she spent at the court about the FTX founder's testimony and cross examination, what former FTX employees like SBF's ex Caroline Ellison had to say, and how SBF was found guilty on all 7 financial fraud charges. What does this mean for crypto and what's next going forward? Visit ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

Paris Marx of the Tech Won't Save Us podcast joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to discuss one of the current big tech industry hype bubbles: VR or Virtual Reality. We break down Apple's entry into the field with the Vision Pro, Meta's play with their VR headset and its subsequent failings with the Metaverse, the crypto adjacent Web3 metaverse attempts, the tech industry's continuation to try and monetize everything, and much much more! Check out Paris Marx's newsletter, Disconnect, on the Apple Vision Pro: https://www.disconnect.blog/p/apples-vision-pro-headset-deserves Visit ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

The battle between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg officially began on Wednesday, July 5th as Meta launched Threads by Instagram, it's Twitter competitor app. On this DOOMED and Scam Economy livestream crossover episode, Matt Binder breaks down the Threads app, the enshittification of Twitter by Elon Musk, how this past week's actions by Musk at Twitter which blocked logged out visitors from accessing Twitter and rate limited logged in users' daily tweet alottment may actually be Musk's worst move at Twitter yet, where the other Twitter alternatives like bluesky, Mastodon, and Spill fit into the equation, what the future of the internet will look like, and is Twitter now actually dying? (Episode from the 7/5/23 livestream show.) Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

Molly White, the creator of Web3 is Going Great, joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to discuss the SEC's lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance for selling unregistered securities. Molly and Matt break down the lawsuit against Coinbase, how the suit against Binance is different (fraud allegations!), what this means for the state of cryptocurrency in the United States, and more! Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder Visit http://www.ScamEconomy.com Sources: https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/sec-v-binance-we-are-operating-as https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/issue-29-sec-showdown https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-102 https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-101

Leo Schwartz, reporter at Fortune, joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to discuss Worldcoin, the project that wants to scan the eyeballs of everyone in the world and give them cryptocurrency in return. Why do they want your biometric data? To create an identity network to prove you're a real human, of course! Who is behind Worldcoin? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Leo and Matt discuss the details of the project, how one Altman project supposedly creates the problem that the other claims to solve, the snag the project hit regarding its cryptocurrency, and much more! Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder Visit http://www.ScamEconomy.com Check out Leo's piece on Worldcoin: https://fortune.com/crypto/2023/03/21/sam-altman-orb-scan-eyeballs-ai-bot-worldcoin/ Other sources: https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=sam-altmans-worldcoin-project-incentivizes-a-black-market-for-biometric-data-taken-from-people-in-developing-nations

It's a DOOMED / Scam Economy crossover episode! Host Matt Binder breaks down what he's been so busy with over the past few weeks: a series of reports on Twitter that drove Elon Musk to gift/punish him with the Twitter Blue checkmark of shame. Matt breaks down what Twitter Blue is, why it's so controversial, how Elon Musk marketed the roll out and caused his own mess, the removal of the legacy verified checkmarks, @dril and the #BlockTheBlue campaign, celebrities having Twitter Blue subscriptions being force upon them, why Twitter may be DOOMED, how Musk's version of Twitter is the perfect encapsulation of the tech SCAM ECONOMY, and much more! (Episode from the 5/2/23 livestream show.) Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

In honor of the indictment and arrest of Trump Card NFT founder Donald J. Trump, Scam Economy takes a look at four of the (other) biggest crypto founders who recently got in trouble with the law. Host of CBC's The Naked Emperor, writer Jacob Silverman joins Matt Binder to break down the crimes and recent charges filed against Terra / Luna founder Do Kwon, TRON's Justin Sun, Binance founder CZ, and, of course, FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried. Check out The Naked Emperor, Jacob Silverman's 4-part mini-series podcast for CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1353/episode/d20230403 Visit: http://www.scameconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder Additional sources for the episode: https://fortune.com/crypto/2023/03/31/cz-native-crypto-binance-recovery-fund-corporate-wallets/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/sec-sues-justin-sun-others-over-illegal-crypto-sales-2023-03-22/ https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/03/23/do-kwon-now-faces-criminal-fraud-charges/ https://www.theverge.com/c/22947663/the-many-escapes-of-justin-sun

What happens when one of the biggest cryptocurrency mining companies in the world sets up shop in your small rural American town? Jacky Sawicky, founder of the Concerned Citizens for Navarro County and a member of the NCAC: National Coalition Against CryptoMining, joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to tell us exactly what happened when Riot Platforms brought their Bitcoin mining operation to her Texas town. Jackie breaks down how it went occurred, the sweetheart backroom deals that went on between the mining company and local and state government, how the crypto mining company has affected the locals, the unbelievable way in which crypto mining companies make most of their money (and it's not from mining crypto), how this is a widespread problem happening throughout the U.S., what's being done about it, and much, much more. Visit: http://www.ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder Sources: https://www.riotplatforms.com/investors/sec-filings/annual-reports https://gizmodo.com/texas-bitcoin-bitcoin-mining-ercot-riot-blockchain-1849367067/amp https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-mining-execs-make-serious-bank-versus-other-industries https://beincrypto.com/riot-blockchain-rebrands-amid-miner-capitulations/ https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-is-becoming-a-bitcoin-mining-capital-can-the-grid-handle-it/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-05/texas-s-crypto-mining-boom-is-starting-to-look-more-like-a-bust?leadSource=uverify%20wall https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a42011194/crypto-mine-noise-murphy/

Edward Ongweso Jr., writer of the Tech Bubble newsletter and co-host of This Machine Kills podcast, joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to discuss the collapse of the tech industry's favorite financial institution, Silicon Valley Bank. Edward and Matt break down what this means, how it happen, what sparked the bank run by tech founders and VCs, what SVB's investments were, how the bank fell right around the same time two crypto-friendly banks Silvergate and Signature Bank also failed, how the VCs like David Sacks and Jason Calacanis threw a tantrum demanding a government bailout for the tech industry, and more. Read Edward's piece in Slate, The Incredible Tantrum Venture Capitalists Threw Over Silicon Valley Bank: https://slate.com/technology/2023/03/silicon-valley-bank-rescue-venture-capital-calacanis-sacks-ackman-tantrum.html Visit ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

Bennett Tomlin of Crypto Critics Corner and Protos joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to discuss what a horrible years it's already been for crypto. Bennett and Matt focus on two specific areas that have hit cryptocurrency exchanges hard: traditional banking ending their relationships with crypto and the regulatory crackdowns on crypto staking. The two discuss how FTX's collapse kicked off many of these issues, Silvergate and Signature Bank, two of the banks deep in crypto, the SEC crackdown on Kraken's staking program, and much more! Plus Matt and Bennett discuss the future of what crypto skeptic media looks like... Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder Visit: ScamEconomy.com

One year after the Crypto Bowl, which saw many crypto companies spend big money to advertise during the Super Bowl...crypto is totally absent from this year's big game. Brandon Sutton of The Discourse joins Matt Binder on Scam Economy to discuss what happened to companies like Coinbase, Crypto.com, eToro, and, of course, FTX. Also, who *is* advertising during the Super Bowl LVII? Articles discussed in the episode: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2023/01/24/crypto-bowl-ii-will-not-be-returning-for-super-bowl-lvii/?sh=7e977bd5b1ce https://fortune.com/2023/02/06/super-bowl-ads-sold-out-beer-crypto/?queryly=related_article https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Morning-Buzz/2023/02/06/fox-sports-super-bowl.aspx Visit: http://www.ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

Ed Zitron joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to discuss Gemini Earn, the latest crypto lending program to go under and screw over customers. Ed and Matt discuss Gemini, the crypto exchange run by the Winklevoss twins, its business with Digital Currency Group's Genesis, where it all went wrong, how $900 million are owed to customers, the media's role in all of this, and much much more. Visit: http://www.ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

Scam Economy BONUS CES 2023 Special Edition episode: Eoin Higgins, reporter with Morning Brew, joins Matt Binder on a special DOOMED / Scam Economy combo episode to discuss what they saw at CES 2023. The Metaverse! Web3! Robotics! Electric Vehicles! Virtual Reality! All the tech that looked good, bad, and downright dystopian. (Episode from the 1/10/23 livestream show.) Support Matt's shows: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

Molly White of Web3 is Going Great joins Matt Binder on Scam Economy to discuss the (best? weirdest? most interesting?) worst of crypto / blockchain / Web3 in the year 2022. We break down the failed crypto companies, Seth Green's stolen Bored Ape, the blockchain bridge hacks, the Ukraine rug pull, the "Robinhood" of crypto, and much much more as we look towards 2023 for what's next... Visit: http://www.ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

Molly White, creator of Web3 is Going Great, joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to discuss a week jam-packed with FTX and SBF news. Molly discusses the Twitter Spaces chat she was in where she grilled Sam Bankman-Fried along with others, SBF's arrest later that night, details from the two Congressional hearings in the House and Senate on the failure of FTX, and much, much more. Check out Web3 is Going Great: https://web3isgoinggreat.com Visit: http://ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder

If the blockchain is so secure...why are there so many crypto hacks? Infosec expert Domingo Flores joins Scam Economy with Matt Binder to dispel the myth of blockchain security. Domingo brings us back to the very basics and breaks down cryptography and why so many think the blockchain is so secure. We also discuss how hacking attacks have continued to rise and unprecedented amounts of money have been stolen even during the crypto winter. Domingo breaks down flash loan attacks, protocol exploits, "code is law" issues, and even basic social engineering attacks, and much more! Visit: ScamEconomy.com Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/mattbinder Articles mentioned on the episode: https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/crypto-crime-midyear-update-2022/ https://fortune.com/crypto/2022/10/13/october-record-3-billion-stolen-in-crypto-hacks-2022/ https://cryptopotato.com/cryptocom-becomes-first-crypto-exchange-to-comply-with-soc-2-standards/ Links to Domingo's work: https://twitter.com/Domingroso/status/1600286166213091328