What Ben McKenzie Learned When He Started Investigating Crypto | Odd Lots

When the pandemic struck in 2020, the actor Ben McKenzie (who you might know from The OC) had a lot of time on his hands. And like a lot of people, he suddenly got interested in crypto. But unlike a lot of other people, McKenzie didn't rush out to buy it. Instead, he dusted off his economics degree and decided to learn about how the industry really works. What he learned shocked him. So McKenzie (along with co-author Jacob Silverman) spent the last few years writing a book titled Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism and the Golden Age of Fraud. In an interview conducted live at the Bloomberg Invest summit in June, McKenzie explains why he thinks the industry is designed to enrich a small group of insiders at the expense of a misinformed public.
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[@nd9350]

Im an opera singer who pretends to know about distributed systems engineering, hmu if you want to continue this sort of segment lol

[@animaaura]

Start at around 8:31 to avoid the rather silly beginning

[@shoopddawhooped]

Start at around 54:01 to avoid the rather repetitive summery

[@elysiumboats]

The entire thing is silly really. One of the most intellectually stunted ‘perspectives’ on the industry. In quotes because I didn’t really hear anything informed or complete.

[@larrym2434]

@@elysiumboats Point to something in the interview that is factually wrong, or go away.

[@elysiumboats]

@@larrym2434 Sure no problem. The idea of characterizing the whole of crypto as scams because of the behaviors of centralized exchanges is unbelievably misguided. Crypto was created to disintermediate and decentralize finance…to REMOVE players like FTX entirely, not propagate them. Crypto is about self custody and decentralized finance, not exchanges. Nuance is a thing, keep reading. Educate yourself.

[@NotEnoughMeds]

He covers lots of aspects of crypto in this interview but provides no details at all so the interview is terrible for the viewer. Most people who aren't heavily into crypto wouldn't even know half the terms he was using. In fairness, I predict he didn't want to give much away from the book he's promoting.

[@shoopddawhooped]

Im not into crypto and i know all the things he was talking about, he sounds like he is reading a list of headlines TBH.

[@elysiumboats]

@@shoopddawhoopedselling a book.

[@IsaacMazur]

Banks love him.

[@user-ff9hk1jd2d]

Seems like the hosts/interviewers didnt know too much about the topic. The interview came across to me as a string of anecdotal allusions supporting a vaguely and broadly held conflation bias.

[@armandomadero2930]

Fantastic Interview. Interesting how Ben links Online Poker to Bitcoin, regulatory gray area exploited by crypto between CFTC VS SEC and political conflicts of interest. Also dwells into how narratives can be powerful and the false sense of community. Bucket shops and wash-trading are also touched upon. The story goes on!

[@MRNC]

Everything he mentions here on crypto is the same way stocks work too. sell you a piece of paper for $$$. So stocks are scams too, leveraged trades etc.

[@lug.5329]

stocks represent values of companies that produce actually used products and services, or you just don't know this? LOL

[@MRNC]

@@lug.5329 yes but the PE of like lucid is 200x earnings lol and alot of other companies

[@randoroo2540]

I seriously cannot wait to see interviews with Ben McKenzie later this decade. Does he learn how to sacrifice his ego or does he hang onto it? What does that look like? Can't wait!

[@ketonesnotglucose4978]

Tether paid a fine to the NY AG and then, back to business as usual aka white washing BTC's price...

[@KStutsman]

Ben Dunning-Kruger McKenzie

[@ketonesnotglucose4978]

Why aren't you talking about the real Bitcoin? BSV's unbounded protocol is the most energy efficient technology ever created at scale ⚖️

[@shoopddawhooped]

omg loolololollololololololol dying here

[@Yotrek]

Our future currency has not been created yet.

[@elysiumboats]

The likely future currency will be a basket of fiat currencies all pegged to eachother and tradeable on public blockchains. They will compete with blockchain native currencies with better economics.

[@Yotrek]

@@elysiumboats the age of, monopolistic, continually depreciating currencies will be over soon. Now that we have the technology to create competing currencies, appreciating currencies will dominate.

[@shoopddawhooped]

Tezos takedown of Ben's "book" at Fortune Magazine, titled *Ben McKenzie needs a hug: The ‘OC’ star’s crypto book is an ill-informed flop*

[@shoopddawhooped]

WOW Joe and Tracy are so nice to Ben who seems to have wasted his pandemic years on this "book" that seems-from this interview-to have all the substance of a high school junior's book report on various crypto blogs including Laura Shin's postings on Binance corporate structure and Bloombergs own expose on Tether leadership (cover story of businessweek Oct11 2021). I really like Ben but this is/was just a waste of time while sounding like he either; lost money with FTXSAM, or is salty no one is paying as much attention to him, and exposes his perspective of the world best characterized as some grizzled old-timey actor who hates the kids on his lawn, shakes his fist at the moon, and thinks he is innately omniscient for his personal experience.

[@cordesir]

You guys need to stop platforming people who really dont understand why cryptocurrency has intrinsic value from a technical perspective. If they cant describe the mechanism of how the technology works, their perspective will provide limited insight if any at all. At 14:55 he says "You print as much crypto as you want" and thats where the hosts should have stopped him and told him he is dead wrong.

[@lug.5329]

how it works does not really still answer any use case.

[@cordesir]

@@lug.5329 easy.. you can send value permissionless to anyone on the planet in seconds, with little fees irrespective of the amount. You cannot do this with current fiat mechanisms. Also, the banking system is notorious for defrauding it's customers on a consistent basis with overdraft fees. Thats the value proposition of cryptocurrency.

[@samlui3591]

Interesting side hobbie.

[@rpfoxw]

Ben is a national treasure

[@PresidentofAntifa]

For whom? Antitechistan?

[@elysiumboats]

Ben is a self-indulging pseudo intellectual selling a book.

[@mziqbal]

Ben has deep insight and understanding of Crypto world.

[@yegor9040]

Actor is better to be acting. For me - writing a book is also a way to earn money at the first place. When he started telling theories why bitcoin was created - i turned off.

[@jacobh793]

This guy loves to say "you don't have to take my word for it" when he's in fact making a claim that lacks any citation. So many words, so little of value.

[@PresidentofAntifa]

Yes. "Hitchens's razor is an epistemological razor that serves as a general rule for rejecting certain knowledge claims. It states "what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."

[@pianomikey0]

Can you give me the timestamp of a single time McKenzie says "You don't have to take my word for it"? I didn't see it a single time. I wonder if you even listened to the interview.

[@jacobh793]

@@pianomikey0 you want me to listen to it again just to point it out for you? He definitely said it once, and used similar words to try and give more credence to his opinion.

[@PresidentofAntifa]

@@pianomikey0 Your comment makes you sound like a butthurt anti-crypto zealot.

[@elysiumboats]

@@pianomikey0Yet ironically his comment is still 100% accurate regardless.

[@25Greatman]

This guy is talking complete rubbish

[@clydecmcelroy4638]

I mean I like him as an actor but it's 6 minutes into this I'm really bored. I'm out.

[@ps3301]

1.8 trillion fell to 1 trillion. So the whole market has less than 500b in total cash. If u don't understand this, go to study the definition of Market capital

[@PresidentofAntifa]

Line goes up, line goes down; If you don't understand that, go ahead and stop typing.

[@elysiumboats]

You mean liquidity actually. But anyways, weak take nonetheless. For the record its market capitalization not market capital.

[@yeabsirasefr6209]

What the propaganda

[@PresidentofAntifa]

Wall Street is gearing up for Operation Chokepoint 2.

[@50cents668]

This guy is a joke, I bet he doesn't even know the basics of Python