59: The Golden Age of Grift

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