Comparing Sam Bankman-Fried, Native Digital, and Bernie Madoff, Native Analog | Lochhead on Different
Each month, “Lochhead on Different” episodes explore the need to differentiate people, products, and services in a world that encourages a lot of imitation. Christopher Lochhead is a best-selling author, top podcaster, and former tech-industry CMO. Today, Christopher and Bob talk about one of the buzziest stories of late 2022, the downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried and his crypto exchange, FTX. Christopher shares insights from talks he's had with an author who's covered Bernie Madoff about Bankman-Fried (SBF), and contrasts the way Madoff, a Native Analog, responded to his scandal with the actions of SBF, a Native Digital.
Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans · bob evans, christopher lochhead
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Show Notes
The Big Themes:
- Similarities between Madoff and SBF: Both men "wrapped themselves" in celebrity, fancy parties, and politics. They were able to pull off the deception they created by being good "talkers" and schmoozers.
- Differences between Madoff and SBF: Where Madoff admitted his wrongdoing virtually immediately, SBF has been spinning a story of incompetence rather than crime. Christopher makes connections between this behavior to SBF's identity as a Native Digital.
- Is the end of FTX also the end of crypto? Christopher says no way. This type of scandal will probably help to move regulation of crypto in the right direction, and the market will calm down eventually. Native Digitals don't believe in "analog money," and the promise of crypto remains.
The Big Quote: "What we have here is a classic situation where when something's new, when something is generally not well understood, and when something's generally not regulated, you're going to end up here. So I think at the end of the day, the crypto world will be stronger for this because we'll get some of the regulation that we have that makes some of these things hard, although Madoff proved you can get away with bad shit in the legacy world very easily... But I think it's a mistake to say this is the end of crypto."
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