SBF gets prison advice: Shave head, deepen voice and listen to rap

CointelegraphPublicado em 2022-12-27Última atualização em 2022-12-27

Resumo

Martin Shkreli outlined that “Sam isn’t exactly gonna be somebody that fits into prison” and that he needs to rebrand himself to fit in and make friends.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been given some free advice on surviving federal prison by former white collar criminal Martin Shkreli, also known as “Pharma Bro.”

⠀

Shkreli, who spent around four years behind bars for securities fraud between 2018 and 2022, said the currently-on-bail former FTX executive should consider shaving his head, deepening his voice and skill himself up on gang culture and rap music.

⠀

The former prison inmate was speaking on a Dec. 23 episode of the crypto podcast Unchained, where he suggested that SBF needed to rebrand himself for jail, as being a rich white kid from a good neighborhood doesn’t “sound great.”

⠀

“Sam isn’t exactly gonna be somebody that fits into prison” Shkreli said, adding that his type of “sensibility doesn’t go over well” there, as it's a “very testosterone filled, masculine place.”

⠀

Alongside “shaving his head,” and “deepening his voice,” Shkreli outlined that SBF needs to make friends fast and embed himself in the culture of the prison system. For example, Pharma Bro said SBF should “ no longer say he’s from Standford [University].”

⠀

“He also doesn’t know anything about the streets and criminal culture, my advice is to pick those things up as quickly as he can, he should be listening to as much rap music as possible, he should be trying everything there is to know about gangs.”

⠀

“This sounds funny, but this could save your life,” Shkreli added.

⠀

Meanwhile, another former convicted felon, Sam Antar, the former CFO of the famously corrupt 1980s company Crazie Eddie, gave Bankman-Fried an alternative piece of advice: “JUMP BAIL AND RUN [...] They can only hang you once.”

⠀

Shkreli appears to have developed a knack for giving crypto bad boys unsolicited advice about prison. During an appearing on the The UpOnlyTV podcast last month, Shkreli was a guest alongside Terra/LUNA founder Do Kwon, and told him:

⠀

“I just want to let you know jail’s not that bad, it’s not the worst thing ever, so don’t fret. I hope it doesn’t happen. But if it does happen, it’s not that bad.”

⠀

“Good to know,” Kwon replied, rather awkwardly.

⠀

In an update on the unfolding SBF drama, the New York Post reported on Dec. 26 that workers were spotted on Monday installing security cameras outside his parents’ house in Palo Alto, where the FTX founder is staying while on house arrest.

⠀

^{Security camera's being installed: Photo by David G. McIntyre via the New York Post}

⠀

As it stands, SBF is required to wear an ankle monitor, and can only leave his house for exercise and treatment for mental health and substance abuse. He also has stringent limits on what payments he can make.

⠀

He is set to face the courts again in early January.

Leituras Relacionadas

EF's Epic Reorganization: 20% Layoffs, Budget Halved, Is Ethereum Gearing Up for a Leaner Future?

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has announced a major organizational restructuring, involving a 20% staff reduction (approx. 54 employees) and a division into functional clusters like Protocol, Access, User, Community, and Institutional layers. Co-founder Vitalik Buterin further revealed plans to cut the EF's budget by around 40% over the coming years, aiming to reduce its annual spending rate from about 15% to roughly 5% by 2030, transitioning to an endowment-driven model. This overhaul is seen as a long-overdue correction to the EF's ambiguous role. As Ethereum grew, the foundation faced persistent criticism over ETH sales, perceived lack of execution, and unclear strategy, often becoming a focal point for community frustration amid ETH's price stagnation. The reform aims to redefine the EF's boundaries, narrowing its focus to core protocol research, public goods funding, and ecosystem coordination, while offloading more applied development work to the broader market. Concurrently, ecosystem forces like the newly formed Ethlabs (founded by ex-EF researchers) and other independent groups are stepping in to fill the space, signaling a shift from a centralized model to a more distributed, collaborative ecosystem structure. The move was notably praised by Solana co-founder toly, who viewed a "leaner" EF as potentially more decisive and agile.

Odaily星球日报Há 25m

EF's Epic Reorganization: 20% Layoffs, Budget Halved, Is Ethereum Gearing Up for a Leaner Future?

Odaily星球日报Há 25m

Dragonfly Partner Haseeb: The Fastest-Growing Companies of the Future May All Get Stuck at 149 Employees

Dragonfly partner Haseeb explores the distorted economics of AI model pricing, drawing parallels to tax policy. He notes that startups and small teams (under 150 users) enjoy heavily subsidized, fixed-price AI subscriptions (like Claude Code), where the marginal cost of an additional token is effectively zero. This creates a powerful incentive for them to maximize token usage ("token-maxxing") and innovate aggressively with AI automation. In contrast, large enterprises (over 150 users) are forced onto "Enterprise" plans, paying per-token API fees with high (~75%) markups. This acts like a steep "tax" on AI-powered labor, disincentivizing marginal automation and experimental use, and encouraging them to retain more human workers. Haseeb argues this pricing creates a "150-person cliff," a regulatory notch similar to labor laws in France that discourage firms from growing past 50 employees. He predicts the fastest-growing future companies may deliberately cap their headcount at 149 to avoid the punitive enterprise pricing. This would foster an "AI-first" management philosophy obsessed with automation and outsourcing to stay lean. While not intentionally designed, this bifurcated pricing could become one of the most influential de facto tax policies, shaping how AI replaces labor—not through mass layoffs at big firms, but through agile, AI-native startups outcompeting them.

marsbitHá 36m

Dragonfly Partner Haseeb: The Fastest-Growing Companies of the Future May All Get Stuck at 149 Employees

marsbitHá 36m

How xBubble Breaks Through in the VC-Heavily-Backed OPC Economy

xBubble: Addressing the Structural Gap in the VC-Backed OPC Economy The concept of OPC (One Person Company) is evolving from a buzzword to a significant AI-driven market. While AI coding tools like Replit and Lovable have validated demand from non-technical users wanting to build applications, a key gap remains: the leap from creating a demo to running a stable, evolving business. These tools still require users to manage the development process, including technical judgments for integrations, modifications, and deployments—a major hurdle for OPCs. xBubble, by DAPPOS, tackles this by shifting from "Prompt-to-Code" to "SOP-to-Business." Instead of generating code from instructions, its core is a system of pre-organized SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) that translate business goals—like "sell World Cup merchandise"—into complete, executable workflows. This includes generating cohesive assets, pages, payment systems, and backend logic. The platform is augmented by a network of third-party service providers who handle infrastructure (hosting, domains, payment setup), acting like "on-site service engineers." Users can pay for these services directly with xBubble credits, simplifying onboarding. This ecosystem aims to deliver not just an app, but a complete, modifiable business launch path. xBubble targets a clear OPC segment: small commercial nodes (e.g., creators, merchants) with existing products, customers, or channels, but for whom a full tech team is unjustifiable. Its potential lies in SOPs accumulating expertise from real cases, improving reliability and reducing delivery costs over time. Additionally, its native support for crypto payments caters to global or digital-native OPCs. In summary, as AI democratizes software creation, xBubble's opportunity is to prove that "SOP-to-Business" provides more immediate value for launching a real, operational business than a powerful but unstructured AI coding tool.

链捕手Há 39m

How xBubble Breaks Through in the VC-Heavily-Backed OPC Economy

链捕手Há 39m

Dragonfly Partner Haseeb: Why the Fastest-Growing Companies of the Future May All Stagnate at 149 Employees

Dragonfly partner Haseeb analyzes AI service pricing, particularly Anthropic's model, as a form of "tax policy" on AI labor. He observes a stark contrast: small companies (under ~150 users) benefit from low or zero marginal cost via flat-rate subscriptions, incentivizing them to maximize AI usage ("tokenmaxxing"). In contrast, large enterprises pay per-token API costs with high (e.g., 75%) markups, creating a disincentive for experimental or marginal automation. This pricing cliff at 150 users acts like a regulatory notch, potentially causing the fastest-growing AI-native companies to artificially cap their headcount to retain subsidized rates. Consequently, large-scale direct AI-for-human substitution within big corporations may not happen as expected; instead, job displacement may occur indirectly as lean, AI-heavy startups outcompete and erode their market share. The article concludes that token pricing, though not designed as such, functions as a powerful de facto tax policy shaping company structure and automation incentives.

链捕手Há 45m

Dragonfly Partner Haseeb: Why the Fastest-Growing Companies of the Future May All Stagnate at 149 Employees

链捕手Há 45m

If It's Not a Clear Yes, It's a No: A Nine-Year Retrospective by a VC Who Survived Four Cycles

**"Invest Only When Certain": A Nine-Year Retrospective from a VC Across Four Cycles** IOSG founder Jocy shares hard-earned lessons from nine years and over a hundred investments in Web3. The core challenge isn't identifying successful founders, but understanding why talented founders with solid ideas still fail. Through building a "failed founder database," IOSG identified six recurring failure patterns. **Founder Trait Red Flags:** 1. **Emotionally Unstable:** Founders who react defensively to criticism or publicly lash out under pressure (e.g., 80% drawdowns) often fail. Resilience is key. 2. **Lacking Hunger / Having a Fallback:** Founders with significant safety nets (family wealth, cushy fallback jobs) may lack the "do-or-die" commitment needed to survive crypto's brutal cycles. 3. **Unchecked Ego:** Includes "polished execution machines" who excel in known frameworks but struggle when paradigms shift, and "professor-types" who are technically brilliant but resistant to commercial feedback or coaching. **Project Structure Red Flags:** 4. **Token-First, Not Product-First:** Treating the token solely as a fundraising tool with no real utility or connection to product value is a major warning sign. The project should have value even if the token goes to zero. 5. **No Day-1 Exit Thesis:** Founders must have a clear, staged capital strategy from the start, understanding what each funding round needs to prove to unlock the next. "Exit before entry" is crucial. 6. **No Full-Cycle Experience:** Founders who haven't lived through a complete crypto bull/bear cycle (e.g., 2018, 2022) often underestimate their vulnerability. IOSG limits initial checks for such teams to $250k, sizing for risk. **The Positive Flipside: Desirable Founder Traits** The ideal candidate exhibits: obsessive problem-depth, being a second-time founder with a non-consensus vision, strong communication skills with *controlled* ego, relentless perseverance, and a global perspective with agency and taste (increasingly vital in the AI era). **Three Survival Tips for Founders:** 1. **Cash Flow Over Narrative:** Real revenue is what sustains projects, not vanity metrics. 2. **Tokens Are a Liability:** Avoid issuing a token unless absolutely necessary. The hidden costs (market making, liquidity, compliance) are immense, often a multi-million-dollar burden. 3. **Respect Liquidity:** Sell during peaks to build treasury, buy back to support the protocol during troughs. Be realistic about valuations and your ability to deliver for the next round. The final principle is simple yet paramount: **"If it's a borderline 'yes' or 'no,' don't invest."** In an industry that reinvents itself every few years, the discipline to consistently say "no" is the ultimate secret to longevity.

Foresight NewsHá 1h

If It's Not a Clear Yes, It's a No: A Nine-Year Retrospective by a VC Who Survived Four Cycles

Foresight NewsHá 1h

Trading

Spot

Futuros

Categorias populares

Technology Trends580 itens de notícias