Davidzmorris

@davidzmorris

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Safemoon criminal trial update: https://x.com/davidzmorris/status/1925193536510546319?t=cWiDxDxRtwngeTFemX4WEA&s=19

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Coming tomorrow in Dark Markets

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It's still in development, but I have finally reclaimed my personal website from squatters. Lots of old crypto articles going back to 2013, along with fiction, research, and even some old music: https://davidzmorris.com

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Some quick lunchtime impressions from Day 1 of the SafeMoon criminal trial, U.S. v. John Karony. Key point: Karony’s court-appointed defense lawyer is far better than you'd assume. https://youtube.com/shorts/4uHa873-eUs?si=qHNfwbausYF8PItO

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Tomorrow's Dark Markets is a banger.

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Just jury selection in #safemoon today, but a few insights: - Trial expected to run May 6-May 26 - Figures relevant to the trial include parents Bradford and Jennifer Karony. This doesn't mean they'll testify, but it's possible. - Companies relevant include Binance, Central Bank of Utah, and Ronin real estate and Crypto groups. More details coming in Dark Markets. Link in Header.

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New today: Sam Bankman-Fried’s life was shaped by the Effective Altruist case for “Earning to Give” - taking well-paying jobs, like in finance or tech startups, rather than directly trying to make the world a better place. https://tinyurl.com/3tnbdf6v It’s a perversely conservative argument - a way to reconceptualize service to the status quo as pursuit of the common good. It’s also tailor-made for individuals with few real passions, talents, or individuality.

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New update yesterday about Netflix’s 8-episode FTX series, produced by the Obama’s firm and with filming beginning this summer. It seems likely to be a fairly serious project, from the director of “The Imitation Game.” It joins two other projects in development: - Lenha Dunham is scripting a movie for Apple TV+ based on Michael Lewis’ “Going Infinite,” which will be one to watch - what does a comedy writer do with a book that tried to defend its wildly criminal subjects? Dunham is great at writing self-destructive idiots - but that might be awkward for Lewis, who was very friendly with the family. - There is also supposedly an Amazon series in production tied to the Russo Brothers (Marvel directors). But that was supposed to start filming in Spring of 2023 and there hasn’t been a bit of news about it since, so that one might be dead. https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/julia-garner-caroline-ellison-ftx-series-netflix-1236385385/

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SAFEMOON criminal trial starts in EDNY next week. Will be covering it old-school style (only question is whether for myself or another outlet). Shill me the craziest elements of Safemoon's hilarous grift!

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Alpha leak for warpcast: I'll be in Toronto May 13 to do a Roundtable for Use Case, a new prestige crypto publication. If you want to pick my brain about communication issues in brypto, I'll be here: https://lu.ma/rlgprzg0?tk=Bfrpo1

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I've been thinking about Foundation and Dune in relation to Sam Bankman-Fried, Rationalists and EAs for like a year. I think I finally cracked it. Asimov posits "psychohistory" as a functional mathematics of prediction. EA shares the faith. Frank Herbert says "hold up."

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Anyone else's tipping borked?

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Pretty hefty news roundup at Dark Markets this week (and every week!). Highlights: - Revisiting the Zizians - Was Pump.Fun cofounder a teenage rug-puller? - Charges dismissed against Richard Heart - Thanks Trump! - Richard Stanek, America's Fakest Author - Memecoin Money Laundering https://davidzmorris.substack.com/p/men-explain-zizian-decision-theory

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I'll be at The Forever Library side event @farcon, pretty stoked to see such a left-field literary thing. Makes sense though, farcaster is a *writing platform*, first and foremost. https://lu.ma/z22znls4?tk=tSNAa9

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Sam Bankman-Fried told his psychiatrist he felt like he only had five years to make a global impact, a sense of emergency that helped justify his crimes. My latest book excerpt explores why the same panic was widespread among EAs and Rationalists - and why national politics are following Bankman-Fried's blueprint. Silicon Valley techno-utopianism believes that a few high-IQ individuals can predict the future - so they deserve all the power. But their naive Newtonian understanding of reality also implies current, individual responsibility for the vastness of eternity, leaving adherents in a state of panic, chugging amphetamines - and justifying some very destructive, short-term decisions. https://davidzmorris.substack.com/p/the-future-as-an-emergency-part-1

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Rough preliminary design of my book cover - with filler subhed and lorem ipsum. Actual full title: "Stealing the Future: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elite Fraud, and the Cult of Techno-Utopia." I was worried my topic would be outdated by release day in October, but unfortunately, it remains all too relevant.

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I appeared on The Farm this week to talk ZIzian murders, Bay Area Rationalim, and U.S. intelligence. As a taste, we discuss Leverage Research, a Peter Thiel-funded group that engages in secret personality-altering experiments using techiques parallel to MKUltra. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zizians-mendicants-basilisks-more-weird-tales-w-david/id1625511894?i=1000704284419

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I know this is extremely outre, but is there a way to sell NFTs via warpcast frames? I still have a few Rare Sams - mainnet NFTs of courtroom sketches I made while covering the SBF trial, which serve as certificates of authenticity for the physical sketches - which you receive with the purchase.

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Today's weekly free Dark Markets is focused on Tesla - yes, on the catastrophic earnings report, but also on a class action lawsuit claiming odometer acceleration is shortening warranty coverage. That aligns uncannily with an investigation I did five years ago into allegations that Tesla was underfunding its warranty reserve to manipulate profits. https://davidzmorris.substack.com/p/tesla-is-on-fire

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Tesla has been credibly accused of screwing with odometer readings to reduce warranty duration in a mew lawsuit. This aligns uncannily with allegations, which I investigated five years ago, that Tesla's warranty accounts were underfunded. This is systematic theft. https://fortune.com/2020/03/04/tesla-warranties-accounting-profits/

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