The Trumps Have Gone Full Crypto With World Liberty Financial (wired.com) 133
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Eric and Donald Trump Jr., the sons of former president Donald Trump, have pledged to "make finance great again" with a new family-run crypto endeavor called World Liberty Financial. Introduced in a meandering livestream on X Monday, the Trump family and their associates described World Liberty Financial as a crypto platform that would let users conduct transactions without a bank sitting in the middle and extracting fees -- a concept known as decentralized finance, or DeFi. While short on details, Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump both stressed repeatedly that World Liberty Financial's primary goal was to make DeFi more broadly accessible. "It's truly our job to make it understandable," said Eric Trump during the livestream. "We have to make it intuitive, we have to make it user-friendly, and we will." Former President Donald Trump joined the call as well, stressing his pro-crypto stance. "I do believe in it," said Trump of cryptocurrency generally. "It has a chance to really be something special."
The Trumps aren't alone in leading World Liberty Financial. They're joined by crypto veterans Chase Herro and Zak Folkman, as well as Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor and friend of Donald Trump's. In addition to the platform itself, World Liberty Financial will come with a governance token, WLFI, which will provide owners the right to vote "on matters of the platform." Approximately 63 percent of the tokens will be sold to the public; 17 percent are set aside for user rewards, and 20 percent will be reserved for World Liberty Financial team compensation. [...] World Liberty Financial will face steep competition in a DeFi market already crowded with similar services, among them Aave, Compound, Venus Protocol, and others. "DeFi is pretty mature, especially on the over-collateralized side," says Zach Hamilton, founder of crypto startup Sarcophagus and venture partner at VC firm Venture51. But the Trumps need not necessarily do anything novel, if they can capitalize on their mammoth public platform to peddle the new venture. "[World Liberty Financial] is launching with the most free marketing that any crypto company could ever get," says Hamilton. "Trump is the king of living rent free in people's minds." "I welcome any effort to bring DeFi into the mainstream," says Brad Harrison, CEO of Venus Protocol. "But like the autopilot in a Tesla, DeFi may give the appearance of something that's simple, but the inner workings are complex. Without a solid grasp of its nuances in the hands of seasoned technologists and financial engineers, a new platform risks being more of a branding exercise than a substantive and safe contribution to the space."
The Trumps aren't alone in leading World Liberty Financial. They're joined by crypto veterans Chase Herro and Zak Folkman, as well as Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor and friend of Donald Trump's. In addition to the platform itself, World Liberty Financial will come with a governance token, WLFI, which will provide owners the right to vote "on matters of the platform." Approximately 63 percent of the tokens will be sold to the public; 17 percent are set aside for user rewards, and 20 percent will be reserved for World Liberty Financial team compensation. [...] World Liberty Financial will face steep competition in a DeFi market already crowded with similar services, among them Aave, Compound, Venus Protocol, and others. "DeFi is pretty mature, especially on the over-collateralized side," says Zach Hamilton, founder of crypto startup Sarcophagus and venture partner at VC firm Venture51. But the Trumps need not necessarily do anything novel, if they can capitalize on their mammoth public platform to peddle the new venture. "[World Liberty Financial] is launching with the most free marketing that any crypto company could ever get," says Hamilton. "Trump is the king of living rent free in people's minds." "I welcome any effort to bring DeFi into the mainstream," says Brad Harrison, CEO of Venus Protocol. "But like the autopilot in a Tesla, DeFi may give the appearance of something that's simple, but the inner workings are complex. Without a solid grasp of its nuances in the hands of seasoned technologists and financial engineers, a new platform risks being more of a branding exercise than a substantive and safe contribution to the space."
Tech Bro Super Bowl (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Tech Bro Super Bowl (Score:5, Informative)
I'd say they'd gone full tech bro, but I suspect they're all bro and no tech.
Here's a few opening excerpts from an article about the "Trump family’s crypto guru" Chase Herro [financialpost.com].
Should instill the appropriate amount of confidence in the project...
Behind the Trump crypto project is a self-described 'dirtbag of the internet'
Chase Herro has sold a lot of things in his career. Weed. Weight-loss “colon cleanses.” A US$149-a-month get-rich-quick class. Now he’s adding another line to his resume: the Trump family’s crypto guru.
Herro is the dealmaker behind World Liberty Financial, the crypto project that Donald Trump and his two older sons have been promoting on social media in recent weeks, according to two people involved with the project. Herro’s long-time business partner Zachary Folkman is also playing a key role.
Yet Herro, a fast-talking 39-year-old who shows off his fancy cars and private-jet rides on social media, is an unknown in the crypto world. ... The only crypto project with which he was publicly affiliated attracted only a few million dollars and suffered a devastating hack. A token he promoted on influencer Logan Paul’s podcast dropped 96 per cent afterward. In one speech in 2018, he called himself “the dirtbag of the internet” and said that regulators should “kick s—heads like me out.”
“You can literally sell s– in a can, wrapped in piss, covered in human skin, for a billion dollars if the story’s right, because people will buy it,” Herro said about crypto in a 2018 YouTube video recorded as he drove in a Rolls-Royce. “I’m not going to question the right and wrong of all that.”
Red flags
Herro’s involvement isn’t the only red flag when it comes to World Liberty. The white paper lists 18-year-old Barron Trump – a college freshman with no known crypto expertise — as “chief DeFi visionary.”
Herro is described in the white paper as the person responsible for “data & strategies.” His friend Folkman is listed as “operations lead.” Folkman used to run a service called Date Hotter Girls where he taught seminars about how to pick up women. “OK, how many guys came here to learn how to take girls home and bang them?” Folkman said in a speech in 2014. The trademark for World Liberty is registered to a company using the same address in Puerto Rico as another company run by Herro and Folkman.
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Well that and being an obese 78 year old man with dementia.
Free advice (Score:4, Insightful)
My instinct is to run away from this as fast as I can. I believe crypto is bad enough on its own, but one run by these people, what can go wrong ?
Re: Free advice (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, no shit. The trumps have had endless problems getting their dodgy money through banks. More and more banks are refusing to do business with them, so theyâ(TM)re trying to make sure thereâ(TM)s ways for them to get their Russian money and then convert it to dollars reliably.
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I suspect it to be one more scheme to finance their father's legal troubles with the fool's money voting for the Donald, after the book and the running shoes...
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Wait... what rhymes with "pump" and "dump"?
Re: Free advice (Score:5, Insightful)
If so, why aren't they simply using one of the gazillion cryptos already existing? Some are barely traceable, and can then be converted to USDT or other USD pegged crypto, then exchanged for real money. I suspect it to be one more scheme to finance their father's legal troubles with the fool's money voting for the Donald, after the book and the running shoes...
Yup. When looking at Trump business dealings, you have to consider where the grift is. They aren't going to do any business deal that doesn't allow them to skim a little off the top, and in a crypto scheme, who knows how much that little off the top actually is? It's custom made for their style of "business."
Re: Free advice (Score:4, Insightful)
How do you steal from people if they're falling for someone else's scam?
Criminals are just as disorganized and selfish as normal people. It's not like they all get together and agree to add up their winnings and share it equally. "After all, we're not communists" -- Barzini
Co-conspirators? (Score:2)
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Scammers are always on the lookout for other scammers. It's how they "think".
Re: Free advice (Score:2)
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Re: Free advice (Score:2)
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Hey - it's hard being a grifter these days. People catch on to your scams way too quickly! You have to start bootstrapping the next scam before you're even done with the last one [cnbc.com]...
MAGA Customers (Score:5, Insightful)
They understand giving up their hard earned cash for sneakers and bibles and gold coins with their Dear Leader Trump's face on them, but it's a tough stretch for Billy Bob and Mary Sue to understand and buy this "Internet Money."
Re:MAGA Customers (Score:5, Insightful)
They understand giving up their hard earned cash for sneakers and bibles and gold coins with their Dear Leader Trump's face on them, but it's a tough stretch for Billy Bob and Mary Sue to understand and buy this "Internet Money."
If the Great Leader tells them it's good, they'll buy it.
Re:MAGA Customers (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone who makes the willing choice to believe the lies spewed by Trump, Vance and their surrogates and lackeys is a MORON.
Anyone who chooses to believe their simplistic populist solutions to complex problems is a MORON.
Big difference.
Re:MAGA Customers (Score:4, Insightful)
MAGAs screwing over MAGAs? Oh the horror! And then they'll blame it on Haitian's "eating my bits".
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Unfortunately, what happens instead is they give their money to this grifting shitheel, and then complain that the economy sucks because they gave all their money to a grifting shitheel.
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... Haitian's "eating my bits"
I see you and I both use the same porn filter.
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Even when they bought NFT "playing cards" they got some cool pictures of their beloved Trump that they could look at and show to others in the cult.
But Trump Crypto? There is nothing tangible. Nothing to wear, handle or show. I think it will be harder convincing them, particularly as many of them have already given much of their disposable income to pay f
DJT Media stock (Score:2)
Previously, when they buy things their Dear Leader tells them to buy they actually get something. A Chinese-made red hat. Gold sneakers. Gold coins.
But Trump Crypto? There is nothing tangible. Nothing to wear, handle or show. I think it will be harder convincing them, particularly as many of them have already given much of their disposable income to pay for his lawyers etc. so many of them are tapped out.
This is especially true for everyone that invested in DJT Media stock, [yahoo.com] (Truth Social .com).
currently trading at:
$16.67
-0.61
(-3.54%)
All history makes more sense. (Score:2)
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Previously, when they buy things their Dear Leader tells them to buy they actually get something. A Chinese-made red hat. Gold sneakers. Gold coins. Even when they bought NFT "playing cards" they got some cool pictures of their beloved Trump that they could look at and show to others in the cult. But Trump Crypto? There is nothing tangible. Nothing to wear, handle or show. I think it will be harder convincing them, particularly as many of them have already given much of their disposable income to pay for his lawyers etc. so many of them are tapped out.
If they can tie some sort of NFT badge saying, "I Donated to The God Emperor's Glorious Future," with a picture of Donald on it for every $100 tossed into MAGA coin, they'll make an absolute killing with his worshipers.
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Previously, when they buy things their Dear Leader tells them to buy they actually get something. A Chinese-made red hat. Gold sneakers. Gold coins. Even when they bought NFT "playing cards" they got some cool pictures of their beloved Trump that they could look at and show to others in the cult. But Trump Crypto? There is nothing tangible. Nothing to wear, handle or show. I think it will be harder convincing them, particularly as many of them have already given much of their disposable income to pay for his lawyers etc. so many of them are tapped out.
But I don't think they'd know that when making the purchase. I would imagine that they'd imagine that they will be buying something tangible to hold in their hands. I'd wager that they'll think they're gonna get some sort of shiny electronic token with Dear Leader's face on it and a digital readout displaying the value of their purchase that updates in real time. I'd also wager that in reality, they'll get a piece of paper that says it's an official certificate with Donny's name on it, and that will placate
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If he stops running for office and just runs that scam, I'm all for it.
Oblig (Score:5, Informative)
—xkcd [xkcd.com]
The future of Bankruptcy (Score:2, Insightful)
This time, he won't even need to file bankruptcy. (Score:2)
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Multiple time bankrupt "billionaire" launches yet another half baked business venture to sucker fools out of their funds.
Eventually the faithful will rage quit that Orange Jesus betrayed them...but not before they lose everything they can.
Sam Bankster Fraud deserves a new friend where he's living now, and Mafia Don is doing everything he possibly can to move in with his family.
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Of course not, the Dear Leader cannot fail unless sabotaged by his enemies. When the crypto scheme inevitably fails, Dear Leader will point out which of his political enemies was to blame, and direct his marks to take out their rightful vengeance on them, noting for the record that he said to do it peacefully.
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Is there a way we can fast-forward to the rage quit? I'm tired of being collateral damage to the people that haven't figured it out yet.
Liberty Financial? (Score:3, Insightful)
"Make Finance Great Again"
Good grief these people. After all the other money grubbing shit they've pulled, they're rolling out a crypto scheme. I mean, the only truly shocking part of it is that it took them this long to realize what the grifting potential is on a crypto platform.
I look for them to be precisely dumb enough to think they can just dip their fingers in the pot anytime they want without consequence. Gonna get real interesting when we find out exactly *how* they're doing that somewhere down the line. I can't imagine any scenario that doesn't result in us finding out this whole thing was a front for collecting money to help pops with his legal woes. The crypto in this case feels even more scammy than other cryptos, and they all feel scammy. This has zero potential positive outcomes from the start, then you add in who is spinning it up and all the red alerts and klaxons start going off.
Woe be to the fool who tosses so much as a penny at this shit and ever expects to see it again. It'll be entertaining when it blows up, but perhaps our world should have some standard above, "The trainwreck was rather enjoyable to watch from afar."
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You know the SEC will eventually get involved and get tied up in court for a decade. There's a good chance the case will land before a Trump appointed judge who will do everything in their power to stall or outright dismiss.
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You know the SEC will eventually get involved and get tied up in court for a decade. There's a good chance the case will land before a Trump appointed judge who will do everything in their power to stall or outright dismiss.
It's gonna take a generation or more before we rid ourselves of the stain of Trump, even if he isn't elected a second time. And if we elect him a second time, I fear the world will never be able to get the blood off.
Re: Liberty Financial? (Score:2)
World Money in the toilet Financial (Score:2)
ridiculous and transparent (Score:2)
At this point the most plausible scenario is that since around 2012 we're characters in somebody's novel.
And the Author has no respect for their audience. And is a raging alcoholic^W meth head.
Money laundering (Score:4, Insightful)
He's doing the same with his DJT stock. it's just a way to funnel money into his pocket, particularly from foreign governments.
Anyone remember when Jimmy Carter was forced to sell his peanut farm? Oh how far we've come...
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>> It's just money laundering.
Yep, it totally is.
Re:Money laundering (Score:4, Insightful)
More than likely it's from the Russian mob or others linked to Putin, but unless someone hacks the financial statements and releases them, we'll never know.
starting crypto and defi (Score:2)
> described World Liberty Financial as a crypto platform that would let users conduct transactions without a bank sitting in the middle and extracting fees
You create a crypto offering when you want to become the bank. How does WLF make money if there are no transaction fees? They sure aren't just hoping that they hold something of value that you need. They make money by becoming the middle man and extracting fees.
I suspect that the Trumps might have a hard time banking in real life, makes sense that they
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You can always design your 'crypto' so that you're the only transaction approver and extract a fee per transaction.
The only difference from other systems is that it's grossly inefficient, most of the gateways to standard banking are scams, and you're certainly not providing any guarantees.
The real question is why TrumpCoin wasn't minted before DodgeCoin became a thing.
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> described World Liberty Financial as a crypto platform that would let users conduct transactions without a bank sitting in the middle and extracting fees
You create a crypto offering when you want to become the bank. How does WLF make money if there are no transaction fees?
They make money by minting the tokens and selling them to gullible idiots, I mean, customers.
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That is either an infinite resource, where the value of each token goes down when you print more, or there is a finite profit cap. Either one is not a good business and looks more like a short-term cash grab.
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That is either an infinite resource, where the value of each token goes down when you print more, or there is a finite profit cap. Either one is not a good business and looks more like a short-term cash grab.
You're really worried on behalf of crypto-scammers because after their short-term cash grab the worthless tokens that they haven't managed to dump might become worthless? Oh, those poor scammers!
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My point is that is does not look like a real business but looks like a scam.
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Our point is that indoctrinated cultists are not known for doing due diligence before getting caught up in scams.
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As if they care about the dilution effects when they're sitting on hundreds of millions worth of pre-mine. Oh no, I just diluted everyone else's share by printing more, which I conveniently deposited 20% of in my wallet to offset my dilution...
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> they're sitting on hundreds of millions worth of pre-mine
Believing that is part of the problem. I believe that they have a worthless nothing.
Who said anything about 'mining'?
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Money laundering business (Score:3, Insightful)
His NY criminal case (Score:2)
Was about using company funds to pay for a whore and covering it up. Thanks to Trump Crypto you can pay for whores and no one will know!
There is nothing (Score:3)
the Trumps can't grift!
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Criminalcurrency (Score:4, Insightful)
Crypto is a criminal's best friend. He wants to do it at the federal gov level. What idiot would base their country on a currency they have zero control over, is manipulated, and is deeply connected to organized crime and hostile nations.
THey probably plan a rug-pull (Score:3)
If the orange moron does not get elected by enough other morons, that is. Well, come to hink of it, if he, as president, orders that rug-pull, he would have immunity, right?
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The SEC wouldn't be able to prosecute a sitting president, and he could try to pardon himself as he leaves office as well.
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Only if it's "official conduct" and rugpulling citizens in a private crypto scam that predates becoming President is pretty clearly not "official conduct."
It's a horrific decision by SCOTUS, but it's not 100% blanket immunity that allows him to shoot someone in the face and walk away like nothing happened. There would still be hearings and a court finding if the actions in question were "official" or not, just the same way we are going to see happen for the J6 case now that it's remanded back to a trial ju
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That SCOTUS ruling relates to former presidents. The DOJ policy https://www.justice.gov/olc/op... [justice.gov] says no prosecuting *sitting* presidents, full-stop.
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Oh, what my brain mis-parsed from that . . . (Score:2)
I know it's a brain-fart, and it's my personal brain-fart - but I thought it was a mental Kodak that had to be shared. You read it, you can't un-read it! X^D
Just give Trump your money (Score:4, Insightful)
At this point, if you really believe Trump is a businessman, digital pioneer, real estate developer, great President, and that Democrats are evil, want to transition your children at school while flooding the country with migrants while taking away your guns, etc., please just give Trump all of your money right now. Sell your home, retirement savings, car, jewelry, Television, sell everything, and write him a check. Buy Trump's gold "assassination edition" sneakers, piece of Trump's debate suit, The Trump Superhero NFT collection, load up on Truth Social stock, Trump trading cards, Trump Crypto, etc. Do it now before supplies run out! Trump needs your money now to finance his lavish lifestyle, and Make America Great Again!!!
Seriously though, how is a crypto exchange not just another scheme to take illegal campaign contributions from foreign countries, dictators, enemies of America, and launder it into Trump's pocket? What Trump has proven time and again, is he has more conflicts on interest than Hunter Biden has mysterious laptops. Pointing this out to Trump's cult is a waste of time, so please if you're still MAGA, please do yourself and all of us a favor and just give everything to Trump now, and once he's president again, you'll know exactly how much he really cares about you or your family's welfare.
Listen brother, all da rackets, all da time! See? (Score:2)
Let the suckers get fleeced. (Score:3)
I'm done having empathy for anybody that touches anything that guy is involved in. Whether it's 25 cents or your life savings, at this point you've ignored enough to have your fleecing be largely your own fault.
The guardrails are lining the staircase, and signs mark the danger. If you choose to jump over them, that's on you.
Litmus Test (Score:2)
It will be interesting to see how much buy in he gets.
I suspect one thing a lot of MAGA folks have come to terms with over the past few years is the idea that even if they love Trump and what his government would do, he isn't really that competent.
If you believe that it it could still make sense to keep investing in Truth Social since you're betting on the hype, and the idea he'd use the Presidency to throw money at it.
But actually passing lots of money through his financial institution? I think even the mo
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I guarantee this is what the next week looks like:
today: launching our shitcoin! MAGA!
tomorrow: buy our shitcoin and stick it to banks and big government! MAGA!
sometime in the first 48 hours, after mysterious buys from outside the US (funneled through various VPN endpoints): look at the resounding success of our shitcoin! We have over $X million deposited in just the first 2 days! (of foreign funds from unknown interests). Get in now while it's early and get rich from our shitcoin! MAGA!
sometime in the n
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The Trumps involved in a Ponzi scheme? (Score:3)
How could this be???
Ape sh@t (Score:2)
Stable Genius Cult Labs (tm) (Score:2)
> "It's truly our job to make [crypto] understandable," said Eric Trump during the livestream.
The same Trump U graduates who brought us bleach & ivermectin Covid cocktails, anti-shark batteries, Sharpie hurricane herding, hurricane nuking tech, magnet-suppressing water, RC golf balls, turbo-charged golf carts, lip inflators, high-tilt platform shoes, instant ear repair, wife-hiding panels, and ketchup-based face tanner.
This is going to make a lot of money (Score:2)
This is going to make a lot of money--for some black hat; because as we all know, the Trump family is the biggliest on cyber security.
Whaddya think? A call from the wallet inspector, or maybe just trying top 100 passwords to root their servers?
Perhaps un-patched known vulns just to be sure. Shouldn't be hard. I just hope it doesn't ALL go to Putin.
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Putin is the one that will be depositing the money so his most famous asset can use it to get elected and fuck over NATO.
Putin has more money than he knows what to do with already. More money isn't useful in comparison to shuffling a few million into a thinly-veiled money launder, where it comes out as USD in Trump's account. Oh no, Putin's shitcoin will be worthless if Trump sells and rugpulls - unless that's the entire purpose...
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fools and their money (Score:2)
Karma and Financial Darwin working arm-in-arm. (Score:2)
After offering NFTs... (Score:2)
An obvious scam (Score:3)
The article doesn't explain how the tokens will be created. My guess is that a token will be generated when you pay World Liberty Financial some real money for it. They will invest that money in whatever they like and reap profits from it. Meanwhile you can trade your imaginary tokens amongst yourselves as you please.
"Approximately 63 percent of the tokens will be sold to the public; 17 percent are set aside for user rewards, and 20 percent will be reserved for World Liberty Financial team compensation."
Probably the value of the tokens will float like Bitcoin. If the value falls you will be able to redeem them for less of your real money and trump keeps the diff. If the value rises they will have loads of 'reserve' tokens to sell in exchange for even more real money, another win.
To be fair, it's obvious when you say 'crypto'. (Score:2)
Now, if you'll excuse me, having just typed that utterly horrific idea out, I'm going to go use a ball-peen hammer on my fingers.
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When does the Take Your Meds show come on?
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Presumably he doesn't know.
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I have this great idea for a new TV show. The premise is simple. Just toss a liberal celebrity into the ring with a couple of Marines, and spend about an hour filming him getting the living shit beat out of him. Wouldn't it be great, every night you can turn on your TV and watch some loathsome parasite like Gavin Newsom or Chuck Schumer getting a Front Street Face Lift? If that's not a hit, I don't know what is!
You keep posting this same thing again and again. Anonymously of course, you've been doing it for years.
Do you have anything original? Insightful?
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I have a better idea, make the Orange Clown caddy for Joe Biden.
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I have a better idea, make the Orange Clown caddy for Joe Biden.
You joke, but this Odd Couple reboot needs to happen.
I used to feel as you do about violence. (Score:2)
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Right, and the guy he was responding to who has been postulating a television show where people beat the shit out of "liberals" absolutely isn't advocating violence, is it?
Funny that you respond to this, but not the original call for violence.
He didn't let himself get trolled by an AC. (Score:2)
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Get ./ to put a filter, dufus! (Score:2)
by Black Parrot ( 19622 )
Do you sit around clicking refresh until a crypto story comes up, so you can post this again?
Ok, boomer.
+1
If all you crypto boys are tired of us (proud) 'nocoiners' posting about your various shitcoins, then get ./ to put in a 'cryptocurrency' story filer so we don't even see those stories - you know, the thing we've been asking for for years now [slashdot.org]
.
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"${TOPIC} is pretty mature, actually!" - random grifter who specializing in scamming money using ${TOPIC}