Newsletter Archives

• Crypto rip-offs are truly horrifying

  Posted on August 19, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  I’ve been spending my time lately reading a new book that describes cryptocurrency nightmares. It was like sitting in a movie theater, watching a horror film that makes audience members scream at the lead actress, “Don’t open that door!”

  The female star, of course, opens the door, no matter how loudly the audience yells. But instead of sitting in a darkened theater, you can read my favorite new book in a well-lighted room. You’ll still find yourself terrified by the scams and rip-offs that crypto promoters perpetrate on innocent altcoin buyers.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.34.0, 2024-08-19).

  Public Defender Altcoin, Bitcoin, Cardano, Celebrities, Cryptocurrency, Endorsements, Ethereum, Fraud, Newsletters, Ripple, Solana

• The year that was — scoring 2023

  Posted on December 18, 2023 at 02:45 CST by Max Stul Oppenheimer • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.51 • 2023-12-18

  Our next issue will be published on Tuesday, December 26, 2023. Happy Holidays!

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  It didn’t take a crystal ball.

  If, on January 1, 2023, I had made predictions about what would happen in the coming year, I would not have received high marks for boldness. In a way, that’s reassuring — there were no paradigm-shifting catastrophes that struck technology consumers.

  I would have predicted the following.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.51.0, 2023-12-18).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Legal Brief AI, blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Legal, Meta, Microsoft Services Agreement, Newsletters, Predictions, Section 230, Windows 11

• The best tech secrets of 2022: AirTags, TikTok, Twitter, oh my

  Posted on December 26, 2022 at 02:45 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.52 • 2022-12-26

  Look for our BONUS issue on January 2, 2023!

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Amid my efforts to help you protect yourself against some rather aggressive technologies, I’m glad to report that there’s been at least some progress this year on the worst aspects of our “labor-saving” devices.

  Please note: I’m not claiming that my columns by themselves caused any of the changes I describe below. I just report the problems. We can all celebrate when bad tech is improved, whoever may have developed a particular solution.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.52.0, 2022-12-26).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender AirTags, Cryptocurrency, Newsletters, NFT, Privacy, Security, Surveillance, TikTok, Twitter

• Bankrupt technology: How FTX crushed $40 billion to bits

  Posted on December 5, 2022 at 02:44 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The world’s fifth-largest cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, was valued by investors at $40 billion in early 2022 but wound up in bankruptcy last month and is now almost worthless.

  FTX, short for “Futures Exchange,” launched its service in 2019 and minted its own digital token with the ticker symbol FTT. With almost 250 million FTT units available to the public, FTX’s CEO and majority owner, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF, as he’s known) had a net worth of $26 billion in early 2022.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.49.0, 2022-12-05).

  Public Defender Bankruptcy, Cryptocurrency, FTT, FTX, Newsletters, Public Defender, Sam Bankman-Fried

• Kim Kardashian wants out of lawsuit for promoting EthereumMax

  Posted on August 15, 2022 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Attorneys for Kim Kardashian, the famous reality-TV star, have filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges investors lost millions of dollars after the celebrity promoted a new cryptocurrency named EthereumMax to more than 200 million followers on Instagram.

  EthereumMax is a digital product that went live in trading markets on May 17, 2021, under the symbol EMAX. Its promoters can’t be accused of thinking small: they issued an initial quantity of 2 quadrillion coins. (That’s 2 followed by 15 zeros or 2 million billion tokens.)

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.33.0, 2022-08-15).

  Public Defender Cryptocurrency, Newsletters, Public Defender

• Should you try USDTea technology or leaf it alone?

  Posted on June 6, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  A new cryptocurrency that trades on the Ethereum blockchain — USDTea — promises to maintain a stable value equivalent to $1.00 essentially forever. But is it a scam, a joke, or a new kind of technology that you could actually put to use in your own life?

  At first glance, it would be easy to assume that any new crypto coin is a con game. After all, 81% of initial coin offerings were found to be outright scams — that is, the promoters disappeared with all the money that eager investors poured in, according to a 2018 study by Satis Group LLC.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.23.0, 2022-06-06).

  Public Defender Cryptocurrency, Fintech, Newsletters, Public Defender, safety

• Buying crypto? Watch out for these 100 problems

  Posted on June 7, 2021 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.21 • 2021-06-07

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  People in the tech industry tend to find cryptocurrency very attractive as a concept. After all, crypto coins are totally digital — there are no paper bills or metallic coins to handle — and you can transfer these “digicoins” to anyone in the world, instantly (in theory).

  The reality is that digital money is prey to all kinds of hacks and cons. Many people have lost their life savings because they converted their hard currency into crypto and got hacked. Bad actors used one security flaw or another to transfer the victims’ funds to themselves.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.21.0 (2021-06-07).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.21.F (2021-06-07).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Cryptocurrency, Public Defender

• Buy the drives you need before ‘chia’ gets them all

  Posted on May 10, 2021 at 01:06 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Prices of high-capacity solid-state drives (SSDs) have almost doubled at the producer level just in the past few weeks — and shortages are already affecting us. The cause is a new kind of cryptocurrency that demands vast amounts of disk space around the world for its financial network to function.

  The new digital coins, which began trading only a week ago, bear the odd moniker of “chia.”

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.17.0 (2021-05-10).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Cryptocurrency, hard drives, Public Defender, SSDs