Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

626 - Simian Slurp feat. Ben McKenzie (5/9/22) (Patreon)

Published:
2022-05-10 02:59:28
Imported:
2026-06

Downloads

Content

Author, anti-crypto advocate (and yes, film & TV star) Ben McKenzie stops by to talk Cryptocurrency. We discuss the lies & fraud at the center of Crypto, the use of celebs to boost the scheme, and his experiences traveling to the Miami Bitcoin conference and a Bitcoin mining server farm to research his forthcoming book. 

Keep an eye out for Ben and Jacob Silverman’s forthcoming book. You can find some of their recent writing on the topic in Slate here: https://slate.com/author/ben-mckenzie

Files

Comments

Joey Fazzoli

Sometimes people will criticize capitalism but add modifiers like “crony capitalism” or “rentier capitalism”, implying theres a good version of capitalism that we just need new laws to achieve. I’ve heard this described as “defacing the building while defending it’s foundation”.

Joe

Finally, first.

Shiv

finally, something for the girlies 😍😍😍

Shiv

sorry :(

chapotraphouse

gotta do some fan service for the ladies every now and then

Kenneth Smith

My friends who are huge OC fans are gonna go apeshit when I tell them about this

Ozzie

Best part of watching the NBA playoffs is a crypto commercial every break.

Cooper DeMarse

Doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo do do do do

J.P. McD.

I'm putting the odds on genuine vs. satire of this post at 70% genuine. What do others think?

Gary Alexander

Oh no, Bernie will never win the 2020 primary now.

Major bit me

Damn did this cause inflation 3 trillion is a lot

Victor Prado

This guy is such an idiot, I’d rather If the boys just rambled on their take of cryptoshit…. Felix and Matt seem to have a interested and nuanced view of NFTs as the basis of a monetized content consuming hellscape… this guy just says “Bitcoin bad” “they lie” and “I have a degree in economics”

Calvin Bishop

Crazy that the OC guy is talking to me about crypto like a tenured professor

Hugo

Y’all need to coordinate guests with true anon. No more day old slop. Also, this guy loves telling people he has a degree in economics Not to knock him tho. Good guest

Jonathan France

I can’t help but think of “I drink your milkshake, I drink it up!” With all this talk about slurping and fraud…

Noah Cutts

It’s weird to hear Ben’s normal voice again after getting used to his gravely voice on Gotham

Noah Cutts

He’s correct though so I’m not sure why he’s the idiot here.

Vito Di Stefano

HAVENT LISTENED YET BUT I SWEAR TO GOD IF I DONT HEAR THE OC THEME SONG ON THIS EPISODE I

AKorgar

I guess snake emojis go here

Grimm

Imao everything he said was correct, you’re just mad that you fell for the scam

Alex

Scooby doo level crossover

Clean Shirt Piggie

Need a show where the boys disclose where they invest all them sub dollars

SH

Truly enjoying the chapo and trueanon listeners who fell for the crypto scam losing their shit in the comments of all these eps. How there’s any crossover is hilarious and incredible. And also extremely entertaining.

Osborne MOCs

If Schwarz doesn't go for the Crypto Bro OC remake he should pitch it to Danny McBride

Brendan Garcia

“Private money” is a bit like what Wittgenstein said about “private languages.” One for the philosophy heads.

barry

2nd best thing: the Abu Dhabi Starting Lineup

THEKILLERWHALE

Dude, Adam Brody needs to start his own currency and go to war with Ben.

THEKILLERWHALE

Chino was great! What is everyone complaining about?

Vincent Utah

General rule of thumb for the contemporary idiot like myself: If there’s a “new big thing” taking the market by storm and you don’t already have a shit load of money, DO NOT touch it! If someone pressures you to do otherwise, pour sugar into their gas tank when nobody’s looking.

Vincent Utah

I’m convinced anyone who uses the term “nuance” unironically today needs to be kicked off the internet for their own good. You guys bet it all on black and you lost. Learn from your mistakes and stop gambling on the stupid shit billionaires throw at you to fund their next venture.

BigBoto

Every time I read about the latest crypto/nft hack I get a little bit of a chubby.

BigBoto

It's pretty obvious a lot of it goes to support the ChapoFYM guys and buying Matt a new chair to replace the one that blew the fuck up during a Cushvlog. Try to bone up on your Chapo lore, friend.

THEKILLERWHALE

Good on him for not becoming a fake tough guy just because he plays one on TV.

Aaron Hamil

I disappointingly read the guest as Bam Margera

William

Yes, this barely remembered fact, regardless of it's veracity should push us to discount everything he has to say immediately

William

Sounds like you're just jealous

IHaveHemorrhoids

I would say they're framing it as the future of money because the companies were once hoping to eventually be bought out by the government or contracted by the government to circulate it. That's an absurd scenario, so it's a bogus claim but still.

William

Lol you could not have reacted in a more revealing way. Yes, I am 'dick riding ' because I don't immediately discount what someone has to say based on their imagined background

justdave

Scibbity dibbiity? Shubop shubop, badoing!

tabbyswipe

This is the gotham chapo crossover we needed wtf so amazing

etienne

hey where's the guy who's always whining that the eps aren't about Russia? love that guy

Satcomdaemon

nothing like copaganda. Ben could do better work by doing affinity marketing and get police departments to tie their pensions to bitcoin...

Dyyyyylan

What is this debaser cover 😈

grimbo

Jerry has loads of Gaped Apes he needs to slurp

Huge Logo

You guys will let anyone come on and say the most uninformed stuff on crypto. It’s wild.

Jennifer Reft

Appreciate the "Lords of Finance" s/o it is a great book, not just on the gold standard but the making of the Fed, the economic origins of WWII, and the economic policy of the Great Depression. 14/10 highly recommend.

justdave

Grifting the downwardly mobile middle class, or, the chapo method to making money

justdave

This guy seems nice, but what are his credentials?

Ian

We've been blessed with some incredible comment sections

Billy Thunderhawk

Low energy episode. Pathetically low riffing in this. Crypto/nft stuff is so boring! We all get it, it's dumb, why keep giving it air time?

SF

He's right, sorry you're mad.

SF

Shut up, Jerry.

SF

Great episode, nice dude. Sadly every time the show has an interview episode a bunch of listeners have a meltdown about it in the comments section.

SF

sorry you got scammed lol

Null_null

Not sure if it’s been said a zillion times, but the fact that Matt Damon narrated the documentary Inside Job makes his crytpo advocacy even funnier.

Huge Logo

LOL - I am sorry that I suggested you know something true instead of what was said on this episode. I forget how smart people from the TV are. We should always do what they say 👍

Null_null

He says over and over again he’s only got an undergrad Econ degree.

Null_null

Only if they’re Reese Witherspoon and Jimmy Fallon, right my dude?

Huge Logo

Omg null I totally get that obscure nuanced cultural reference- please don’t explain - they did or said something that makes them bad, right? And then if I listened to them then I would also be bad, right? Are you a professional comedy writer because you should be 🙏 you took my comment and said it too but added names. Bravo 👏 can I interest you in some laughtercoin? Molten hot crypto - Going to the moon! I’m telling you about it because I can tell you are all about bizness.

caroline

we simply don’t know

Bill

This dude is married to Morena Baccarin...respek

Huge Logo

Yes - the person telling you that this episode that cherry picked bullshit stories for laughs is not a good source of actual info was the one who was duped. But you- nothing gets past you. I bet you are well known for being super smart. 👍 thanks so much for sharing.

M.R. Alchemist

This ep's vibe was low-key high-key in the 'chaotic good' quadrant

JV

RE: Felix talking about difficulties sending money to Palestine, any of you already subbing on here can get money directly to people in need via this Patreon, Gaza Mutual Aid Collective: https://www.patreon.com/Gazamutualaidcollective/posts. It's run by volunteer diaspora Palestinians, 100% of all the money goes direct to those in Gaza who need money for food, clothes, medical costs, rebuilding etc. Check it out!

H G

He sounds so handsome! more handsome guests

SH

Plus the name is cool

Huge Logo

Okay that’s fair - the ratio always bends towards the proper take online. You are like the gift that keeps on giving. I appreciate you. 👏

Noah Cutts

Really easy to tell which people commenting got grifted by NFT scammers or some obvious scam shitcoin lol.

Noah Cutts

Based on the angry commenters who were clearly scammed by NFTs or some shitcoin, it’s clearly important subject matter that their listeners need to hear-so they can afford to keep their monthly Patreon payments going, lol!

Alex

Nothing illustrates the difference between these two podcasts better than TrueAnon talking to the reporter and Chapo talking to the guy from the O.C.

will field

Man fuck crypto and everyone involved in it but this dude is booooooring. Absolutely no sauce

Brendan Garcia

Inflation was caused by the trillions (like 6-10) of dollars the Fed gave away to corporations in the Covid relief packages. Of course what most people remember about those was the $1200 they gave to individuals, which only totaled like half a trillion, but that’s enough to blame all the inflation on “the government giving away free money, and now look what happens.”

Brendan Garcia

He’s also a former teen idol, he’ll have you know.

Sifl

Felix is right to point out that there needs to be an alternative way to move money because the financial system is dominated by the US and its allies. But the thought that crypto currency is that alternative is like looking to Amazon Care as a universal healthcare solution. A true alternative currency almost by definition has to be free from commodification so that it can never be captured by the deep pockets of the capitalists and subject to the ravages of the markets. And the only way such an alternative currency could exist is for there to be an international worker's revolution that could organize a workers' currency that would exist entirely outside the realm of capitalism.

Brendan Garcia

Yea, the revolution isn’t going to be the subject of Super Bowl commercials. That should be obvious.

Andy Tawse

Christman's Look Around Cafe. Take my money

Null_null

Right. I just think Felix is making a very basic real life use case argument from the perspective of somebody who knows they won't see the destruction or even end of global capitalism in their lifetime.

Null_null

You should keep posting, Brett.

etienne

yes! chapo has comedian guests! did you start listening to the show 2 weeks ago?

Huge Logo

Sure thing null 👍

etienne

Like in context with the transaction fees and the weird bullshit of cryptocurrency for the purpose of evading sanctions it's like the difference between sending a check over the USPS and shipping a boat of gold bricks, which is fine and dandy for literally contraband but just not something I want banks completely tied in let alone fundamentals of an economic system. As the guy was saying, deflationary cycles and money supply, yada, yada Like, even gold is a fake currency, it's just real difficult to augment the supply. It has a number of actual uses in electronics but it's a bit marginal. It's kept around because as I was saying, in a pinch, you can just ship over a bunch of gold bars, and most nation states will accept that to settle foreign debt. But they don't have to!

orc

the closing song slaps what is it

etienne

this guy talks like a chopped and screwed remix of Line Goes Up by Dan Olson. Like I agree with what he *says*, it's just jarring the way he goes about it. It's like a random subsampling of the last 2 years of Motherboard articles on the subject

David Browm

Excuse me? Ryan has no sauce? Commissioner Gordon has NO sauce?

David Browm

Ah yeah, the truly academic text, Tueanon

Alex

Relax guys

Cindy Carrot

Idk who but it's a cover of debaser by pixies, check out the original too!

Jonah Quest

Wait wait it’s the hot guy from the OC? Holy heck

JASON

Shitting on crypto, Chapo is trying to purge 99% of its Patreon subscribers

Ben

I like it when minor celebs come on and have something interesting to say! dan boeckner came on and I started listening to wolf parade again. That was cool!

I am become reply guy

Christman in the cut mentally rehearsing his pitch for a standing room only sliders bar.

thepetchel

Has Ben listened to Matt and Felix's OC review?

BryceSprungstein

they were co-authors on the same piece about crypto

justdave

Econ 101 with Drake and Josh

Juji Gatame

I have preserved his credentials as an NFT, if you purchase 3 NFTs you can unlock the bronze credential check package

james

Wait Matt was there???

Night and the City

The best guest even to have been masturbated to by Amy Adams.

Mike D

I was enjoying and then I saw my guy married Morena Baccarin, who is this man and how has fortune smiled upon him like this

caroline

whyd they take this as you bashing chapo damn

Gavin Anderson

Felix's "nuanced" view is the dumbest part

Alal Alal

I don't even disagree with him but he is pretty smug. also I gotta laugh at a quarter of these comments being all OMG GUY FROM TV SHOW I LIKE

Alal Alal

imagine being proud to know this, lol

Tim

Kudos to the boys for not just interviewing him about his wife for an hour. That’s what I would have done. Stronger men than I.

Clint Pelvis

etienne - can u plz elaborate

Aaron L

instead of getting pissed of at everyone commenting, how about you tell us exactly WHAT was uninformed about what he said...

Huge Logo

He basically cherry picks stories to support his narrative. For starters I have had crypto for years. I have no idea where to even buy the stuff he is talking about. I am sure I could get it on an exchange but I have never even heard of it. He also ignores the fact that some crypto is used as support technologies for businesses around the world. Vechain is used by Wal mart and BMW already for logistics - VRA has a patent on proof of view tech. This is real stuff that is in use. Not a scam. I don’t mess with NFT’s but I think they have the potential to one day allow smaller artists to get paid for their work. Especially in photography online. I won’t comment on Bored Apes besides that it all seems fucking stupid to me - but people forget that the people buying most of that paid 30 cents for a thousand Eth. So they don’t think about it in todays prices like the people who breathlessly report on it do. I won’t say there are not scams in crypto but you would have to be so fucking stupid to fall for them. That is part of what makes the stories so funny is that the people are so fucking stupid but we could find stories like this in anything that can be bought and sold.

etienne

totally out of context but can someone fill me in where the dryboys live now? I know they were all in NYC at some point but now I have good reasons to believe Matt and Felix moved out?

Isaac Jones

Matt is living in LA, Will remains in New York, and Felix is living in a storage unit half a mile from the largest GameStop in Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Isaac Jones

Just steal the pod for free it's incredibly easy

Isaac Jones

Felix spends it on onlyfans content that he refuses to look at as a warrior poet's display of self control

etienne

okay perfect just wanted to make sure we don't have intel on felix

Poppy Chulo

Agreed. Honestly, can you imagine being married to Morena Baccarin and doing anything else besides having her sit on your face? I would write a book, but it would be about Morena Baccarin sitting on my face for three hundred pages dictated to a ghostwriter while she was sitting on my face.

andrew rogers

Southland is a show that whips. Basically about how it’s impossible to be a cop and not become an evil hollowed out shell of a person

Aaron L

So what you're saying is you've had experience with crypto where you haven't been left "holding the bag" and how do you not understand that "you have to be so fucking stupid to fall for them" is the same damn thing as he says in the podcast where "if you lost all your money, you need to watch this one hour video to understand crypto". btw I'm someone who literally got bitcoin in 2012 when it was $10/coin and have friends who had mining rigs who has seen the initial "it's a revolutionary new currency" literally turn into a new securities market. They even mention in the episode (and I agree) that the technology isn't inherently bad, but that doesn't mean that it didn't (almost immediately) change in it's usage to fit the grooves of capitalism. Remove your personal bias, my dude, and take a longer, deeper look.

Luke Rybuck

Fantastic episode, thanks you guys!

THEKILLERWHALE

This is true, but it only worked for Felix because he had to moved a concentrated amount of money so that the transaction costs did not make it untenable. If you are sending a portion of your paycheck back home every month, you still need to pay the exorbitant transfer fees and the bitcoins of the world do not offer an alternative and probably never will, in spite of this being a key pillar of their purported justification for existence.

THEKILLERWHALE

He was adopted by a rich California family, became an architect and then good things just kept happening for him

etienne

consumer I can write a paragraph or 3 if you specify which part you're curious on And yeah John that's kinda what I was saying. Shipping a bunch of gold bricks is going to be expensive as fuck. That's why people don't do it anymore unless they're like North Korea or something

etienne

kinda agree with the NFTs being a chill way for a small sub niche of artists to get paid. I think there's a couple areas where patreon/gumroad/merch/commissions doesn't really work. As for VeChain, that's a funny case because I remember back when the whitepaper dropped and that kinda thing was the one text book example of what could be made better with block chains! I'm not completely convinced how exactly it's better than just MySQL plus a pile of code, but fine. That dovetails with: The most cautiously and realistic take I've seen as of late on blockchains is a blogpost from late last year by a software dev and blogger by the name of Avery Pennarun whose view is, basically, blockchains are shaking up the finance world and it's making lost of people invest in their payment processing back end, and while it might be based on blockchain at the bottom, good and refined designs will emerge. His example was the XML craze of the 90's, which forced everyone to get to know how to design good APIs, which generally worked out good for people. And just like XML itself was dropped later on, maybe blockchains are not even going to be retained! But the thing is that if one supply chain management in china is using blockchains to do traceability, that's nice for them, but it's industry news and in the best case it could be worth a 2 minute aside inside a pod that's on the subject of cryptocurrencies and speculation on that, not about *block chains* Also it's fucking chapo not the Wall Street Journal

etienne

tl;dr I'm sure VeChain is nice and NFTs could be nice for upstart gif artists but if it stayed at that we wouldn't be here now edit: also if you say that if you need to go look at *one* company in china doing supply chains on the block you're kind of the one cherry picking my dude

vermouth

Virgil texas commissary

etienne

"but people forget that the people buying most of that paid 30 cents for a thousand Eth. So they don’t think about it in todays prices like the people who breathlessly report on it do. " yeah those people are trying to bring in retail buyers so they can have a chance of liquidating their casino chits that are worth nothing except on paper. Is that fraud? I think you can make a case

Huge Logo

Aaron and etienne- I appreciate your replies. The stuff I am open to buying has a software component and I think about it more in the respect that some of this stuff could become vital as web3 rolls out. So my problem is really the way it is talked about as if it is all the same thing. Let’s go Brandon coin is not the same as Bitcoin - but if you listen to these Chapo crypto shows they present it that way. That’s what bothers me about the shows they do on this subject.

Aaron L

Etienne, thanks for putting it in far better words than myself lol and I appreciate the friendly convo Brett! (No hard feelings, my dude. Did not mean to come across that way if I did)

Aaron L

Southland Tales also whips, which is what I first read 'Southland' as in your comment lmao

Starry Pr1nce

Lmao "capitalism without rules is theft" ass guest.

Null_null

Most artists minting on OpenSea are losing money, so it’s not actually some sort of opportunity for upstart digital artists. Of course, the promise that it is, which Etienne so naively perpetuates here, is what continues to make the people running the exchanges and charging exorbitant fees the highest paid folks in the scam other than the whales manipulating the market. Congrats again, morons.

caroline

i am very dumb and silly why is that bad

etienne

yeah I know. I was trying to be as fair as magnanimous to NFTs as it's realistically possible to be, which is to say, if NFTs were limited to a way to symbolically take posession of a cool gif for a 3 digit sum of money to plug one gap in the arts biz, I think that would be overall okay, otherwise agreed

m

Lmfao what a trash guest

Huge Logo

Null - I would not buy anything off of open sea. Just a basic review of the site would give any thinking person pause. The people who run the site have no idea what they are doing even when they try to stack the decks they do it in the stupidest way possible. In the future a photographer in a conflict zone could post their images as NFTs and then not have to worry about whether someone steals the photo they risked their life to get. In order to use it a fee to the photographer would have to be paid. And fwiw lots of photographers get ripped off by big media companies that have the money to pay for the image. As it is now. Nothing like that exists right now - today if someone stole your photo you can only respond after if you find it. Even if you protect it. And then you have to sue them. Music and a lot of other arts already have ways to distribute and get paid — photography is an area of the visual arts that could use some help in this area.

etienne

just btw I had this idea in the shower, but if I were a cool brand trying to make a spicy online brand awareness campaign, I'd put out a line of NFTs that aren't NFTs. Just like make up a line of procedurally generated ugly cartoon characters and say they're rare and collectible but there's just nothing actually on the block chain. I think that could sollicit a number of laughs and smiles!

King Suck

take a shot every time he's a former teen idol

Tony Campbell

Guys. I'm sure Dan Olsen would come on if you asked him. Just ask, dudes.

Clint Pelvis

just kinda want to see u write more 🤷‍♂️

Null_null

Right. You're basically saying "Getty but on the blockchain." Like many such supposed revolutionary use cases for the blockchain/web3/whatever, it's just x existing thing but on the blockchain. The fact that it's on the blockchain doesn't mean that it won't, as soon as it is purchased and disseminated by one media company, be stolen thereafter once it exists in the world. It's the same way you can just copy/paste an ape. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding something. This is all beside the point, because when you sell your images to Getty in exchange for an initial fee and royalties, you're doing that because of the infrastructure they provide to both track usage of your image and take legal action against those who steal it! So you would have to have something like a host (like OpenSea) that would end up operating in the very same way as Getty (but not as good, but on the blockchain).

Null_null

No matter what you do the same old pyramid structure emerges and there very few winners, some middlemen, and lots and lots of losers. I'm so curious to know what existing platform gets musical artists paid in a way that is fair and equitable and not just ripping them off, btw.

Null_null

Lastly if you really want to protect your photos just watermark the fuck out of them. People have been doing this forever.

Huge Logo

Watermarks don’t work for a variety of reasons. Getty images does not protect them and once they are sold they are able to be taken forever more online. On web3 you could not repost the image without either permission or paying rights of the person sets it up that way.

etienne

my opinion was that NFTs could be neat for really small scale kinda symbolic uses for bragging rights, definitely not as DRM. Like for example I could commission a furry porn art for 200$ and after the fact it would be "mine", on some symbolic level; if I see an art piece that already exists, I can't really "buy" it to make it "mine", if it's digital, right? except! if it's a nft. Purely on a like, funny, hobby, throwing cash at starving artists type thing. I think that's just kinda neat. If you try to go further, you're just trying to crack the case of microtransactions or DRM, which, don't go there.

etienne

anyways overall fuck this shit

Alex Berkowitz

Take a shot all the time then sweaty

Huge Logo

Well I’m told my dick smells like a botanical garden by the guys at the shelter so I dunno about that. I am not online that much and I forget how exhausting debating things with people you otherwise basically agree with is - cheers 🍻

TugNuggins

Holy perfect timing. Chapo does it once again.

caroline

capitalism with rules… is also theft! makes sense thank u

A B

Fuck it. I'm now a navi.

Null_null

“ On web3 you could not repost the image without either permission or paying rights of the person sets it up that way. ”

Jen

Not playing the episode out with an abrupt cut to whatcha say was a mistake

Rae

I had no idea Ben McKenzie was this cool. I'm going to shamelessly love Gotham even harder now.