I could be more specific, but I would risk getting sued by Craig Wright and his friends

I want to leave you with this quote though

> “First ethical rule: If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.”

> ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder

Presumably Taleb wasn't showing up at the conference to promote and profit from whatever Craig Wright is doing these days, rather he was there to throw cold water on the entire crypto industry, so I don't think the indictment you mention really applies.

So you are actually saying that the reason that Taleb has "destroyed his credibility" is that he shared a stage with Craig Wright, it has nothing to do with anything he has said?

I've been following Taleb for years. I generally like abrasive style and his calling out of intellectual class. But some of his personal attacks on Bitcoin supporters is a little over the top.

From Twitter:

> [Peter McCormack] Would you discuss your findings in this paper with me. I’d like to explain to you why I think you are wrong. I believe this paper is not objective, rather written from a position of wanting to confirm your recent anti-Bitcoin position.

> [Taleb] Listen, fucking idiot. Go write your own rebuttal. The only good thing your amoeba brain is good at is in harassing mobs, intimidating innocent people who have a different opinion, pushing them to close their twitter accts. So stay quiet on my thread and keep your mouth shut.

I get that he doesn't want to engage in someone on a non-technical level or dumb down his argument, but these exchanges are off-putting. I haven't seem him express such consistent direct vitriol to others he considers fraudsters (central bankers, economists, pop-pyschology authors, journalists, etc). It's just weird that he's been going on a months long rage against people that invest their own money in something they believe in.

His paper might address this, but it seems like support for crypto to be a rather innocuous interest.

[0] https://twitter.com/PeterMcCormack/status/140673441067473715...

Peter McCormack could start by providing evidence for why the paper was wrong, instead was trying to bait Taleb into a Twitter thread that would have done no good to anyone. Good thing for Taleb that he didn't engage.

He did engage by calling him a "fucking idiot"

It’s hard to say “shut the fuck up” and have it be effective.

I think such a statement seems to disengage and also discourage future similar potential engagements.

>>I generally like abrasive style and his calling out of intellectual class.

twitter is definitely not the right medium for discussion of an academic paper, Taleb was right in calling him a fucking idiot

Thinking cryptocurrencies are a scam and then sharing a stage with Craig Wright at his own project's conference (after being warned by many people ahead of time) is a little like thinking Trumpism is a scam and then speaking at a QAnon conference.

It's just a completely nonsensical and baffling thing to do. As someone who generally likes Taleb, it made absolutely no sense to me. Craig Wright is essentially the most archetypal and most egregious cryptocurrency scammer in history, to the point of absurdity, and basically leads a Q-like cult full of delusional followers.

It's not about being negative towards cryptocurrencies. It's the completely contradictory behavior.