Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
Yeah, but how do you find the person making the threats?

Polymarket accounts are more-or-less just a crypto address.

Whatsapp accounts are somewhat easier to link to a real identity, but still not hard to at least obscure a bit.

The arm of the law struggles to reach across borders, and on the internet, it's quite plausible all those involved are in different jurisdictions.

Polymarket runs on Polygon, which, like most blockchains, has public history. If the user wasn't very careful about how they got their money into the system, it traces back to a public cryptocurrency exchange with KYC records.
loading story #47403411
loading story #47402230
loading story #47403467
>Yeah, but how do you find the person making the threats?

Subpoena Meta for all of the IPs of the account. Subpoena the ISPs for data who was using the IP. Bring in the likely people who were sending the message for questioning.

loading story #47402990
Polymarket's founder is Shayne Coplan, 27-year old "youngest self-made billionaire" (why do all billionaires seem devoid of ethics?)

A sane system would just throw him in jail until his illegal betting market implements KYC.

loading story #47403029
When power is concentrated to the government, the corruption is concentrated with it. Incarceration and the end of privacy don't restore the victims. A consumer protection bureau could bring a civil suit against Polymarket to pay the journalist.
loading story #47403233
loading story #47400900
loading story #47400777
Yes, I think they should implement KYC pretty darn quick, and perhaps there’s more they can do. But he didn’t make the death threats.
loading story #47401712
loading story #47402284
loading story #47402309
Same with Kalshi's founders. As if becoming rich, off gambling and speculation, is supposed to inspire some kind of admiration.

The lunacy of the mysticism of money.

loading story #47402929
loading story #47402776
> why do all billionaires seem devoid of ethics?

why do all NBA players seem so tall?

>(why do all billionaires seem devoid of ethics?)

The type of person at the top of a hierarchical system is always a direct reflection of its play rules. In late-stage internet capitalism you win by being the most unhinged and un-emphatic. Today's young adults grew up on twitter, 4chan, video game gambling and with influencers telling them that the only thing that matters is material wealth and status. This culture has moved more and more into the mainstream in the last decade.

loading story #47398831
A sane system doesn't "throw" human beings in jail for flippant and arbitrary reasons. Sociopaths exploit this, to be sure.
loading story #47400026
>A sane system would just throw him in jail.

<facepalm>

A capricious system that interprets based on whim, politics and influence is a large part of how we got here.

People like this and their less than moral path in which they further their endeavors succeed specifically because of this environment.

Polymarket is basically a platform to monetize petty stuff while also being able to monetize bad stuff. There is soooo much pressure to monetize bad stuff that once you poke a hole it's an uncontrolled leak. Polymarket recognized this, used it to scale, and then wisely used that money to get the legitimization and buy in that they needed to make the system (capriciously) say "this is fine for now you can keep going".

They basically pulled a "actually Mr. Banker, I owe you so much money that it's your problem" but for insider information. The other metaphor you could use if people with a steady supply of prescription opioids don't turn to street drugs.

loading story #47398358
loading story #47398366
KYC is nothing sane. in what world does anything give you or anyone else the right to decide to probe people up their rear end just because they want to do business? people like you are extremely dangerous.

loads of banks all over the world now demands to know what you plan to spend the money on just to withdraw a bit cash. Some will even deny you saying "well.. you shouldnt buy a new car anyway". all the KYC shit. how about just no?

loading story #47400832
yea just throw the CEO of microsoft in jail too because illegal transactions are set via Xbox live.
Betting markets are legally required to have KYC. If you or I operated a casino illegally we would ABSOLUTELY be thrown in jail.

Do you seriously think fraudulent Xbox live transactions are on the same level of the heinous insider trading going on in betting markets?

Or do you just think C-suite should be legally immune from accountability overall?

Polymarket's decentralized and anonymous nature was an intentional choice by its creator precisely because it enables illegal, anonymous transactions.

loading story #47399740
loading story #47400280
loading story #47398305
Putting aside this is sort of a knee-jerk reaction, if this was actually implemented you’d just see the role of the CEO change to basically be a highly-paid fall-guy. People in those positions today would vacate them for quieter roles behind the scenes, and corporations would put greater effort forth to hide their decision making processes. I don’t think it would be a better system.
>you’d just see the role of the CEO change to basically be a highly-paid fall-guy.

That seems to be assuming a world where CEOs actually face meaningful consequences and that feels like a good start.

loading story #47398919
loading story #47398633
Sure, and we can deal with that problem when it comes to it. For now, there are people at these companies that are clearly responsible and can be held accountable.
loading story #47399738