
The Fall of Overstock’s Mad King, Patrick Byrne - wallflower
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebter/2019/08/22/the-exclusive-inside-story-of-the-fall-of-overstocks-mad-king-patrick-byrne/
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olooney
The article makes it sound like his ouster had nothing to do with Maria
Butina, and everything to do with speculating on shady crypto ventures.

> The problem is, with just two tokens—representing Overstock’s and Tzero’s
> own shares—available to trade on Tzero’s platform, almost no one uses it.
> The company says it is aiming for 5 to 10 tokens by the end of the year.

A nearly empty stock exchange that no one uses. What a joke.

> Fumed Byrne in May, after investors bombarded him with calls and emails when
> he sold 900,000 shares of stock, “Frankly, I had no idea that shareholders
> would demand explanations of why and how I might want to use my cash derived
> from my labor and my property to pursue my ends in life.”

Nonsense. Every CEO is familiar with the concept of "skin in the game." You're
cashing out because you've lost confidence, and that sends a signal to your
shareholders.

~~~
orf
> A nearly empty stock exchange that no one uses. What a joke.

What a terrible, terrible website. No wonder nobody uses it. Who asks for your
email a section that fills the entirety of your window without giving you any
information as to what the site is (and no, "Enabling the market to tokenize
and trade digital assets through blockchain technology." isn't any
information):

[https://www.tzero.com/](https://www.tzero.com/)

Looks like a basic beginner marking site template filled with absolute
nonsense:

> Our goal is to make traditional markets more efficient, reliable, and
> accessible to everyone. We are creating platforms and products that overcome
> the limits and constraints of legacy market models by introducing new
> possibilities and making significant improvements to elevate the status quo.

Many paragraphs just like that, but none that really describe what it is, how
it benefits me or how I access it.

~~~
qroshan
This is every Blockchain project ever

Solving imaginary problems and doing a terrible job at it

~~~
elkos
I have the feeling that content on some Blockchain websites is created using
Markov chain algorithms.

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raintrees
First, to state where I am coming from, I am biased: I appreciate Byrne's
underdog role of refusing to submit to what he perceived as corruption through
Wall Street (hence his Dutch Auction option) as well as uncovering the
middlemen roles of front-runners in the stock exchange (among other issues).

So with that in mind, I label this article a type of hit-piece. What I see is
a person (Byrne) who has made profitable companies as well as unprofitable
ones, and who sets targets on difficult goals.

The political aspects of the whole Butina angle I treat with suspicious "wait
until all the cards have finally been revealed" caution, since there seems to
be extreme polarity in rhetoric on the political stage today. There have been
far too many cases of "what we know that just ain't so" just in the last 10
years I have been paying attention to for me to assume all the facts are in.
And when one challenges/attacks powerful figures, I expect there to be much
uproar/furor.

He seems to be doing the same thing another successful client of mine has been
doing, which is running one company to fund other ventures in other venues.
The author's main focus seems to be only on the first business (Overstock),
and on the effects the speculation by Byrne is having on it.

And Byrne is also the kind of person I try to be: When I want to learn
something, I dig into it fairly deep. Unfortunately, I sometimes get quite
angry at the corruption/unfairness of it all that I uncover during those deep
dives. But that is another rant for another post.

I am still in a "wait and see" mode. If Byrne's expectations of providing
blockchain-based land registries in countries that are suspected of being
highly corrupt in regards to property rights are successful, that alone is
going to improve many, many lives.

Likewise if the TZero platform can pick up speed cutting out the alleged
Settlement middleman (DTCC/Cede, see lawsuit re: Milburg Weiss), the market
may be more efficient, well, at least until the next group of people figure
out another way to game it.

Mises video (around 45:20):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFOpSTodk_U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFOpSTodk_U)
\- The whole thing is entertaining, if you have the time.

And Medici has MANY irons in the fire, if only a few of them work out, there
is much good to be accomplished in the world from it/them.

------
phaedryx
I work in Utah and know many smart and skilled people who have worked at
Overstock. They all have Patrick Byrne and Stormy Simon stories; some of the
most unbelievable things I have ever heard.

The entire place sounds like it was straight out of a Dilbert cartoon (read
through some of the glassdoor reviews, especially the older ones).

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rottyguy
Byrne's has had an interesting life to say the least. I followed him years
back when he was on a mission to fight naked short selling & steven cohen.
What a trip. That said, if you've not read his speech about his fight with
cancer, you owe it to yourself to do so. Probably one of the most inspiring
things I've read to date. Tried to post in it's entirety but too long for the
bots here so will just start with the intro (link follows).

Good evening, Heavy Hitters of the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge. I am deeply
honored to speak to you this evening.

There is a Zen saying that happiness is planting a tree knowing that you will
not be there to enjoy its shade. Tonight, I am thinking about the meaning of
that saying in the context of cancer and cancer research that is supported by
men and women such as yourselves.

Mr. Starr has asked me to speak to you about my own experience, my own
struggle with cancer, a struggle which occupied the three years of my life
immediately after college, as well as the three transcontinental bicycle rides
which helped me to recover physically and mentally from my cancer ordeal. I do
have a doctorate in philosophy from Stanford, which he mentioned, and he asked
me to share with you all the philosophical and inspirational lessons I learned
from these ordeals. I told him if I share all of the lessons, this is going to
be a very short speech.

I should tell you that I've never spoken publicly about cancer, and only
rarely privately, to a handful of friends. And to borrow a line from Oscar
Wilde, I warn you that you would have to have a heart of stone to listen to
the story of my struggle with cancer without laughing. I'll be laughing and
you're welcome to join in at any occasion. Also, I should tell you that I've
always declined requests to speak about cancer because I feel as though I’m
boasting, “Hey look at me, I cheated death.” And in general that’s just a bad
idea, because I think in the end, he will take the last round.

So with such caveats in place, per Billy's request, I will tell you my story
of cancer, pausing to note such meager philosophical and inspirational lessons
as I may.

Read more: [http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards.com/thread/13175/patrick-
by...](http://cmkxunitedforum.proboards.com/thread/13175/patrick-byrnes-
hitter-banquet-speech#ixzz5zQzQ6xsl)

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wolfspider
I want to see Bill Hader do a skit as this guy maybe during an SNL guest
appearance.

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m-p-3
In case something happens to the article (becomes paywalled, taken down)

[https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmU2qSu1AuBV2zVLVyPhjoo8TLxsHFmJjFthnGX...](https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmU2qSu1AuBV2zVLVyPhjoo8TLxsHFmJjFthnGX28L2e3T/)

[https://cloudflare-
ipfs.com/ipfs/QmU2qSu1AuBV2zVLVyPhjoo8TLx...](https://cloudflare-
ipfs.com/ipfs/QmU2qSu1AuBV2zVLVyPhjoo8TLxsHFmJjFthnGX28L2e3T/)

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helpPeople
This is why when people say "promising project" in cryptocurrency it doesn't
matter.

Plenty of big companies make products that no one uses. They are called flops.

If you want to get me into cryptocurrency, you need to show me the value.

