It's very surprising that John Oliver would choose to focus on Brock Pierce, the only reason I think this would be done by an establishment mouth-piece would be to cast block.one/eos/bitcoin/cryptos in bad light.
here. More specifically, that the cryptosphere has, to a certain extent has, a number of questionable characters in lead roles. New markets , and potential profits always tend to draw a certain amount of unsavory characters.I read another piece by @kyriacos that rightly points out that at least some of what Oliver said in his segment has elements of truth,
More importantly, as you point out, why now, as this has been discussed on numerous occasions in the past? My feeling is that the establishment is ramping up their attacks on the crypto space in an attempt to portray the entire ecosystem as a seething cesspool littered with nefarious actors.
Crypto is a threat to the financial establishment and this is another obvious attempt to discredit the entire space with this approach - guilty by association and all that.
I've said this before in other threads but I also view Pierce as a victim of abuse as well. Coming up in Hollywood as a teenager and being surrounded by child predators... I imagine that there's much more to this story then depicted in An Open Secret. Not that this excuses any of his actions. Just that the nature of abuse is cyclical.
Controversial matters, for sure.
Though, Pierce was never convicted. And, Many have still looked up to and respected him as a leader in the space, regardless of allegations.
Likely he could have been a victim as well... though how constructive is it to hold such debates, with no actual evidence or facts being brought to the table...?
Perhaps we shall just need time to see how all unfolds...
I see what you're saying.
What evidence has been brought to the table?
I think it's these murky waters surrounding Pierce that have people scratching their heads and therefore reigniting this conversation.
While Brock Pierce was not convicted there was a $21,000 out of court settlement made by Pierce regarding a lawsuit brought against Rector, Pierce and Chad Shackley by former DEN employees who claimed sexual abuse.
Personally, I would like to hear Brock's side of the story as people often judge others based on the optics of the situation. But the fact that he hasn't, to my knowledge, addressed his involved in DEN and subsequent lawsuits do raise serious questions.
It's an unfortunate situation, as I've heard from people involved in eos that Pierce is a good person who has admiration and respect in the crypto community for his work.
My main point here is that his past, which we only half understand is being used to smear and taint cryptos in general.
If you have the time, have a look at this post from a few months ago by @fortified and also the comments.
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@fortified/brock-pierce-or-is-billionaire-bitcoin-board-member-founder-of-tether-and-alleged-pedophile-a-covert-cia-asset
He had put out an open letter on the matter, which was linked to in that same article your shared...
I stand corrected. Thank you.
However, the article I linked to you also describes how there's a significant amount of time before a response to the lawsuit is filed and allegations were made, a period of about five months, when he is said to have spent time in Spain with Shackley and was actively trying to get Rector out of prison.
Despite the open letter from 2014, there's still a lot of questions left unaddressed.
Obviously, the ongoing sexual harassment epidemic in Hollywood that's been in the media recently has refocused attention on Mr. Pierce's past.
I'm not saying he's guilty of anything, what I'm saying is that it's entirely appropriate that some of these questions be asked and answered.
There is a video of him on youtube speaking about the issue for about 1 minute.. but it isn't very effective in garnering trust in him:
Thanks, I did see this in another thread after making my comments here and I agree with yo that it's not very effective. Seems like there's likely a gag-order in place regarding the settlement with 'Egan'.
My position currently is that the case made in 'An Open Secret' is pretty strong and Brock's rebuttal is pretty weak. I am also unaware of any reason why he would be targetted for false allegations of this kind as he wasn't involved in any kind of crypto projects back then and their web project was fairly doomed to failure due to technology limits at the time.
John Oliver just tows the line of whoever is paying his salary. Anything which damages the neoliberal powers that be are 'roasted' (his interpretation of wit is just shouting things, the louder the funnier) on his show. It is hardly unsurprising that he is going after cryptos, a threat to the established financial order.
Thank you! I agree that the most likely angle is to attack crypto currency in general. Much as Oliver repeatedly attacks third parties and anti-establishment-everything.
That's the only logical conclusion I see for now.