OPINIONATED: Preston Byrne on GameStop, Online Mobs and Marmots
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2021
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Attorney Preston Byrne joins Ben Schiller to consider the continuing fallout from the WallStreetBets controversy.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.
Preston Byrne is a partner in Anderson Kill's Technology, Media and Distributed Systems Group, and a CoinDesk columnist.
He joins CoinDesk Features Editor Ben Schiller to discuss his recent op-ed about GameStop, Robinhood and the rise of online mobs.
See the article here:
‘The Squeezening’: How the GameStop Backlash Will Curtail Freedom
Schiller spoke to Byrne about:
- The rise of online mobs from GameStop to Capitol Hill and how the internet is impacting real life in an increasingly tangible way
- What policymakers can do to prevent mobs doing damage to decent companies
- Why it’s likely the WallStreetBets Reddit contained some pump-and-dumpers
- How the regulatory reaction to the WallStreetBets could impact cryptocurrencies
- How the backlash from “elites” impacted by GameStop could harm free speech
- Why Preston Byrne supports marmots (which are like squirrels or groundhogs)
-
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Now we have another online griefing bomb, and this time their objective was to take out a hedge fund |
| 0:06.2 | that was shorting a sort of crowd favorite but struggling underdog stock. If the elite knew how to react to |
| 0:13.6 | these things, they would have done so by now. Welcome to Opinionated with Ben Schiller. Ben is the |
| 0:20.5 | features editor at CoinDesk. |
| 0:22.3 | He's a seasoned business journalist, and he'll be talking with some of the most fascinating contributors to CoinDesk's daily opinions section. |
| 0:30.5 | Opinionated is sponsored by nexo.io. |
| 0:34.4 | And now here he is, Ben Shiller. |
| 0:37.6 | Welcome to Opinionated. |
| 0:39.6 | We're joined today by Preston Byrne, a partner with Anderson Kills Distributed Systems |
| 0:45.0 | Group. |
| 0:45.7 | He's also a coined as columnist, I'm glad to say, and a member of an esteemed group of |
| 0:51.2 | crypto lawyers who actually understand what they're talking about, which |
| 0:54.6 | there are not as many as you might think. And you're also a lover of marmots, Preston. |
| 0:59.8 | I've never really understood that. What is a marmot and why you so fond of those things? |
| 1:04.3 | Well, it's actually funny. Groundhogs, you know what groundhogs are? |
| 1:08.0 | There were the things we were celebrating yesterday. |
| 1:10.7 | No, it's today. Today's groundhog. |
| 1:11.6 | Oh, today, today, okay. |
| 1:12.6 | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 1:13.6 | A groundhog is a marmot, but not all marmots are groundhog. |
| 1:16.6 | So they're basically squirrels the size of a cat. |
| 1:19.6 | Wow. |
... |
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