Hi, this is Charles Hoskinson broadcasting live from warm, sunny Colorado. Today is June 4th, 2023, and I want to make a video to talk to you about the future of scams.
As many of you know, the cryptocurrency space is full of scams. People wake up every day trying to convince you that they’re me, Vitalik, Elon Musk, or your favorite celebrity, or Bill Gates. All they want is for you to give them some of your hard-earned crypto, and in return, they promise something of value. Maybe it’s a giveaway scam where you’ll double your money, or perhaps there’s a new coin being launched, and you can reserve your place in line.
I received an email tonight from someone who was contacted by a person impersonating me. It was a well-written email, and the person was attempting to offer a placement in a new medical chain, which, of course, I’m not building. But apparently, I am—only if you fork over some hard-earned ADA can you get access to that. It’s always a scam; it always has been, and it always will be.
Unfortunately, there is something on the horizon that will create substantial problems for many people. Let me share my screen real quick. This is a video from Nvidia, a supercut of a keynote in Taiwan by the CEO of Nvidia, discussing all the cool things they’re working on. For example, they’re doing some exciting stuff with real-time ray tracing. He demonstrates how he can generate a photorealistic video game using text and even use Jen’s voice. Then, he shows how they can create a completely fake woman that seems alive and well.
The problem is that this technology is growing exponentially. I will include a link for you guys here, and I’ll also include it in the show notes. As a result of this exponential growth, within a 12 to 24-month horizon—likely next year—videos of me can be manufactured using generative AI. Audio of me can be created to make it appear that I’m calling you, talking to you, or soliciting your money.
Thousands of people are going to fall for this, no matter how many videos I make to warn you about it. No matter how many times I say it’s a scam, it always will be a scam. You don’t get something for nothing. People are going to fall for it; it’s called a confidence scam. As a result, millions of dollars worth of ADA and other cryptocurrencies will be stolen. This is the world we’re heading towards because of generative AI. It’s one of the dark sides and unintended consequences of this technology.
Scammers are already doing this. The email I saw looked like it was written by ChatGPT based on a sample, and it cost them nothing to send out millions of these to targets. Once somebody bites, they play the game and see if they can convert a few people. It only takes one person to make it worthwhile.
Next week, I will do a video teaching you how to use PGP. If you think you’re talking to me, all you have to do is ask, “Charles, please sign a PGP message with your [email protected].” They won’t be able to do it because, no matter how advanced AI gets, it is not capable of cracking a PGP signature—at least not yet, and probably not in the foreseeable future. If you think you’re talking to me, I will never get offended. I will never lie to you and say, “Oh no, I’m sorry, I just don’t have my keys.” I will sign a message to authenticate. First off, I’m not going to contact you unless I know you and you know me, or unless there’s something you’re doing that I’m very interested in, like building a wallet or working on some paper or technology. Even then, I’m more than willing to sign a PGP message. You can send me a block of text and say, “Sign this with your key,” and I’ll do it.
I’ll make a video to show you how to do that and how to verify keys. That’s fair game. However, even though I tell you this, some of you will do it, but the vast majority will not see this video or listen. This time next year, because of generative AI, millions of dollars worth of ADA will be stolen, no matter how many times I warn you.
You don’t get something for nothing; it’s always a scam. I will not ask you for ADA, your private keys, or to invest in any of my products. It’s just not going to happen. Unfortunately, there’s now going to be video and audio trying to convince you because of generative AI. It’s pretty messed up, but that’s the future we live in. I don’t know how to stop it.
The only surefire way to verify identity now is with a PGP key because you can’t trust what you see or hear. Scammers are evil people; they have no soul. They don’t care about you; they just want to steal your money. Nothing will protect you against them outside of your own common sense.
Set aside your avarice and your desire to believe that you’re going to get something for free. Don’t spend any time or effort thinking you’re the luckiest person in the world because a prince is going to double your money if you just pay the cashier’s check fee. You will be scammed, and you will lose your money, and it will never come back.
Here’s what’s going to happen: the millions of dollars lost will lead people to reach out to me, claiming I scammed them. Like the last seven years, they will send me death threats, threaten to sue me, and say horrible things. They will write to regulators, saying, “You must protect us because I lost all my money to these evil crypto people.” That’s what they do. I get a lot of these emails every day, every week, every month.
I tell all of you, you don’t get something for nothing; it’s a scam. Use common sense and set avarice aside. It’s greed and stupidity that compel you to believe things that you know deep down are not true. It’s madness, but that’s what people will do, and the sophistication will continue to grow.
I don’t have an Instagram page currently, but there are more than a dozen Instagram pages impersonating me. I don’t have a LinkedIn page, yet there are more than 20 LinkedIn pages impersonating me, contacting people over private messages, attempting every day to steal their money. There are well over a hundred Facebook pages right now pretending to be Charles Hoskinson. We can’t take them down, or when we do, ten more pop up the minute they’re taken down.
This is a PSA I’m making for all of you: generative AI is coming. Don’t trust what you see or hear. Always authenticate the person before you believe them. Moving forward, you should always assume the content is unauthenticated until proven otherwise. This is one of the reasons we created Atala Prism; it’s one of the reasons we push for DIDs and authenticated channels.
As Prism evolves as a product, my hope is to integrate it into everything, including communication channels via plugin. Whenever you’re talking to someone, you can quickly authenticate by clicking a button to sign. A scammer can’t do that; generative AI can’t do that.
That’s the future we live in now: assume everything is false until proven otherwise and know how to use the tools. We’ll try to make them easier throughout the coming years, but it’s going to be rocky and rough. It makes me sad to say this because, at the end of the day, the most vulnerable people are the ones who will be scammed.
I remember years ago, my grandfather got scammed. He’s older and in his 90s now. Some people sold him worthless gold coins, and it took a long time to get the money back. They specialize in preying upon the elderly and vulnerable, and that’s where we’re at.
I’m sitting here knowing that my likeness is going to be used by people I’ve never met to steal millions of dollars from others, and there’s nothing I can do. There’s nothing law enforcement can do, and there’s nothing technology can do. That’s the world we live in and the consequence of where things are going, driven by people’s greed and stupidity.
So one last time: you don’t get something for nothing; it’s always a scam. I will never contact you asking for your ADA, your private keys, or to invest in one of my products. If I’m contacting you and we don’t have a relationship, almost certainly the person you’re talking to is not me. The very first question you should ask is to verify your identity with your PGP key. I’ll make a video to show you how to verify that. Cheers.
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