Because I’m a little bit ill and bored at the moment, I have some time and want to say some things about that chat with Paul Snow.
Some weeks ago, when I did some research about Factom and found this thread: https://letstalkbitcoin.com/forum/post/so-is-factom-just-a-defacto-scam-now?page=1
…I tried to read the Chatlog, but, and I don’t know why: the link didn’t work for me. Yesterday, because of the discussion in this thread (btw.: why there are two threads about the same subject?) I’ve tried it again and finally I could read it. And it was really interesting!
First, to know what has happened it’s enough to quote Paul Snows explanations:
[8/14/15, 7:18:41 PM] junseth: To tell you the truth, I don’t believe for a second that you even got a commitment form Honduras.
[8/14/15, 7:21:21 PM] Paul Snow: We don't.
[8/14/15, 7:21:49 PM] Paul Snow: They moved it right up to the point of commiting, and ran into political issues.
[8/14/15, 7:23:12 PM] Paul Snow: We were invited to go down and meet with the government in Honduras, and Peter met with people from the President on down. But that isn't the same thing as jumping over the broomstick.
[8/14/15, 7:24:39 PM] Paul Snow: Lastly, we primed a reporter with information about a pending agreement, and the reporter jumped the gun and mangled the message. We discussed that with the folks in Honduras, and they preferred us to let it lie than to try and fix it. It is tough to change a story that gets blasted out and repeated.
And, important:
[8/14/15, 8:32:20 PM] Paul Snow: And it isn't even fake news. The project is real.. Just not where we would like it to be.
What’s the confusion? Honduras delays the process because of political issues. The story went out too soon. Is that implausible? Delays with governments? What’s more common? And that a story goes out too soon? Paul Snow explains:
[8/14/15, 8:40:44 PM] Paul Snow: Yes, if you go up, you will find that the interview was not supposed to be released. It was prepped for an expected announce that didn't happen.
[8/14/15, 8:41:39 PM] Paul Snow: Actually, most stories are preped and held until the event. Do you really think everyone writes these stories in the moment?
[8/14/15, 8:41:50 PM] Paul Snow: Companies do this
And I can add to this: Stories are very often prepaired, even in sports! Or, press releases about fatalities. Want to see a famous one? In July our (I’m from Germany) Ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl has died:
http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/07/10/helmut-kohl-gestorben_n_7767902.html
Everybody can take a look at Wikipedia. He’s still alive. The story went out a little bit too soon. Why? The Newspaper says „technical issue“. There was some fun on Twitter about that, like „Helmut Kohl WAS dead!“ ;-)
But, back to topic…
What the „Chat-Kings“ tried is simple:
-
Imply that Factom would have said that there is a fixed commitment, what they didn’t as far as I can see.
-
Than they tried to push Paul Snow into a direction to admit he lied what he didn’t
- Tweet that there is no commitment and making a story out of nothing.
Under the line t’s just messing around with words.
The facts are:
- Factom works with Honduras on a prototype for land-registry
And that’s it!
And in fact, that’s also what the Reuters-article says. They quote Peter Kirby:
"Kirby said Factom started negotiations in January. The pilot project should be completed by the end of the year, with the goal of eventually putting all of the government's land titles on the blockchain, he added."
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/05/15/usa-honduras-technology-idINKBN0O01V720150515
He talks about an ongoing process! He doesn’t say there is a contract and everything is ready to start. Even the article isn’t false!
To make a „there is no commitment - story“ out of it, is simply nonsense. And they tried much more… Nothing is enough for the master-brains who did everything to push Paul Snow into a direction he would have something to admit and he would have lied. And obviously it was even to hard to focus on Honduras. There is so much nonsense. It’s a mix of his attempts to explain (what he did and not just once) and personal attacks on him, childish behavior, messing with words and silly accusations. There are even accusations that 16 years old bought into Factom… (impossible for me to understand what they want to say with that)
And the proof for it is a cousin (big LOL):
[8/14/15, 7:39:05 PM] Paul Snow: Of course, what exactly is a lie? Isn't that when you make statements that are not true? Like the idea that Factom was funded with money from 16 year olds? Isn't that a lie? Do you have any actual evidence that 16 year olds actually bought our token?
[8/14/15, 7:43:52 PM] Filip (Niceplum): yeah my 16 year old cousin bought it
And it’s obvious that they don’t want to hear his explanations. They want to say things like this about it:
„This whole thing started because Paul Snow admitted the cover up in a smallish channel.“ (the other thread)
That are two lies in one line („admit“ and „cover up“)
Or, from the chat:
[8/14/15, 8:00:35 PM] junseth: How about this, I’ll add 1 point to the Paul Snow is honest index if you write an article entitled, “Honduras Government Decides Not to Blockchain Their Land Registry”
That is what these guys want! Read it again! They want him to say, that Honduras decided not to work with Factom! That is really revealing! ;-)
In fact they call Paul Snow a liar while they spread lies! And sure, he can’t just move away, because it’s just unacceptable. So he has to react on it and explain it again and again, because he can be sure, if he would leave these Kids alone they would mess even more with it. So he answers (too kind in my eyes):
[8/14/15, 8:01:35 PM] Paul Snow: They haven't chosen to not use Factom to fix their land registry....
[8/14/15, 8:01:48 PM] Paul Snow: I am still very confident that this project will go through.
[8/14/15, 8:02:07 PM] Paul Snow: But maybe you have never been involved in a government contract before.
But it goes on and on (look at the time-stamp):
[8/14/15, 8:39:53 PM] junseth: And the first sentence is “Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Americas, has agreed to use a Texasbased company to build a permanent and secure land title record system using the underlying technology behind bitcoin, a company official said late Thursday.”
[8/14/15, 8:39:56 PM] Paul Snow: And they are not? That would be news to them.
…..“that would be news TO THEM!“ - I really like hat part! ;-)
Or, this one also shows the intentions:
[8/14/15, 8:45:57 PM] junseth: Paul, I’m going to tweet this: “Well... it has been confirmed by @paulsnx2 that @factomproject does not have commitment form the Honduran government.”
[8/14/15, 8:46:02 PM] junseth: Is that all right with you?
[8/14/15, 8:46:11 PM] junseth: Do you see anything dishonest in that tweet?
But, instantly he figures… that’s not enough, he wants to add „any kind“ to it.
[8/14/15, 8:46:36 PM] junseth: sorry, this: “Well... it has been confirmed by @paulsnx2 that @factomproject does not have any kind of commitment from the Honduran government.”
Paul Snow answers precise:
[8/14/15, 8:46:42 PM] Paul Snow: That's fine.
[8/14/15, 8:47:08 PM] Paul Snow: Well "not any kind" isn’t
But… is it really fine? I mean, sure, the information is correct. But they implied something that never was said to give the impression that there is something wrong.
Again, that is what they tried:
[8/14/15, 8:00:35 PM] junseth: How about this, I’ll add 1 point to the Paul Snow is honest index if you write an article entitled, “Honduras Government Decides Not to Blockchain Their Land Registry”
They constantly tried to push him into a direction to make false statements. He constantly tried to explain. For hours!
And under the line it’s this:
[8/14/15, 8:11:21 PM] Paul Snow: So. No lie that you can actually quote, but we are lying because we are talking about what we are doing.
[8/14/15, 8:13:32 PM] Paul Snow: You have demostrated that you an interpret what people say over time, and insert what you want them to have said. Bravo.
[8/14/15, 8:26:23 PM] Paul Snow: If a group tries to do everyting in a transparant fashion, you are ready to hang them for the process of getting to market.
In my eyes, Paul Snow was way too kind. I mean, maybe he has to be it, because he doesn’t just speak for himself but also for Factom. But I think, it would have needed somebody to confront these VIP's with a mirror. What I see is some kind of personal obsession out of psychological compensation in combination with a lot of irrationality. Simple logic seems to be too much. I mean, it would be enough to think about how (ir)rational it would be, out of perspective of Factom, to make up a false story about Honduras and land registry. But sure, they have to handle situations that are not every time ideal, ongoing negotiations, delays, political processes, articles and so on. What does that say? Scam projects doesn’t have those problems. Irrelevant projects doesn’t have those problems. Out of investor-perspective that are all signs that Factom is taken seriously.
And, the good thing is: It wouldn’t be necessary to write this post about it. Like I said, I’m just a little bit bored and have too much time. The tweet and all the accusations didn’t change anything. Somebody linked it in the official thread and the reaction was this:
„In my opinion, just be patient, some governments will use Factom sooner or later, not only Honduras, it's very potential.“
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=850070.msg12181732#msg12181732
But brighton36 still „explains“:
" @junseth confronts factom about the Hondurus deal. Guess what? Never happened. Paul refuses to correct the record, and this fact only goes to light when the chat is published. (Oh btw - also on page 44 of that link is the likely admission that Adam Wagner was paid to astroturf pro-factom articles)"
@brighton36 : Let’s talk a little bit more about this all. I really have some time… You have some other points (you call it facts) that are also interesting. And I really like how mysterious you begin:
„As far as factom is concerned, there's a lot that I still can't comment on (was hoping a reporter would do that - but seems like they don't want the story).“
Sounds as if you have more… but with a gun on your head you’re waiting for Glenn Greenwald. He shouldn’t write that much about Snowden and the NSA but about the "Factom-Mafia"? ;-)
Do you already know that Factom is in the Economist?
„That is why politicians seeking to clean up the Property Institute in Honduras have asked Factom, an American startup, to provide a prototype of a blockchain-based land registry. Interest in the idea has also been expressed in Greece, which has no proper land registry and where only 7% of the territory is adequately mapped.“
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21677228-technology-behind-bitcoin-lets-people-who-do-not-know-or-trust-each-other-build-dependable
And, please don't take this personal. Scambustin' is your hobby and I like that, too. You still have more facts and maybe we'll find something in all your points I will say "Yes, you're right!" and sell all my FCT's. ;-)
