Part 1: The Troubled Mind of Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky
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This is part one of a 4 part Series into Cryptocurrency “Bank” Celsius. We start with the simple yet confounding, until we delve into the criminal ties, unveil deceit and potential outright fraud. Stay tuned.
We’ll keep this quick and simple. Almost all of the records here come from Mashinsky’s own Twitter account and a few others from reputable journals and publishers for financial information that can be pretty easily verified by other financial databases, so to speak.
I am not trying to defame the man, nor insult him. However, some of the things here are….I don’t even know if crazy describes it. I’m not even saying that it’s untrue, just that it is pretty hard to believe. There will be no opinions here, only information stated to the best of my knowledge in an as-factual-as-possible way. As someone in the position of CEO of such an influential institution, this need be known.
Alex Mashinsky(@Mashinsky, founder and CEO of Celsius) claims to have invented, written patents for and introduced VOIP to the world in 1995. For the non-believers unaware, the protocol allows for the transfer of, well, voice over the internet essentially. He claims to have initiated a meeting of his company with AT&T staff, after obtaining their contact number through unknown means which left them thoroughly shocked and hacked their phone system(AT&T phones that is, as I understand it) in 5 minutes AT the AT&T building.
He claims to have hacked phone companies to obtain information to invent VOIP. It is unclear whether he refers to AT&T only or other companies as well. I further understand it to be that he showed them a demo of how VOIP works, to their amazement. In addition he also (somewhat vaguely) makes claims to inventing the modern electric grid ISO system. As well as also having invented yield on the Blockchain, as a mildly vague assertion. He also now promotes something he calls MOIP or money over IP. He also claims he simply chose not to enforce the patent for VOIP after filing.
I can only presume Mr.Mashinsky was speaking about Arbinet in relation to inventing VOIP, which in 2006 was described as "a buyer and seller of blocks of long-distance minutes to major phone companies" by the Wall Street Journal. Further, Arbinet IPO'd at $17.50 at the end of 2004 and hit a high of $27.96 at the end of March 2005. The price then sunk to about $8.00 in September where it has effectively stayed since. They were bought by Primus Telecommunications Group in 2010. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB114291611334603853 https://njbiz.com/arbinet-thexchange-prices-ipo-at-17-50-per-share/
Mashinsky makes a somewhat strange statement that Satoshi is female and questions whether the blockchain is male or female.
I'd really not like to speak on these issues because if Mashinsky is serious about any of these claims, assuming he is wrong, this is someone who needs mental help. If he isn't serious....sigh... In either situation, I'm not certain this is the individual who should be leading such an institution. Now, if he is correct about these claims...well I won’t be the one telling you to HODL, that's your choice.
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