Trump's Newest #Grift: Molly White on First Family's #Cryptocurrency Empire & Gutting of Regulations
#DemocracyNow!
May 6, 2025
Donald #Trump has raised nearly a billion dollars from his various cryptocurrency schemes, says researcher #MollyWhite. "He is really allowing for #bribery and the types of #corruption that we've never seen in the American presidency," White says. She lays out how the Trump family profits from cryptocurrency while directly influencing #policy and #regulations, encouraging the transfer of wealth to the industry despite its "enormous risk of fraud and collapse."
#crew #citationNeeded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQSwNUGFAcA
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#MollyWhite
2 posts2 participants0 posts today
Love this clip from @molly0xfff's Fediverse House talk:
"Imagine for a moment a web where communities can create their own spaces while still simultaneously and seamlessly interoperating with others. Think of it like a network of independent neighborhoods, each with its own character and rules, but with shared community spaces, art galleries and libraries.
"In this web, you control what you create and decide how it's shared.The algorithms that shape that experience, they're transparent and customizable. You can peek under the hood or tweak them to your liking or replace them entirely if they're not serving your needs. If you're sharing a space with a group of others and you disagree with how they run that space, you can leave, but you can take your work and your community with you.
"This isn't just a dream. This is already happening. Take Mastodon and the broader Fediverse, where millions of people are building communities that talk to each other across servers and platforms."
Fighting words from @molly0xfff's opening talk at the Fediverse House at SXSW 2025:
“We're facing an existential threat. We need a web that serves people not profit, a web built on protocols, not platforms…It's being built right now by people like you in communities like this one.”
Thank you, developers and denizens of the open social web.
Crypto reserves: no public good, no principles
#MollyWhite
Mar 11, 2025 Molly White's #CitationNeeded
The formerly anti-government #bitcoin movement abandons its principles in favor of number-go-up, applauds federal plan to stockpile seized crypto with no clear benefit to national interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMUf1sv3VnY
Continued thread
If you’re not in Austin or can’t attend, we recommend checking out Molly’s Dot Social conversation with Mike, which touches on many of the same themes, recorded about a year ago:
Continued thread
Later in the day, Molly will be in conversation with Mike McCue in a panel called “Digital Sovereignty Is the New Influencer Status” (you’ll need a badge to attend this one):
SXSW 2025 ScheduleDigital Sovereignty Is the New Influencer StatusSXSW 2025 Schedule | The real power move for creators is ownership and control of their work and livelihoods. This freedom is actually closer for more people than ever before! Learn from two fediverse futurists how decentralized social media facilitates better publishing, community, and business models. These speakers will cover the theoretical and the practical, including how the landscape is evolving in 2025, where creators should focus their energies, and how they might thrive with or without “walled garden” s...
@molly0xfff will be kicking off #FediverseHouse Sunday morning with a version of her XOXO talk that looks at the future of the web with optimism (yay optimism). RSVP to this segment and more: https://lu.ma/oc052rvr
![Poster with the text:
A Better Web Is Possible
March 9, 2025 | 9:45am Speakeasy | 412 Congress Ave. | SXSW
[Molly White headshot]
Molly White, Researcher, Software Engineer and Writer](https://m-cdn.flipboard.social/media_attachments/files/114/117/086/076/674/073/original/dc54bca037967c3c.png "Poster with the text:
A Better Web Is Possible
March 9, 2025 | 9:45am Speakeasy | 412 Congress Ave. | SXSW
[Molly White headshot]
Molly White, Researcher, Software Engineer and Writer")
Continued thread
"Debanking is suddenly less of concern when the same group that is most equipped to tackle it has proposed consumer protections for crypto customers that could cause Coinbase to have to reimburse some of the $300 million or so stolen from its customers over the past year alone."
#MollyWhite, 2025
https://www.citationneeded.news/crypto-industrys-debanking-smokescreen/
(1/2)
Citation Needed · The crypto industry’s debanking smokescreenCryptocurrency companies have co-opted legitimate concerns about banking discrimination to fight regulation — and Congress is buying it
Continued thread
"Indeed, some evidence presented at the hearings did raise legitimate concerns about regulatory overreach, even if it didn't specifically support claims of an anti-crypto agenda."
#MollyWhite, 2025
https://www.citationneeded.news/crypto-industrys-debanking-smokescreen/
Citation Needed · The crypto industry’s debanking smokescreenCryptocurrency companies have co-opted legitimate concerns about banking discrimination to fight regulation — and Congress is buying it
"Techmilliardär Elon Musk und die rechtsgerichtete #HeritageFoundation gehen immer aggressiver gegen die freie Online-Enzyklopädie vor. ...
Dies konstatiert die amerikanische Software-Entwicklerin und Wikipedianerin #MollyWhite. Sie hat sich in einem Anfang Jahr veröffentlichten Beitrag mit den Vorgängen rund um #Musk und #Wikipedia befasst.
Musks erste Beschwerden richteten sich gegen seine eigene Wikipedia-Biografie, die ihn zu seinem grossen Verdruss, aber völlig zutreffend, als «Frühinvestor» von #Tesla und nicht als Gründer bezeichnet.
Erst, nachdem es Musk und dessen Gefolge nicht gelungen war, seine eigene Geschichte auf Wikipedia umzuschreiben, weitete er seine Kritik auf allgemeinere Beschwerden aus, etwa über einen angeblich systematischen Links-Drall von Wikipedia.
Die Wut des Techmilliardärs gipfelte Ende 2024 in einer Flut von Angriffen, die darauf abzielten, seine 200 Millionen #X-Follower davon zu überzeugen, die #Wikimedia Foundation zu boykottieren."
watson · Rechte wollen Wikipedia zerstören – doch das freie Internet hält dagegen
rk T
Browsing the web and being watched / logged...
"Browsing the web brings with it the ever-present feeling that you're being watched — your activities and preferences and habits all being logged and funneled into a giant vat of horrifying data soup..."
- #MollyWhite #Quote 
Post: https://www.citationneeded.news/we-can-have-a-different-web/
#Web #Spying on you
#Tracking #Mining #Data #Privacy #Security
Citation Needed · We can have a different webMany yearn for the “good old days” of the web. We could have those good old days back — or something even better — and if anything, it would be easier now than it ever was.
"The Cryptocurrency Industry's Unprecedented Election Spending"
Nov 21, 2024
"The cryptocurrency industry spent almost $200 million to influence the outcomes of the 2024 United States elections. This unprecedented degree of corporate spending from a relatively small industry had a major effect — but probably not in the way you think.
Let's talk about where the money came from, where it went, what the cryptocurrency industry's goals are in politics, and what to do now."
#MollyWhite #CitizensUnited #EndCitizensUnited #Cryptocurrency #Election #Corruption #SuperPAC #SEC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06DGU_o8h5A&ab_channel=MollyWhite
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In her latest Citation Needed post, Molly White addresses everyone who sits with the question, "What do I do now?"
She comes with a clear listing of What-To-Do points that will give many of us the idea: "Yes, I agree with that." or
"Yes, I can do that.".
But most of all:
"Yes, I believe that that will lead to a better future."
Citation Needed · Wind the clockA message to those asking “what do I do now?”
Do you know @molly0xfff?
You should. Watch her..
"Best known for puncturing blockchain/crypto hype with her Web3 Is Going Just Great project, writer/researcher #MollyWhite believes a better web is possible. Launched two years ago, her Citation Needed newsletter covers “tech world without all the boosterism,” while her latest project tracks the crypto industry’s attempts to influence the 2024 elections."
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@dangillmor
Waxy.org: "Molly White’s guide to migrating from #Substack to self-hosted #Ghost
not for the faint-hearted or non-technical, but gives her far more control than any other platform"
"I migrated Citation Needed from Substack to self-hosted Ghost. Here is exactly how I did that."
Molly White Jan 13, 2024
https://www.citationneeded.news/substack-to-self-hosted-ghost/
#MollyWhite #CitationNeeded
Wikipedia: "the Foundation offers a paid platform for users who prefer a managed solution, as an alternative to self-hosting"
Citation Needed · Migrating from Substack to self-hosted Ghost: the detailsI migrated Citation Needed from Substack to self-hosted Ghost. Here is exactly how I did that.
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Molly's scalpel always produces detailed, factual and enjoyable reads.
This time, it is about the book in which Chris Dixon tries to sell us on a blockchain-powered Internet.
The people at Andreessen Horowitz have long lost their origin of doing something for the common good and replaced it by blatantly tricking people into becoming more dependent on the companies they invest in.
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@lumiukko @jonno @molly0xfff @tante
Vielen herzlichen Dank für den Hinweis, bin begeistert von der Aufklärungs-Arbeit von #MollyWhite ! 
