Witnesses at the SBF trial: We should reflect on the future of the encryption industry from the end of SBF

Original author: John Wang, former founder of Immutable

Original translation: Lila, BlockBeats

Editor's note: Yesterday, the fraud case of former billionaire and FTX founder SBF was heard in court. In the end, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Manhattan Court of the United States and issued a sky-high fine of 11 billion US dollars. Former immutable founder John Wang participated in the entire process of the court trial on the spot. He shared his experience and feelings about this on X, and BlockBeats reproduced the full text as follows:

I attended SBF's trial. It was one of the most shocking experiences of my life.

Seeing him sentenced to 25 years in person was as surreal as sitting behind him in court.

Let’s talk about the process:

SBF is a larger-than-life figure in Twitter’s crypto community. I first texted him in 2020, when FTX was just getting started, as a freshman research assistant. He inspired me to join the Solana ecosystem in early 2021. Soon, he became the youngest billionaire in the world.

But today, he was sitting in the front row, and I saw a meek, nervous, pale man—smaller than I had expected.

We made eye contact briefly, then he looked away and lowered his head.

They only let 20 people in, so I arrived at 4 a.m., before daybreak. The only person who arrived earlier than me was a reporter from the New York Times, who was rumored to be the go-to person for SBF's parents' perspective on this matter. He was also the only reporter I saw talking to SBF's parents.

Former President Trump's case was being conducted simultaneously in a neighboring building. At dawn, Secret Service agents, steel barriers, and black vans drove around the area. I waited for five hours in the frigid New York City financial district.

The courtroom today was much smaller than I had imagined. I greeted SBF’s parents, who sat on the bench next to me. Film writers, sketch artists, and journalists looked at SBF like he was an animal in a zoo. Everyone stood up when the judge walked in.

SBF’s lawyer pleaded with the judge to give him adderall (a stimulant that is considered a drug) to relieve SBF’s body tremors.

The judge responded, “I cannot allow lawyers to drug people on trial,” to laughter from the journalists and an angry shake from SBF’s mom.

Today, a key witness testified: Nishad Singh, FTX’s third-largest shareholder and former director of engineering at FTX. He has signed a plea agreement with the FBI. When he walked onto the stand, he had tears in his eyes.

"I was involved in money laundering, defrauding clients and falsifying financial information to investors."

"I was always scared by Sam... (he) would twitch all over when he was angry, clench his fingers, close his eyes, clench his teeth or tongue... I wanted to commit suicide."

SBF's parents frowned, pursed their lips, and coughed angrily in protest.

The jury members at the scene looked like NPCs randomly selected from the street. None of them looked under 40 years old, half of them were obese, and some didn't even bring laptops. The lawyers had to explain every crypto term to them. The judge smiled and said, "When I was your age, mining meant mining rocks."

It was crazy to see this face that was on magazine covers and Times Square billboards reduced to a laughing stock. The floor-to-ceiling windows looked out to a bright sky dotted with soft clouds. The contrast was sickening.

The jurors' heads swung back and forth between the prosecution and the witnesses like they were watching a tennis match for 8 hours.

I sneaked a peek at SBF's mom's notebook and she was just doodling (haha).

The prosecutors leaked SBF's diary of his post-Super Bowl hangouts with Hillary Clinton, Kendall Jenner, Katy Perry, DiCaprio, and Bezos. FTX has offered $1 billion in sponsorships (think Stephen Curry, Kevin O'Leary, and Tom Brady) and a $30 million penthouse in the Bahamas.

The jurors laughed at the luxury.

When I went in that day, I hoped to give SBF some presumption of innocence - to attribute fault to malice. But this feeling quickly disappeared, why?

• SBF has independent control over FTX-Alameda’s funding mix. He is the only executive with a vested interest in both companies.

• Alameda secured a $65 billion credit line from FTX, resulting in a $10 billion deficit in client funds. The "allow_negative" backdoor code was enabled in July 2019.

• SBF was still spending hundreds of millions of dollars before FTX collapsed (such as the $TON deal with Telegram)...wtf

• SBF deliberately inflated revenue and deceived investors by transferring SRM between entities.

• SBF traveled to the Middle East with Scarammuci (Trump’s chief of staff) to raise funds after learning that FTX was losing money.

• FTX used illegal donors for its political contributions. Nishad: "You are the other side of [FTX]... you have donated to a lot of shit."

• SBF was not involved in coding but “designed FTX’s technical and financial infrastructure.”

All in all,this is a huge fraud. And there are no bank accounts, employees, cash, liquidity management, digital asset custody, cybersecurity practices, or any form of corporate control or governance.

I left the courtroom feeling empty and trying to reflect on the consequences of what I had just experienced.

1. Cryptocurrencies can have very real and huge consequences. Judge Kaplan has also ruled on cases involving Trump, Prince Andrew, Epstein and the Al Queda terrorists. We've reached a larger scale where people's life savings are at risk. It’s not just about memecoin, fun and games. It is irresponsible to view neglect as part of a "fallen" culture. If we want to power a global financial system larger than the current crypto-native casinos, we cannot afford to lose this consensus again.

2. Seeing the jury's perception of the crypto industry, I realized that we still have a long way to go in educating and guiding ordinary people. The user experience of blockchain is still a joke.

3. It is unrealistic for most people to understand the true scale of finance. A tiny percentage error can result in a difference of hundreds of millions of dollars.

4. Bring the business back to shore through reasonable regulation. In this regard, Coinbase is a pioneer in long-term thinking.

5.DeFi is the answer. By establishing a trustless system, accounts are made public, transparent and verifiable by external parties.

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