The Billionaire, Age 27, Powering the Boom in AI --- Alexandr Wang's Scale AI deploys a global army of gig workers to shape how the big AI models behave

"Alexandr Wang became one of the world's youngest self-made billionaires by building a sprawling army of more than 100,000 contractors, who perform the grunt work that powers the modern AI boom.

Sitting behind computers in cities across the world, his startup Scale AI's workers type out the stories, label the images, and craft the sentences that furnish chatbots with the text they need to better understand human speech patterns. Dubbed data labeling, their tasks range from composing haikus and summarizing news articles to writing stories in languages like Xhosa or Urdu.

The labor-intensive operation has become so in demand by businesses eager to enter the AI race that Scale's revenue pace tripled last year, boosting its valuation to $14 billion. Wang's stake is estimated at about $1.7 billion. The 27-year-old founder likens his company's importance in the AI revolution to the computing chips developed by Nvidia -- currently the hottest tech company in the world.

Inside Scale's 180,000-square-foot office in San Francisco, employees recruit labelers by posting advertisements on websites like Reddit and LinkedIn, touting the benefits of flexible remote work. Others review batches of data, or monitor issues around onboarding workers and paying them.

The startup's contractors often don't know they are working for Scale. They complete tasks through two websites, called Remotasks and Outlier, neither of which publicize their affiliation with the startup. Projects are given code-names so workers don't know which clients they are labeling for. Scale typically uses animals as code names, such as Ostrich for OpenAI and Bee for Apple, though it has recently gotten more creative. Google's code name, for example, is boba, after the Asian bubble tea drink.

Managing this empire is difficult. Some workers quit, saying they are frustrated with delayed payments and gig-work wages, which can run as low as $8 an hour. Others have found ways to cheat at their jobs to increase their productivity and make more money. 

At times, the data they produce is so low-quality that Scale's own employees -- even executives and top engineers -- have had to redo it themselves.

Wang, who is Scale's chief executive, says he's trying to move beyond it. He called the business "mundane and unsexy," and says he's developing a new suite of software products, such as tools to help businesses create AI applications, that typically command higher margins and are more favored by the venture-capital crowd.

Meta's code name is Flamingo -- a stuffed version of which sat atop an employee's desk on a recent visit to the startup's headquarters. After Scale AI bungled a project last year for the tech giant, Wang declared a company emergency and launched an all-hands-on-deck effort to fix the job, called Flamingo Revival, according to former Scale employees.

Early last year, Meta Platforms asked the startup to create 27,000 question-and-answer pairs to help train its AI chatbots on Instagram and Facebook.

When Meta researchers received the data, they spotted something odd. Many answers sounded the same, or began with the phrase "as an AI language model . . ." It turns out the contractors had used ChatGPT to write-up their responses -- a complete violation of Scale's raison d'etre.

The researchers communicated the disappointing results to Scale, prompting Wang to rally the entire company to try and save the contract.

He asked employees to drop everything and create new writing samples to send to Meta. An internal leaderboard showed who had completed the most labeling tasks. The prize for the winner: a paid vacation.

Later, Scale discovered that much of the bad data sent to Meta had come from Kenyans who had become experts in making a quick buck off the Remotasks platform, the former employees said. 

Scale restricted several new labeling projects to workers based in the U.S. and other wealthy, English-speaking countries.

The change didn't stem the fraud entirely: Some foreign workers found ways to skirt the new rules by buying labeling accounts registered to U.S. residents that they found for sale in group chats on WhatsApp and Facebook.

A Scale spokeswoman said that Scale has cracked down on such activity and the percentage of its freelancers exhibiting fraud fell to under 0.1% in July.

"We have a strong relationship with Scale AI and look forward to continuing to build on it in the future," a Meta spokeswoman said.

Wang chased success on an accelerated timeline. He was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Chinese immigrant scientists working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has said they began teaching him advanced physics starting in kindergarten.

Wang started making plans to create a company in the ninth grade when he and a friend made a Google Doc of startup ideas, he wrote in a blog post titled, "What I learned in 2016," the year he started Scale.

As a teenager, Wang debated, played violin, and traveled the country for math and physics competitions. He left high school a year early to work in Silicon Valley, where he became an engineer at the question-and-answer site Quora. Later, he wrote in the blog post about how his 12-hour days there taught him the importance of hard work.

Wang said he first began to see the groundbreaking potential of AI after attending a summer camp in San Francisco called SPARC, the Summer Program for Applied Rationality and Cognition. It was designed to bring together talented math and science students. His time there as a teen introduced him to early AI researchers like OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, and inspired him to learn about the technology, he said.

In 2015, Wang went to MIT. As a freshman he juggled five graduate computer science courses and spent his spring break working on an iPhone app called Ava to help users book doctor's appointments. Soon after, he dropped out.

Wang made the decision after a conversation with Eric Wu, the CEO of the online house-flipper Opendoor. Wu tried to convince Wang to accept a job at the infant startup instead of working at established tech companies, encouraging him to take risks while he was young. The advice convinced Wang he needed to start a company himself. "I knew I would regret it if I never took the risk to be an entrepreneur at the perfect time," he wrote.

In the summer of 2016, Wang enrolled Ava in a startup training program run by the prestigious venture firm Y Combinator, then run by Sam Altman, who is now the CEO of OpenAI. Soon after, he and his co-founder Lucy Guo broadened the idea to Scale AI. Wang and Altman lived together during the pandemic in San Francisco, and Altman ended up indirectly owning a stake in Scale through his deal with Y Combinator, which retains equity in the startups it nurtures.

Scale AI got going amid a boom in funding for self-driving cars. Developers of the technology needed labeled images to help autonomous vehicles recognize objects like stop signs and pedestrians, and turned to the startup for help.

A few months after its founding, Scale signed up Cruise and Tesla as early customers, while the startup set out to build its network of contractors. In 2017, Wang created Remotasks, a subsidiary that focused on recruiting cheap labor abroad. At one point, Scale set up facilities in Africa and Asia to train data labelers.

To recruit some of Scale's first contractors, Guo joined Filipino remote work groups on Facebook, sharing a quiz she created.

Scale soon recruited hundreds of contractors through online chat groups. Many came from the Philippines, where groups of labelers worked in internet cafes, playing video games while completing assignments on Remotasks.

Back in San Francisco, Wang ran Scale like a Silicon Valley startup. He created company mantras like "Why Not Faster" and "Run Through Walls," and courted venture-capital backers including early Facebook investor Accel and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. In 2019, Scale hit a $1 billion valuation.

When the self-driving car boom slowed, Wang sniffed out other revenue sources. In 2019, he signed Scale's first generative-AI contract, with OpenAI, to label data for an early version of the language model behind ChatGPT. The following year, he signed a deal with the U.S. Army to help it build data sets for its AI efforts.

Wang "is very good at seeing around the corner," said Mike Volpi, a retired partner at Index Ventures who sits on Scale's board. "He has multiple entrepreneurial and visionary skills that are blended into a single person."

During the height of the pandemic, Scale negotiated a roughly $40 million contract with Meta to label data for new shopping features on Facebook and Instagram. Employees working on the project were so burned out that the company sponsored a paid vacation to Cancun, Mexico, in mid-2022 to help them unwind.

A few months later, Meta canceled the deal after struggling to grow its e-commerce business. In January 2023, Wang laid off 20% of Scale's staff, saying that many industries Scale served were hurt by the tech downturn.

The company bounced back as tech giants poured billions of dollars into generative-AI projects to catch up with OpenAI after its viral launch of ChatGPT.

Last year, the startup negotiated a roughly $120 million contract with Google to assist on its Gemini language model. Its annual pace of revenue shot up from $227 million to $680 million, according to investor documents.

Fresh off a record $1 billion fundraising round, Wang opened a new office in San Francisco this summer -- taking over a space formerly occupied by Airbnb. It has the look and feel of a big tech company: floors built around a plant-filled atrium with modern-style furniture and a coffee bar staffed with a full-time barista.

Earlier this year, Wang made an appearance at the Met Gala in New York City, before attending the invitation-only Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he schmoozed with executives like media mogul Barry Diller.

"Truly no one flies in and out to more parties than you, it looks like a full-time job," OpenAI's Altman posted on X in February responding to Wang's post, which said that after traveling for the past few years, he'd decided the most engaging people are at home in the Bay Area.

Competitors ranging from legacy data-labeling outfits to hungry startups are racing to steal Scale's business, offering the same formula for supplying contractors on-demand. Customers like OpenAI are also recruiting their own data labelers to reduce their dependence on the startup.

"If they want to be a $50 billion company, they've got to find another act, another arc to their story," said Vince Hankes, a partner at Thrive Capital, a long time Scale investor.

---

How Scale AI works

One example of a task handled by a contract employee

1. A worker in the Philippines applies for a job to become an AI writing evaluator at Outlier, a unit of Scale AI.

2. The worker is hired and assigned to write text that the model can use to learn how humans think. Sample assignments could include creating and answering such questions as: "Explain the moon landing to a 6 year old," or "Write a story about frogs," or "Give me some books about humanity's first contact with aliens."

3. Scale AI provides the writing samples to customers, like Google and Meta, to train their AI models, with the goal of teaching them how to converse in more helpful and natural ways.

4. The worker is paid, averaging $8/hour in the Philippines, according to Outlier." [1]

It all sounds like a primitive scam. It is amazing that no one in Lithuania thought of doing this. We also have boba, but without bubbles.

1. EXCHANGE --- The Billionaire, Age 27, Powering the Boom in AI --- Alexandr Wang's Scale AI deploys a global army of gig workers to shape how the big AI models behave. Berber, Jin.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 21 Sep 2024: B.1.

Kodėl hibridinis darbas pasilieka visam laikui

  "Viršininkų problema yra ta, kad dažnai iš darbo išeina gerai dirbantys darbuotojai, nes jie turi geriausius šansus įsidarbinti kitur, - sako Stanfordo universiteto ekonomistas Nicholas Bloom. „Vadovai labai džiaugiasi galėdami, prastai darbą atliekantiems, žmonėms pasakyti: „Tu turi ateiti į biurą, arba tu išeini iš čia“, – priduria jis. Turėdami geidžiamesnių darbuotojų, „jie dažnai tiesiog nenori jų priversti, nes tai daro įtaką jų pačių premijoms po paaukštinimo".“ [1]

 
1. EXCHANGE --- Bosses Rejoice! Amazon Delivers the End of Hybrid Work --- If you thought your two days a week of work-from-home were safe, think again. The CEO of one of America's largest employers just called everyone back to the office full time. Fuhrmans, Vanessa; Bindley, Katherine; Cutter, Chip.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 21 Sep 2024: B.1.

Why Hybrid Work Is Here To Stay

 

"The problem for bosses, though, is that it's often high-performing employees who leave, since they have the best odds of getting hired elsewhere, says Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom. "Managers are very happy to tell underperformers, 'You gotta come in or you're out of here," he adds. With more coveted employees, "they often just don't want to enforce it, because it impacts their own bonus from promotions." [1]

 
1. EXCHANGE --- Bosses Rejoice! Amazon Delivers the End of Hybrid Work --- If you thought your two days a week of work-from-home were safe, think again. The CEO of one of America's largest employers just called everyone back to the office full time. Fuhrmans, Vanessa; Bindley, Katherine; Cutter, Chip.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 21 Sep 2024: B.1.

Trumpas prijungė jo rinkimų kampaniją prie kriptovaliutų minios--- Buvęs bitkoinų skeptikas sulaukia karšto palaikymo iš nišinių turtingų rinkėjų

 „Donaldas Trumpas šią savaitę apėmė nišinę rinkimų apygardą, kurią tik nedaugelis tikėjosi, kad jis taps čempionu – labai turtingus investuotojus, kurie kriptovaliutas pavertė jų domenu.

 

 Buvęs prezidentas ir buvęs bitkoinų skeptikas pirmadienį su šeima padėjo pradėti naują kriptovaliutų verslą. Trečiadienį Niujorke jis nupirko mėsainių bitkoinų tematikos nardymo baro gyventojams. Įsipareigojimai blokuoti Federalinio rezervo remiamą skaitmeninę valiutą ir sukurti „strateginę nacionalinę bitkoinų atsargą“ išsiskiria iš šnekų, kuriose daugiausia dėmesio skiriama lėkštės centro problemoms.

 

 „Tai yra pramonė, pilna rinkėjų, kurie tampa turtingesni ir įtakingesni, o dabar yra kažkas, kas nori būti jų balsu“, – sakė Dennisas Porteris, „Satoshi Action Fund“, bitkoinus remiančios ne pelno organizacijos, generalinis direktorius. „Jie duos jam balsų ir duos pinigų“.

 

 Nors balsų liko palaukti, pinigai jau pasirodė naudingi.

 

 Marcas Andreessenas ir Benas Horowitzas, rizikos investuotojo Andreesseno Horowitzo įkūrėjai, liepos mėn. podcast'e sakė, kad palaiko Trumpą, priskirdami jam, kad jis asmeniškai perrašė partijos platformą į „plokštų, visapusišką visos erdvės pritarimą“. “ Cameronas ir Tyleris Winklevossai, kriptovaliutų biržos „Gemini“ įkūrėjai milijardieriai, pareiškė, kad palaiko D. Trumpą, nes jis yra „už bitkoiną, už kriptovaliutą ir už verslą“. Jie atidavė jo kampanijai po 1 milijoną dolerių kriptovaliutų – iš dalies grąžinta, nes viršijo federalinius kampanijos įnašo limitus. Jesse'is Powellas, vienas iš kriptovaliutų mainų „Kraken“ įkūrėjų, sakė, kad paaukojo 1 mln. dolerių Trumpui ir jo paramos fondui.

 

 Kriptografijos pramonės nepartinių super politinių veiksmų komitetų tinklas sukaupė beveik 170 mln. dolerių. Trumpo kampanija taip pat surinko milijonus dolerių kriptovaliutų įnašų.

 

 Vos prieš dvejus metus kriptovaliutos ir įmonės sprogo, sukurdamos pakopinį efektą, dėl kurio kainos dar sumažėjo. Kasdieniai prekybininkai matė, kad investicijos išnyko, o Teisingumo departamentas kelis buvusius pramonės lyderius apkaltino sukčiavimu, kai kuriuos siunčia į kalėjimą. Šiais metais bitkoino kaina vėl pakilo iki beveik rekordinių aukštumų.

 

 Remiantis pelno nesiekiančios vartotojų teisių gynimo grupės „Public Citizen“ duomenimis, ši platesnė dalis iki šiol buvo sutelkta į Kongreso lenktynes, o kriptovaliutų įmonės sudaro beveik pusę visų įmonių įnašų į nešališkus PAC.

 

 Kriptovaliutų pramonės atstovų pasikalbėjimas su Trumpu buvo demonstruojamas per birželį vykusią lėšų rinkimo vakarienę San Franciske. Dalyvavo atstovai iš kai kurių didžiausių JAV kriptovaliutų verslų, tokių kaip birža Coinbase ir mokėjimų platforma Ripple.

 

 Trevoras Traina – ambasadorius Austrijoje per Trumpo administraciją, o dabar kriptovaliutų verslininkas – pabrėžė, kad daugelis didelių kriptovaliutų įmonių yra įsikūrusios už JAV ribų, nes jaučiamas vyriausybės priešiškumas. Jis paklausė, ar JAV nenorėtų praleisti kripto revoliuciją. Trumpas sakė, kad tai būtų baisu.

 

 Pokalbis greitai peraugo į bendrą nepasitenkinimą Vertybinių popierių ir biržos komisijos pirmininku Gary Gensleriu.

 

 „Visi sutarėme, kad Gensleris yra kaip tame filme „Rami vieta“, – sakė Traina. „Jei išleisi garsą, jis paduoda ieškinį teisme“.

 

 Tą mėnesį Trumpas savo kurorte Mar-a-Lago taip pat priėmė apie tuziną bitkoinų kasybos pramonės vadovų, kurie naudoja kompiuterius atsitiktiniams skaičiams generuoti, tikėdamiesi atrakinti naują bitkoiną. Prie gaiviųjų gėrimų ir makadamijos sausainių, Trumpas paklausė jų apie bitkoinų kasybos energijos poreikius ir pasakė, kad jo rinkimų kampanija sukurs draugiškų pokalbių temų apie pramonę.

 

 „Jis iš tikrųjų padarė pareiškimą, kad nenorėtų nieko daugiau, kaip tik matyti visą likusį bitkoiną, išgaunamą JAV“, – sakė renginyje dalyvavęs bitkoinų kasyklos „CleanSpark“ vykdomasis pirmininkas Matthew Schultzas.

 

 Trumpas paskyrė Howardą Lutnicką, „Cantor Fitzgerald“ pirmininką ir generalinį direktorių, savo pereinamojo laikotarpio komandos vienu pirmininku, suteikdamas didžiausiam kriptovaliutų pramonės gerbėjui Volstryte potencialiai galingą vaidmenį. Prieš Lutnicko paskyrimą abu vyrai kalbėjo liepos mėnesį vykusioje bitkoinų konferencijoje Nešvilyje, Tene.

 

 „Taisykles parašys žmonės, kurie myli jūsų pramonę, o ne tie, kurie nekenčia jūsų pramonės“, – savo kalboje sakė D. Trumpas.

 

 „Cantor“ dabar turi „daug bitkoinų“, – auditorijai sakė Lutnickas ir paskelbė, kad bendrovė atidaro 2 milijardų dolerių paskolą už bitkoino užstatą.

 

 Lutnickas taip pat susiejo „Cantor“ su „Tether“, viena didžiausių ir pelningiausių kriptovaliutų įmonių. Pagrindinis jos produktas yra pasaulyje dažniausiai naudojama stabili moneta, dar vadinama „tether“, kuri iš esmės veikia, kaip nereguliuojamas skaitmeninis doleris, kurio apyvarta siekia 119 mlrd. dolerių. „Cantor“ valdo „Tether“ JAV iždo portfelį.

 

 Trumpo pažadai, susiję su kriptovaliuta, dažnai daro tiesioginį poveikį šiems rėmėjams. Nacionalinė bitkoinų atsarga įteisintų bitkoiną, kaip rezervinį turtą. Jo pažadas blokuoti Fed išleistą skaitmeninę valiutą potencialiai nukirs galingą „Tether“ konkurentą.

 

 Kai kurie investuotojai ir analitikai mano, kad Trumpo kandidatūra apskritai teigiamai vertina kriptovaliutų kainas plačiau. Jo įprotis teikti pastabas, kurios, atrodo, siekia sugriauti status quo, Volstryte plačiai vertinamas, kaip galintis sukelti didesnį visų turto klasių nepastovumą – aplinka, kuri praeityje buvo palanki bitkoinams.

 

 Konferencijoje Trumpas taip pat pakartojo pažadą sušvelninti bausmę Rossui Ulbrichtui, kuris sukūrė ir vadovavo internetinei narkotikų prekyvietei „Šilko kelias“, varomai kriptovaliutos, neseniai nuteistas kalėti iki gyvos galvos pagal federalinius kaltinimus narkotikais ir kompiuteriniais nusikaltimais.

 

 Tačiau populiariausias Trumpo pažadas dėl kriptovaliutos yra jo pažadas pašalinti Genslerį iš SEC viršūnės.

 

 Savo podcast'e, įrašytame prieš Trumpo pažadą, Andreessenas ir Horowitzas skundėsi, kad Gensleris keletą kartų atsisakė su jais susitikti, nepaisant to, kad jų įmonė yra viena didžiausių investuotojų į kriptovaliutą. Powell's Kraken buvo užblokuotas teisinėje kovoje su reguliavimo institucija.

 

 „JAV vertybinių popierių įstatymai siekė apsaugoti investuotojus 90 metų, o kriptovaliutų srityje nėra nieko nesuderinamo su šiais laiko patikrintais įstatymais“, – sakė SEC atstovė.

 

 Trumpo pažadas atleisti Genslerį pirmąją jo darbo dieną buvo sutiktas audringais plojimais ir garsiais šūksniais bitkoinų konferencijoje.

 

 Trumpo polinkis susieti savo verslo interesus ir politinę karjerą taip pat pasisuko kriptovaliutų linkme. Paskutinė jo kriptovaliutų verslo įmonė „World Liberty Financial“ pirmadienio vakarą buvo pradėta su didžiuliu šurmuliu per dviejų valandų tiesioginę transliaciją, kurioje dalyvavo Trumpas ir jo šeima Elono Musko X platformoje.

 

 Projektas, kuriame teigiama, kad nori „padaryti kriptovaliutą ir Ameriką puikia, skatinant masinį stabilių monetų ir decentralizuoto finansavimo įsisavinimą“, iki šiol pasidalijo su nedaug detalių apie jo mechaniką." [1]

 

Bendra idėja yra labai amerikietiška ir labai respublikoniška - sumažinti biurokratų poveikį finansams, supaprastinti ir pagerinti finansų sistemą. Šaunuolis Trumpas.

1. U.S. News: Trump Hitches Campaign to Crypto Crowd --- The former bitcoin skeptic draws fervent support from niche, rich constituency. Foldy, Ben; Vicky Ge Huang; Ostroff, Caitlin.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 21 Sep 2024: A.4.

Trump Hitches Campaign to Crypto Crowd --- The former bitcoin skeptic draws fervent support from niche, rich constituency

 

"Donald Trump this week embraced a niche constituency that few would have expected him to champion -- the deep-pocketed investors who have made cryptocurrencies their domain.

The former president and onetime bitcoin skeptic on Monday helped launch a new crypto business with his family. On Wednesday, he bought burgers for denizens of a bitcoin-theme dive bar in New York. Pledges to block a Federal Reserve-backed digital currency and establish a "strategic national bitcoin stockpile" stand out in stump speeches that mostly focus on center-of-the-plate issues.

"This is an industry full of voters who are getting wealthier and more influential, and now there's someone who wants to be a voice for them," said Dennis Porter, chief executive officer of Satoshi Action Fund, a bitcoin-backing nonprofit. "They're going to give him votes, and they're going to give him money."

While the votes remains to be seen, the money has already proven helpful.

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, co-founders of the venture investor Andreessen Horowitz, said on a podcast in July that they were supporting Trump, crediting him with personally rewriting the party platform into a "flat-out, blanket endorsement of the entire space." Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the billionaire founders of the crypto exchange Gemini, said they are backing Trump because he is "pro-bitcoin, pro-crypto and pro-business." They gave his campaign $1 million each in crypto -- partially refunded because they exceeded federal campaign-contribution limits. Jesse Powell, a co-founder of the crypto exchange Kraken, said he donated $1 million to Trump's campaign and a pro-Trump super PAC, mostly in ether tokens, according to his post on X and Federal Election Commission filings.

The crypto industry's network of nonpartisan super political-action committees has amassed a nearly $170 million war chest to spend in the 2024 election cycle. Trump's campaign has raised millions of dollars in contributions made in cryptocurrencies, too.

Just two years ago, cryptocurrencies and companies blew up, creating a cascading effect that pulled prices lower yet. Everyday traders saw investments wiped out, and the Justice Department charged several former industry leaders with fraud, sending some to prison. This year, bitcoin's price has climbed back to near record highs.

This broader spigot has focused so far on congressional races, with crypto companies constituting nearly half of all corporate contributions to nonpartisan PACs, according to Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.

The crypto industry's courting of Trump was on full display at a June fundraising dinner in San Francisco. In attendance were representatives from some of crypto's largest U.S. businesses such as the exchange Coinbase and the payments platform Ripple.

Trevor Traina -- ambassador to Austria during the Trump administration and now a crypto entrepreneur -- stressed that many large crypto companies are based outside the U.S. because of perceived hostility from the government. He asked whether the U.S. wanted to miss out. Trump said that would be terrible.

The talk quickly turned to a shared dislike of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler.

"We all sort of agreed that Gensler is like in that movie 'A Quiet Place,'" said Traina. "If you make a sound, he sues."

That month, Trump also hosted about a dozen executives from the bitcoin-mining industry -- which uses computers to generate random numbers in the hopes of unlocking fresh bitcoin -- at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Over sodas and macadamia cookies, Trump asked them about the energy needs of bitcoin mining and told them his campaign would develop friendly talking points about the industry.

"He actually made the statement that he would like nothing more than to see all of the remaining bitcoin mined in the U.S.," said Matthew Schultz, executive chairman of bitcoin miner CleanSpark, who attended the event.

Trump appointed Howard Lutnick, chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, co-chair of his transition team, giving the crypto industry's biggest cheerleader on Wall Street a potentially powerful role. Before Lutnick's appointment, both men addressed a July bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tenn.

"The rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry," Trump said in his speech.

Cantor now owns "a shedload of bitcoin," Lutnick told the audience, and announced that the company was opening a $2 billion facility to lend against bitcoin collateral.

Lutnick also has tied Cantor to Tether, one of the largest and most profitable companies in crypto. Its main product is the world's most-used stablecoin, also called tether, which essentially functions as an unregulated digital dollar with $119 billion in circulation. Cantor manages Tether's portfolio of U.S. Treasurys.

Trump's crypto-related promises often have direct effects on these backers. A national bitcoin stockpile would legitimize bitcoin as a reserve asset. His promise to block a Fed-issued digital currency would potentially keep out a powerful competitor to Tether.

Some investors and analysts view Trump's candidacy as being generally positive for crypto prices more broadly. His habit of making comments that seem aimed at rattling the status quo is widely regarded on Wall Street as being likely to lead to greater volatility in all asset classes -- an environment that has been good for bitcoin in the past.

At the conference, Trump also reiterated a pledge to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, who created and ran the crypto-fueled Silk Road online drug marketplace before being sentenced to life imprisonment on federal drug and computer crime charges.

But Trump's most popular crypto-wooing pledge is his promise to remove Gensler from atop the SEC.

In their podcast, recorded before Trump's pledge, Andreessen and Horowitz complained that Gensler has refused to meet with them on several occasions, despite their firm's being among the biggest investors in cryptocurrency. Powell's Kraken has been locked in legal combat with the regulator.

"The U.S. securities laws have worked to protect investors for 90 years, and there's nothing incompatible about the crypto field with these time-tested laws," a spokeswoman for the SEC said.

Trump's pledge to fire Gensler on his first day in office was met with thunderous applause and loud cheers at the bitcoin conference.

Trump's tendency to entwine his business interests and political career also has taken a crypto turn. His latest crypto business venture, World Liberty Financial, launched with much fanfare Monday evening, through a two-hour livestream featuring Trump and his family on Elon Musk's X platform.

The project, which said it wants to "make crypto and America great by driving the mass adoption of stablecoins and decentralized finance," has shared few details about its mechanics so far." [1]

The general idea is very American and very Republican - to reduce the influence of bureaucrats on finance, to simplify and improve the financial system. Cool Trump.

1. U.S. News: Trump Hitches Campaign to Crypto Crowd --- The former bitcoin skeptic draws fervent support from niche, rich constituency. Foldy, Ben; Vicky Ge Huang; Ostroff, Caitlin.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 21 Sep 2024: A.4.