Interviews

Bitboy’s Interview with Dominic Williams Is a Must-Watch for Crypto Fans

Ben is one of the foremost proponents of the IC, and his interview with Dominic Williams of the DFINITY Foundation is a must-see whether you are already a fan of the Internet Computer or just want to know the truth behind what happened to the token price at Genesis.

After a year and a half of what appears to be organized FUD and an intentional blackout from the mainstream media, the Internet Computer seems to have found a champion in Ben Armstrong (you may know him better as Bitboy). Ben may not have fully known what he was getting into when he first opened his mind to the IC, but the community certainly captured his heart with its welcoming spirit.

Now, Ben is one of the foremost proponents of the IC, and his interview with Dominic Williams of the DFINITY Foundation is a must-see whether you are already a fan of the Internet Computer or just want to know the truth behind what happened to the token price at Genesis.

Here are some of the highlights of the interview:

Why Dominic Never Saw It Coming

Dom admitted that he hadn’t used crypto exchanges since 2016 and had never even heard of FTX. He’s been too busy with the Internet Computer since the DFINITY Foundation was formed in 2016 with himself as the Chief Scientist and Founder. He just had no idea there would be such powerful and wealthy people with a vested interest in seeing the Internet Computer fail and an inferior project like Solana succeed.

What Makes the Internet Computer Superior?

DFINITY has the largest team of professional cryptographers in the world (more than Google!). Dom reminded everyone you can’t just copy and paste code and make a Web3 blockchain. There’s no amount of money you can throw at it to make it work if the tech isn’t there. He also contrasted the IC with Solana. Nothing is really built on Solana. It’s built on AWS and other clouds, with the tokens being exchanged on the blockchain. Meanwhile, full social media platforms, games, and more are built directly on the Internet Computer!

The Token Manipulation – What Happened?

The Internet Computer had a $230 billion market cap at launch. Dominic was upset by this and admitted to kicking a wall and cursing because he knew price discovery would drive it down. While the DFINITY Foundation sold no tokens until a few weeks after launch, the narrative painted for the public was very different. So what happened?

Cryptoleaks revealed all the way back in June that FTX was behind the ICP price manipulation attack at Genesis.

Exactly four hours before launch, the trading volume of ICP perp on FTX skyrocketed, causing the price to go vertical. A few hours after launch, the volume on ICP perp dropped, causing the price to go vertical again, but in the other direction. While Dom didn’t want to make any accusations regarding ICP perp manipulation, Bitboy had no problem saying he believed it was Alameda. You can read more of the evidence and make your own judgments. The undercover crypto journalism site cryptoleaks.info(cases 1 and 2, in particular) reports on the FTX manipulation and the Arkham Intelligence report, which was the next shoe to drop.

While the report was created by someone with no apparent crypto or research experience, the New York Times promoted the report, giving it instant credibility and sealing the fate of the ICP token in the early days by destroying public perception. But this is when the big bombshell of the interview drops. Bitboy tells Dom that he believes it was SBF who funded the Arkham Intelligence report. It’s not a difficult leap to make in itself since he had the most to gain by burying the ICP to keep his SOL investments pumping. But what turns it from conspiracy theory into legit possibility is this...

Within 48 hours of the first time Ben met Dom in London, Arkham Intelligence sent Ben a DM on Twitter. Ben called this a page out of Sam’s playbook.

While Dom tried to limit accusations to a minimum, he seemed satisfied to hear Bitboy had reached the same conclusions. By the way, nice studio Dom. Love the art!

Watch the Explosive Interview for Yourself

We’ll conclude by saying Dom’s studio for the call looked really sharp with Motoko, Poked Bot, and BTC Flower artwork in the background! We’re really looking forward to the deep dive into the Internet Computer that Bitboy will be releasing soon. And, as always, we look forward to hearing more from the DFINITY Foundation’s Chief Scientist, Dominic Williams.

These highlights only tell part of the story, so be sure to watch the full video.