Facebook inventors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, also the founders of crypto exchange Gemini, took to Reddit for an ask-me-anything session. Though they ultimately revealed little of interest—the Social Network is a great film but “certainly not the full story,” “bitcoin is better at being gold than gold,” “we are committed to [regulation],” and “we will at some point implement SegWit into our Bitcoin wallet” (paraphrased)—as always with these things, it’s more telling which questions they didn’t answer. Here are our favourites from Reddit’s budding Woodwards and Bernsteins:
Jaredduggan: “Why do you charge 2x’s higher fees when purchasing crypto in your mobile app than you do when making the same purchase from a web browser? Same purchase two different fee structures, same platform.”
ButtcoinWhale: “Why should we use Gemini when Coinbase Pro has cheaper fees?”
NimbleBodhi: “…do you support the open source movement of Bitcoin and crypto enough to contribute to pay developers to work on those open source projects (that benefit Gemini)…?”
And, the silence that spoke the most volumes:
NuKidOnTheBlokChyn: “Have you ever pretended to be each other to bang the other’s chick?”
What are you hiding, Winklevii???
The one light criticism the Winklevii (who recently plastered an ad around New York calling for "rules" within crypto) did address was on the downfalls of regulation: They're plumping a little thing called “Marketplace Surveillance,” which to one Redditor sounded “Orwellian.”
Per Cameron Winklevoss: “I know, it sounds worse than it is, lol. The term suffers from a branding issue, but it’s not Big Brother. Marketplace Surveillance is commonplace in equities and derivatives markets—so we aren’t re-inventing the wheel here, just bringing best practices into crypto.”
Asked whether in implementing these “best practices” they were “contributing to the censorship of Bitcoin,” the Winklevii kept schtum.