“To sustain the United States’ technology leadership in the face of China’s formidable economic and military challenge,” write Graham Allison, a professor of government at the Harvard Kennedy School and Eric Schmidt, former CEO and executive chairman of Google in Foreign Policy, “U.S. President Joe Biden should launch an urgent drive to recruit and retain 1 million tech superstars from around the world by the end of his first term in office.”

For the want of a green card (or: How the 5G story could’ve been very different)

Their article, The U.S. Needs a Million Talents Program to Retain Technology Leadership, starts with a story about one key player we lost in our failure to take in new people.

In 2009, Erdal Arikan, a Turkish graduate of the California Institute of Technology and MIT published a paper that solved a big information theory problem. He could’ve continued his work in the U.S., but he had to leave because he couldn’t get an academic appointment or sponsorship to stay. He returned to Turkey, turned to China, and Huawei — yes, that Huawei — used his work to create 5G solutions.

The article sums us the situation like so:

And while Huawei has produced one-third of the 5G infrastructure now operating around the world, the United States does not have a single major company competing in this race. Had the United States been able to retain Arikan—simply by allowing him to stay in the country instead of making his visa contingent on immediately finding a sponsor for his work—this history might well have been different.

And with the recent discovery that Huawei equipment installed as part of U.S. communications infrastructure could have a secondary purpose disrupting nuclear arsenal communications, the magnitude of our failure to let Arikan stay in the country has become even more apparent.

It’s the space race all over again

China’s leader Xi Jinping said it himself: “technological innovation has become the main battleground of the global playing field, and competition for tech dominance will grow unprecedentedly fierce.”

In 2001, China was still behind technologically. But in the space of only a couple of decades, they’ve leapfrogged the West in communications, facial and voice recognition, other aspects of AI, and green technology, and their education system is producing four times the STEM bachelor’s degrees and twice as many graduate degrees.

Their insularity remains their Achilles’ heel. They naturalize fewer than 100 citizens a year, while the U.S. does so with 1 million a year. That’s a difference of four orders of magnitude.

And what a difference it makes! Half of all U.S. unicorns were founded or co-founded by immigrants, and there are so many big-ass, big-deal companies founded or run by people born outside the U.S.:

Big-ass company	Founder or leader	Where they were born
Auth0	Eugenio Pace, founder	Argentina
Cloudflare	Michelle Zatlyn, founder	Canada
Credit Karma	Kenneth Lin, founder	China
Crowdstrike	Dmitri Alperovitch, founder	Russia
Databricks	Ali Ghodsi, founder	Iran
Discord	Stanislav Vishnevsky, founder	Ukraine
Eventbrite	Renaud Visage, founder	France
Evernote	Stepan Pachikov, founder	Azerbaijan
Google	Sergei Brin, founder	Russia
Google	Sundar Pinchai, CEO	India
Instacart	Apoorva Mehta, founder	India
Instacart	Fidji Simo, CEO	France
Microsoft	Satya Nadella, CEO	India
Nvidia	Jensen Huang, founder	Taiwan
Palantir	Peter Thiel, founder	Germany
Peloton	Yony Feng	China
Robinhood	Vlad Tenev, founder	Bulgaria
Slack	Stewart Butterfield, cofounder	Canada
SpaceX, Tesla	Elon Musk, CEO	South Africa
Sprinklr	Ragy Thomas, founder	India
Stripe	Patrick and John Collison, founders	Ireland
Uber	Garrett Camp, founder	Canada
Warby Parker	David Gilboa	Sweden
Zoom	Eric Yuan	China
Zscaler	Jay Caudhry	India

I deliberately included German-born Peter Thiel in the list particularly because he spends a lot of time canoodling with the anti-immigrant crowd. He’s one of those people who says “Ever since my family came to this country, we’ve had nothing but trouble from the immigrants.”

Let’s also not forget that Apple founder Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian immigrant, and that there are many children of immigrants who’ve contributed so much.

“It’s time for the United States to poach with purpose.”

That’s what Allison and Schmidt write, and what they mean is that the U.S. should:

• Grant an additional quarter million green cards every year.
• Eliminate the rule that limits the percentage of green cards issued to citizens of any single country to 7%.
• Move the immigration system from its current paper forms-based process to a digital one, which has caused more than 300,000 green cards to be lost.
• Grant 100,000 additional visas to extraordinary tech talents. You know, like the one Melania Trump got, but give them to people who actually merit them.
• Adjust the criteria for visas so that people qualify based on their technological expertise.
• Direct the Labor Department to make recruiting STEM talent a top priority.

…and most importantly:

• Dismantle the Trump administration rules whose goal was to reduce legal immigration to the U.S.

There’s more in the article, and I strongly encourage you to read it.

And hey, if you’re in Tampa Bay and looking for an example of a highly-skilled green card holder who’s making a difference, let me point you to the handsome well-dressed gentleman in the photo below:

Don’t let my accent, grasp of the culture, or accordion skill fool you — I’m a first-generation green card holder from the Philippines, and I’m here to make a difference in the tech world, locally and nationally.

(If you’re really curious, check out my article about my green card interview, which took place a week after the Trump inauguration.)

Happy New Year, fellow techies! Let’s kick it off with the very important reminder above, which was created by graphic designer Michelle Rial.

You should also know that she has a book of similar infographics, Maybe This Will Help.

Here’s a screenshot from a video that YouTube is suggesting to people who like watching videos about cryptocurrency. Regular readers of this blog will find its format familiar:

Once again, it’s supposed to be a live video of an interview with Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, co-founder of Ethereum, talking about Cardano, with an offer to double your ADA — send them n ADA, and they’ll send you 2n ADA back.

This is pretty much the same scam as one pulled last month with a fake “double your ETH” offer. Read it first, then note the similarities below.

It’s a “live” rebroadcast of a five-month-old video

The so-called “live” video is actually this pre-recorded interview on Lex Fridman’s YouTube channel:

The scammers are playing the video on a loop and piping it to a live YouTube stream to give it the appearance of a live broadcast.

It promises to double your ADA in a way that seems too good to be true

Here’s their promise, take straight from their video:

There’s a reason that they take a lot of space explaining what “double your ADA” means with a lot of examples: it’s all about getting you to think of all that sweet ADA that could be sitting in your wallet — if you’d just point your browser at ADAIO.online and send them your ADA!

Think for a moment: What’s the business model in giving someone twice the ADA they just gave you, which nothing else exchanged?

The ADAIO.online domain is 3 days old

If you do a WHOIS on the domain ADAIO.online, you’ll get these tidbits of information that should trigger your “scammy sense”:

• Created on 2021-11-17
• Expires on 2022-11-17
• Updated on 2021-11-17

As I write this, the domain was three days ago, and its owners are hoping you were born yesterday.

The display of ADA transfers is randomly generated

If you go to ADAIO.online and scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll see a constantly-updated table of transfers that purport to show people sending them some ADA and then getting double that amount in return.

It’s fake.

A simple “view source” of ADAIO.online’s home page shows that the table’s data is randomly-generated. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see the script behind the fakery:

<script>
    let day = 1
    let hours = 0
    let minutes = 0
    let seconds = 0
    let wallet = "addr1qxha6qprhk3dp325v7hrwmrg7z54j3wf2pl8wf5zseqfn740m5qz80dz6rz4geawxakx3u9ft9zuj5r7wung9pjqn8aqq79xwr";

    // dont edit
    let titleWallet = document.getElementById("wallet").innerText = wallet.toLocaleString('ru');
    let time = (day * (24 * 60 * 60)) + (hours * (60 * 60)) + (minutes * 60);
    // let timeContainer = document.getElementById('overTime').innerText = time;
    // dont edit


    function randomString(_0xe480x2) {
        var _0xe480x3 = '';
        var _0xe480x4 = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';
        var _0xe480x5 = _0xe480x4['length'];
        for (var _0xe480x6 = 0; _0xe480x6 < _0xe480x2; _0xe480x6++) {
            _0xe480x3 += _0xe480x4['charAt'](Math['floor'](Math['random']() * _0xe480x5))
        };
        return _0xe480x3
    }

    function randomStringHashBTC(_0xe480x2) {
        var _0xe480x3 = '';
        var _0xe480x4 = 'bacfed0123456789';
        var _0xe480x5 = _0xe480x4['length'];
        for (var _0xe480x6 = 0; _0xe480x6 < _0xe480x2; _0xe480x6++) {
            _0xe480x3 += _0xe480x4['charAt'](Math['floor'](Math['random']() * _0xe480x5))
        };
        return _0xe480x3
    }

    var divCounter = 0;

    function randomInteger(min, max) {
        let rand = min + Math.random() * (max - min);
        return Math.round(rand);
    }

    function randomIntegerBTC(min, max) {
        let rand = min + Math.random() * (max - min);
        return rand.toFixed(2);
    }

    function getRandomArbitrary(min, max) {
        rand = Math.random() * (max - min) + min;
        return rand.toFixed(2);
    }

    function getRundomMnogitel() {
        let asd = [1, 0.1, 0.01];
        let getRandom = Math.floor(Math.random() * asd.length);
        return asd[getRandom];
    }

    function GenerateAddress() {
        var result = '';
        var characters = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';
        var charactersLength = characters.length;
        for (var i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
            result += characters.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * charactersLength));
        }
        return 'add'+result;
    }

    function GenerateHash(length) {
        var result = '';
        var characters = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789';
        var charactersLength = characters.length;
        for (var i = 0; i < length; i++) {
            result += characters.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * charactersLength));
        }
        return result+"...";
    }

    function genDiv() {
        divCounter++;
        let valet = document.getElementById("wallet").innerText;
        var _0xe480x9 =
            `${'<div class="item"><div class="top"><div class="data"><div style="" class="data-item">{t1}</div><div style="display: none" class="data-item">{t2}</div><div class="data-item" id="btcstr">{t4}</div><div class="data-item">{t5}</div><div class="data-item">{t6}</div><div class="data-item">{t3}</div><div class="data-item">{t7}</div><div style="display: none" class="data-item">{t8}</div></div></div><div class="bottom"><div class="data"><div style="" class="data-item">{b1}</div><div style="display: none" class="data-item">{b2}</div><div class="data-item">{b4}</div><div class="data-item">{b5}</div><div class="data-item" id="btcstr">{b6}</div><div class="data-item">{b3}</div><div class="data-item">{b7}</div><div style="display:none"; class="data-item">{b8}</div></div></div></div>'}`;
        let _0xe480xa = GenerateHash(10);
        let _0xe480xb = "616" + randomInteger(1, 9) + randomInteger(1, 9) + randomInteger(1, 9);
        let _0xe480xc = 'right now';
        let _0xe480xd = GenerateAddress() + '...';
        let _0xe480xe = 'IN';
        let _0xe480xf = valet.substring(0, 10);
        let valueSend = getRandomArbitrary(1500, 40000);
        let _0xe480x10 = valueSend + ' ADA';
        let _0xe480x11 = ((Math['random']() * 0.009 * getRundomMnogitel()) + 0.0001 * getRundomMnogitel())[
            'toFixed'](6);
        let _0xe480x12 = GenerateHash(10);
        let _0xe480x13 = "616" + randomInteger(1, 9) + randomInteger(1, 9) + randomInteger(1, 9);
        let _0xe480x14 = 'right now';
        let _0xe480x15 = _0xe480xf.slice(0, 10) + "...";
        let _0xe480x16 = 'OUT';
        let _0xe480x17 = _0xe480xd;
        let _0xe480x18 = (valueSend * 3) + ' ADA';
        let _0xe480x19 = ((Math['random']() * 0.009 * getRundomMnogitel()) + 0.0001 * getRundomMnogitel())[
            'toFixed'](8);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{t1}', _0xe480x12);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{t2}', _0xe480x13);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{t3}', _0xe480x14);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{t4}', _0xe480x15);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{t5}', _0xe480x16);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{t6}', _0xe480x17);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{t7}', _0xe480x18);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{t8}', _0xe480x19);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{b1}', _0xe480xa);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{b2}', _0xe480xb);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{b3}', _0xe480xc);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{b4}', _0xe480xd);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{b5}', _0xe480xe);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{b6}', _0xe480x15);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{b7}', _0xe480x10);
        _0xe480x9 = _0xe480x9['replace']('{b8}', _0xe480x11);
        var _0xe480x1a = $(_0xe480x9)['prependTo']('.table-body');
        $('.item')['each'](function () {
            var _0xe480x6 = $(this)['index']();
            if (_0xe480x6 > 0) {
                $(this)['find']('.top .data div')['eq'](5)['html'](_0xe480x6 + ' min');
                $(this)['find']('.bottom .data div')['eq'](5)['html'](_0xe480x6 + ' min')
            }
        });
        setTimeout(function () {
            _0xe480x1a['find']('.top')['fadeIn']();
            _0xe480x1a['find']('.bottom .data div')['eq'](5)['html']('right now')
        }, 2000)
    }

    $(document)['ready'](function () {
        genDiv();
        setInterval(function () {
            genDiv()
        }, 15500)
    })

    genDiv();

</script>

Note that some functions have “BTC” as part of their name, which suggests that they were originally used for a Bitcoin scam and that the scammers simply reused the script.

At least the coin-ether.net scammers tried to hide their script. The lazy grifters behind ADAIO.online didn’t even put in that amount of effort.

How much have they been able to collect from gullible people?

By pasting the wallet address that ADAIO.online provided on their site at the time of writing (the better scammers know to change wallets often) into Cardanoscan, it appears that they’ve collected about 66,000 ADA in the past five hours. At current prices, that’s just under $125,000, or $25K an hour.

Let me say it again: There’s a lot of opportunity in crypto, but these “give me some of your crypto, and I’ll give you double back” offers ain’t it. Don’t fall for the scam!

If you’re someone who regularly watches cryptocurrency talking heads on YouTube, the algorithm probably suggested that you watch the video shown in the screenshot below:

It’s a scam.

I’ll explain below.

The “live” interview is a year old

For starters, the video, which purports to be a live interview with Ethereum creator (and son of one of my contacts from my Toronto days) Vitalik Buterin, is actually a “live” rebroadcast of an actual Coinbase video from last November:

That year-old video is embedded in coin-ether.net’s video to give it an air of legitimacy in the hopes that you’ll suspend your critical thinking and fall for their “giveaway” offer:

Here’s the “giveaway”: Send at least 0.5 ETH (US $4203.30 as I write this) to their wallet address, and they’ll immediately send double that amount to your wallet. And in case you don’t know what “times two” means, they explain it to you very clearly:

• If you send 0.5+ ETH, you will get 1+ ETH back.
• If you send 10+ ETH, you will get 20+ ETH back.
• If you send 50+ ETH, you will get 100+ ETH back.
• If you send 250+ ETH, you will get 500+ ETH back.
• If you send 500+ ETH, you will get 1000+ ETH back.

This is a psychological trick: it’s all about getting you to think of all that sweet Ethereum that could be sitting in your wallet — if you’d just point your browser at coin-ether.net and send them your ETH!

WHOIS coin-ether.net?

If you do a WHOIS on the domain coin-ether.net, you’ll get these tidbits of information that should trigger your “scammy sense”:

• Created on 2021-10-30
• Expires on 2022-10-30
• Updated on 2021-10-30

That’s right — this domain was born yesterday (at the time of writing), and its owners are hoping you were born yesterday, too!

coin-ether.net’s maps to the IP address 185.178.208.138, which is located in Rostov Oblast, located in the Southern Federal District of Russia.

The display of Ethereum transfers is randomly generated

If you go to coin-ether.net and scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll see a constantly-updated table of transfers that purport to show people sending them some ETH and then getting double that amount in return.

It’s fake.

A simple “view source” of coin-ether.net’s home page shows that one of its imported scripts is something called table.js.

If you view the source of table.js, you’ll find that its purpose is to repeatedly call a function named createTableItem(), which creates tables containing randomly-generated Ethereum addresses and amounts in exchanges that always happen “right now”:

const createTableItem = () => {
  let inputValue = randomInteger(1, 100) + "." + randomString(1, "123456789");
  let outputValue = ++inputValue * 2;
  let txFIn = inputValue / 1000;
  let txFOut = outputValue / 1000;
  let cutWallet = BaseWallet.slice(0, 7) + "..."

  let item = document.createElement("div");
  item.className = "table_item ";
  item.innerHTML = `<table>
                    <tr class="table_item-top">
                        <td>${randomString(7) + "..."}</td>
                        <td>${randomString(6, "123456789")}</td>
                        <td>${cutWallet}</td>
                        <td>OUT</td>
                        <td>${"0x" + randomString(5) + "..."}</td>
                        <td>right now</td>
                        <td>${outputValue + "  ETH"}</td>
                        <td>${txFOut.toFixed(3)}</td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr class="table_item-apply">
                        <td class="left"></td>
                        <td ><img src="./images/Apply.png" alt="apply" /></td>
                        <td class="right"></td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr class="table_item-bottom">
                    <td>${randomString(7) + "..."}</td>
                    <td>${randomString(6, "123456789")}</td>
                    <td>${"0x" + randomString(5) + "..."}</td>
                    <td>  IN</td>
                    <td>${cutWallet}</td>
                    <td>right now</td>
                    <td>${inputValue + "  ETH"}</td>
                    <td>${txFIn.toFixed(3)}</td>
                    </tr>
                    </table>`;

  var first = table.childNodes[0];
  let last = table.lastChild;

  table.insertBefore(item, first);
  let itemsCount = table.children.length;

  if (itemsCount > 3) {
    table.removeChild(last);
  }
};

They didn’t hide it very well — even a student in their first week of a coding bootcamp would be able to find it.

And finally, there’s just plain common sense

Why would anyone simply give you double the money you give them?

There’s a lot of opportunity in crypto, but coin-ether.net ain’t it. Don’t fall for the scam!