The crypto thread

What do you prefer?

  • Bitcoin

    Votes: 3 9.7%
  • Ethereum

    Votes: 6 19.4%
  • Binance Coin

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Cardano

    Votes: 1 3.2%
  • Fiat

    Votes: 6 19.4%
  • Go away, I deal in coke and gold bars

    Votes: 14 45.2%
  • Privacy coins

    Votes: 1 3.2%

  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .
And yet, as far as I know, settling transfers internationally takes way more time than people would prefer.

Full caveat, I have no idea how Banks transfer money to each other. Like, why they even believe each other when it comes to the amount of deposits they hold.
I do not know either, but I know it is not because the computers take that long to do the sums, so changing the computer program seems unlikely to speed it up in and of itself.
 
Oh yeah, it would be some effort to get around historical bureaucratic kluges, embedded inefficiencies, or regulations.

But it's something that we wouldn't be able to watch ourselves, by looking at people using crypto at the convenience store. If larger industry wants a stable coin, then there should eventually be a winner
 
Oh yeah, it would be some effort to get around historical bureaucratic kluges, embedded inefficiencies, or regulations.

But it's something that we wouldn't be able to watch ourselves, by looking at people using crypto at the convenience store. If larger industry wants a stable coin, then there should eventually be a winner
Whereas I can see a value in the central bank issued stable coin, the current crop either rely on algorithms (which do not really work) or on some company investments that you just have to trust. The reason to use a blockchain is so you do not have to trust anyone, which stable coins seem to break. Much as I dislike videos as references, this is a 35 minute video and tether (market cap $65,685,919,819) which kind of says you cannot trust them at all. It is also quite entertaining.
Spoiler Tether by coffeezilla :
 
It just keeps getting worse.


  • Sam Bankman-Fried showed a Bloomberg reporter a spreadsheet of company finances.
  • He said that problems were discovered after FTX and Alameda finances were added together.
  • The company, which had no accounting department, had double-counted $8 billion
SBF has been arrested in the Bahamas.


**Edit**
There were some hints this was coming.


Especially when the current CEO of FTX testified to Congress today that customer funds were comingled. (The arrest came hours later?)

 
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At least the americans continue to prosecute a few most notorious financial criminals. Here in Europe I suspect he'd manage to walk away playing the fool.
 
At least the americans continue to prosecute a few most notorious financial criminals. Here in Europe I suspect he'd manage to walk away playing the fool.

The only people that were prosecuted and gaoled for the Financial collapse was in the UK
In the US the corporations were fined but no one ended up in gaol.
 
The only people that were prosecuted and gaoled for the Financial collapse was in the UK
In the US the corporations were fined but no one ended up in gaol.

I don't remember anyone getting jailed for the financial collapse here in the UK? Public view was that the bankers got away more or less scot-free. I remember a few articles about Iceland doing some rather more serious prosecuting, but that's about the only country I've heard of trying to apply any real accountability.

EDIT: OK, there were apparently a few jailed in the UK. As in, like 5 people, a decade after the fact, and far less than in the US.
 
Whereas I can see a value in the central bank issued stable coin, the current crop either rely on algorithms (which do not really work) or on some company investments that you just have to trust. The reason to use a blockchain is so you do not have to trust anyone, which stable coins seem to break. Much as I dislike videos as references, this is a 35 minute video and tether (market cap $65,685,919,819) which kind of says you cannot trust them at all. It is also quite entertaining.
Spoiler Tether by coffeezilla :

This seems to mostly be about tether. It was interesting, thank you. But it's not so much about the market need for a stable coin, but more about overall grifting in the crypto space.

I continue to think it should be unregulated, including a lack of access to courts if the contract includes non approved crypto. Let the free market do something as a constant warning about itself
 
White collar criminals usually get off easy, don't they? Especially if they're bankers with links to the government.

Good to see the crypto space shaking out some troublemakers and getting them charged, though

As to why bank transfers can take so long (and cost so much), a part of that seems to be that banks are tied to oldschool bureaucratic practices that they are tied to at the hip, in some cases. In others they simply see no reason to improve, because they have no competition (unless crypto alternatives step up to the plate moreso than they have already)
 
The only people that were prosecuted and gaoled for the Financial collapse was in the UK
In the US the corporations were fined but no one ended up in gaol.
Yup, sounds about right.



Other than Bernie Madoff, those who steal billions usually get fined instead of jailed the last 15 years.
White collar prosecutions are at an all-time low too.


Most recently, Elizabeth Holmes got 11 years for defrauding investors of $121 Million
Life for the non-violent thieves who are poor can be much harder.
 
It's interestig to note that while Crypto has certainly "crashed", it's still valuable. Bitcoin has tanked, absolutely, but a single Bitcoin is still worth ~$17,700. 1 Etherium is about $1,290.

So, what's weird to me is that they've held value *at all*. Bitcoin is about 1/4th its high, sure, but it didn't actually go *poof*. I have no idea what to make of that. When most speculative assets (which has been my position re: crypto) go *poof*, they go to *poof* hard. Like, worthless overnight. These maintain actual value, while greatly reduced from their peaks of course.
 
You appear to have forgotten about a few.
e.g. Bernie Madoff
PS: I suggest you keep taking the vitamin pills.

So the WOREST FINANCIAL CRIMES where $30 Bil was stolen and no one in the US went to gaol
Means that the US is doing a good job punishing financial crimes
PS: I suggest you keep taking the vitamin pills.

Anyways why are we arguing ?
Governments need to do a better job punishing and investigating these kinds of crimes

You asked, we answered: Why didn’t any Wall Street CEOs go to jail after the financial crisis?​

It set off a recession that collectively destroyed over $30 trillion of the world’s wealth. And though the crisis grew out of big banks’ handling of mortgage-backed securities, no Wall Street executive went to jail for it. So what happened?
civil lawsuits and punishments that did not include jail time.

 
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He has now been charged:


The "conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the Campaign Finance Laws" charge may make for interesting news.
The agenda of the masters of cryptocrap has in recent years been to kill any attempts at regulation, so they can continue to avoid having to answer inconvenient questions like "where are the funds you claim you have". Who was this one trying to bribe?
 
You know you screwed up when you have the SEC and CFTC coming at you!

Anyhow, I strongly suspect the SEC and CFTC will come down on him pretty hard. The two agencies have been feuding for years now over who gets to regulate crypto, so right now both want to show they are the 'tough enforcer on the beat'. The GOP is largely crypto agnostic* and the Democrats feel no great need to play nice with crypto anymore as they are instinctively pro-regulation, not recieving nice donations from Bankman-Fried, and will want to do a bit of CYA.

*Indeed, Adam Tooze argued one reason (of many) the crypto space was unregulated for so long is because the GOP is instinctively anti-regulation but has no strong opinions on crypto.
And the Democrats as the "party of government" didn't feel in any great rush to regulate it as a crypto collapse poses no threat to the "real" banking and finance system.
 
It's interestig to note that while Crypto has certainly "crashed", it's still valuable. Bitcoin has tanked, absolutely, but a single Bitcoin is still worth ~$17,700. 1 Etherium is about $1,290.

So, what's weird to me is that they've held value *at all*. Bitcoin is about 1/4th its high, sure, but it didn't actually go *poof*. I have no idea what to make of that. When most speculative assets (which has been my position re: crypto) go *poof*, they go to *poof* hard. Like, worthless overnight. These maintain actual value, while greatly reduced from their peaks of course.

Yeah, there's definitely something to this that you've noticed. Obviously, all the assets will retain treating value. I could still technically sell the comic books that I collected in the 90s, after all. But with the comic books you can somewhat predict at least what the various rock bottom prices will be. Or maybe not, but kind of. They have resale value in the second-hand market.

A useless crypto should crater to a very small fraction of its boom price. They didn't. Heck, the stock price of Facebook has a pretty similar trend line to Bitcoin. It was both popular and mismanaged, but there's a 75% drop in price.

Calculating how much of Bitcoins price support is from psychology and how much is from institutional effects is going to be pretty impossible. As I mentioned, as soon as it's being borrowed, some of its value is protected. As well, once the institutional spread is diverse enough, many buyers are trying to catch the falling knife. Leonardo da Vinci art has a market capitalization, I guess so could Satoshi's.

I would still recommend purchasing alternative Investments, obviously. There are lots of falling knives out there
 
It's interestig to note that while Crypto has certainly "crashed", it's still valuable. Bitcoin has tanked, absolutely, but a single Bitcoin is still worth ~$17,700. 1 Etherium is about $1,290.

So, what's weird to me is that they've held value *at all*. Bitcoin is about 1/4th its high, sure, but it didn't actually go *poof*. I have no idea what to make of that. When most speculative assets (which has been my position re: crypto) go *poof*, they go to *poof* hard. Like, worthless overnight. These maintain actual value, while greatly reduced from their peaks of course.

It's a crypto bear market, isn't it? Prices always drop 70-90% during such times, just looking at past bear markets.
 
Deader than a Dodo. I hope you* don't have any still


*generic reader!
I am glad I still have some. Getting the initial "float" that allows one to get more is getting harder and harder, and they allow me to buy things I could not otherwise.
 
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