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Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

financemagnates.com

201–210 of 382 posts

Re: Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

#201

So if I am personally bearish on the entire "alt-money" movement, how do I turn this into a potential profitable bet? Any tips on where I go to "short" coins?

You can short these coins in a lot of locations, depending on which ones you want to short. If you want to short larger ones, you should check out bitmex (https://bitmex.com), a derivatives platform, or bitfinex (https://bitfinex.com), a very large exchange. If you are expecting platforms as regulated as stock brokers in the US, you are out of luck. There's many other exchanges that will allow you to work with more (lesser value/known) assets.

Keep in mind just about everyone who has tried to short these things has lost everything. I've watched coins that I think are completely worthless and have zero real users go from 100 million market cap to 200 million, to 500 million, to over a billion. And they still sit there today. And every step of the way, 'rational actors' are trying to short it, waiting for it to finally correct.

I've seen this quote mentioned a lot recently in cryptocurrencies, and it is still not mentioned enough: "the market can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent".

Re: Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

#202
post #32

I decided not to invest after reading this: https://medium.com/token-economy/the-analysis-filecoin-doesn...

I wouldn't want to invest in it either, but the truth is is that these investors will likely all make a lot of money. Just because a project is terrible in various ways doesn't mean the investors in the ICO won't get rich, and the founders won't get rich.

Especially the special ones that got in early at a fraction of the price.

Re: Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An extremely small fraction of the inflated value of these coins is actually part of - interacting with - the global economy. Most of it is not and will never be liquid. Most of it has been and is locked up, not touching other aspects of the global economy, and most of the actual bubble value will vaporize without ever touching any part of the 'real' global economy. It's the specific reason there is nothing to fear a…

>An extremely small fraction of the inflated value of these coins is actually part of - interacting with - the global economy. Most of it is not and will never be liquid. I am not sure how you arrived at this conclusion? As more money will move into these currencies, won't it create an impact when eventual crash arrives. > The dotcom bubble implosion wiped out trillions in moderately liquid value (the US stock market…

Money doesn't "move into these currencies". Someone has USD, someone has BTC. They swap. That's it.

Re: Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

#204

These could go big too... "3 ICOs Set To Out-Perform Long Term Benchmarks In The Cryptocurrency Markets" https://medium.com/@alexanderwestin/3-icos-set-to-out-perfor...

I actually think we'll see our first billion dollar ICO here soon.

I don't doubt you, and I think that's an incredible shame to everything computing has enabled humanity to achieve.

Re: Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

#205
post #12

I listened to this YC podcast[1] twice with Juan Benet. Listening to Juan talk about a lot of historical information and the correlations he drew was fascinating. When he tried to explain the need for Filecoin to Dalton, I just didn't hear it. Dalton kept asking him over and over what the point was and he kept giving non-answers (at least in my opinion which doesn't mean much to be honest). I understand the goal of t…

Based on your post I went and looked up that question/answer portion, and I think the back and forth is illuminating in it's lack of either communication or actual capability: TL;DR: It's a solution in search of a problem, like so much good, early technology. Dalton Caldwell [31:07] – What is the burning, and it’s okay if it’s not consumers, but what is the thing that, with Filecoin, that is gonna make, whether it’s…

> It's a solution in search of a problem, like so much good, early technology.

Care to elaborate and share examples of other "good, earl technology"? Typically when I hear "solution in search of a problem", I start thinking "this is going nowhere".

Re: Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

#206
post #173

Is this a joke? Regardless whether the concept has any merit, at this stage of idea/startup we would normally be talking about seed level funding round so small sums of money to get a small team and build a product. Almost 200 million is obscene as a seed funding. If this isn't the proof this is tullip mania then I don't know what is.

I lived through the late 90s dot.com mania and you saw an MBA out of Harvard and a couple techies raise this kind of money on nothing more than a hair brained idea with .com after it. Russ from Silicon Valley with his "radio. on. internet!" is pretty close to the truth. This is a bubble. Not FileCoin, but ICOs and block chain. The vast majority of these ICOs are outright scams or unworkable nonsense. I've read some o…

Well, Russ from SV's story is essentially what happened with Mark Cuban and Broadcast.com...so it effective is the truth.

Re: Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ICOs are a new breed in economy Pumping up worthless crud with tons of PR to get suckers, er "investors" to "get in now" is an old old old scam. Adding "with cryptocurrency" onto the end of it doesn't make it new.

You get liquidity the next day instead of in 5 or 10 than with regular startups, I don't see a problem with that, investors are here to make money right? Is not like it doesn't happen with the regular VC cash money right? E.g. Color? Or with regular stock market. e.g. Enron. Clueless investors are always gonna be there.

How can you make the claim that that $186M is liquid? Last time someone dumped a large amount - $1-2M worth of Etheruem's Ether? - it tanked.

Re: Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

#208
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is true, then VCs spreading their money across any and every ICO makes strategic business sense and should be applauded instead of being pilloried for being scam artists trying to fleece regular folks into buying coins.

That's only if you assume the tokens today will form the foundation of the $1 trillion cryptocurrency economy. The biggest projects of tomorrow may not exist yet, or they may take a very different shape than the volatile token economics we see today.

That still doesn't call into question the VC's investment strategy. You can't always time the market waiting for the killer app of Coins. Waiting to black swan the ICO space like John Paulson did with housing isn't feasible in the aggregate.

Re: Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

#209
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulations aren't there to protect against stupidity. They're there to protect against fraud. It's to stop someone from setting up a fly by night lotto, collecting ticket money, then leaving town.

If you are tasked with making a better society and you use the opportunity to promote and entrench greater stupidity, is that fraud?

I'm always outraged when I see NY Lotto ads on the subway.

This is just a way to profit off people who don't understand math and have some sort of addiction.

It's a poor tax.

I once saw an ad that said something like "if you are putting in your resume to be a door man, it's time to play the lottery"!!!!

Not, time to go back to school, time to vote for better income redistribution, not good for you for looking for work -- no, the city decided to trivialize unemployment and poverty AND make the claim playing the lottery is better than hunting for a job.

Regulation seems to be about limiting who gets to extract the profit from the poor, not protecting the poor / the people.

Re: Filecoin Suspends ICO After Raising $186M in One Hour

#210
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulations aren't there to protect against stupidity. They're there to protect against fraud. It's to stop someone from setting up a fly by night lotto, collecting ticket money, then leaving town.

If you are tasked with making a better society and you use the opportunity to promote and entrench greater stupidity, is that fraud?

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