61–70 of 70 posts
The same tired arguments as ever: miner death spiral, not scarce, ponzi, tether etc. But with a new timeline. I'm sure it'll happen this year!
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Yes, I recognized the language from that article/interview. It did not explain how Tether was redeemed by Circle. That interview did not cover in any detail how much Tether was redeemed or how Tether was wiring millions or billions of USD to Circle. I want to be very clear here that selling USDT is not the same as redeeming it directly with Tether themselves.
You are asking for the actual nuts and bolts? Everything is accomplished over telegram in the crypto space, including OTC trades. Circle had entities throughout the world and offshore bank accounts with those entities. You would ping Tether on telegram and say you want to swap USD for USDT or vice versa and wire transfer details would happen. It isn’t rocket science. I don’t know the exact amount but we had pretty tr…
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He does seem like a bit of a lunatic but I'm not sure that it says much about Bitcoin. If you ever watch YouTube, you'll find there are similar characters in real estate, stocks, forex, etc.
Michael Saylor is the guy who "legitimized" Bitcoin He is frequently mentioned in Bitcoin discussions as evidence that Bitcoin is mainstream: a rational, safe investment, good enough for MicroStrategy to invest hundreds of millions When you actually watch him talk, the credibility vanishes
This is greatly overstating his role and impact.
Nocoiner Frances Coppola: "Bitcoin is not scarce because each coin is subdivided into satoshis". These comments are entertaining but seem to get more ridiculous with every year.
Kinda depends on what you mean by scarce. Expensive? Subdivision doesn't help. Illiquid? satoshis help there.
Nocoiner Frances Coppola: "Bitcoin is not scarce because each coin is subdivided into satoshis". These comments are entertaining but seem to get more ridiculous with every year.
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So is cash. Being free from government control can be a lifeline for those living under repression or kafkaesque regulatory morass. This is what life is like for the less privileged under the anti-money laundering regime: https://www.reddit.com/r/MakerDAO/comments/de0sys/kyc_is_abs...
Why does KYC exist? Well, people were: 1. Engaging in human trafficking, which is really unfortunate for the poor and often non-white females who are being trafficked 2. Sponsoring terrorism, which sucks for the again young and often non-white females in schools that are being blown up, the women in markets getting shrapnel wounds, and the children losing parents 3. Funneling arms to terrorists, which allows them to…
3. That is also the argument the Chinese Communist Party makes for its various totalitarian surveillance/control measures in Xinxiang. Anyone with a basic respect for liberal democratic principles like privacy and presumption-of-innocence/due-process will reject warrantless mass-surveillance of financial transactions and the presumption of guilt inherent to disallowing individuals who haven't proven their innocence, by disclosing private information, from conducting certain classes of financial transactions.
>>So yes, it's really inconvient to have to deal with KYC and miss out on that sweet stock growth on foreign markets
That is incredibly daft. Individuals being able to generate/accumulate wealth has massive knock-on effects for the people around them and the countries they live in.
But here is a story about poor women of color who you seem more concerned about:
https://www.coindesk.com/money-reimagined-ugly-side-kyc-aml-...
>>At a 2015 blockchain event, Nairobi-based bitcoin pioneer Elizabeth Rossiello answered an audience question about the impact on Somalians of a recent shutdown in remittance inflows after the U.S. government had labeled the country a “high-risk jurisdiction.” The AZA Group CEO’s answer was blunt: “They starve.”
I guess just more collateral damage according to the insiders in the AML/KYC compliance sector.
>>I encourage your example to work with his local government to pass the appropriate laws to join the world economy.
Uzbekistan is an authoritarian state.
And until he can transform Uzbekistan into, first, a democratic state, and second, a compliant organ of the global AML mass-surveillance regime, it's okay for insiders like you that he is a global third class citizen. All of the poverty alleviation that being presumed innocent, instead treated like a suspect/criminal by your discriminatory policies, would bring about, will be conveniently dismissed by you.
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Why does KYC exist? Well, people were: 1. Engaging in human trafficking, which is really unfortunate for the poor and often non-white females who are being trafficked 2. Sponsoring terrorism, which sucks for the again young and often non-white females in schools that are being blown up, the women in markets getting shrapnel wounds, and the children losing parents 3. Funneling arms to terrorists, which allows them to…
1 and 2. If you read that post, and still think warrantless mass-surveillance via KYC mandates is good, then you must view the author as necessary collateral damage, "for the greater good". This is a cold, inhumane way to treat matters of justice. Anyway, to address your utiliarian logic: poverty is the biggest predictor of being trafficked, and KYC controls, as well as the various punitive and indiscriminate governm…
Poverty existed literal millennia before KYC. Sure, it'd be great to just end poverty, and when you do that we can talk about ending KYC. Before you end poverty, it turns out it's pretty easy to implement KYC and stop a bunch of harms.
> That is also the argument the Chinese Communist Party makes for its various totalitarian surveillance...
There's a difference between putting a Muslim ethnic minority in concentration camps, and telling people they're supposed to identify themselves before wiring around tens of thousands of dollars internationally or opening foreign bank accounts. If that difference is lost on you, your issues run deeper than KYC.
> the impact on Somalians of a recent shutdown in remittance inflows...
The ideal fix here is for Somalia to stop funneling money to terrorist organizations.
> The report titled "Following the Money", authored by former UN Expert panellist for Somalia, Jay Bahadur, said illegal payments were as high as $3.7 million between 2014 and 2020... Amal was particularly accused of handling cash sent to Abdulrab Salem al-Hayashi, who was in October 2017 sanctioned by the US Treasury for "assisting in, sponsoring, or providing financial, material or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of" Al-Qaeda-linked terror groups in the Arabian Peninsula.
https://allafrica.com/stories/202010110025.html
And yeah, that sucks for the people who were just trying to survive, but that failure is entirely on Somalia and Amal who should of followed the required measures. Either follow the measures or you get expelled from the cooperative system.
It sucks to live in places like Somalia and Uzbekistan. I recommend leaving if you can, we have an international asylum process for a reason. It's not the duty of the US to help their citizens, nor is the US in a place to do so.
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1 and 2. If you read that post, and still think warrantless mass-surveillance via KYC mandates is good, then you must view the author as necessary collateral damage, "for the greater good". This is a cold, inhumane way to treat matters of justice. Anyway, to address your utiliarian logic: poverty is the biggest predictor of being trafficked, and KYC controls, as well as the various punitive and indiscriminate governm…
> and KYC controls, as well as the various punitive and indiscriminate government measures they help enforce, contribute massively to poverty Poverty existed literal millennia before KYC. Sure, it'd be great to just end poverty, and when you do that we can talk about ending KYC. Before you end poverty, it turns out it's pretty easy to implement KYC and stop a bunch of harms. > That is also the argument the Chinese Co…
Maybe you're not understanding what I'm saying, because the above has absolutely no relevance to the point I made.
Another attempt:
Poverty declines faster when economies grow faster. The financial exclusion created by the crude AML/KYC surveillance/risk-management measures you're advocating harms economic development and thereby slows poverty eradication. This in turn slows the eradication of vices like human trafficking, which are largely an outgrowth of poverty.
>>There's a difference between putting a Muslim ethnic minority in concentration camps
Strawman. The Communist authorities who you are emulating do more than just put a Muslim ethnic minority in concentration camps. They also impose a mass-surveillance system on them.
https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2019/05/02/chin...
They justify these invasions of privacy with the same kind of anti-terrorist rhetoric you're using. You're in the same ideological boat as them, and display the same callousness, which is characterized by comments like this:
>>And yeah, that sucks for the people who were just trying to survive, but that failure is entirely on Somalia and Amal
KYC goes against liberal democratic principles like privacy and due process, and should be opposed if you believe in these principles. It stands to reason that it does far more harm, in all respects, than good.
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> and KYC controls, as well as the various punitive and indiscriminate government measures they help enforce, contribute massively to poverty Poverty existed literal millennia before KYC. Sure, it'd be great to just end poverty, and when you do that we can talk about ending KYC. Before you end poverty, it turns out it's pretty easy to implement KYC and stop a bunch of harms. > That is also the argument the Chinese Co…
>>Poverty existed literal millennia before KYC. Sure, it'd be great to just end poverty, and when you do that we can talk about ending KYC. Maybe you're not understanding what I'm saying, because the above has absolutely no relevance to the point I made. Another attempt: Poverty declines faster when economies grow faster. The financial exclusion created by the crude AML/KYC surveillance/risk-management measures you'r…
Human trafficking is not just a symptom of poverty, it's typically a symptom of a lack of law and order with strong systems that can deter human trafficking through a penal system. Giving human traffickers a bunch of cash isn't going to stop human trafficking.
> KYC goes against liberal democratic principles like privacy and due process
People in Somalia and Uzbekistan do not in any legal sense have privacy and due process. They do not live in Democratic regimes. Full stop. They have a moral right to those things, but it's on them to obtain it.
The US is not responsible for making sure non-citizens/non-residents have those rights. The US is not the gatekeeper of the world. The US is responsible for guarding it's citizens and residents - and there are KYC controls in the US that enable due process and privacy. Yes, if you're outside the US you don't get those protections but you never had them to begin with. You are welcome to come to the US or our allies and gain those things.
You can't force other people to transact with you. If we're freezing you out of an economic system because you keep giving money to extremists to kill women and children with, well, that just sucks to be you - you don't get to force us to trade with you. Take it up with your government.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>Poverty existed literal millennia before KYC. Sure, it'd be great to just end poverty, and when you do that we can talk about ending KYC. Maybe you're not understanding what I'm saying, because the above has absolutely no relevance to the point I made. Another attempt: Poverty declines faster when economies grow faster. The financial exclusion created by the crude AML/KYC surveillance/risk-management measures you'r…
> This in turn slows the eradication of vices like human trafficking, which are largely an outgrowth of poverty. Human trafficking is not just a symptom of poverty, it's typically a symptom of a lack of law and order with strong systems that can deter human trafficking through a penal system. Giving human traffickers a bunch of cash isn't going to stop human trafficking. > KYC goes against liberal democratic principl…
It's obviously a result of multiple factors, but poverty is one of the major ones.
And law-and-order generally improves as economies develop. A law that excludes countless people from the mainstream financial system inhibits economic development.
>People in Somalia and Uzbekistan do not in any legal sense have privacy and due process.
They have some degree of privacy and due process, and the industry you are championing reduces that for them, using the US's dominant role in the global financial system as a pressure lever.
>You can't force other people to transact with you.
You're forcing people in the US to not transact with people in Somalia. You're not a libertarian here.
And AML/KYC laws violate privacy and due process rights domestically as well. It's not just international transactions that are affected by these laws. They are fundamentally laws that institute warrantless mass-surveillance.
>If we're freezing you out of an economic system because you keep giving money to extremists to kill women and children with, well, that just sucks to be yo
Once again, condemning people who have done no wrong, based something as crude as national association, and moreover, pretending you care about "women and children", while callously dismissing the devastating effect of financial exclusion caused by the policies that you are advocating remain-in/be-put-into effect, on millions of women children.