The Bit Short: Inside Crypto’s Doomsday Machine

Post by skybrian » Sun, Jan 17, 2021, 2:54 AM UTC

tzone wrote: post #269

There seem to be quite a lot of misunderstandings in this post. Not sure how familiar author really is with inner workings of crypto markets. First thing first, is Tether sketchy? Yeah, pretty sketchy. But not for the reasons provided in the article. USDT is the most traded asset against other crypto because it is the easiest vehicle to use for all sorts of arbitrage. USDT is available to trade with on every non-US e…

Post by perl4ever » Sun, Jan 17, 2021, 8:10 AM UTC

skybrian wrote: post #270

Infinitesimus wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the extra context - I should have been more clear. CPI does capture OER and rental costs as you show. I get that mortgage costs and the like aren't considered as consumption ( rightly so ) but that makes the measure inaccurate when assessing prices people pay to live day to day. Rental prices are generally a more applicable indicator for most of the population as the BLS says but the rising costs of houses…

I think what you're missing is that many people are not paying market price for housing, because they bought their houses a long time ago. If they have mortgages, they were set by the home price when they bought. CPI is an average. The people who have owned their own homes for years are dragging down the average for the cost of living. You can't get the cost of living that they have if you buy today. Averages can mis…

Post by Tsotsi » Sun, Jan 17, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC

BelenusMordred wrote: post #54

tim333 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument basically is tether has been inflating the price of bitcoins. If tether collapses bitcoins will still be there but may trade at $3000/coin rather than $38000. Comparing with gold it's like the price has been inflated by people buying it with forged dollar bills. That said the author seems a bit new to this all with his shock at finding Bob is likely being scammed. Bitcoin has been linked with scams almos…

Why on Earth would $100 billion worth of Tether rushing for a conversion into anything else drag _down_ the price of BTC? Or any other coin for that matter? Have you actually sat down and thought about this, even if 99% waited and cashed out over weeks, that 1% is still a huge injection into the ecosystem. People have been shown time and time again that the money is there, the peg can hold, the underlying company is…

Post by USDTIsTheMob » Sun, Jan 17, 2021, 4:59 PM UTC

nik_s wrote: post #74

The author implies that the recent growth in tether's market cap is an indication of an incoming exit scam. A cursory glance at Coinbase's USDC's market cap [1] shows that it too is growing at almost exactly the same pace as tether's [2]. I think most players in this market would agree that Coinbase, for all of it's failings, is unlikely to be planning an exit scam at this point. It doesn't disprove the whole thesis,…

Post by skybrian » Sun, Jan 17, 2021, 8:48 PM UTC

perl4ever wrote: post #273

skybrian wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what you're missing is that many people are not paying market price for housing, because they bought their houses a long time ago. If they have mortgages, they were set by the home price when they bought. CPI is an average. The people who have owned their own homes for years are dragging down the average for the cost of living. You can't get the cost of living that they have if you buy today. Averages can mis…

If homebuyers are irrationally paying significantly more than it would cost to rent the same house, then that doesn't seem to me like a valid reason to inflate the indexes. If homebuyers push prices of housing up and that does increase rents, then it is a valid reason to adjust CPI upward, and they do, AFAIK.