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CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

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Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#261

Post by puranjay »

OGWhales wrote: post #254
drog wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this post so downvoted? It seems that antigovernment sentiment is not popular here It’s not only that but also all that “crypto is not technologically interesting and it’s just Ponzi scheme!”. There are so many interesting and unique things there. You can mix cryptography, finance, etc. into endless amount of protocols. Here is some interesting ideas in crypto: decentralized stable coin (dai), automatic market…

> Why is this post so downvoted? Oddly, HN is over all rather closed minded about cryptocurrencies/blockchain. I can understand being jaded at all the bitcoin maximalist out there that are frankly ignorant or even just being generally weary about the idea of such currencies... but it seems like the general sentiment is very negative in almost every thread with very minimal understanding of cryptocurrencies or frankly…

At this point, I don't even care about Bitcoin anymore. It serves no purpose. I don't even care about cryptocurrencies as such.

But the ideas popping out from these fields are just so darn exciting. DeFi makes all these complex financial instruments that were previously the sole purview of big banks accessible to anyone.

And we're barely scratching the surface with NFTs and DAOs.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#262

Post by demosito666 »

hatsunearu wrote: post #258
rudderz wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take crypto out of the equation, what are the implications of the fed issuing a programmable currency? Many financial services would become obsolete. What do I need a stock broker for? What do I need a bank for? You have Wall St and other sophisticated investors profiteering and competing against the general public, devaluing our purchasing power, making leveraged trades because they know the public will hold the bag…

The majority of economic activity is not "programmable"--if I order a ship load of steel from some country, how is that contract going to be enforceable/verifiable with cryptoeconomic techniques?

Economic != financial, which was the point of the parent I believe.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#263

Post by c01n »

graeme wrote: post #226
cslarson wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you not see what the importance of this new infrastructure? I come here and read these comments and am just at a loss for words at this point. Forget Bitcoin and look at Ethereum. This tech is so powerful I am in some ways scared of it and you call it a fad. The gulf between our interpretations drops my jaw to the floor :)

Can you name some use cases that aren’t trading crypto derivatives or crypto debt? Ethereum is certainly more interesting than Bitcoin but the use cases so far seem to be more speculation.

Short list:

- Pseudonymous Transactions - Multiple Accounts - International Transfers - Customization (smart contracts) - Micro Payments / Internet money - Privacy - Low entry (Phone, internet) - Peer 2 Peer and decentralized - Free Software - Programmable

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#264

Post by RealityVoid »

ac29 wrote: post #246
RealityVoid wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah! :)) So naive. No way this is possible. Attacking compute used to secure it means attacking a whole lot of machines. And the people near those machines will patch them. An you need to attack 51% of them at the same time. Even if you manage to do a 2x spend, they will live with it and patch the stuff and people will still use it. Because what is a couple of 2x somewhere along the way compared to the rest of the bl…

If government agencies can hack into and disable secured nuclear facilities (this happened... yesterday), I dont see why it would be "impossible" to attack random Bitcoin mining facilities. When state level intelligence agencies are your adversary, I wouldn't assume you can "just patch it" either.

Oh, it's possible. You hack into, what? One? A couple? But it does not scale up like that. Do you really honestly think you can reach 51% like that? Besides, yes, you can just patch the vulnerabilities. Contrary to popular belief, vulns are not plentiful and are not cheap. Using one kind of burns it. So it would be a _very_ stupid usage of vulns.

Precisely the decentralized nature of BTC makes it impossible to shut it down exactly the same way you shut down a nuclear power plant.

And ok, you 51% the network. Then what? You can't create BTC's or change the rules of the game dramatically, without a fork. so the people on the original network are kind of... meh, at your attack. You could double spend but you need to own the coins you spend, so you shaft a couple of people. What then? I do not think that would kill it, there are cryptos that were 51%'ed (looking at ETH classic) and are still alive and chugging along.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#265

Post by c01n »

graeme wrote: post #226
cslarson wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you not see what the importance of this new infrastructure? I come here and read these comments and am just at a loss for words at this point. Forget Bitcoin and look at Ethereum. This tech is so powerful I am in some ways scared of it and you call it a fad. The gulf between our interpretations drops my jaw to the floor :)

Can you name some use cases that aren’t trading crypto derivatives or crypto debt? Ethereum is certainly more interesting than Bitcoin but the use cases so far seem to be more speculation.

- Pseudonymous Transactions / Privacy

- Multiple Accounts

- International Transfers

- Customization (smart contracts)

- Micro Payments / Internet money

- Low entry (Phone, internet)

- Peer 2 Peer and decentralized

- Free Software

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#266

Post by vkou »

liquidise wrote: post #4

> U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other officials have warned about the use of cryptocurrencies for illicit transactions. Wait until you hear about cash. More seriously (and hopefully less reductionist) i feel nations who embrace cryptocurrencies early will see mixed results as the landscape matures. I am more confident that nations which turn their back on it, or shut it out completely, will see a loss of o…

> Wait until you hear about cash.

Cash sucks for illicit transactions, because laundering it is a pain in the ass.

A crypto ecosystem without strong KYC is much easier to use for illicit transactions. A crypto ecosystem with strong KYC... Probably isn't.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#267

Post by danlugo92 »

noxer wrote: post #259
RealityVoid wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be silly, of course you can. It's inconvenient, but not impossible. ON/OFF ramps are the parts that they could regulate but the tighter they squeeze, the better the circumvention methods will be. I think HN really overestimates the ability of states to keep this under wraps and underestimate the ability of the ecosystem to adapt.

Name one place where you can buy BTC with fiat without KYC.

1) bisq 2) sign up to a kyc exchange. Exchange small amount. Contact someone who is willing to exchange outside of the platform, maybe someone with a high reputation.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#268

Post by RealityVoid »

noxer wrote: post #259
RealityVoid wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be silly, of course you can. It's inconvenient, but not impossible. ON/OFF ramps are the parts that they could regulate but the tighter they squeeze, the better the circumvention methods will be. I think HN really overestimates the ability of states to keep this under wraps and underestimate the ability of the ecosystem to adapt.

Name one place where you can buy BTC with fiat without KYC.

Huobi, last I checked. localbitcoins, I think ? ( huh, such a blast from the past - they now have some sort of KYC but I think it's soft)

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#269

Post by ttul »

rspeele wrote: post #241

Just as a fun hypothetical to think about... an effective way to crack down on cryptocurrencies would be to do it under the table. Don't make any official policy about crypto other than recommending that US citizens don't invest in it. Attack the crypto ecosystem the way they attacked Iranian centrifuges. The damage is done by the CIA and NSA, not the SEC and FBI. The goal is not to make it impossible to use crypto b…

What's to say CIA and others aren't already operating all sorts of crypto infrastructure? I absolutely guarantee they are. The people who run the financial system are a different group and would not necessarily be aware of what the three-letter agencies are doing.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#270

Post by puranjay »

this_user wrote: post #250
puranjay wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto maximalists - and I know a LOT of them - are drawn to crypto because of ideology, not just the money. The idea that a person should own his/her own assets, be able to share and use them whenever they want, and be free from government censorship and foolhardy economic stewardship is incredibly powerful. When governments talk about banning crypto, what scares them isn't crypto; it's this ideology. And this ideol…

> You can create all sorts of regulations but that will only harden the stance of crypto maxis because it will only prove them right. They can harden their stance all they want, but breaking the crypto ecosystem is incredibly easy if governments really wanted to. All you have to do is ban companies from interacting with crypto currencies in any form, be it accepting, exchanging, holding, or producing them. That would…

History has shown that when the potential rewards are large enough, the players will literally move jurisdictions to tap into the rewards. All that happens is forgone tax revenues for nations.

Because unless you have a one world government (hopefully, no one is a proponent of this), there will be at least some countries that will welcome you. And since the rewards will be large enough, market participants will even do illegal things to access it.

All it will eventually do is make your country less competitive until you have no recourse but to change the law. FOMO isn't just for people; it's for nations as well.

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