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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

#401

Post by eindiran »

mbesto wrote: post #373
chabes wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you familiar with the concept of cold wallets held by exchanges? https://www.longhash.com/en/news/3257/A-New-Way-of-Measuring...

I am. What's your point? If you don't think crypto, an anonymous unregulated security, is being manipulated by a small amount of people then I have a bridge to sell you.

I think that OP's point was likely that many of these wallets are actually cold wallets for exchanges and institutions, rather than individual whales. The article's definition of whales is pretty loose anyway: "individuals who hold their assets in digital wallets and not on an exchange".

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

#402

Post by intotheabyss »

Daishiman wrote: post #394
intotheabyss wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just take Uniswap for example. Now imagine that every asset on the planet could be represented by a fungible or non-fungible token. You can put a Uniswap plugin into any browser and you now have a universal way to swap between any assets you want, 24/7. You could buy real estate, bonds, gold, stocks, currencies, all from your browser. Now obviously this is not quite a a reality today. Most things exchanged on Uniswap…

> You could buy real estate, bonds, gold, stocks, currencies, all from your browser. I'm not sure what world you live in where the biggest problem with buying a six-figure investment instruments is that _I can't do it from my browser_. There's about a thousand things more important in my mind when it comes to investing. For a day trader this might be a problem. For decades-long instruments it isn't. All the things yo…

That's easy for you to say, but there's plenty of people on this planet that don't have access to any financial markets. Now with a smartphone, browser and internet connection, they can buy exposure to US equities without a brokerage from any country.

But it's so much more than that. Have a little imagination. Digital assets could very well be the dominant forms of assets in the future, so easy access to markets to trade these is important.

You just disagree that this has importance, but the market says otherwise, since people are very interested in using Uniswap, and volume will only grow from here. It's undeniable that this is a usecase, and I remember only a couple of years ago that HN would say that Ethereum is completely useless, and yet here we are.

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

#403

Post by NaturalPhallacy »

xxpor wrote: post #227
NaturalPhallacy wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not speculation though. They literally sell one currency for another. That they have value is a given, or they wouldn't be able to exchange one the other. (notice how it doesn't matter which currency is which in that sentence?) Acceptance defines value. No other factor trumps it.

That's exactly my point. They're mining a commodity, not a currency.

If that's what makes a currency a commodity, then USD is a commodity.

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

#404

Post by leppr »

Daishiman wrote: post #307
leppr wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cryptocurrency/web3 is at its core just technology. Fundamentally, the technology is still not that far advanced from the early Bitcoin days, but the little that is currently implemented successfully allows for ponzis and gambling. Cryptocurrencies currently trade for over $2 trillion, most of that value may indeed be a net negative for society, but that doesn't say anything about the core technology in itself. If cr…

> Decentralized networks have the potential to resolve many of the issues we techies love to complain about. I continue to hear this yet I never get a _single_ convincing example from DeFi advocates.

Community-governed vs. advertiser-dictated networks. Free markets. It's a wide topic, I'm surprised you can't find a single usecase you would use or think makes sense.

If it can help you imagine some, take the decentralized primitives: a money/value transfer network, a reputation network, a content delivery network.

Starting from those, many currently gimped online services could be replicated in a way that incentivizes behaviors which benefit users, more than the platform owner. Local economies that currently function only through local, unscalable networks of trust could be brought online.

Of course, if you believe everything is better done in a way that can be regulated by a central entity, then crypto as it stands won't do anything for you (although public ledgers do make investigations easier). Core to crypto is a belief that P2P networks are superior to centrally managed ones.

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

#405

Post by randomopining »

arcticbull wrote: post #154
puranjay wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will only prove Bitoin holders right.

lol, it will prove them broke. The overwhelming majority of people own bitcoin because number go up. Banning it will make number not go up. This will cause them to divest. Substantially nobody is in it for the ancap utopia espoused by $20 transaction fees and 30 minute long confirmation times.

Yeah literally that has been my argument too. And I'm invested in this... because number go up.

Ok, so govs ban exchanges and you have your stuff in cold storage. You have to buy/sell p2p? Are people gonna do that just to have this magical deflationary currency? Possibly... but idk.

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

#406

Post by rspeele »

RealityVoid wrote: post #275
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…

So just... like... what scammers are currently doing?

Yep, just with a stuxnet level of sophistication.

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

#407

Post by graeme »

base698 wrote: post #338
graeme wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what are some example use cases you can do with those things, or that people are using them for? Genuinely asking. I see people very excited about things like DAOs, but most descriptions seem to be about inter crypto use cases. With the early internet it was easy enough to see there were use cases like “instantly send a letter to someone across the world” or “order a book not stocked at your local store” or “go d…

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3680926-binance-launches-trada... Liquidity for things that don't normally have liquidity. Example: like wrapped Bitcoin, you could create wrapped Wine. Say you've got $1 million in a wine cellar. Create a wrapped token which allows you to use it as collateral or provide it to a liquidity pool to generate revenue. Now your wine is earning you interest. Something like this may already exi…

> Now that a TSLA token exists you could provide to a pool for interest since it doesn't pay a dividend.

Explain further. Why would you be able to have the benefits of owning wine or TSLS and also earn interest on it. That’s your cake and eating it too.

There must be a risk element to the liquidity pool. What risk exposure are you taking by depositing TSLA stock there that you can’t get through normal finance?

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

#408

Post by graeme »

intotheabyss wrote: post #400
XorNot wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You keep saying "asset" as though this means anything. Say my asset is a bulldozer. How is an automated ethereum contract going to lend it out and ensure its return in good working order, or pursue damages if it is not? Say my asset is actually just a lump sum of regular US dollars, which I would very much desire to be returned to me as US dollars plus interest so I can my US taxes with them at a later date. How is a…

The asset won't be the bulldozer, but ownership of the bulldozer. How did the natives of the Yap islands know who owned which Rai stones? Through social contracts. The same would be the case for bulldozer ownerships on Ethereum. It's just a way for you to prove to other humans (or programs) that you own the bulldozer. If you sell the bulldozer in real life, then presumably the buyer would want the ownership. The diff…

> There are stablecoins backed by USD reserves, like USDC. Again, the ethereum contract is only a ledger. The people responsible for giving you USD is going to be Gemini who control the supply of USDC. You having proof that you own USDC allows you to withdraw USD.

This still depends on trust. The blockchain doesn’t verify the backing. And USDC’s attestation is rather late.

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

#409

Post by mbesto »

intotheabyss wrote: post #402
Daishiman wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You could buy real estate, bonds, gold, stocks, currencies, all from your browser. I'm not sure what world you live in where the biggest problem with buying a six-figure investment instruments is that _I can't do it from my browser_. There's about a thousand things more important in my mind when it comes to investing. For a day trader this might be a problem. For decades-long instruments it isn't. All the things yo…

That's easy for you to say, but there's plenty of people on this planet that don't have access to any financial markets. Now with a smartphone, browser and internet connection, they can buy exposure to US equities without a brokerage from any country. But it's so much more than that. Have a little imagination. Digital assets could very well be the dominant forms of assets in the future, so easy access to markets to t…

> Now with a smartphone, browser and internet connection, they can buy exposure to US equities without a brokerage from any country.

1. While this is technically become realer and realer every day, it's becoming less and less logistically due to regulation.

2. Eventually people will realize that the frictionless experience of crypto is also its greatest security risk[0]. Why do you think the Winklevoss twins store their wallet backup codes in...you guessed it...BANKS! ha.[1]

The Winklevosses came up with an elaborate system to store and secure their own private keys. They cut up printouts of their private keys into pieces and then distributed them in envelopes to safe deposit boxes around the country, so if one envelope were stolen the thief would not have the entire key.

[0] - https://gist.github.com/chitchcock/1281611

[1] - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/technology/bitcoin-winkle...

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

#410

Post by graeme »

gsempe wrote: post #351
Daishiman wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sovereign identity Not a real problem. Any civilized country has solved identity already. > DAOs A solution in search of a problem > NFTs Speculative. Game items, land registries and deeds are a solved problem. If your jurisdiction/company hasn't solved them already with Postgres and hardcopy it's because it's not interested in solving it or it's not a real problem, just a minor annoyance.

Most of the problems solved are not at their first iteration of solution. There will be a next one for most of them as well. None can deny that the crypto field opens opportunities for the next iteration of solutions

This happens every time I ask for use cases in these threads. It is always something just over the horizon.

The early internet immediately allowed people to do cool stuff that was explainable if someone had a moderately open mind. If wasn’t vaporware.

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