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Bitcoin’s reliance on stablecoins harks back to the Wild West of finance

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Re: Bitcoin’s reliance on stablecoins harks back to the Wild West of finance

#21

Post by initplus »

lurkerasdfh8 wrote: post #9
ahthat wrote: post #2

I wrote about a similar comparison way back in the middle of 2017: https://benshieldsblog-blog.tumblr.com/post/165101127465/let... https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9li-Wu3-bPEWEswQVdIOHVKTmM...

honestly, anyone with half a brain do not see that cryptocurrencies are re-hashing (heh) every single scam from the unregulated investment market times? every single one of them. Many times over. I think everyone knows, because, c'mon. But everyone thinks they are the smarter one and will be the ones fooling others and making money. Which makes this article, and yours, pointless, because, everyone already knows that.

Crypto is really exciting for new entrants to the finance space.

In traditional finance all water has been wrung out, but in crypto relatively unsophisticated versions of strategies like arbitrage can be quite successful. Traditional finance institutions are more sophisticated and have more resources than their crypto equivalents. I really think traditional finance orgs need to realize they can employ the same skills to the crypto space with a much lower investment for the same returns because the space is so immature.

Re: Bitcoin’s reliance on stablecoins harks back to the Wild West of finance

#22

Post by knowaveragejoe »

ve55 wrote: post #19
lurkerasdfh8 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

honestly, anyone with half a brain do not see that cryptocurrencies are re-hashing (heh) every single scam from the unregulated investment market times? every single one of them. Many times over. I think everyone knows, because, c'mon. But everyone thinks they are the smarter one and will be the ones fooling others and making money. Which makes this article, and yours, pointless, because, everyone already knows that.

I think you're significantly overestimating how much experience and knowledge most that briefly dabble in currency have both over what is currently going on and over what types of finance scams have happened in the past.

I've heard "it's a scam" a lot recently, but nobody can articulate how in a way that is similar to any real, provable scam in the past. It's a giant, distributed scam?

Re: Bitcoin’s reliance on stablecoins harks back to the Wild West of finance

#23

Post by simias »

young_unixer wrote: post #17
Havoc wrote: post #3

Honestly stablecoins - specifically tether - is about the only thing about crypto that genuinely frightens me. Crypto rollercoaster - up down sideways and in circles - sure I'm game. Tether that is stable until it implodes...hell no. Even without direct exposure the blast radius worries me.

Tether imploding would just mean a couple more years to stack up. People who don't understand the technology would flee, thinking it was just a fad, those that do understand it would stay, stack up and wait a few years.

Ah yes, the "technology". Any day now. Won't know what hit them. Around the corner really, alongside cold fusion and the chewing gum that replaces toothbrushes.

Re: Bitcoin’s reliance on stablecoins harks back to the Wild West of finance

#24

Post by catlifeonmars »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #11
Tenoke wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what is worth, there's a huge blast radius if any of the top 3 collapse, with Tether (as the 3rd) likely having the smallest one - think of what happens to everything else when bitcoin crashes or even dips significantly.

Bitcoin crashes and dips all the time. It's lost over 80% of its value at least four times since it launched, plus the recent big 50% drawdown. It slows the cryptoeconomy for a year or so, but doesn't stop it, and then there's another bubble again ~2yrs later. Bitcoin's high but natural volatility is not the same thing as the price collapsing due to the system itself fundamentally breaking. For example, the Global Fi…

What is the difference between natural volatility and the system fundamentally breaking?

Re: Bitcoin’s reliance on stablecoins harks back to the Wild West of finance

#25

Post by duxup »

lurkerasdfh8 wrote: post #9
ahthat wrote: post #2

I wrote about a similar comparison way back in the middle of 2017: https://benshieldsblog-blog.tumblr.com/post/165101127465/let... https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9li-Wu3-bPEWEswQVdIOHVKTmM...

honestly, anyone with half a brain do not see that cryptocurrencies are re-hashing (heh) every single scam from the unregulated investment market times? every single one of them. Many times over. I think everyone knows, because, c'mon. But everyone thinks they are the smarter one and will be the ones fooling others and making money. Which makes this article, and yours, pointless, because, everyone already knows that.

Cryptocurrency is a long lesson about why things are the way they are.

Re: Bitcoin’s reliance on stablecoins harks back to the Wild West of finance

#26

Post by roseway4 »

wmf wrote: post #18
TacticalCoder wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remember, Tether has no upside. There is no reason to ever hold Tether for any length of time. It looks like USDC, issued by a company co-owned by Coinbase (YC incubated right?) and Circle, is quickly replacing tether. One year ago there were about 1/10th of USDC compared to tether, now it's half. Apparently USDC are really fully backed by real USD and the smart contract for USDC can block any address containing US…

Something is off in USDC land though: https://news.bitcoin.com/usdc-attestations-run-late-raising-...

The March attestation was published 5/24 (the day prior to that article) and is available on the Centre website[1]. It doesn’t appear there’s cause for alarm in this case.

[1] https://www.centre.io/hubfs/pdfs/attestation/grant-thorton_c...

Re: Bitcoin’s reliance on stablecoins harks back to the Wild West of finance

#28

Post by nexuist »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #16
Animats wrote: post #10

I keep thinking of Madoff's fund. It was once called "the Jewish T-bill". It worked just fine until there was a significant net outflow. Then, total crash, because the backing assets were not there. Tether is way too much like that. Remember, Tether has no upside . There is no reason to ever hold Tether for any length of time. [1] https://www.timesofisrael.com/before-dying-bernie-madoff-lif...

> Remember, Tether has no upside. There is no reason to ever hold Tether for any length of time. It looks like USDC, issued by a company co-owned by Coinbase (YC incubated right?) and Circle, is quickly replacing tether. One year ago there were about 1/10th of USDC compared to tether, now it's half. Apparently USDC are really fully backed by real USD and the smart contract for USDC can block any address containing US…

> the smart contract for USDC can block any address containing USDC at any time

Is this documented anywhere? What's the procedure within USDC to perform this block? Is it just whoever has the right private key can execute this blocking function and propagate it through the blockchain?

Re: Bitcoin’s reliance on stablecoins harks back to the Wild West of finance

#29

Post by nexuist »

simias wrote: post #23
young_unixer wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tether imploding would just mean a couple more years to stack up. People who don't understand the technology would flee, thinking it was just a fad, those that do understand it would stay, stack up and wait a few years.

Ah yes, the "technology". Any day now. Won't know what hit them. Around the corner really, alongside cold fusion and the chewing gum that replaces toothbrushes.

Yeah, like online shopping. Remember that fad? Luckily the .com crash showed us that the critics were right and nobody ever got rich from that dumb idea again.

Re: Bitcoin’s reliance on stablecoins harks back to the Wild West of finance

#30

Post by gruez »

nexuist wrote: post #28
TacticalCoder wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remember, Tether has no upside. There is no reason to ever hold Tether for any length of time. It looks like USDC, issued by a company co-owned by Coinbase (YC incubated right?) and Circle, is quickly replacing tether. One year ago there were about 1/10th of USDC compared to tether, now it's half. Apparently USDC are really fully backed by real USD and the smart contract for USDC can block any address containing US…

> the smart contract for USDC can block any address containing USDC at any time Is this documented anywhere? What's the procedure within USDC to perform this block? Is it just whoever has the right private key can execute this blocking function and propagate it through the blockchain?

>Is this documented anywhere? What's the procedure within USDC to perform this block?

https://etherscan.io/address/0xa0b86991c6218b36c1d19d4a2e9eb...

The smart contract has a "blacklist" function.

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