Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

blog.chainalysis.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 364 posts

Re: Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

#81

Post by arthur6667 »

kyruzic wrote: post #70
BoppreH wrote: post #24

This is my biggest complaint against cryptocurrencies in general. I'm happy with my bank's fraud protection. How can crypto users protect themselves without recreating traditional banking? Bitcoin was released ~13 years ago, and wallet/transaction security has been one of the most important requirements since then (along with scalability, but let's not go there). If trillion dollar market caps and god-knows-how-many…

Use a trusted exchange if you are worried about that. Holding crypto in a wallet is the equivalent of keeping cash in your wallet. No bank in the world will care if someone steals your wallet.

Right. I did that. And got scammed. I had my BTC in a trusted exchange at the time. Then they dissappeared on me. Then I was told it was my own fault for using an exchange. You just can't win this game can you..

Re: Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

#82

Post by bilbo0s »

throwaway6734 wrote: post #69
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #53

The “I have no sympathy for the victims” comments are crass. But there is a legitimate question of how much law enforcement these crimes deserve. Arizona has a stupid motorists law [1]. If a car “becomes stranded after driving around barricades to enter a flooded stretch of roadway,” the driver “may be charged for the cost of their rescue.” A similar concept for crypto may be necessary. Law enforcement will pursue. B…

Any funds allocated to crypto law enforcement should be allocated to punishing tax cheats first

Make it a business decision.

Find out how much money we can get policing crypto. We can even charge a greater percentage of potential funds recovered to extract an amount that would make it worth our while. At any rate, with that data we could determine if the money is better spent policing tax cheats.

In short if we're going to get paid well, we should help. If not? Well, sorry crypto bros. Sucks to be you.

Re: Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

#83

Post by anm89 »

It's hard to understand what to do about this without making some sort of congressional committee to decide which cryptos are good ones and which aren't (and that will obviously never happen and shouldn't)

People have a right to spend their money on things. If the choose to spend their money on nonsense that has no contractual obligation to return their funds to them that seems like a legal transaction when the funds don't get returned.

I do feel for some of the people who thought they could have a better life by 10xing or 100xing their networth on scam coins but the reality is they didn't do their research and willingly walked into this.

Re: Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

#84

Post by BoppreH »

kyruzic wrote: post #70
BoppreH wrote: post #24

This is my biggest complaint against cryptocurrencies in general. I'm happy with my bank's fraud protection. How can crypto users protect themselves without recreating traditional banking? Bitcoin was released ~13 years ago, and wallet/transaction security has been one of the most important requirements since then (along with scalability, but let's not go there). If trillion dollar market caps and god-knows-how-many…

Use a trusted exchange if you are worried about that. Holding crypto in a wallet is the equivalent of keeping cash in your wallet. No bank in the world will care if someone steals your wallet.

Everyone should be worried about that, and if your suggestion is to use exchanges, that just makes them de-facto banks. Now you have a traditional banking system on top of a slow and expensive settlement layer.

Re: Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

#85

Post by oakfr »

jdhn wrote: post #22
rwaksmunski wrote: post #19

I really hate to say it, but I have little sympathy for the victims here. They wanted a moon shot, wild west, libertarian paradise and got ... robbed with no recourse. Many more than once.

Completely agree. You want the libertarian paradise, then you should accept the risks that come along with it. Personally, I'm fine with having it being the wild west, and I only invest money I can afford to lose.

> I only invest money I can afford to lose.

You mean "speculate" here, not invest.

People definitely want (and must be able) to invest money that they cannot afford to lose, at least not all in a split second.

Re: Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

#86

Post by alex_young »

The $7.7B part is a bit hyperbolic right?

A lot of value of crypto is based on a small volume of transactions to cash which give a number to the entire asset.

If I create 1B secret numbers, sell one for $1, and someone steals the rest, is anyone really out a billion dollars?

Re: Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

#87

Post by pjc50 »

bilbo0s wrote: post #82
throwaway6734 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any funds allocated to crypto law enforcement should be allocated to punishing tax cheats first

Make it a business decision. Find out how much money we can get policing crypto. We can even charge a greater percentage of potential funds recovered to extract an amount that would make it worth our while. At any rate, with that data we could determine if the money is better spent policing tax cheats. In short if we're going to get paid well, we should help. If not? Well, sorry crypto bros. Sucks to be you.

I mean, why not both? There's an entertaining subgenre of police blotter reports where people report their illegal drugs stolen. If people report crypto assets stolen (which they very rarely do), maybe have a look at how they acquired them and whether it was reported to the revenue first.

Re: Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

#88

Post by sroussey »

kyruzic wrote: post #70
BoppreH wrote: post #24

This is my biggest complaint against cryptocurrencies in general. I'm happy with my bank's fraud protection. How can crypto users protect themselves without recreating traditional banking? Bitcoin was released ~13 years ago, and wallet/transaction security has been one of the most important requirements since then (along with scalability, but let's not go there). If trillion dollar market caps and god-knows-how-many…

Use a trusted exchange if you are worried about that. Holding crypto in a wallet is the equivalent of keeping cash in your wallet. No bank in the world will care if someone steals your wallet.

True, but you can’t hold a billion dollars in the wallet in your back pocket.

Re: Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

#89

Post by TacticalCoder »

AlexandrB wrote: post #8

In related news, Tether has minted $3B USDT in the last month: https://beincrypto.com/tether-mints-three-billion-usdt-past-...

Yes, and although likely a scam, here's another datapoint:

Coinbase, an Y combinator unicorn, is behind Centre/Circle and the USDC stable coin. And there are now $41.5 bn USDC circulating.

At one point it was billion of USDT circulating and USDC didn't exist yet.

Then USDC began to took off and there were, out of memory, $5 bn USDC and $23 bn USDT.

But, overall, the trajectory is clear: USDC is growing faster than USDT.

It's $41.5 bn vs $76 bn today.

Maybe in a few months USDC shall catch up, then maybe even surpass USDT.

Do we all believe Coinbase and its Centre/USDC stable coin is a scam? It's an american company, with real people behind it. It's not some scammy thing in the Bahamas.

Now here's an intriguing question: if we believe Coinbase isn't a scam and that these $41.5 bn USDC are really mostly or all backed, does tether's $76 bn really look that unthinkable?

Re: Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

#90

Post by Joeri »

Mvandenbergh wrote: post #71

Maybe I'm missing something, but there's something that I don't get about DeFi. My understanding of the idea is this: 1) Using distributed code, the operation of which is assured by code on a blockchain based system like Ethereum, lending and investment can happen without the intermediation of banks and capital markets gate keepers. The savings from cutting these layers out can be shared between the supply and demand…

What is missing in that explanation for me is the increase in value from perceived artificial scarcity.

Like paint on paper costs almost nothing until it has the right artificially scarce provenance and becomes a work of art, some cryptocurrencies can become valuable to hold and trade in and of themselves thanks to perceived scarcity.

Post reply on HN