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Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

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Re: Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

#161
post #75

Meanwhile in other news, water is wet, the sky is blue, Putin is a tyrant with blood on his hands, and I'm SHOCKED, SHOCKED to find that GAMBLING is going on in here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME

You’re so ignorant. It isn’t gambling, it’s grass-roots investing to disrupt the centralized financial system owned by the government that’s trying to inject you with a microchip under the guise of stopping a scamdemic, just like they did to the frogs (which are all gay now) If the US constitution was originally minted as an NFT, none of this would be necessary.

Man Poe's Law strikes hard here

Re: Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the potential to shake up the class system. 0.01% of bitcoin holders controls 27% of the currency in circulation. [0] If this is changing the class system in any way, it's for the worse. [0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoins-one-percent-controls-l...

Because i doubt the roth childs are among those whales.

Think again. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/07/20/rothschild-inves...

Re: Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is bullshit. People deserve a way to send money without middlemen and unfortunately that requires a means of attempting censorship resistance or at least consensus within a nearly arbitrarily adversarial network.

> People deserve a way to send money without middlemen Why? Please don't just make unfounded assertions.

The free movement of capital is a long-established right in Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Single_Market#Capital

Re: Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

#164
post #26

Crypto may well be the biggest solution looking for a problem I've ever seen. Apart from the obvious issues (eg energy expenditure) the one myth that needs to die about crypto is that it is extragovernmental and indictments such as this and the Bitfinex laundering case recently should underline that. The simple fact is that the developed world could shut down what little utility cryptocurrencies (and NFTs) have tomor…

> The simple fact is that the developed world could shut down what little utility cryptocurrencies (and NFTs) have tomorrow if they chose to. China banned mining and mining was gone immediately (largely moving to Kyrgystan it seems). Defenders will say you can't shut down the network and that might be true but it's irrelevant. How is it irrelevant? The ban in China did not affect the operation of the network. With re…

It’s a good point that so far, major changes for miners haven’t affected operations.

I’m not sure it’s true that nobody knows where they are. There are rankings by country. They need Internet access and power. Many operate openly. Large data centers aren’t invisible.

Also, miners were kicked out of Kyrgyzstan. Many machines were confiscated. It seems a lot of miners moved to the US because, even if they are eventually shut down, at least they will still have their machines, hopefully.

Governments could greatly reduce the hash rate by cracking down on miners who operate openly, and then Bitcoin would be considerably less secure against a takeover.

Suppose, after getting kicked out of many places, many miners move somewhere without strong property rights, and then the government takes control of the machines and runs them? Or maybe the miners keep running, but the government tells them which transactions to block?

Re: Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

#165
post #103
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was Carlos indicted as well?

Carlos was not really a part of Bitconnect. IIRC he just showed up to some event and did such a good job riling up the crowd that they started making him part of the show.

I see... I was confused by the parent post talking about him.

Re: Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

#166
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Civil forfeiture” does not and has never meant “fiat forfeiture.” If the government tells you to forfeit your assets (justly or unjustly!), you can be certain that they will not be amused or deterred by attempts to hide those assets via cryptocurrency.

> “Civil forfeiture” does not and has never meant “fiat forfeiture.” If the government tells you to forfeit your assets (justly or unjustly!), you can be certain that they will not be amused or deterred by attempts to hide those assets via cryptocurrency. If they don't know it exists, they can't take it. Just like I can cross the border with a hundred thousand in crypto in a wallet. And even if they find the hardware…

> If they don't know it exists, they can't take it.

I've said this before: any financial system that turns a presumed crime (the efficient cause of the asset seizure) into direct evidence of another crime (trying to hide assets) is not a good financial system.

What you're describing doesn't exist in practice for any medium of exchange.

Re: Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cryptocurrency is the solution for a very valuable problem. How do you commit financial crimes and frauds in a way just new enough to confuse people that what you're doing may be valuable?

Keep in mind that "financial crimes" can mean very different things to very different regimes. In Nazi Germany, it was a "financial crime" for Jews to take any wealth with them when they emigrated.

Just that normal people don't benefit overall.

If you are for bitcoin and its 'benefits' and you are not someone who is doing tax fraud in a big way, you do not benefit from crypto, you are loosing.

Unreported income is tax money which is missing for schools, infrastructure and co.

It might not be used always efficency but it benefits you more than not having it. It should also be a much higher motivation for everyone of us to stop tax fraud all together instead of complaining about taxes and trying to avoid taxes.

Re: Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because i doubt the roth childs are among those whales.

Think again. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/07/20/rothschild-inves...

for the rothchilds it represents .00001% of their total wealth.

The rothchilds keep their wealth in art, land and gold and why they have managed to stay rich for so long.

I can point to atleast one person who's class shifted and that person is me.

Also, you cherry picked one point among many and misunderstood it. Although there may be some of the financial elite who bought in early in BTC and crypto (Especially A-Z) there was alot of nerdy technologists among the winners. Also, alot of those winners have gone to set up hundreds of crypto companies who might even be more centralized.

Anti-centralization isn't the point i was making, it was a redistribution of that centralization which obviously can never be supported with hard facts but rather a feeling and subjective experience i've had with crypto billionaires.

Re: Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

#169
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there is that expression, morality is how people think the world _should_ be, economics is the reality of how it _really_ is the problem = lack of investment options, stagnant wages, inflating cost of living, being priced out solution = gambling on crypto and making some money speaking as a millenial. honestly crypto is the only way could ever dream of buying a house. ive been working 15 years and saved 150k. average…

Everything is inflated and has been bid up. Cryptos are certainly no exception, it's only gotten worse in the last two years with all the FOMO they fostered and salesman that gathered to profit off my disillusioned generation. To each their own, but I think the idea that TINA to crypto is plain silly, yet I know more people (am millennial) owning crypto than stocks, always with this notion that TINA. At least with st…

Ethereum has revenue 1b per month - and that’s 100% profit. It’s highly undervalued at the moment.

Re: Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Crypto may well be the biggest solution looking for a problem I've ever seen. People don't understand crypto yet... play around with it a bit. Things not possible in the current financial system: - Participate in a crowdlown on polkadot. - Play around in some DeFi. Earn yield on two assets. - Store some files hyperlocally and encrypted on peoples laptop with filecoin. And learn how persistant indexing will help the…

> the potential to shake up the class system. 0.01% of bitcoin holders controls 27% of the currency in circulation. [0] If this is changing the class system in any way, it's for the worse. [0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoins-one-percent-controls-l...

Exactly this!
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