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

Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme

justice.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 328 posts

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

#191

Post by jayd16 »

deutschewelle wrote: post #187
NelsonMinar wrote: post #72

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?

What exactly is the valuable problem you are thinking in your head and how is it better solved by cryptocurrency and blockchain that can't already be done with existing methods, technologies and contractual agreements backed by various international treaties and dialectic tests for loopholes through thousands and thousands of years trading between countries, provinces, cities and entities?

Read past the first sentence. Comment is tongue in cheek.

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

#192

Post by ziml77 »

FlyNestor wrote: post #122

The Bitconnect Coin was among the world's most successful cryptocurrency token until its price collapsed. So you have to be quick if you want to ride the wave of a scamcoin

Not untrue. If you're quick to get in and time your exit right, you can make some seriously good money. Basically leveraging someone else's scam to scam people yourself.

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

#193

Post by tomgp »

dsco wrote: post #176
NelsonMinar wrote: post #72

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?

It could provide as a store and transpiration means of value in times of crisis. For instance some of the Ukrainian banks are now shutdown. If you had crypto you could access your wealth. Same thing applies for Russian citizens who have nothing to do with the war but will soon have their assets frozen. Did you consider all use cases before posting, or just glee at yet another anti crypto post on HN and thought “yay!…

didn’t bitcoin price take a nose dive when russia invaded? the opposite behaviour than what you’d want from a store of value

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

#194

Post by ohyoutravel »

cinntaile wrote: post #124
ohyoutravel wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just semantics at this point. I would encourage you to address the statement being made and ignore the technical definition of the phrase. To restate without the offending phrase: [T]he idea that the promotion of crypto thus far has existed to allow early adopters to cash out at the apparent expense of later adopters, while bringing essentially no other utility to any of its backers or the public at large, is…

It is very much not just semantics. Ponzi schemes are illegal so the difference matters.

I double checked and no one in our comment chain has said anything about legality at all, or even implied same, so you pointing that out as the defining distinction is not really relevant, don't you think? Besides, pump and dump schemes of securities are illegal, though notably most crypto is in the grey area because the SEC doesn’t classify it as a security.

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

#195

Post by scoopertrooper »

dsco wrote: post #176
NelsonMinar wrote: post #72

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?

It could provide as a store and transpiration means of value in times of crisis. For instance some of the Ukrainian banks are now shutdown. If you had crypto you could access your wealth. Same thing applies for Russian citizens who have nothing to do with the war but will soon have their assets frozen. Did you consider all use cases before posting, or just glee at yet another anti crypto post on HN and thought “yay!…

You realise, if the banks go, so does the internet, right?

https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1497409488403505153

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

#196

Post by tenuousemphasis »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #113
notabotyet wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do thousands of transactions with thousands of people every day without committing financial crimes and without paying any fees. It's extremely valuable to my businesses. Wrenches can be used as weapons but they are also essential for plumbers.

And fiat money can be used to deal drugs. I mean I don't defend crypto, the way things are going is that they'll be just as regulated and centralized as digital fiat is, and a lot of it is people getting rich, or hoping to - I mean I'm one of those people, still waiting for my handful of dogecoin to go up 10.000% so I can retire. But I also have a regular job, regular savings, and regular stonks because savings accou…

The exchanges can be regulated, but good luck trying to regulate a global peer to peer network!

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

#197

Post by Hjfrf »

ninth_ant wrote: post #155
LMYahooTFY wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

If Western nations enacted policies on bitcoin similar to China, this wouldn’t shut down the network entirely but would drive it underground. This would limit the usefulness and presumably value of the network, at the very least.

Banning miners would send them to the next-most corrupt country with cheap energy.

A more meaningful move would be to ban exchanges, so that miners can no longer take exit liquidity at the expense on retail "investors".

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

#198

Post by mardifoufs »

bentlegen wrote: post #86
pricees wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to donate to a cause that Justin Trudeau finds "unacceptable." I want to send money to Ukraine. I think this week we saw problems with tradfi in the developed and developing world. And of course in the good ole US of A, I hear stories of civil forfeiture every other month.

Note that folks who claimed their bank accounts were frozen because they were “donors to the convoy” never actually verified that that actually happened [1]. At the same time the government, the RCMP, and the banks have come out and said “that didn’t happen” [2]. Last, the government ceded its emergency powers after about a week total, despite claims on HN and various thinkpieces that they would be extended in perpet…

The reason they didn't extend them was that they didn't want to go through the senate vote, and also because of the extreme controversy it caused. Trudeau had said earlier he wanted to extend them past the 30 days. So it's weird to say that the controversy and reactions were baseless because their intended goal was achieved. And that was to make Trudeau's decision as politically costly and controversial as possible.

Also accounts were still seized over a protest, so it doesn't matter if it was from people donating or those who were protesting

https://financialpost.com/fp-finance/banking/convoy-leader-d...

(Url is weird and doesn't match the actual article)

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

#199

Post by nikanj »

kosasbest wrote: post #63

Why do people trust middlemen to handle their crypto in a safe manner? The whole idea behind crypto is that it's decentralized. Interacting with exchanges, investment platforms, etc is asking for trouble. Assume any exchange is another MtGox waiting to happen. Assume you no longer own your funds once you interact with any crypto platform. Fraud is rampant in the crypto scene and has been since the beginning. And for…

For a lot of people, running your own node is technobabble. They see the billboard, install the app, and hope they are going to get rich - quick!

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

#200

Post by danaris »

TrapLord_Rhodo wrote: post #160
malermeister wrote: post #159

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.

Replacing the current megarich with a different set of megarich isn't "shaking up the class system". It's just changing the nametags.
Post reply on HN