Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did • Hacker News Board

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#811

Post by cupofpython » Thu, May 12, 2022, 3:59 PM UTC

eric_cc wrote: post #771

Mvandenbergh wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reasons this is nonsense are twofold: First, I have never actually seen any comments here disavowing themselves of responsibility. It is always aimed at protecting others and this is rooted in the obvious fact that a very large number of people are not (and we do not expect them to be) experts in investment. That assets can go up or down is one thing, and nobody can be protected from that, but there is an extensi…

> people are not (and we do not expect them to be) experts in investment. So then they should stay out of the game. I totally disagree that we need a bunch of bullshit laws protecting people from poor decision making.

this is about as logical as saying "just because we signed a contract doesnt mean I need to uphold my end of the contract. you should have known I wasnt going to be able to fulfill my end of our agreement"

I agree with personal responsibility but not at the expense of communication.

Imagine if every single person who moved a package was required to open the package and confirm the contents. It may be the only way to accept personal responsibility for its contents, but it's dumb. I am telling you what the contents are and if I am lying to you then I need to be held accountable. Especially if the contents are dangerous and I told you they are safe.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#812

Post by JumpCrisscross » Thu, May 12, 2022, 4:00 PM UTC

exactlythat wrote: post #333

pjc50 wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you say "don't go there, you'll be robbed" to someone, they insult you in return, and then get robbed, you're entitled to a bit of schadenfreude.

You’re entitled to quite a lot. It is those delightful moments, enjoyed quietly and within one’s own head out of common courtesy, that make all of life’s problems worth it. There are few feelings as remotely good as that one, and we’d all feel better admitting it to ourselves. Doesn’t speak to caring. They’ll listen to you next time, won’t they?

> They’ll listen to you next time, won’t they?

No, but they won’t have the capital to spawn another drain on our economy either.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#813

Post by arisAlexis » Thu, May 12, 2022, 4:00 PM UTC

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #30

The fact that they've been minting billions of tether without collateral should make it abundantly obvious that this isn't a stablecoin and never had been. Anyone can pretend to have a peg in the good times, that doesn't mean there's really a peg or that the peg will remain in bad times. And if you can't count on the peg in bad times, it's not a stablecoin. If you've been honestly working on the assumption that it is…

You have proof ?

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#814

Post by carlosdp » Thu, May 12, 2022, 4:07 PM UTC

uniqueuid wrote: post #731

carlosdp wrote: post #726

This title is... wrong. It's entirely normal for stablecoins to fluctuate in minor ways like this [1], even USDC (which is literally backed by actual US dollars in a bank account) fluctuates +- 1 cent regularly. This is because these prices come from a variety of exchanges trading these currencies, with different supply pools. Arbitrage remediates this very quickly (Tether, at time of writing, is at $1.00). Not defen…

The very chart you linked shows a dramatic increase in volatility over the last days. That surely points to increased stress tether is under.

Yea not debating that, nor that it wouldn't lose it's peg if things get unstable enough. Just that the title makes it look like it's in a death spiral like TerraUSD, which there doesn't seem to be indication of right now at all.

The increased volatility (which remains in the That said, again, not defending Tether in general. I hold 0 USDT, always recommend USDC.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#815

Post by pessimizer » Thu, May 12, 2022, 4:10 PM UTC

ethbr0 wrote: post #697

SamBam wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's quite literally disavowing responsibility. Unsure how you failed to read the emphasis on " themselves " in the comment you're replying to, and the line about protecting others.

Taking umbrage on behalf of others, in a matter that should be personal choice, is equally questionable. Half of this thread believes we should protect people from themselves. The other half believes people should have the freedom to screw themselves over. Not sure there's much ground for compromise, given the contradictory nature of those positions.

No, half of this thread believes we should protect people from predators. The other half feels that people who can't recognize predators are natural and deserving prey.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#816

Post by jsmith45 » Thu, May 12, 2022, 4:12 PM UTC

jkepler wrote: post #324

alangibson wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Bitcoin is essentially the USD + US stock market in 1922. Hard money and unregulated securities markets already broke the world once. The crypto wizards somehow managed to forget a century of hard won lessons.

It was hardly "hard money" in 1922, as the Fed was created in 1913, and the dollar started plummeting. If you want to see what a hard money world looks like, look at the 40 years or so prior to 1913, when most civilized nations were on a gold standard.

But the gold standard has its own issues. The gold standard is effectively a system of pegging all participating currencies to one another.

A dollar is X milli-ounces of gold, a Pound Stirling is Y milli-ounces.

They are effectively pegged at an X:Y ratio. But currency pegging has issues in practice, with Governments only able to keep it stable within certain limits. Outside those limits bad things will happen if you don't update the peg ratio. But when using a gold standard, if you have to adjust how much gold your unit of currency is worth, it makes people upset. If you make a dollar worth less gold people with dollars get quite upset. Also if people expect such a redenomination will be occuring, it can cause on run on the gold reserves.

Meanwhile, if you make a dollar worth more gold, you piss off anybody holding gold.

The changing of the ratio is even worse if you are using precious metal coinage that have the specified amount of gold (or silver, for the silver-standard) in them. If the ratio needs to change, now you have all this money with a face value, precious metal content mismatch.

And all this is on top of the fact by using the gold standard, the rate of gold mining can heavily impact the economy.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#817

Post by GVIrish » Thu, May 12, 2022, 4:13 PM UTC

md_ wrote: post #256

moritonal wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My issue is that these people are smart, but not "I work at Blackrock as a day-trader smart". In Finance, there are laws against a lot of the easy wins, and now the professionals are entering the Crypto space they're going to run circles around the amateurs. As in, it's easy to be the best in your local club, but it's a real wake-up call when you try out at a regional.

I'm not sure about that--or at least, the reality seems more complicated. Terra certainly has an element of complicated financial dynamics behind it such that people who know a little--but not a not--may think it's the greatest idea since sliced bread, and get eaten by the professionals. I agree with you there. But a lot of the crypto ecosystem seems to be much more mundane than that. As far as I can tell, there isn'…

The financial wizardry behind NFT's is the wash trading. A lot of average people looking to get into NFT's simply don't understand that many of the 'success stories' they see of people making big money on NFT's are just wash trading trying to lure in the marks.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#818

Post by blintz » Thu, May 12, 2022, 4:13 PM UTC

kurisufag wrote: post #675

SkeuomorphicBee wrote: post #590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DollarCoin is the best summary of proof-of-work that I've ever seen. Just replace "burning US $1 notes" with "burning [x] Watts-hour of electricity" and it describes Bitcoin to a T.

that isn't actually at all the function or purpose of PoW though. in the example, the burning of "real" dollars represents the validity of a single "DollarCoin" existing. the "burning" of electricity for bitcoin is the result of finding a schema that promotes verification of the network by awarding coins by consensus. PoW is a /validation/ pattern, and while burning dollars on video and linking the hashes together ca…

This is maybe a bit of a tangent, but the fact that transaction validation happens as part of Bitcoin’s proof-of-work process is incidental. It’s perfectly fine to mine an empty block, and the only incentive to include transactions is transaction fees. You earn rewards even if you conduct no transaction validation.

The analogous option for DollarCoin would be letting you put a placard in the video with some (valid) transactions on it and recoup a fee from each.

The point is that, it’s not such a bad analogy of just “proof-of-work”, which is a meaningfully separate concept than decentralized transaction validation. Though I agree, I mean a regular person might definitely be more confused than helped by the ‘dollars on fire’ analogy.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#819

Post by GVIrish » Thu, May 12, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

namdnay wrote: post #109

someotherperson wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you've been honestly working on the assumption that it is, then you deserve to lose your (real) money to some crypto VCs on an island somewhere This is victim blaming. Nobody deserves to be exploited, robbed or otherwise for any reason.

it's much easier to con a greedy person. And you had to be very greedy indeed to convince yourself that 20% interest is a safe investment

It's not necessarily that people thinking 20% interest is safe is greedy. It's that many people don't have the financial literacy to understand that something paying that high of an interest rate is going to be risky. And that if someone 'guarantees' an interest rate of 20% then it's probably a con.

So many people just lack the basic literacy to recognize when something sounds too good to be true. And in the crypto market it's worse than that, because all of the memes and in-group behavior functions to drown out warranted skepticism.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#820

Post by dikaio » Thu, May 12, 2022, 4:19 PM UTC

Mvandenbergh wrote: post #472

jmyeet wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually hate people disavowing themselves of responsibility here. While there is definitely some shady stuff in Crypto (particularly NFTs, which seem to be 99% scams), there's a certain level of personal responsibility required here. People saw the meteoric rise of Bitcoin and got a serious case of FOMO. Everyone wanted to be on the next Bitcoin. This, ultimately, is the American Dream: to get rich by doing nothin…

The reasons this is nonsense are twofold: First, I have never actually seen any comments here disavowing themselves of responsibility. It is always aimed at protecting others and this is rooted in the obvious fact that a very large number of people are not (and we do not expect them to be) experts in investment. That assets can go up or down is one thing, and nobody can be protected from that, but there is an extensi…

You also didn’t mention his idiotic statement of equating the “American Dream” to getting lucky and getting rich when in fact the American dream is about having the opportunity to work hard, buy a home and have a decent life for you and your family.