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YC W22 Stablegains is being sued for losing $42M in funds from 4878 customers

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Re: YC W22 Stablegains is being sued for losing $42M in funds from 4878 customers

#321

Jesus H. Christ they're called "Stablegains", how could anyone think this is anything besides a crypto bro ponzi scam op?!

It's like a used car salesman who claims his name is 'Honest' Freddy. You'd think such flagrantly shameless self-aggrandizement would make everybody turn and run, but evidently it works on some people.

Re: YC W22 Stablegains is being sued for losing $42M in funds from 4878 customers

#322
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, you're absolutely right. This story about how HN invested in an obvious Ponzi scheme (seriously, if the name Stablegains doesn't throw off alarm bells, you deserve to lose your money) fell over 10 spaces in the time it took me to click to the comments, read your comment, and click back to check.

I don't know what due-diligence that YC do but I can imagine, as someone who only knows the basics of crypto-currency, of being sucked into some confident founder telling me that, "of course it is safe, it uses stable coins". The risks seem really obvious after everything falls through but there are plenty of other companies that are "obvious scams" who happen to have made it by luck/skill/investment.

If you're so naive you could be sucked into stable coins that easily, you have no business running an investment fund.

Re: YC W22 Stablegains is being sued for losing $42M in funds from 4878 customers

#324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really the crux of the issue How many people get duped into thinking there's such a thing as "unlimited gain" and "rewards without risks" Like what, people are just going to give you money without you doing anything? It would be largely beneficial to everyone, if we were to provide some basic economic/financial/"how money works" lessons to everyone through the use of schools and public education..

> Like what, people are just going to give you money without you doing anything? That’s disingenuous. When you put money into a high yield savings account, or even into a fiat backed 1:1 stablecoin you’re doing something. You’re providing liquidity. A high yield savings account (2-4%) or yield on a fiat backed 1:1 stablecoin (5-8%) is risky in the sense that you need to trust a bank (or exchange), but that’s eased by…

Providing liquidity doesn't mean anything. You need to think things through before putting your money into schemes you don't understand.

Re: YC W22 Stablegains is being sued for losing $42M in funds from 4878 customers

#326
post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto wallets double as a kid of single sign-on identity. If you have a crypto wallet in a browser add-on, you already have a paudonymous account usable on tens of thousands of crypto enabled web apps. All you have to do is one-click sign-in. No sign-up flow, no emails, no commitment. You just tap login and you have an account. One more tap and you've paid. Plus other benefits like effectively free micro-transaction…

What happens when someone steals your key?

Then logging into all your sites is painless for them

Re: YC W22 Stablegains is being sued for losing $42M in funds from 4878 customers

#327
post #316
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A ponzi is when an investment that supposedly produces a return actually pays the funds needed to deliver that return from new entrants to the scheme rather than productive enterprise. Given that there’s literally no productive return-producing enterprise underpinning any of this it’s totally fine to consider the word ponzi at least loosely applicable to the entire concept of cryptocurrency as practiced.

By this definition most crypto wouldn‘t be a ponzi. E.g. bitcoin doesn‘t claim that funds are invested in productive entreprise. It is clear that it is only a value store (like gold). Whether it is any good at storing value long term, we will see.

Bitcoin proponents definitely (for a time) claimed that it was Bitcoin's utility as a currency that gave it value in the first place. That everyone would need some because everyone would use it to transact. That's a claim of an inherent investment value that didn't actually exist, making Bitcoin exactly like a distributed Ponzi scheme.

Re: YC W22 Stablegains is being sued for losing $42M in funds from 4878 customers

#328
post #299

This all could have been prevented with a limit order sell at 0.99 UST per USD.

Oh your right, they almost invented perpetual motion, but forgot to add this one doodad. If they add they doodad they will have succeeded in inventing it and surely we'll all get great gains. /s The entire process is fundamentally flawed. No adjustment will fix a faulty premise. Please stop pushing faulty thinking like this.

I suppose you could argue Terra has some flaw that can't be mitigated, but surely someone merely holding Terra could close their position at anytime. What is the fault in this line of reasoning?

Re: YC W22 Stablegains is being sued for losing $42M in funds from 4878 customers

#329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really the crux of the issue How many people get duped into thinking there's such a thing as "unlimited gain" and "rewards without risks" Like what, people are just going to give you money without you doing anything? It would be largely beneficial to everyone, if we were to provide some basic economic/financial/"how money works" lessons to everyone through the use of schools and public education..

> Like what, people are just going to give you money without you doing anything? That’s disingenuous. When you put money into a high yield savings account, or even into a fiat backed 1:1 stablecoin you’re doing something. You’re providing liquidity. A high yield savings account (2-4%) or yield on a fiat backed 1:1 stablecoin (5-8%) is risky in the sense that you need to trust a bank (or exchange), but that’s eased by…

You’re saying that there’s an account with FDIC coverage that pays 5-8% returns? Please provide a link. This doesn’t line up with my understanding of banking regulations. The current risk-free return of a callable loan on dollars is less than 1%, so I don’t see how the FDIC would agree to guarantee 5-8%.

Re: YC W22 Stablegains is being sued for losing $42M in funds from 4878 customers

#330
post #266

Another negative story about a YC company which has risen to the front page of HN and then seems to be getting a lot of pressure to get ranked down. It has more points and is fresher then a handful of other stories on the frontpage but ranks lower and is falling quickly. And when mentioned in the past, the reason often is the invisible anti-flamewar or similar features. What is it this time? Elon needs to buy HN and…

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