Live data from Hacker News

The cryptocurrency sell-off has exposed those swimming naked

economist.com

81–90 of 179 posts

Re: The cryptocurrency sell-off has exposed those swimming naked

#81
post #3

This is a particularly bad time to trade crypto if you don't know what you're doing. Even if you think you do, it's dangerous in a bear market.

Lol, what does "knowing what you're doing mean?"

Just because many people foolishly trade crypto doesn't mean there aren't savvy people quietly making huge amounts of money.

I know one of them well, an individual who is up 9 figures over many years while staying market neutral.

Don't be fooled into thinking there is no such thing as knowing what you are doing.

Re: The cryptocurrency sell-off has exposed those swimming naked

#82
post #76
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely looks pretty bad - but on the other hand, an accelerator not making any bets in crypto is not a sensible accelerator. You need to make bets everywhere and hopefully some stick. The other side of that is some don’t stick, and some go proper pear shaped. Make enough bets, it has to happen. I’ve got no idea what their original pitch is, I certainly wouldn’t back a crypto startup that ostensibly aims to do som…

The problem here is not a bet on crypto but a company that basically went "oh hey sorry too bad the USD displayed on your account is actually UST. K thx bye".

I think I cover that. Company does not equal backer. Bad behaviour by company is not the responsibility of investors, it’s the responsibility of the board, the exec, and ultimately the courts. Investors can shape and influence, investors hopefully provide a filter and feedback, but everyone can get swept up in a good story. Company should be caned. Yc? I’ve already said what I feel.

Re: The cryptocurrency sell-off has exposed those swimming naked

#83
post #63

Tether truthing the eminent doom of tether is all well and good but why aren't we talking more about YCombinator promoting startups that burned their customer's money by sending it to anchor protocol UST ponzinomics while lying that those investments were held in USDC and USD? https://twitter.com/fatmanterra/status/1527153694218797058 https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/stablegains Or is it bad to talk about such t…

Didn’t we have a absolutely massive thread about this just earlier this week? How much more can we talk about it? Is it the only thing we should be talking about?

Re: The cryptocurrency sell-off has exposed those swimming naked

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So far. If you spend any time in the research community you’ll realise that those problems are very likely to get solved. Lightning alone probably gets us there. Its volatility and UX, as well as how negatively it is perceived currently (by some people) look like bigger blockers to me.

Ligthning is an alternative to Bitcoin, not a fix for it. It has a different security model (much much much weaker), it uses entirely different technology, it is essentially centralized. The fact that it uses Bitcoin on the back end is mostly a detail of Lightning.

There is literally not a single thing true in this comment. I would advise you seriously revaluate where you are getting your (mis)information from.

Lightning is a way of using bitcoin. A way of cooperatively creating bitcoin transactions with multiple parties, in such a way that you can minimize the number of on-chain transactions required. It is bitcoin. It has the same security model as bitcoin. It uses the same technology. It is not in any way centralized (it's a p2p network of payment channel connections, with each operator running their own server).

Re: The cryptocurrency sell-off has exposed those swimming naked

#86
post #63

Tether truthing the eminent doom of tether is all well and good but why aren't we talking more about YCombinator promoting startups that burned their customer's money by sending it to anchor protocol UST ponzinomics while lying that those investments were held in USDC and USD? https://twitter.com/fatmanterra/status/1527153694218797058 https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/stablegains Or is it bad to talk about such t…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31431224

Are you aware of the search feature? Or are you wondering why people aren't talking about something tangential in this thread specifically?

People talk about YC companies all the time. There is no weighting, no one flagging posts about YC companies. Most people here aren't part of YC, we have no reason to give them any more leeway than anyone else. The main reason no one in a random cryptocurrency thread is talking about one random cryptocurrency company is because that company is not a significant part of the industry, and no one except the people getting Goxxed even know it exists.

Re: The cryptocurrency sell-off has exposed those swimming naked

#87
post #63

Tether truthing the eminent doom of tether is all well and good but why aren't we talking more about YCombinator promoting startups that burned their customer's money by sending it to anchor protocol UST ponzinomics while lying that those investments were held in USDC and USD? https://twitter.com/fatmanterra/status/1527153694218797058 https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/stablegains Or is it bad to talk about such t…

There was significant and critical discussion about that yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31431224

Re: The cryptocurrency sell-off has exposed those swimming naked

#88
post #38

Looking at Google's 5 year graph of Bitcoin prices, it looks like there were 2 crashes last year of similar size as this one.

With markets it's all about narrative. Growth stocks have been coming down and so has Bitcoin, so people like to highlight that everyone is sharing the pain.

With Bitcoin, the narrative is that it goes up after every halving cycle.

Will confidence shatter completely if it doesn't go up in the next cycle?

Hard to tell. Important to remember that BTC has only existed in an easy monetary environment. Will risk assets like this still go up if there is no cheap money available?

I appreciate the core ideas behind it and I've profited a lot from crypto. But I don't know if the narrative can hold true in a tight monetary environment

Re: The cryptocurrency sell-off has exposed those swimming naked

#89
post #3

This is a particularly bad time to trade crypto if you don't know what you're doing. Even if you think you do, it's dangerous in a bear market.

That includes having short positions? Why would that be particularly bad if the momentum is downward?

The crypto market is unregulated and manipulated heavily by whales (most of whom operate on bitfinex which itself has close ties to Tether).

Holding a short position can be profitable, but also know that a short squeeze is easy.

There was an incredible shorting opportunity with the recent Luna fiasco though. Literal millions made overnight.

Re: The cryptocurrency sell-off has exposed those swimming naked

#90
post #3

This is a particularly bad time to trade crypto if you don't know what you're doing. Even if you think you do, it's dangerous in a bear market.

That includes having short positions? Why would that be particularly bad if the momentum is downward?

You shouldn’t really be shorting if you don’t know what you’re doing, so the parent still applies.
Post reply on HN