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Celsius Execs Cashed Out $40M in Crypto Before Halting Withdrawals for Customers

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Re: Celsius Execs Cashed Out $40M in Crypto Before Halting Withdrawals for Customers

#92
post #33

Oh hey look the consequences of a monetary system that isn't backed by a legal system (that is backed up by people with guns). The reason fiat money works is because at the end of the day if you run into trouble you have the legal system to make things right. And if the perpetrator of the crime doesn't listen to the legal system, there are people with guns/violence to back that up. That's why the whole system works -…

Why can't both exist though? Each with their own advantage/disadvantages, and you get to choose which one to use after considering the tradeoffs. Things I would use crypto for: * Money transfers, particularly cross border payments. Low fees, quick confirmation from all parties. * Any transaction that I would like to keep my privacy on (and this does not mean illegal things, btw). Things I would never use crypto for:…

This already exists though and is a technical solution to an economic problem. The reason the money transfer fees exist, slow confirmation, etc is there is no incentive to do so otherwise.

Crypto transfers for say USD->EUR via USD->BTC->EUR are just adding extra foreign exchange legs in the hope that the BTC holders on either end will give you a better deal.

Re: Celsius Execs Cashed Out $40M in Crypto Before Halting Withdrawals for Customers

#93
post #33

Oh hey look the consequences of a monetary system that isn't backed by a legal system (that is backed up by people with guns). The reason fiat money works is because at the end of the day if you run into trouble you have the legal system to make things right. And if the perpetrator of the crime doesn't listen to the legal system, there are people with guns/violence to back that up. That's why the whole system works -…

>"The reason fiat money works is because at the end of the day if you run into trouble you have the legal system to make things right. And if the perpetrator of the crime doesn't listen to the legal system, there are people with guns/violence to back that up. That's why the whole system works -- because of the threat of violence."

How many people were prosecuted for the 2008 financial crisis though? Neither did the "threat of violence" nor the legal system prevent or even deter those perpetrators.

Re: Celsius Execs Cashed Out $40M in Crypto Before Halting Withdrawals for Customers

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't both exist though? Each with their own advantage/disadvantages, and you get to choose which one to use after considering the tradeoffs. Things I would use crypto for: * Money transfers, particularly cross border payments. Low fees, quick confirmation from all parties. * Any transaction that I would like to keep my privacy on (and this does not mean illegal things, btw). Things I would never use crypto for:…

This already exists though and is a technical solution to an economic problem. The reason the money transfer fees exist, slow confirmation, etc is there is no incentive to do so otherwise. Crypto transfers for say USD->EUR via USD->BTC->EUR are just adding extra foreign exchange legs in the hope that the BTC holders on either end will give you a better deal.

>This already exists though and is a technical solution to an economic problem.

Immediately followed by:

>The reason the money transfer fees exist, slow confirmation, etc is there is no incentive to do so otherwise.

Huh? Is it solved or not? It's unclear to me where do you stand.

de facto, moving ETH->ETH is faster and cheaper than using the standard forex infrastructure.

Re: Celsius Execs Cashed Out $40M in Crypto Before Halting Withdrawals for Customers

#95
post #33

Oh hey look the consequences of a monetary system that isn't backed by a legal system (that is backed up by people with guns). The reason fiat money works is because at the end of the day if you run into trouble you have the legal system to make things right. And if the perpetrator of the crime doesn't listen to the legal system, there are people with guns/violence to back that up. That's why the whole system works -…

Why can't both exist though? Each with their own advantage/disadvantages, and you get to choose which one to use after considering the tradeoffs. Things I would use crypto for: * Money transfers, particularly cross border payments. Low fees, quick confirmation from all parties. * Any transaction that I would like to keep my privacy on (and this does not mean illegal things, btw). Things I would never use crypto for:…

Crypto is bad at money transfers. It's low capacity. That's why nobody is using BTC to pay for pizza anymore. It's also bad at privacy, since the architecture for most crypto systems relies on storing a permanent, non-modifiable public ledger.

Your usage case doesn't really work because almost nobody cares about that. You'll find a few idealists interested in that, and a very few people that need to transact with some random person in Bangladesh. Pretty much everyone will just do a regular bank transfer or use Paypal.

What got crypto to become popular is the "get rich quick" schemes, which not only don't require stability, but rely on instability and people attracted to the idea of exploiting it for profit.

Re: Celsius Execs Cashed Out $40M in Crypto Before Halting Withdrawals for Customers

#96
post #33

Oh hey look the consequences of a monetary system that isn't backed by a legal system (that is backed up by people with guns). The reason fiat money works is because at the end of the day if you run into trouble you have the legal system to make things right. And if the perpetrator of the crime doesn't listen to the legal system, there are people with guns/violence to back that up. That's why the whole system works -…

You can't steal my Bitcoin if I don't deposit them with a custodian. This is like blaming gold itself if the owners of a gold bank run off with the gold.

Re: Celsius Execs Cashed Out $40M in Crypto Before Halting Withdrawals for Customers

#98
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much money have you lost from your private bank account...?

Does loss of value via quantitative easing count?

good job the value of crypto is so stable then

Re: Celsius Execs Cashed Out $40M in Crypto Before Halting Withdrawals for Customers

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto is like the invention of ink that cannot be erased. How that technology would weaken trust and accountability is beyond me. It's literally perfect for finance (especially once multi-sig wallets become common). If Celsius had been more all-in on crypto tech, they would have had FEWER problems. Also, I don't know any law that exempts crypto companies from being taken to court.

It is important to understand that crypto is not an expression of finance (although financial transactions do take place on top of crypto), but an attempt to express law outside of the bounds of IRL legal frameworks, stating, "code is law", which is of course, not true. The legal system always takes precedence when they have a monopoly on force (financial and physical), which is why crypto is destined to be a niche s…

"Code is law" is a property of Ethereum Classic, not all cryptocurrency. I don't really see many crypto people arguing that code should supersede law.

I'm no expert but I understand that undo-ing transactions is pretty trivial if you use multi-sig. The owner and the bank (or government) can each have a signature, and a chargeback can occur when both signatories agree to execute it.

By the way, the law already has ways of punishing irreversible actions (i.e. murder, destruction of property).

Re: Celsius Execs Cashed Out $40M in Crypto Before Halting Withdrawals for Customers

#100
post #33

Oh hey look the consequences of a monetary system that isn't backed by a legal system (that is backed up by people with guns). The reason fiat money works is because at the end of the day if you run into trouble you have the legal system to make things right. And if the perpetrator of the crime doesn't listen to the legal system, there are people with guns/violence to back that up. That's why the whole system works -…

This story is about a filing in the United States legal system, under which this entity works.
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