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We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX

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Re: We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't. They just ran with significantly less staff (iirc, less than 30). If they wanted you, they got in touch. FTX wasn't a scam either. Their business was a licence to print money but, as so often happens in finance, managed to spin shit from gold.

That's not what I have heard. Specifically know people who have gotten offers, mostly in the 150k range with zero stock. Alameda research is also just random devs that went to MIT with a few years experience. Impressive to go to that school, but clearly not experienced enough to run a real finance operation. Zero real finance people. If they were serious they would have hired portfolio managers with decades of experi…

definitely know one guy hired by FTX intl in the past 6 months

so "If they wanted you, they got in touch." seems true to me

Re: We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX

#122
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but like, the US is a lot more likely to be around in 20 years, so this argument doesn't really make any sense. Honestly I'm sick of hearing it; yes we know, all money is made up, that's not an interesting point anymore. Society is okay with that, but it doesn't mean you can just make up another currency, that's not how it works.

That's exactly how it works. When you issue IOU, you issue your own currency. When a company issues stock, they are in fact issuing their own currency. All contracts are in fact a currency that can be sold, bought, invested and transacted. World debt is far far larger than actually currency in circulation. How does that happen? Because we make up "currency" all the time.

Exactly how it works… but you left out the US Army part this time? You kind of need that to give it value. Nothing else will. USD.

Re: We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX

#123
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly how it works. When you issue IOU, you issue your own currency. When a company issues stock, they are in fact issuing their own currency. All contracts are in fact a currency that can be sold, bought, invested and transacted. World debt is far far larger than actually currency in circulation. How does that happen? Because we make up "currency" all the time.

No, that's not the same thing at all. For every other example of currency besides the government's currency, there's a tangible thing backing that unit. Crypto still doesn't have that, and that matters. To what degree is up for debate, but it does matter. Only governments apparently can get away with the unbacked currency, because they otherwise back it with enforced societal rules (a.k.a. laws).

What other currencies are there in todays world other than fiat (government's currency back by nothing)? I was trying to think of something other than crypto and really came up blank.

Sure some corporations have things like CompanyX dollars that they could give out to employees who then redeem them for something. But in these situations those dollars are back by nothing.

Re: We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX

#124

Can someone who has a clue tell me which happened? Did SBF/FTX break the law and will see jail time? Or did they break regulations and will receive a fine? Or is it just a tough cookies situation?

I hope so. Crypto scams hurt real people who put real money into this thing. Whatever "financial engineering" happened to vaporize X billion surely did more harm, and to many more people, than the average felony theft.

There are so many laws, so many jurisdictions involved, and so much complexity and ambiguity that it seems basically certain laws were broken. So, we have broken laws and injured parties - seems correct to pursue criminal charges.

Re: We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX

#125
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Bitcoin protocol and network continues to operate exactly as expected. Here, people trusted a "bank" (an exchange acting like a bank), and got burned when the bank gambled and lost.

Without exchanges like FTX or Coinbase, how should general public acquire crypto?

Bisq, of course.

https://bisq.network

With a bit more manpower, they could make the UI more usable to the general public. I wish there was an iOS/Android version too.

Re: We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX

#126
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what I have heard. Specifically know people who have gotten offers, mostly in the 150k range with zero stock. Alameda research is also just random devs that went to MIT with a few years experience. Impressive to go to that school, but clearly not experienced enough to run a real finance operation. Zero real finance people. If they were serious they would have hired portfolio managers with decades of experi…

definitely know one guy hired by FTX intl in the past 6 months so "If they wanted you, they got in touch." seems true to me

[deleted]

Re: We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX

#127
post #92

What's even more funny is that Binance make it look like they are a stable financial institution, and it's thanks to their high standards that they won't acquire FTX. Binance is most probably much more of a fraud than FTX. Binance doesn't even have physical headquarters in any country in this world - and the reason is that they are being actively investigated or banned almost everywhere.

I don't know about it, Binance has become a gold standard in crypto exchange business. Here on HN it was always about Coinbase likely because its an American company but for the rest of the world, it's all about Binance and the rest of the world is huge. How huge? About an order of magnitude to Coinbase. If Binance goes, crypto isn't coming back.

mtgox was bigger too. There are other reasons for a crypto winter like high interest rates and a newly credible us central bank. Rest of the world is not bigger when it comes to non residential real estate: private equity, venture, tech, finance.

Re: We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX

#128
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what I have heard. Specifically know people who have gotten offers, mostly in the 150k range with zero stock. Alameda research is also just random devs that went to MIT with a few years experience. Impressive to go to that school, but clearly not experienced enough to run a real finance operation. Zero real finance people. If they were serious they would have hired portfolio managers with decades of experi…

definitely know one guy hired by FTX intl in the past 6 months so "If they wanted you, they got in touch." seems true to me

"If they wanted you, they got in touch."

you make it sound like a prestigious elite club. it was a scam, and it should be called out as such.

also again i personally know two people that received stingy offers from them

Re: We will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't. They just ran with significantly less staff (iirc, less than 30). If they wanted you, they got in touch. FTX wasn't a scam either. Their business was a licence to print money but, as so often happens in finance, managed to spin shit from gold.

Concealing from users they were gambling with their funds - and not a scam?

Hey, in crypto not all is a scam. Some are a proper pyramid scheme, others outright betrayal, and few are just stupid or for fun (:
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