Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

951–960 of 1001 posts

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#951

Post by jcpham2 »

djinnandtonic wrote: post #431
Alupis wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For someone that only dabbles in crypto - what are the reasons people choose to use high-risk exchanges like FTX, and buy even higher risk "sh*t coins" on them? Especially the exchange-created-and-owned coins - of which I have yet to see one actually do what it promised. Is Coinbase just not cool anymore, or is there some advantage to using exchanges like FTX until they go belly-up?

For someone that only dabbles in investing, what are the reasons people choose ultra-high-risk investments like crypto?

I don’t (consider) Bitcoin as a high risk investment at all at this point because of the 4 year halving super cycle, until 2030 ish

Hash rate is still climbing, the price will follow.

Everything else is noise.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#952

Post by [deleted] »

gonehome wrote: post #299
throwaway0asd wrote: post #121

Where were the adults in any of this and why would people throw billions of dollars at unqualified children?

He worked at Jane Street prior to starting his own company which was built on a successful arbitrage. Whatever his issues - qualification isn’t one of them. I’m not defending this catastrophe (which seems like it was partly an execution by a rival), but this kind of comment is just bizarre on hacker news in the world of tech companies and startups. Age is not a good proxy for competence.

[deleted]

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#953

Post by kayamon »

whoooooo123 wrote: post #851
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #807

I’ve defended crypto countless times here and I still believe in the ideology and the decentralized mission But man…what a clownshow.

Genuine question: which cryptocurrencies and/or crypto companies do you still believe in? Which part of the space still stands a chance?

(not op)

Bitcoin's difficulty adjusts on-demand. Regardless of how many or few people use it, as long as some people do then it'll keep existing and sitting there clearing transactions all day long, spitting out new blocks every ten minutes like clockwork. That's the beauty of Bitcoin -- it's a program that once started never stops running, like a watch that keeps ticking.

The work in place to build L2 systems (Lightning, Web5, etc) that can derive a secure economic system from that base consensus clock will continue on just fine.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#954

Post by nicbou »

ilaksh wrote: post #922
planetsprite wrote: post #917

For those who believe crypto and web3 is the future, has any comparable emerging technology been met with as many scandals and busts in so little time?

This has nothing to do with the technology of cryptocurrency. In fact, it's the complete opposite. What people are doing with FTX is taking their money off of public blockchains and giving them to something like a bank or stock exchange where ultimately customer funds are accessed in secret. This is again, antithetical to cryptocurrency which has the main features of avoiding the necessity of banks for operating with…

The technology enabled countless scammers and hackers to disappear with people's funds. It's daily news. Failing exchanges are just an off-chain variant.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#955

Post by yawnr »

tasuki wrote: post #417
yawnr wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol give me a break. He will be fine and rich forever, just maybe not a billionaire. There are no real consequences when you are that wealthy.

No death threats because he had money? Have you perhaps seen the extensive list of Russian billionaires who "committed suicide" during like the past five years?

Russia is a terrorist state oligarchy with a murderous dictator. No one is actually going to kill this guy in the US. He will obviously get threats, and then reboot with a new $500mm seed round for some new scam from Marc Andreessen in a few years. Nevermind that's Adam Neumann.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#956

Post by from »

JohnPrine wrote: post #662
fwip wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like he forgot about the principle of diminishing returns. If you have $1B to your name, it's stupid to put it all on red, even if your expected return is positive.

Diminishing returns don't apply for SBF - his life's goal is to fund effective altruist charities, so each billion is as valuable as the last as long as there are good projects to fund. I don't think people are comprehending how tragic this whole situation is (acknowledging that it's SBF's fault). This collapse put the brakes on a powerful force for good, and lives that would have been saved won't anymore.

Jho Low gave a few hundred million to charity too after stealing a few billion from the Malaysian government. It's easy to be charitable if it's not your money you're giving! But I guess you're right that this is a different than that. No one is really saying that he got rich from this massive fraud (although a clear accounting of what actually happened is not available yet and probably won't be for years), in fact he lost most of his net worth because of it.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#957

Post by Fuzzwah »

dottrap wrote: post #482
Alupis wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For someone that only dabbles in crypto - what are the reasons people choose to use high-risk exchanges like FTX, and buy even higher risk "sh*t coins" on them? Especially the exchange-created-and-owned coins - of which I have yet to see one actually do what it promised. Is Coinbase just not cool anymore, or is there some advantage to using exchanges like FTX until they go belly-up?

- FTX had much bigger trading volume (which might get people better fills) - FTX had lower fees than Coinbase - FTX offered a lot more coins to trade than Coinbase - FTX (like many others, but not so much Coinbase) were giving large sign up bonuses, and advertising like crazy. (Finance YouTubers like Graham Stephan, Meet Kevin, Jeremy Financial Education, Minority Mindset, etc. are taking some heat for their paid pro…

> FTX (like many others, but not so much Coinbase) were giving large sign up bonuses, and advertising like crazy.

Any company that sponsors more than one Formula 1 team is high on my "probably not a good thing for humans" list. The shit that has taken the place of tabacco advertising is just automatically suspicious.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#958

Post by naijaboiler »

polygamous_bat wrote: post #501
shorthistory wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how, if you had spent time being a market maker, that is to say you understand market neutral strategies, would you convince yourself to take this bet? It seems contrary to his presumed understanding of the markets.

My personal hypothesis is that people keep attributing the successes of SBF to his intellect rather than a mix of intellect and luck, like the rest of us mere mortal. That list could as well include SBF himself. One can be lucky often but not forever, and sooner or later the "prodigies" see the fault in their impeccable algorithms.

this is it. Luck can look a lot like genius. We see it everywhere. And when you have credentials behind you, you really start to attribute luck to your genius.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#960

Post by from »

xisthesqrtof9 wrote: post #679
paxys wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every serial gambler in the world thinks that they are just temporarily in the red and one big break away from winning big. They just need to invest a little bit more.

This is literally the plot of Uncut Gems.

To be fair Howard ends up winning it all back and more in the end. Only problem is that he's killed shortly after.
Post reply on HN