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FTX faces potential hack, sees mysterious outflows totaling more than $600M

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381–390 of 890 posts

Re: FTX faces potential hack, sees mysterious outflows totaling more than $600M

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a fan of "destroying the planet" arguments mainly because anything goes, super ambiguious and not very precise. Buy our razors because cartridge razors are destroying the planet! https://bandisposablerazors.org/ Destroying the planet = Can't question it, can't argue about it, it is the end all of all arguments. How could you ever oppose something that destroys the planet? They all sound the same: https://en.…

On top of being hard to argue against, it just isn't true. It's a net positive for the environment, at least it will be in a couple of years: https://batcoinz.com/50-landfills-mining-bitcoin-a-zero-emis...

This is wrong and green washing.

We could also use this energy for better things than Bitcoin.

And while BTC doesn't make any value besides moving money from one person to another, it also produces hardware garbage like ASIC chips and power supply.

It also steals demand from others too.

There is only downside for most of us than benefit of allowing Bitcoin mining independent of it's source.

Re: FTX faces potential hack, sees mysterious outflows totaling more than $600M

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a crypto failure. Crypto works. This is a human failure. FTX didn't collapse because of the technology. It collapsed because of human error. The fix is rather simple. If an organization looks like a bank and quacks like a bank; it should be regulated like a bank.

If a bank gets hacked, generally the transactions get reversed. If a cryptocurrency exchange gets hacked, that generally can't be reversed. Regulation can make things more secure, but I don't think it can realistically stop all attacks. Regulation is slower than attackers. The ability to reverse transactions is what's really needed to prevent attackers from getting away with money.

Who will be in charge of deciding which transactions need to be reversed and when? It seems to me that the ability to have reversible transactions is at odds with the descentralised nature of blockchains.

Re: FTX faces potential hack, sees mysterious outflows totaling more than $600M

#383

Regardless of whether you are pro- or anti- crypto, the collapse of FTX, SBF's bubble bursting in a rather extreme fashion, and now this hack are more nails in the coffin for mainstream support. I am no fan of crypto myself, but it's interesting to think what would have to happen for crypto to burnish its image. Would key people have to voluntarily form some sort of coordinating council and self-regulate? Would they…

The problem is the crypto community’s skepticism of proven financial safeguards. Large financial systems are centralized for a reason and they seem intent on finding out why by hitting every bump in the road at full speed.

Pretty much everyone in the crypto community would be fine and happy if exchanges were forced to prove they own the users funds. Crypto people generally don't want crypto regulation. But exchanges are not crypto. They are a third party holding your crypto.

The problem is that regulators "confuse" that (or pretend to) and any regulation that comes out hurts the users, and the DeFi space, instead of focusing on centralized business like FTX that are outright stealing users funds.

Also what FTX did is without a doubt already illegal, it's not like it's some kind of loophole or legal thing they did.

Re: FTX faces potential hack, sees mysterious outflows totaling more than $600M

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't crypto. This is a centralized exchange with a centralized website, with centralized databases, that is run and controlled by humans. In fact, if you use a centralized exchange there is no use of blockchain for the most part. There's a literal saying, "Not your keys, not your coins". Only if people would listen.

The exchange is a component of crypto, as an industry. Imagine defending social media but shitting on Facebook. To use your words to try and make your argument: This isn't social media. This is Facebook with a centralized website, with centralized databases, that is run and controlled by humans. In fact, if you use a Facebook there is no use of social media for the most part. There's a literal saying, "not paying for…

> Imagine defending social media but shitting on Facebook.

I see no contradiction on shitting on facebook while defending say Mastodon. In fact people were doing this with twitter just a few days ago before $current_thing happened.

Re: FTX faces potential hack, sees mysterious outflows totaling more than $600M

#385
post #226

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People keep saying this, but I don't follow. FTT was a token manufactured out of thin air. Crypto works as a concept, I suppose, but people saying crypto works is like the people that say Agile works. How long do we have to wait to see crypto working? Where are the success stories of crypto? There's a long laundry list of hacks, scams, company failures, "tokenomics", NFTs, on blockchain, etc. Saying crypto works as a…

FTX is a centralized (not DeFi) exchange that used their own coin as collateral and obfuscated their liquidity. This wouldn’t be possible in open decentralized exchanges that many in web3/crypto were advocating for. However SBF made it his mission to lobby regulation on DeFi and a blind eye to CeFi exchanges like his own. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-money/2022/10/2...

> many in web3/crypto were advocating for.

If many people in this space are advocating for decentralized exchanges, how come everyone uses centralized ones?

If there's ever a time and place for voting with your wallet, this seems to be it, and the wallets are speaking loudly and clearly.

Re: FTX faces potential hack, sees mysterious outflows totaling more than $600M

#386
post #337
post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lumping diagonally opposed things (centralized coins like FTT or decentralized coins like BTC) under the same category (crypto) is quite misleading. Crypto generally means digital currency, does it not? I think leaving them out would be actually misleading. > BTC (on chain) is still working as intended, after all these years. Working in what sense?

> Working in what sense? That you can securely and cheaply transact value without a third party being involved? That governments can’t directly block your account the way Trudeau blocked protestors bank accounts? Probably a few other ways as well ...

Bitcoin fees are often not cheap at all.

Just a week ago someone got cought and the fbi took his 3 billion dollar worth of BTC.

Sending crypto to someone in Iran or Russia is against the law independent of how you do it.

And just because you can send BTC to Iran someone in Iran also needs to exchange it to something real again.

While banking is more restrictive, when you go to your bank with your passport, you actually can recover your account. I know someone who lost 10k because he lost his key.

For most people it's saver and easier and they are not affected and don't care about all those BTC/crypto benefits at all

Re: FTX faces potential hack, sees mysterious outflows totaling more than $600M

#387

According to the latest reports, SBF is potentially on the run on a private jet [0] from the Bahamas to (probably) Argentina. He hasn't been confirmed to be on that plane, but it seems likely. This stuff is straight out of movie. [0] https://www.flightradar24.com/LVKEB/2e2e7cfd

Interestingly enough, the plane seems to be headed for Buenos Aires, and there is LABITCONF (https://en.labitconf.com/), a crypto conference, going on there right now. Who knows if it’s actually his plane. Seems a bit weird that it would be given the plane is registered in Argentina.

Re: FTX faces potential hack, sees mysterious outflows totaling more than $600M

#389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A less-discussed effect here is that crypto sketchiness crowds out legitimate applications. If someone has a problem that crypto is actually a good fit for -- an application that would legitimately deliver value for customers, insuring medical tourism perhaps -- a lot of people will dismiss it just because they assume crypto=scam. As crypto gets scammier by the year, this crowding-out effect means that the dream of e…

> If someone has a problem that crypto is actually a good fit for -- an application that would legitimately deliver value for customers, insuring medical tourism perhaps -- a lot of people will dismiss it just because they assume crypto=scam. If there's a great application that solves an important problem using crypto then I imagine most people would focus on the problem and not the fact that crypto is used to solve…

RAI works exactly as promised. The problem is that it is not a ponzi scheme. RAI is a cryptocurrency that basically implemented Milton Friedman's idea of replacing the federal reserve with a computer.

Re: FTX faces potential hack, sees mysterious outflows totaling more than $600M

#390
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't crypto. This is a centralized exchange with a centralized website, with centralized databases, that is run and controlled by humans. In fact, if you use a centralized exchange there is no use of blockchain for the most part. There's a literal saying, "Not your keys, not your coins". Only if people would listen.

> There's a literal saying, "Not your keys, not your coins". Doesn't that also legitimatize a hack then? If someone hacks or steals your keys, you can't then turn around and say "but wait, those aren't your keys".

Crypto obviously has its disadvantages, hacks being one. There could be major UX improvements to crypto that would aid in reducing hacks and increasing security.

But either way, it's a tradeoff and that's fine. TradFi is reversible and centralized, crypto is not. Sometimes you want one thing, sometimes you want the other.

I like having part of my assets in a way that can't be frozen, like the people that protested in Canada whose banks accounts were frozen.

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