31–40 of 127 posts
This is a story of a corrupt CEO. The main crypto part of it is that FTT was seen as actual money on its balance sheets. This individual stealing people's money sheds light on how regulations exist for a reason, especially when handling billions of USD. Doesn't really speak positively or poorly on cryptocurrency as a technology though.
This has been some of the funniest few days in recent memory. Even my crypto true-believer HODL maximalist friends are questioning the entire ecosystem and its value. I think it’s funny that so many people have been hypnotized by get-rich-quick schemes and promises of a utopian monetary system while forgetting what the original —actual— value proposition of crypto was: Buying heroin. As a corollary to “not your keys…
>> “if you can’t confidently exchange it for illegal drugs, it’s not a currency”
What?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sam is the 2nd largest campaign contributor this election season. He’ll probably get away with this.
Not if he's not likely to contribute in the future, if he's broke they no longer care about him
/s
This has been some of the funniest few days in recent memory. Even my crypto true-believer HODL maximalist friends are questioning the entire ecosystem and its value. I think it’s funny that so many people have been hypnotized by get-rich-quick schemes and promises of a utopian monetary system while forgetting what the original —actual— value proposition of crypto was: Buying heroin. As a corollary to “not your keys…
Here is one of my posts from that time.. looking back on it , I encouraged Bitcoin as an investment back then, but cautioned at the end of my blog post about its prospects as a currency: https://magarshak.com/blog/?p=148
My cofounder tried to get me heavily into building on crypto and smart contracts since 2014. I told him I was already building a decentralized network since 2011 (qbix.com) and so stop pestering me.
Eventually, I looked at the space and saw many problems. Including lack of real adoption as a currency. So in late 2017 we started Intercoin.org to solve them… and followed all the regulations. As a result we raised “only” $555K, filed a Reg D with the SEC, etc.
Crypto and Web3 Smart Contracts have so much potential to do to world finance what the Web 1.0 did to publishing and Web 2.0 did to communities socializing online. It has the power to enable decision making and governance and tokens and contests and much more. But first it has to grow up. NFTs and Memecoins are first-generation crap, like and tags, and myspace profiles, or Pong / Arkanoid.
In the same time that Bitcoin and crypto has existed, WeChat has rolled out a payment system that has the most mainstream adoption of any on the planet - millions of merchants in China. Here is what a decentralized version of that would look like:
https://intercoin.org/presentation.pdf
And there are many more applications:
https://intercoin.org/applications
We aren’t the only ones. FileCoin is working on the FVM and MaidSAFE is next-generation. The Web 3.0 world has been corrupted by centralized privately owned entities, just like the Web 2.0 world. Some of them were actually funded by YC and the VC industry, such as OpenSea. In a world where Elon owns Twitter and Zuck owns Facebook, people are looking for viable alternatives.
1. Access controls - If the CEO can secretly manipulate records, it's obviously game over.
2. Compliance is sort of an all-or-nothing game. You either do it all, or a sufficiently motivated party will slip through the cracks that you leave.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crypto has a strong reputation as a haven for money laundering, drug sales... So if any of the Mexican/South American drug cartels lost a lot of money Sam and the other top management of those companies could end up dead.
Serious Q, but what incentive would they have in killing him? Would that get them their money back? Wouldn't they lose more than they could gain?
This has been some of the funniest few days in recent memory. Even my crypto true-believer HODL maximalist friends are questioning the entire ecosystem and its value. I think it’s funny that so many people have been hypnotized by get-rich-quick schemes and promises of a utopian monetary system while forgetting what the original —actual— value proposition of crypto was: Buying heroin. As a corollary to “not your keys…
>> —actual— value proposition of crypto was: Buying heroin. >> “if you can’t confidently exchange it for illegal drugs, it’s not a currency” What?
This is a story of a corrupt CEO. The main crypto part of it is that FTT was seen as actual money on its balance sheets. This individual stealing people's money sheds light on how regulations exist for a reason, especially when handling billions of USD. Doesn't really speak positively or poorly on cryptocurrency as a technology though.
FTX had both a US and offshore location. US regulations do not apply to offshore entities.
SBF's parents are financial compliance lawyers and Standord professors. His dad has gone in front of Congress to argue for various tax and compliance regulations. What SBF did was criminal fraud, and he was equipped with world class compliance advice and yet here we are. A brazen theft of billions of dollars by a risk-addicted, self-delusional altruist.
I am glad that most of HN had called this crypto/NFT/web3.0/ICO BS loong time ago. That contrasts with Mega VCs, celebrities, politicians etc who were praising this tech-glorified Ponzi scheme. Good job to us!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crypto has a strong reputation as a haven for money laundering, drug sales... So if any of the Mexican/South American drug cartels lost a lot of money Sam and the other top management of those companies could end up dead.
Serious Q, but what incentive would they have in killing him? Would that get them their money back? Wouldn't they lose more than they could gain?