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Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals

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Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals

#581

Post by nlitened »

overgard wrote: post #547

Can someone actually explain what the intrinsic use of coins is supposed to be (aside from speculating). Their value is so volatile they suck as actual currency, not to mention if you were the guy that spent 10,000 bitcoins on a pizza back in the day you'd feel pretty stupid about your 300 million dollar pizza. They're not even particularly good for illegal purchases -- you have to know what you're doing to keep your…

I can explain seriously and answer follow-up questions. I will simplify and just highlight the most valuable current use case, there might or might not be others now or in the future.

The value of ether (ETH) is to be a currency that you need to spend in order to include transactions into Ethereum's distributed ledger. Most useful transactions are transfers of stablecoins like USDT or USDC. USDT and USDC can be exchanged for goods and services all over the world, and are very convenient for any international transfers and cash exchanges bigger than 500 USD.

Price of stablecoins is ideally tethered to the underlying fiat currency, so price swings don't matter. Price of ether is _whatever_, because usually your stablecoin ledger transaction fee is low enough, so price swings don't matter again.

Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals

#583

Post by agumonkey »

overgard wrote: post #547

Can someone actually explain what the intrinsic use of coins is supposed to be (aside from speculating). Their value is so volatile they suck as actual currency, not to mention if you were the guy that spent 10,000 bitcoins on a pizza back in the day you'd feel pretty stupid about your 300 million dollar pizza. They're not even particularly good for illegal purchases -- you have to know what you're doing to keep your…

one dude explained that they wanted to make a loan platform that would avoid usual bank management costs since it's automated, so he claimed the higher yields came from that. It seemed a coherent explanation to me (he could be lying too, but at least his talk had some foundations and not moonshots of potential decentralized nirvanian future)

Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals

#584

Post by dragontamer »

dibt wrote: post #570
dragontamer wrote: post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A true exchange, where you just buy and sell, will never pause withdrawals because they won't be acting with these ponzi-like methods Coinbase is also offering APY on its deposits through Coinbase Rewards, as does Binance. This "true exchange" sounds like the no-true-Scotsman fallacy. Literally no one does what you claim. Everyone in the cryptocoin world is doing this "staking" == crappy loans / bonds business.

>Coinbase Rewards You are referring to staking. FTX was giving a static yield on deposits. The funding for this came from their marketing budget. Very different from what Coinbase does. >"staking" == crappy loans / bonds business. Staking is not a loan. It is a component of proof of stake networks to maintain security. Coinbase provides stacking services, but all they do is pass the yield onto the customer while taki…

> Staking is not a loan.

Yes it is. You give your money over to another organization, and that organization promises a % yield / APY in return. You aren't allowed the money back until later.

Its totally a bond.

> Some token networks may market a mechanism as "staking" when it's just a way to keep people from selling. That's a different topic.

I'm feeling some "no true Scotsman" fallacy here. If those guys call it staking, then its staking.

Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals

#585

Post by damon_c »

jankyxenon wrote: post #567
kranke155 wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Ethereum/ another crypto VM becomes fast enough, decentralised applications will be the new iPhone - stuff we can’t imagine will be built there. As far as NFTs, 90-99% of the activity is nonsense, fraud and money laundering, but there are real artists in the space. Whether that’s satisfactory for you is really a matter of perspective.

The use case is "stuff we can't imagine"?

Imagine someone told you in 1989 when all the internet did was email and ftp, that the internet was going to do a lot of other things but they didn't really know what yet.

Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals

#586

Post by yieldcrv »

herval wrote: post #562
overgard wrote: post #547

Can someone actually explain what the intrinsic use of coins is supposed to be (aside from speculating). Their value is so volatile they suck as actual currency, not to mention if you were the guy that spent 10,000 bitcoins on a pizza back in the day you'd feel pretty stupid about your 300 million dollar pizza. They're not even particularly good for illegal purchases -- you have to know what you're doing to keep your…

Volatility aside, stuff like Bitcoin _is_ already used for payments, albeit in a much lower volume than the crypto proponents wish it would be. I pay contractors now and then with BTC, particularly in South America and Africa, and works MUCH better than SWIFT (even if I have to convert from USD to BTC and they have to convert from BTC to whatever on their side). Projects like Ripple also have their use - it's mostly…

Avoiding all regulatory scrutiny and delays of an international wire transfer by converting them to domestic transfers in both countries is a major use of crypto that has almost no way of being quantified. International wires are fraught with painful user experiences and costs and time issues and its all unknown beforehand.

This works even better when you already have inventory of ANY crypto, or keep stablecoins on hand because you use them. then the request to pay doesn't require you to get USD over to a crypto exchange and convert, just the near instant act of transferring. When your contractor is able to get goods and services and invest in crypto, they don't need their local fiat either, just a common reality, not something to convince anybody of (unlike when we were doing this during the last decade).

Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals

#587

Post by MarkPNeyer »

smcl wrote: post #478
pjc50 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes, it was a startup by a bunch of twentysomethings with no real banking experience. There was no partitioning. > the size of the fines that get imposed on people who fuck with client money. This is crypto, law doesn't apply here. Well, that's the marketing pitch at least. So far a lot of exchanges and such like have gone bankrupt or been blatently stolen by their operators and nowhere near enough people have…

I should say that what surprised me wasn't that a bunch of kids started up a company and during that process skirted, if not regulations, at least common sense. But that once serious money got involved and they grew into the millions and then billions of assets under management, nobody was around who could tell them that this was reckless and dangerous

On the contrary, they were being touted as a shining example of responsible crypto. They paid for a good reputation by donating to the “correct” causes and politicians.

Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals

#588

Post by richardwhiuk »

damon_c wrote: post #585
jankyxenon wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The use case is "stuff we can't imagine"?

Imagine someone told you in 1989 when all the internet did was email and ftp, that the internet was going to do a lot of other things but they didn't really know what yet.

The difference is that email and FTP on their own were really useful.

Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals

#589

Post by paxys »

overgard wrote: post #547

Can someone actually explain what the intrinsic use of coins is supposed to be (aside from speculating). Their value is so volatile they suck as actual currency, not to mention if you were the guy that spent 10,000 bitcoins on a pizza back in the day you'd feel pretty stupid about your 300 million dollar pizza. They're not even particularly good for illegal purchases -- you have to know what you're doing to keep your…

Speculating is the intrinsic use

Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals

#590

Post by strangescript »

overgard wrote: post #547

Can someone actually explain what the intrinsic use of coins is supposed to be (aside from speculating). Their value is so volatile they suck as actual currency, not to mention if you were the guy that spent 10,000 bitcoins on a pizza back in the day you'd feel pretty stupid about your 300 million dollar pizza. They're not even particularly good for illegal purchases -- you have to know what you're doing to keep your…

Its not practical as a global currency with regards to BTC. It never really has been. It is too slow and too expensive compared to centralized options. The idea of a neutral all digital currency sounds fantastic but it glosses over a key advantage of the US dollar. The dollar is backed by the US Gov't and the US military. It didn't just randomly become the defacto monetary standard in the world by accident.

Price fluctuations would diminish with more adoption as well. We also interact with things that vary wildly in price year over year too, like the price of gas (oil). We have just become used to it. The dollar itself fluctuates a fair bit, the DXY index is at 106, and it will probably get much higher next year indicating a strong dollar if there is a global recession. Actual price adjustments are just slow to trickle down to consumers because of a lack of practicality of changing on the shelf prices each day. Also, inflation will drive prices higher, but even after the economy is back under control, prices rarely will go back down.

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