Is Coinbase safe?
No centralized exchange is safe, including coinbase. Some are doing proof of reserves and audits but these can easily be gamed.
BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads
31–40 of 544 posts
Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it wrong to assume that this is because the industry is mostly built upon a house of cards or because of bad actors? Objectively asking.
That's the thing, you only depend on centralized actors if you want to. The entire point of cryptocurrencies are to not depend on centralized institutions that can screw you over.
Without a centralized actor of some sort, most 'investors' are not going to be able to get into or out of a crypto position. Vanishingly few people care about using the tokens themselves for anything but gambling.
These institutions can also screw you over by massively inflating the crypto bubble and then crashing spectacularly, tanking your value and poisoning the public perception of cryptocurrency.
The 'point' of cryptocurrency may well be to avoid dependence on centralized institutions, but the effect of cryptocurrency has been to enable all this nonsense. At this point in time you can't say "well it's not crypto's fault!" because it absolutely is. You don't just look at intent when assessing outcomes.
Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it wrong to assume that this is because the industry is mostly built upon a house of cards or because of bad actors? Objectively asking.
That's the thing, you only depend on centralized actors if you want to. The entire point of cryptocurrencies are to not depend on centralized institutions that can screw you over.
When designing the iPhone, one of Apple's findings was that majority of people struggle with understanding the concept of the file system (and hence, there's no visible file system in iOS). In such world, only a small minority of people will be interested in decentralized cryptocurrencies, as the bar of technical skills required is too high for most people. This is what led to the success of centralized cryptobanks.
Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads
#34Somehow these guys peaked at about 900 employees, according to linkedin ( https://www.linkedin.com/company/blockfi ) They've raised about a billion dollars of VC - https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/blockfi-inc/investor... (note, CB lists $1.4b, of which 400M is debt from FTX, which I imagine they never got) Unbelievable the amount of destruction of value here... it's just total carnage.
Is it wrong to assume that this is because the industry is mostly built upon a house of cards or because of bad actors? Objectively asking.
I think the true answer to this question is that it was/is a gold rush with low interest rates that led large amounts of capital to be allocated to less than competent people. In particular, the companies and operators that look the smartest when a bubble is inflating are the ones that genuinely hedge downside risk the least, while pretending to enough to fool people with capital to allocate. This only becomes apparent, of course, when the bubble pops.
As you may notice, this also describes the tech VC bubble of the last decade, too. However, where normal tech has already found its use cases and does real things for real people in the real economy, downside is a little more capped. If you want to be generous to crypto, it's currently tech in 2000, where almost everyone has a total nonsense business model, but that a lot of the vague ideas will eventually find some variant with product-market fit. If you want to be less generous, it's all a house of cards.
EDIT: I'll also add that, of course, thinking very carefully about which narrative is true here and being right is the stuff fortunes and careers are made of. The people that weren't dissuaded by the tech crash in 2000 profited handsomely by thinking carefully for themselves about what was actually true and what information was actually latent in the financial crash. Of course, the tulip true believers in 1638 didn't fare nearly as well.
Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but you can't use DeFi to trade fiat for crypto. You can use DeFi to trade crypto for crypto, or for crypto that pretends to be fiat. Saying "centralised exchanges bad, DeFi good" misses the point that the main use case of centralised exchanges is not covered by DeFi.
> Sure, but you can't use DeFi to trade fiat for crypto. Of course you can, both ways. - https://bisq.network - https://learn.robosats.com
> - https://bisq.network
The last time I looked into this it required a security deposit in BTC.
Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads
#36Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but you can't use DeFi to trade fiat for crypto. You can use DeFi to trade crypto for crypto, or for crypto that pretends to be fiat. Saying "centralised exchanges bad, DeFi good" misses the point that the main use case of centralised exchanges is not covered by DeFi.
> Sure, but you can't use DeFi to trade fiat for crypto. Of course you can, both ways. - https://bisq.network - https://learn.robosats.com
https://learn.robosats.com/docs/trade-pipeline/
> On a private chat, Bob tells Alice how to send him fiat.
https://learn.robosats.com/docs/payment-methods/
> You can pay with any method that both you and your peer agree on. This includes the higher risk method such as PayPal, Venmo, and Cash apps.
C'mon, that's not trading fiat for crypto. That's "PayPal me some money".
Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads
#38With projects like blockfi, users get all the disadvantages of the centralized traditional financial system without any of the regulatory protections that have built up over centuries. Terrible for the people with assets in blockfi but extremely predictable. The point of defi is that you can use financial services without a centralized counterparty. People who can’t handle their own keys should be using traditional b…
it's fascinating how nobody learned from history. Banks and bankers have been heavily regulated as you said, "over centuries".
Still today, we get lured by the same businesses (because all these lenders were just banks/financial operators) but without any of the safety nets we have in place when we work with "old school" banks.
Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads
#39Somehow these guys peaked at about 900 employees, according to linkedin ( https://www.linkedin.com/company/blockfi ) They've raised about a billion dollars of VC - https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/blockfi-inc/investor... (note, CB lists $1.4b, of which 400M is debt from FTX, which I imagine they never got) Unbelievable the amount of destruction of value here... it's just total carnage.
Taking VC money and spreading it to the winds is the opposite of destruction of value, it's making that money actually useful if it lands in the hands of normal people.
Bless the cryptocurrency community, involuntary Robin Hoods that sucker in both users and VC to redistribute it all when it inevitably fails
Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the cryptocurrency endgame? Everyone has keys in cold storage waiting for the day we have the mathematics that destroys them?
There is no end game. You use it in your daily life to obtain or achieve things then you die.
Why crypto v dollars or another existing currency?