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BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

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Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#141

Post by blockfiuser0102 »

itake wrote: post #112
blockfiuser0102 wrote: post #75

this is bad thing for all depositors who are losing money. but good for overall progress of crypto. centralized custodians should be regulated, and users should be educated about the benefits of choosing self custody and decentralized exchanges over unregulated and opaque services. contagion will spread more after this, so expect more centralized services to fall. disclaimer: i am former BlockFi depositor.

> users should be educated about the benefits of choosing self custody and decentralized exchanges over unregulated and opaque services. Are there any "self custody" or "decentralized exchanges" that offer 8% interest on deposits? I think you are comparing apples and oranges here. disclaimer: I am a current 3-figure BlockFi depositor

yes there are dozens of decentralized protocols that claim to offer high yield. but few can really sustain that in reality. safer to not chase such high yield.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#142

Post by SilasX »

vkou wrote: post #136
Mistletoe wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kraken actually handles money so it needs customer service and Twitter is just a bunch of already written code for posting stuff and sometimes (although much less now!) getting ad dollars. What do (did) 7000 people do at Twitter? I hate to ask the question because it aligns me with Elon whom I despise right now. But what do all the employees do at tech companies? I thought the beauty of tech and why the valuations we…

> Kraken actually handles money so it needs customer service and Twitter is just a bunch of already written code for posting stuff and sometimes (although much less now!) getting ad dollars. If you view Twitter as a 'service for posting 140 characters', they don't need 7000 employees. If you view it as a 'service for supporting five billion dollars worth of ad spend across the entire world', with all the proprietary…

But why does it add up to 7000 headcount rather than 3500 headcount or 14000 headcount?

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#143

Post by themihai »

propter_hoc wrote: post #16

Somehow 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.

Nothing was destroyed. Money was just transferred to smarter guys.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#144

Post by aaronbrethorst »

propter_hoc wrote: post #16

Somehow 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.

Looks like the earliest investors were these folks, so I can’t say I’m particularly surprised. Definitely amused though. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/three-arrows-capital...

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#145

Post by malthaus »

solotronics wrote: post #47

Bitcoiners have been saying this whole time not to keep your crypto with a 3rd party and this is exactly why. Satoshis original message about Bitcoin mentions explicitly you don't need any trusted third party. A whole lot of people think they can make money outsmarting the original concepts of Bitcoin and they get scammed in new ways each cycle. https://nakamotoinstitute.org/trusted-third-parties/

There's a reason no normal human being outside of a small nerd-circle uses PGP for encrypting mails or rsync instead of Dropbox.

Why would any non-techie ever want to deal with safely storing keys to a wallet. Or without having access to a trusted third party to help when issues arise.

This is such a non-starter and one of the many reasons why there will NEVER EVER be mass adoption of Bitcoin outside of speculation.

Just because an unholy alliance of utopian nerds and fraudsters wish this to be true doesn't make it happen.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#147

Post by hsavit1 »

fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #50
propter_hoc wrote: post #16

Somehow 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.

I talked to an employee that left last spring. She said they had literally no idea what they were doing. The founders are just ivy educated 30 year olds. So they decided to just start hiring everyone they could from paypal, to move into "blockchain payments". They paid huge sums. The directors there had no experience ever managing huge teams of people. It was a giant mess of unqualified people funded by cheap capital…

Only 1 of the BlockFi founders (Flori) has an ivy league degree (from Cornell). Zac is a moron who made his wealth playing poker and through a scam loans startup (Zibby).

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#148

Post by JumpCrisscross »

aodin wrote: post #36
redwood wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To confirm, what makes Coinbase different is that it's not a lender?

Yes, Coinbase is an exchange

> Coinbase is an exchange

Not in the conventional sense. It’s a broker with a prop desk.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#149

Post by joyfylbanana »

skrebbel wrote: post #27
propter_hoc wrote: post #16

Somehow 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.

I’m not convinced there’s any destruction of value when the entire value proposition is a lie. When I tell you my lemonade stand is worth a billion, and you believe it for a while, and then you realize it isn’t really, no value was destroyed.

Actually value is created when a scam company goes bankrupt. Less value destruction in the marketplace.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#150

Post by JumpCrisscross »

anonymousab wrote: post #46
nscalf wrote: post #9

For what it's worth, all reasonable people in the crypto space want regulation to make sure these types of poor lending practices don't continue. Regulators have been slow and ineffective when it comes to crypto, which has lent itself to the crypto v SEC narrative, but all the adults in the room known there is a need for some regulation.

The biggest "adult in the room" by far, whom was pushing for regulation, turned out to be another scammer that was simply trying to regulate away his competitors and enshrine his own fraudulent crypto scheme as the only sanctioned one. The crypto community's truest Scotsman proved to be just as terrible as everyone outside perceives the crypto space to be. Benefit of the doubt simply can't be given for what "reasonab…

> biggest "adult in the room" by far, whom was pushing for regulation, turned out to be another scammer

SBF was far from an adult in the room. He got zero policy to even a serious discussion phase. To the degree we see meaningful calls for regulation, it comes from Banking and Financial Services committee members who not involved with crypto pushing draconian rules.

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