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BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

cnbc.com

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Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#481

Post by kodah »

throwaway1777 wrote: post #475
eastbound wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think also, there are a few startup ideas considered to be "the future" This. I’m getting annoyed with my jQuery/Spring app with ~million of revenue that I can’t get sexy for employees nor for funding; sometimes I want to throw away ethics and say we’re building “a blockchain of solar-powered AI european-central-bank ledgers”. It would be so much easier. Nah, we’re just storied field data in 7 tables, and custome…

99% of the time when someone can’t hire the problem isn’t the tech or the product-space, it’s that they aren’t paying enough. If you pay me a million per year I will build boring crud apps and web integrations for you all day.

This is exactly the answer. I've worked on one very old codebase in my career. I was paid well for doing so.

The graph of investment in software starts high with greenfield projects, drops over time to an all-time low as optimizations take hold, and as the software continues existing will rise to the greenfield (or more) levels of cost. The interesting thing to me is what substantiates the rises; for instance, in greenfield experimentation and iteration is what costs the most. In old software it's usually the employees.

I'd love to actually document this sometime.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#482

Post by andreareina »

williamcotton wrote: post #428
Yizahi wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to repeat myself - your "YuGiOh virtual cards" are in no way related to the NFTs. Sure you can require buyer of a card to also buy NFT, you can even pretend that was a single transaction. But really NFT has zero function in this example, it provides zero value, and if you remove it from the system altogether - NOTHING will change. It's like saying that clapping with your hands at the gas station is somehow equ…

If the projection system in the game store requires NFTs that were issued by the creators of Yu-Gi-Oh then you would need these virtual cards to participate, just like how you need virtual Magic cards in MTGO in order to participate, the difference being that in the former it would be some open standard where people could trade, sell, and lend as they see fit.

How do you verify the entity you think is Konami is actually Konami? If you're only going to going to allow their cards then what's the actual benefit of being on whatever chain instead of using Konami's own database where they can implement all the features desired without the complication of byzantine consensus?

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#483

Post by jiggawatts »

unboxingelf wrote: post #315

I feel sorry for the retail investors caught up in yet another crypto scam. Let me try to articulate my view of what’s actually going on with these seemingly endless scams, in hopes of saving future retail investors some pain: Prominent venture capital firms like A16Z, Sequoia, etc have discovered a new get rich quick scheme: they raise a fund and invest it in a some shitcoin like FTX, SOL, etc. the shitcoin founders…

Just look at their portfolio on their front page for a list of "future scam revelations" and implosions.

E.g.: Chia coin is down -98% since its inception, -76% just this year and heading downwards. What does it do other than soak up excessive hard drive inventory? I dunno! I doubt anyone has a use for it.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#484

Post by rnk »

suzzer99 wrote: post #469
rnk wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like fud to me. Coinbase decided my account was left for dead, and contacted my state. It tooks several weeks of back and forth with coinbase, including multiple phone calls with support and sending pics of my id, etc before they let me access my account. I had my password etc, same phone. They wouldn't let me get my money out.

It's not FUD. They used 2FA to reset his coinbase password, then accessed it as him and drained the account. On top of that they drained his bank account (also using 2FA) into the coinbase account, then drained that too. Coinbase has (or had at the time) elevated levels of trust that they just gave him, which allowed the hacker to immediately buy crypto with transferred funds. Then the hacker just transferred the cry…

so they used sms based 2fa. I had 2fa based on google authenticator (not sms), because of that attack vector. I only had a few thou dollars. But they decided google auth is not accepted anymore and I failed to login and reset it and so the result was locking my account for a year - until recently when I spent multiple days getting it reset. Thus my skepticism.

No one should allow/use text message based 2fa of course.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#485

Post by matrix_overload »

mring33621 wrote: post #305
fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Here is the model, as I currently understand it: 1) some people are rich and want to get richer 2) Ivy educated VCs invest money for group (1) in start-up companies, while paying themselves handsomely with that same pool of money 3) Ivy educated kids start companies using money from group (2), while paying themselves handsomely with that same pool of money 4) sometimes, through a combo of hard work, skill and luck, t…

You are missing the key point. It's not hard work, skill and luck.

The Fed has been on a money-printing spree since 2008 [0]. The idea was that it would create jobs and stimulate economic activity. In reality, it lowered the bar for things considered investable, so the Ivy-educated VCs were trying to tap into that stream of cheap money, while paying themselves handsomely. Either get acquired (using cheap debt that will also be used to pay the acquiring execs) or IPOed (using the excess money from the public). Profitability was out of question for at least a decade.

[0] https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/money-supply-m0

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#486

Post by alxmng »

matrix_overload wrote: post #485
mring33621 wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the model, as I currently understand it: 1) some people are rich and want to get richer 2) Ivy educated VCs invest money for group (1) in start-up companies, while paying themselves handsomely with that same pool of money 3) Ivy educated kids start companies using money from group (2), while paying themselves handsomely with that same pool of money 4) sometimes, through a combo of hard work, skill and luck, t…

You are missing the key point. It's not hard work, skill and luck. The Fed has been on a money-printing spree since 2008 [0]. The idea was that it would create jobs and stimulate economic activity. In reality, it lowered the bar for things considered investable, so the Ivy-educated VCs were trying to tap into that stream of cheap money, while paying themselves handsomely. Either get acquired (using cheap debt that wi…

The Fed doesn’t give VCs money.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#487

Post by 7e »

alxmng wrote: post #486
matrix_overload wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are missing the key point. It's not hard work, skill and luck. The Fed has been on a money-printing spree since 2008 [0]. The idea was that it would create jobs and stimulate economic activity. In reality, it lowered the bar for things considered investable, so the Ivy-educated VCs were trying to tap into that stream of cheap money, while paying themselves handsomely. Either get acquired (using cheap debt that wi…

The Fed doesn’t give VCs money.

It prints money, that money flows into institutions and chases returns. Much of it flows to VC, guaranteed. That’s what the Fed was literally created to do.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#488

Post by hef19898 »

alxmng wrote: post #486
matrix_overload wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are missing the key point. It's not hard work, skill and luck. The Fed has been on a money-printing spree since 2008 [0]. The idea was that it would create jobs and stimulate economic activity. In reality, it lowered the bar for things considered investable, so the Ivy-educated VCs were trying to tap into that stream of cheap money, while paying themselves handsomely. Either get acquired (using cheap debt that wi…

The Fed doesn’t give VCs money.

Not directly, sure. The low interest rates, and the overall increase in money in the system, made VC investing less risky compared to other options. Now that changes.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#489

Post by antod »

napolux wrote: post #38
simple-thoughts wrote: post #3

With 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.

The cynic in me thinks they did learn from history, and spotted a way to adapt the old scams to a new playing field. Much easier than coming up with brand new scams.

Re: BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads

#490

Post by alxmng »

hef19898 wrote: post #488
alxmng wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Fed doesn’t give VCs money.

Not directly, sure. The low interest rates, and the overall increase in money in the system, made VC investing less risky compared to other options. Now that changes.

Interest rates are for banks borrowing from the Fed, affecting interest rates on loans issued by banks, and the rate of bank lending. But I don’t think VCs fund themselves by taking bank loans.

These crypto companies are primarily capitalized by VC and selling crypto.

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