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Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

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Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#41

Post by sandworm101 »

gonzo41 wrote: post #27
Kaizeras wrote: post #10

An ex-colleague of mine worked for OneCoin (another crypto scam originating from Bulgaria) when their offices got raided a few years ago. Now he’s an engineering manager at Nexo. I can see a pattern emerging in his career.

I would be super worried about having a resume filled with ponzi schemes.

Just like every ponzi scheme, the trick is to get out in time. I wonder how many people worked for Madoff but left before it all fell apart. How many of them are now working in other financial jobs? or Lehman bros.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#42

Post by throw_pm23 »

r12343a_19 wrote: post #14
louwrentius wrote: post #5

> She said that investigators had proof that a Nexo client, who used the company’s platform to transfer cryptocurrencies, was a person officially designated as financing terrorism, but gave no further details. All crypto is some form of crime, money laundering, evading sanctions, funding terrorism, or just a ponzi scheme, it's just different sides of the same thing. I wish this space would totally collapse. Maybe if…

By this logic most large scale human suffering before crypto was created by fiat. Most of current human suffering is still fiat. Crypto is barely a blip in the grand scheme and I don't see how it differs from, say, gambling.

No, the comment didn't say that most of the bad things were crypto, just that most of the crypto stuff was bad things.

Sadly, this level where people don't distinguish "A subset of B" from "B subset of A" is typical to all discussions related to crypto.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#43

Post by martythemaniak »

_xnmw wrote: post #9

I've noticed a recent spate of crackdowns on "hustlers" in the Eastern European space. See the recent takedown of Andrew Tate in Romania, for example, and now this.

Seeing Croatia make it into Schengen despite joining the EU 6 years later is quite embarrassing. There are large numbers of people in Romania and Bulgaria who are genuinely distressed that their countries are home to these unsavoury types and would like to put an end to it.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#44

Post by louwrentius »

babaeth wrote: post #31
louwrentius wrote: post #5

> She said that investigators had proof that a Nexo client, who used the company’s platform to transfer cryptocurrencies, was a person officially designated as financing terrorism, but gave no further details. All crypto is some form of crime, money laundering, evading sanctions, funding terrorism, or just a ponzi scheme, it's just different sides of the same thing. I wish this space would totally collapse. Maybe if…

It's not fair to say that cryptocurrency has had "zero benefits" as it's clearly being used more and more for legitimate purposes such as zero fee international money transfers and providing a more cost-effective option for merchants compared to credit cards. It is important to consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of any technology or innovation before making blanket statements about its overall impact.

There is always an on/off-ramp from/to a local currency, that wants to be paid so zero fees is not realistic.

And for most people sending money overseas isn’t a use case at all.

Crypto is a solution in search of a real problem to solve. A Rube Goldberg machine to do elaborate things with no (legal) point.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#45

Post by Zanfa »

babaeth wrote: post #31
louwrentius wrote: post #5

> She said that investigators had proof that a Nexo client, who used the company’s platform to transfer cryptocurrencies, was a person officially designated as financing terrorism, but gave no further details. All crypto is some form of crime, money laundering, evading sanctions, funding terrorism, or just a ponzi scheme, it's just different sides of the same thing. I wish this space would totally collapse. Maybe if…

It's not fair to say that cryptocurrency has had "zero benefits" as it's clearly being used more and more for legitimate purposes such as zero fee international money transfers and providing a more cost-effective option for merchants compared to credit cards. It is important to consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of any technology or innovation before making blanket statements about its overall impact.

> It's not fair to say that cryptocurrency has had "zero benefits"

"Zero" is not fair only because the total sum effect has definitely been negative. Ignoring all the ponzis, frauds, scams and rugpulls, you can't discount the massive amounts of wasted energy.

> as it's clearly being used more and more for legitimate purposes such as zero fee international money transfers and providing a more cost-effective option for merchants compared to credit cards.

All of the major cryptocurrencies are pretty terrible at zero-fee money transfers, given the fact that none of them have zero fees and have laughable bandwidth. And that's not even considering on/offramp fees for turning crypto into usable money. There's very little proof to actual adoption in ecommerce, since most merchants "accepting crypto" actually accept money, there's just a middleman that does the conversion.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#46

Post by lalaland1125 »

mypastself wrote: post #33
louwrentius wrote: post #5

> She said that investigators had proof that a Nexo client, who used the company’s platform to transfer cryptocurrencies, was a person officially designated as financing terrorism, but gave no further details. All crypto is some form of crime, money laundering, evading sanctions, funding terrorism, or just a ponzi scheme, it's just different sides of the same thing. I wish this space would totally collapse. Maybe if…

Is Bitcoin a Ponzi? How exactly?

The only way to make money investing in Bitcoin is to convince a greater fool to buy your coins for more than you paid for them.

And that greater fool must in turn convince an even greater fool, etc, etc

It's not a Ponzi, but it has similar dynamics to a Ponzi in that you can only gain money through other people losing money.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#47

Post by MuffinFlavored »

raesene9 wrote: post #22

It feels like the skeptics, who were pointing out last year that the rates on crypto yield products, were too good to be true, had a point. That's Celsius, Voyager, Blockfi, Genesis and now nexo all in some level of financial/legal trouble. The question is how much is still to be uncovered.

and yet Bitcoin is up 10% so far this year

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#48

Post by krunck »

gostsamo wrote: post #28
dollylambda wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However there are lots of very pro-Russia Bulgarians (hard to explain after everything that has happened, but still..), Here is an excerpt from wiki which explains why some in Bulgaria are still "pro-russia": "The Western European Enlightenment in the 18th century influenced the initiation of a national awakening of Bulgaria.[63] It restored national consciousness and provided an ideological basis for the liberatio…

Your answer is only part of the truth. Though Russia had lots of welwishers in Bulgaria, the heavy indoctrination happened during the communist rule 1945-1989. Many people whose best years were during this period are still alive and many are disappointed by the failures of the post 1989 governments. The topic is complex and filled in with lots of propaganda, so I won't get into disputes, just giving additional contex…

Agreed 100%. You'll find that sentiments towards Russia vary greatly depending on how old people are. Pro-Russia attitudes are aging out. I'm OK with that.

Now we've got a generation of youth coming to power who get their world view from social media and thus see reality objectively.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#49

Post by PragmaticPulp »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #47
raesene9 wrote: post #22

It feels like the skeptics, who were pointing out last year that the rates on crypto yield products, were too good to be true, had a point. That's Celsius, Voyager, Blockfi, Genesis and now nexo all in some level of financial/legal trouble. The question is how much is still to be uncovered.

and yet Bitcoin is up 10% so far this year

I can’t tell if this is sarcastic or not

But it’s incredibly fascinating to see how much the Bitcoin fans can ignore all of the fraud and the collapse of crypto markets, instead focusing on hypothetically perfect retroactive market timing.

So much of the Bitcoin propaganda is different versions of “Well if you had bought Bitcoin on then you’d be up right now!”

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#50

Post by jrsj »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #47
raesene9 wrote: post #22

It feels like the skeptics, who were pointing out last year that the rates on crypto yield products, were too good to be true, had a point. That's Celsius, Voyager, Blockfi, Genesis and now nexo all in some level of financial/legal trouble. The question is how much is still to be uncovered.

and yet Bitcoin is up 10% so far this year

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