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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

#91

Post by mschuster91 »

permo-w wrote: post #72
mypastself wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Bitcoin a Ponzi? How exactly?

Bitcoin isn’t a ponzi scheme. no crypto is really a ponzi scheme, but a lot of them have similar characteristics. basically they’re fine while people are continuously investing in them, but once people lose interest they drop off a cliff. but then you could say that about any volatile investment

> but then you could say that about any volatile investment

Or even about modern fiat currencies. Just look at the Turkish Lira (~343% vs EUR / 5y), Argentinian Peso (~758% vs EUR / 5y) or a dozen other currencies that lost insane amounts of value over the last years [1], mostly because of political misgovernance and resulting economic devastation.

[1] https://www.goldseiten.de/kurse/devisen-topflop.php

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#92

Post by LegitShady »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #83
LegitShady wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mostly minded its own business funding militias warring in other countries, developing nuclear weapons, etc etc some interesting nonsense on HN some days.

Any government which takes itself seriously will work on developing their own supply of nuclear weapons.

if that same government is also funding wars through cats paws in other countries and oppressing their own people, you should be concerned. There are plenty of governments, especially authoritarian governments like in Iran, that I don't think should ever acquire nuclear weapons for any reason.

It's more like any dictator/autocrat who wants to stay in power by threatening the world will work on it. That isn't good for the world. Your statement is not a value judgement or even interested in first or second order effects of such a decision, so is essentially useless in evaluating whether something is good or bad.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#93

Post by sandworm101 »

kasey_junk wrote: post #61
sandworm101 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Lehman brothers wasn’t a Ponzi scheme.

Scheme no, but it was a company that fell apart quickly. Employees would be better served to get out and secure a new job the day before a crash rather than the day after.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#94

Post by bluecalm »

celtoid wrote: post #86
jrsj wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Majority here at HN seems to lack any intellectual curiosity on this topic though and are just rabidly opposed to anything crypto related. Ironic given how many tech start ups basically just operate as pump and dump schemes that create little to no real value either. Agreed. It's doubly ironic as Coinbase probably wouldn't exist but for Y Combinator.

Many here are pointing out that Coinbase is build on top of scams and doomed to fail once those collapse. I think IPO'ing it was a great dump on the public enriching the founders and investors at the cost of vulnerable and misinformed. It's probably not a scam legally though. Just profiteering from the naive.

I would add Airbnb to the list.. Terrible company generating significant part of its revenue from misrepresentation scams and protecting dishonest hosts by design. The tide is turning on that one as well though as people are catching up to the practices.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#95

Post by Hamuko »

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

As far as I can see, Bitcoin is 7.8% up year-to-date, and 56.5% down in the past 365 days.

Not really great numbers.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#96

Post by sandworm101 »

para_parolu wrote: post #76
sandworm101 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shady. Willing to be paid in strange currencies deposited in overseas banks. Likely to have tax troubles one day. Knows how to buy a plane ticket using cash. Strong opinions on Krugerrand valuation. Owns a motorcycle without an odometer. Bought a house with a series of 9,999$ travelers checks. More likely to install a Kim Dotcom-type panic room than run for public office.

Out of curiosity: why motorcycle without odomet?

A bike without an odometer is "true mileage unknown" (TMU) which makes selling/insuring/valuing it somewhat difficult. On a custom chopper that is normal. Many choppers don't even have speedometers. But on a normal bike missing such instruments is seen as a red flag that the bike is stolen and/or made from stolen parts.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#97

Post by danuker »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #60
jrsj wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Majority here at HN seems to lack any intellectual curiosity on this topic though and are just rabidly opposed to anything crypto related. Ahh yes, the time honored "HN is so mean to crypto" complaint. The moment someone can show me realistic benefits to crypto that aren't total scams, happy to change my opinion. I mean, just look at the BTC community. Yes, they are generally the most conservative, but they are als…

Alternatives to PoW are centralization (i.e. Linden Dollars or national currencies) and proof-of-stake (Ethereum).

With centralization, there is the problem of trust. The issuer can just dilute the currency supply, go bankrupt, get bribed, or shut down.

With proof-of-stake, the tokens themselves are used to distribute trust. But during an interruption of service or a network split, if the two subnets diverge, there is no objective way to decide the most legitimate state of the tokens. Choosing the wrong one might end in losing your stake.

It might keep working with long-term trusted peers and reliable networks. But if those peers become centralized enough, they can then be bribed.

Proof-of-work provides an objective and unforgeable measure of legitimacy: work i.e. resources burned.

In absence of a legitimacy measure, the network is vulnerable to Sybil attacks.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#98

Post by [deleted] »

0xAFFFF wrote: post #68
jrsj wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoiners were also generally skeptical of this. BTC and crypto often gets lumped together but many of those who prefer Bitcoin have been skeptical about stuff like this from the beginning. Lightning Network also has some interesting capabilities & seems like it might actually evolve into something with real utility. Block is investing pretty significantly into that. The minority of Bitcoin enthusiasts in the crypto…

Bitcoin has failed as electronic cash (its intended purpose). Bitcoin has failed as a store of value. Bitcoin has failed as inflation hedge. The project is 13 years old at this point and has failed to provide any meaningful use, has failed in terms of mainstream appeal and isn't nowhere near revolutionary. All of this while being an environmental disaster, burning through electricity and producing e-waste like there'…

[deleted]

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#99

Post by DonHopkins »

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

Not sarcastic, just wrong. This is the guy who keeps asking ChatGPT and "MAGA crazed conspiracy theorist weirdos" to write his comments for him.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34334535

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34334993

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34335017

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34334902

>If ChatGPT doesn’t get a better grasp of facts, nothing else matters:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90833017/openai-chatgpt-accuracy...

>OpenAI’s astoundingly glib bot is going to change the world. Before it does, let’s hope it gets far better at knowing what it’s talking about.

Re: Bulgarian law enforcement raids offices of cryptocurrency firm Nexo

#100

Post by TwoFactor »

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.

The irony is also that a lot of the interest rates that were too good to be true last year are much more reasonable in the current environment.
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