Live data from Hacker News

Binance halts deposits and withdrawals for customers in the UK

bloomberg.com

71–80 of 145 posts

Re: Binance halts deposits and withdrawals for customers in the UK

#72
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grocery stores aren’t necessary - you can grow your own food, dentists aren’t necessary - you can pull your own teeth, etc. It just seems like many people use exchanges and that’s what (at least partially) crypto is now.

Cryptocurrencies were meant as a "grow your own food" thing in the first place, they are supposed to be decentralized. Hence it does not seem logical to go to a "grow your own food" subthread and wonder why it makes a point about store-bought food not being grown at home. As with all things in life, a golden rule applies: If you don't like it then don't use it, that's ok!

The golden rule doesn't apply here. Criminals are actively using cryptocurrencies to commit many crimes including tax fraud, money laundering, and ransomware. That harms everyone, at least indirectly, even if we don't use cryptocurrencies ourselves. So tight legal controls are appropriate here.

To draw an analogy, I support the individual right to keep and bear arms. But I don't want criminals to have access to weapons, and we can impose some reasonable rules to prevent that.

Re: Binance halts deposits and withdrawals for customers in the UK

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Binance is not a cryptocurrency. Binance is a centralized service which allows people to buy cryptocurrencies, but which is not strictly necessary to use in order to use cryptocurrencies. People can use decentralized exchanges like Bisq if they want to avoid these issues. EDIT: Remember how Hackernews was supposed to be a community which has a focus on software development, and thus finding technical solutions to pro…

No true ScotsCoin.

Oh god, is the next phase “true crypto has never been tried!”

Re: Binance halts deposits and withdrawals for customers in the UK

#74
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most definitely. SVB had $3B+ of Circle’s deposits for USDC. Just covered dollar for dollar by the US Taxpayers. Can sell all those underwater bonds at face value while the taxpayers issue new bonds at 5%. Crypto just unbanked the banked with the help of the US Gov.

From [1] > No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer... Any losses to the Deposit Insurance Fund to support uninsured depositors will be recovered by a special assessment on banks, as required by law. 1: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1337

So "consumers" are always said to "pay" as companies "pass through" increased costs due to goods, regulations, etc., but that doesn't apply here to all the taxpayers who use banking and are subject to increased FDIC insurance costs? And taking underwater, low-interest debt on the books at face value costs taxpayers overtime through inflation even if we get "paid back with interest". Why don't private buyers want this debt? Because they'd rather have dollars to buy better paying debt which the taxpayers currently provide. The BTFP will rapidly grow over $25B and be used to recapitalize the banks at taxpayers expense.[1]. Someones got to pay for the unrealized losses if depositors won't take a haircut. [2]

So personally, I fundamentally disagree with the statement "no losses borne by the taxpayer," believe this is used to obfuscate the issue, and am sad to see our treasury play this game. But it is standard fare these days, especially when people think they are protecting us from a banking run and the next great depression. But my concern is these measures lead to more economic inequality, populism, and eventual political turmoil.

[1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/mone... [2] https://am.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm-am-aem/global/en/ins...

Re: Binance halts deposits and withdrawals for customers in the UK

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As Taleb said on Balaji Srinivasan's comment on Fed not communicating about the rate increases earlier. If crypto people feel that the losses are because of Fed's actions, then they should also agree that the profits are because of Fed'a actions.

This argument format - "if X is responsible for a decrease in Y, then not X is responsible for any increase in Y" - is plainly false and silly in any case it is applied, including this one.

Isn't it obvious? If the fire was responsible for burning down the house, then the fire must have also built it.

Feels close to the theory behind homeopathy. If something can trigger some symptom in a healthy person, then the same something can revert it in a sick person. They just remove any trace of it from the medicine to increase the effect.

Re: Binance halts deposits and withdrawals for customers in the UK

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cryptocurrencies were meant as a "grow your own food" thing in the first place, they are supposed to be decentralized. Hence it does not seem logical to go to a "grow your own food" subthread and wonder why it makes a point about store-bought food not being grown at home. As with all things in life, a golden rule applies: If you don't like it then don't use it, that's ok!

It seems more like a case of someone inventing tomatoes and getting mad that industrial farms starts planting them. That’s not tomatoes! It’s supposed to be decentralized! Often the thing that’s envisioned by the creators is not the final say on market fit

I don't care that the industry uses someone's tomatoes :)

I merely care about the fact that the tomatoes are being called non-industrial even though they are 100% factory grown.

I.e. Binance is not "crypto".

Re: Binance halts deposits and withdrawals for customers in the UK

#78
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The MPAA has been doing this for a while now. It's called DRM.

This is a really bad comparison: ransomeware restricts your data involuntarily. DRM restricts the creator’s data at their request with your voluntary agreement.

Well - that wasn't always the case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...

Re: Binance halts deposits and withdrawals for customers in the UK

#79

Cryptocurrency is just an attempt by fraudsters to repeat all of the previous scams on a brand new banking system. It turns out there’s actually a reason we have so many laws.

Unsurprisingly these regulations exist for a reason.

Re: Binance halts deposits and withdrawals for customers in the UK

#80
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boy that BTC rug pull really hurt. I'm still totally reeling from the XMR rug pull. Oh, wait... Just because many are scams, doesn't mean there are no principled crypto currencies. God forbid one should have to perform due diligence and actually think a bit about their currency.

Principles are irrelevant in this space. The only thing that matters is actual laws enforced by people with guns.

BTC and Monero were built to resist laws made by people with guns.

There were other attempts at digital currency before BTC, but they were all taken down by people with guns.

That's kinda the whole point. That's why BTC uses energy. It's a means of resistance to people with guns.

Post reply on HN