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“But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

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Re: “But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

#291

Post by zimpenfish »

hnbad wrote: post #283
saiya-jin wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Opium was used to settle fussy babies (note, I'm sure it was very effective) In central/eastern Europe, there was historically brew/tea being done from poppy heads, to calm down babies. Generally poppy growing is very much allowed in places like Slovakia and Czech republic and part of many cakes and pastries, and nobody thought about doing opium/heroin out of it. But go over the border to Poland and its all banned,…

I think you're dangerously conflating opium and poppy just like people sometimes conflate cannabis and hemp. I can't speak for all of Europe but here's how it works in Germany: Poppies aren't banned, poppies that can be used to produce opioids ("opium poppies") are. Likewise hemp isn't banned in most of Europe, hemp that has a high THC content is. Actually hemp is more strictly controlled (e.g. you need a license to…

Gripe Water[1] used to be Quite Alcohol: "For a 4kg infant, the maximum recommended dose of Woodward's gripe water (3.6% alcohol) would be the equivalent of almost five tots of whisky in an 80kg adult."

[1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/014107680009300...

Re: “But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

#292

Post by bb88 »

hbbio wrote: post #289
bb88 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL to stop reading the top voted comment if it appears to be outrage and just read the article for myself instead. Just FYI here's the quote in context. She's posing a hypothetical here and not actually comparing Coinbase to a heroin dealer. This is very much in the style of Matt Levine at Bloomberg, btw. If a company went to the FDA and said “hello, we’d like to start selling heroin to the public for recreational u…

Which is a completely flawed comparison, not because of the matter but because unlike the hypothetical heroin case, the SEC *did approve the listing*.

I suppose that is more honest than saying she made a direct comparison between Coinbase and heroin dealers.

Re: “But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

#293

Post by hef19898 »

mmahut wrote: post #269
growse wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are people so desperate to seek legal advice from law enforcement?

It happens when the law is not clear and the law enforcement has to take a stand on it to enforce it.

The opinion only shows how little, read none what so ever, experience some people have in figuring out compliant business processes. Yet another rude awakening for the, let me be blunt, cluelessly naive and in some cases outright criminal tech crowd that seems to flok in huge numbers around crypto in general.

That attitude started aroind the time Uber got big. Maybe even with AirBnB. In a sense, crypto is exactly the tech eco system we deserve. Good that there is finally some enforcement of rules that apply tp basically everyone else.

Re: “But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

#294

Post by growse »

mmahut wrote: post #269
growse wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are people so desperate to seek legal advice from law enforcement?

It happens when the law is not clear and the law enforcement has to take a stand on it to enforce it.

There's lots of laws that aren't "clear", but people don't phone the police up and ask them what they're going to do. They talk to a lawyer and get advice.

Re: “But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

#295

Post by jazzyjackson »

Doxin wrote: post #216
wmf wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people have suggested that coins with no utility or claim on future revenue should be regulated as gambling.

I can see that being a good argument. Just because you run a casino that never cashes out doesn't mean it shouldn't be regulated as a casino.

If you can't cash out it's just entertainment. That's why you don't have to be 18 to play pinball.

[actually the history of pinball and other arcade games is fraught with legal action, there were a few iterations of payout before we got to the harmless, kid-friendly machines of today, really good podcast about it, interviewing the guy who heads the Pacific Pinball Museum: https://art19.com/shows/the-madecast/episodes/6753c3e6-e12d-...]

Re: “But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

#296

Post by mathieuh »

saiya-jin wrote: post #271
arcticbull wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To extend that ridiculous analogy, it would be akin to FDA approving heroin based products (similar to how SEC approved Bitcoin ETF in 2021) and then going after heroin. So uh, you know you just described the opioid crisis in a nutshell right? Modern opioid painkillers are in fact generally if not entirely accurately, 'heroin based products.' Not just that, prior to the Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 it was kind of a fr…

> Opium was used to settle fussy babies (note, I'm sure it was very effective) In central/eastern Europe, there was historically brew/tea being done from poppy heads, to calm down babies. Generally poppy growing is very much allowed in places like Slovakia and Czech republic and part of many cakes and pastries, and nobody thought about doing opium/heroin out of it. But go over the border to Poland and its all banned,…

You can make poppy seed tea with unwashed poppy seeds. From experience, you even used to be able to buy unwashed poppy seeds from Amazon in the UK.

It's incredibly addicting and even harder to quit than heroin, because there are many alkaloids present in the tea, all with different half-lives and strengths.

All you'd do is pour some seeds into a bottle, add some citric acid, add some strong-tasting liquid to cover the taste, then shake the whole thing, strain out the seeds and drink the result.

Re: “But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

#297

Post by EdwardDiego »

RestlessMind wrote: post #25

I like reasoned critiques of crypto. Heck, I think many crypto actors are scammers and should be punished. However, a lot of crypto is legit and this piece reeks of bias. Some examples: - comparison with heroin - wtf? To extend that ridiculous analogy, it would be akin to FDA approving heroin based products (similar to how SEC approved Bitcoin ETF in 2021) and then going after heroin. What message is SEC trying to de…

Provide some evidence, any evidence, of your allegations of tyranny.

Just because he's being mean to crypto doesn't make him tyrannical.

Re: “But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

#298

Post by ETH_start »

growse wrote: post #240
mthoms wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't matter. He refused to give any indication either way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhA1dZXeao0

Why are people so desperate to seek legal advice from law enforcement?

Because in this case the agency that enforces the rules is also charged with creating them, and how the rules this agency creates apply to novel instruments with no centralized issuer, centralized operator or investment contract, is not at all clear.

Re: “But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

#299

Post by [deleted] »

nnx wrote: post #121
potatototoo99 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In bitcoin software contributors can propose changes to the protocol and software, but they have no absolute power since they can just be rejected by the miners, who are not paid directly from bitcoin raising in price, but from fees from the operation of the network itself. So there is no organization or entity promising returns for owning bitcoin. In Ethereum, a centralized group of people put together a public sale…

"In Ethereum, a centralized group of people put together a public sale of the token, promising great returns in exchange due to their visionary ideas. This is all perfectly fine, except they didn't register their sale as a security" If I write a book with visionary ideas that promises to change your life (great returns) and continue to work on revisions as I come up with new ideas - should I register it as a security…

[deleted]

Re: “But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense

#300

Post by ETH_start »

vba616 wrote: post #122
cypress66 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A congressman asked gensler face to face if ethereum is a security and gensler declined to answer. So no, the SEC has not been clear.

It suggests bad faith to ask why the SEC didn't crack down earlier. Sure, it was politics, but it seems entirely understandable. We all know that before the crypto bust, a lot of people would've been starting a witch hunt if the SEC had tried to enforce the law. Congress, for starters. Gensler is being opportunistic now because that's the reality they have to work with. The wealthy and powerful in this country take i…

>>The wealthy and powerful in this country take it on themselves to personally ruin public servants who get in their way sometimes.

Oh poor Gensler, former banker turned regulator worth $100 million, getting push back when he robs people of their right to invest their money how they want.

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