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Binance is under threat

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Re: Binance is under threat

#61

Post by RegulationSize »

rglullis wrote: post #51
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand. If I say choose to use a German Shepard to represent dogs is that a dishonest straw-man? Bitcoin isn't all crypto, but it is a type of crypto, and just like how there are valid criticisms of German Shepards that can be used to expand to all dogs, the same can be done with Bitcoin, can it not?

The problem and the dishonesty is that the criticism raised does not apply to all crypto .

Crypto is effectively all horseshit, because the space has attracted the worst people in both tech and finance, and the vast bulk of implementations and productizations are not useful to anyone other than scammers and gamblers.

Perhaps crypto can be revitalized and made useful at scale, but that’s going to require a continued cleansing fire throughout the ecosystem and a new generation of devs and evangelists who actually give a shit about other people.

Re: Binance is under threat

#62

Post by rglullis »

kkielhofner wrote: post #55
rglullis wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare with Ethereum and you can quickly be disabused of this notion that they are at all similar. - Ethereum uses PoS, and you can run a validator with commodity hardware which costs a couple of hundred dollars. - All the validators online at this moment consume a fraction of electricity used by all current videogame consoles in stand-by . - Ethereum's value is not derived from the expectation that it is a "store o…

So vi vs emacs then. I understand your points (I stayed up to watch the switch from PoW to PoS on my Ethereum nodes as one example) but no one else does, and that's my point. If anything you mentioned offered value other than "trade vs USD" there would be adoption - like oil and consoles. All you have to do is take a quick look at a block explorer, dappradar[0], tokens, etc to discover very quickly no one (0.5% of gl…

The fact that the majority of people don't use "as intended" does not mean that they are the same. One has a potential for (and welcomes) change, the other is treated as a cult with a single doctrine.

> The entire underlying technology could disappear tomorrow (...) no actual utility lost.

The same could be said, e.g, ActivityPub. Doesn't stop me and others to try to dismantle Facebook/Twitter or at the very least to provide an alternative.

Re: Binance is under threat

#63

Post by rglullis »

saalweachter wrote: post #59
rglullis wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem and the dishonesty is that the criticism raised does not apply to all crypto .

For the record, 'et al' means 'and others', not 'and all the rest'. You're free to group your favorite cryptocurrency with Bitcoin, or not, as the criticism fits.

So you are just couching your dishonest argument on semantics. Glad to clear that out.

Still dishonest.

Re: Binance is under threat

#64

Post by suckitsam »

Analemma_ wrote: post #35
suckitsam wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, the NYAG/JPM report from a few years back almost explicitly said "this is totally criminal and entirely fraudulent, but it's too late to stop, because if we do, the entire global financial system will explode"

I think you're remembering incorrectly. Crypto is large, but nowhere near large enough to cause contagion risk, especially because nobody is stupid enough to lever against it as though it was a AAA asset (like they did for American mortgages). If every single cryptocurrency was zeroed tomorrow, the global economy would shrug and move on.

Quite possible. The closest I can find is [1] (via [0]), which upon re-reading suggests the cryptoverse, not the global economy, would blow up. Perhaps I'm conflating it with the general warnings of the era [2,3,4].

Though I swear I recall reading some ominous wording, pointed out by another commenter, that subtly suggested the decision to quietly settle vs. aggressively prosecute was based on billions of dollars of potential economic fallout. Other articles [2,3,4] talk about contagion risk, but none are exactly what I recall. Funny how memory works!

  [0] https://cryptobriefing.com/jp-morgan-issues-tether-warning-second-guesses-146000-btc-price-target/

  [1] https://www.tbstat.com/wp/uploads/2021/02/JPM_Bitcoin_Report.pdf

  [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-05-12/crypto-crash-contagion-could-go-beyond-bitcoin-ethereum-tether

  [3] https://decrypt.co/83276/imf-warns-stablecoins-could-pose-contagion-risk-global-financial-system

  [4] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/19/tether-claims-usdt-stablecoin-is-backed-by-non-us-bonds.html

Re: Binance is under threat

#65

Post by loeg »

skizm wrote: post #38
theGnuMe wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matt Levine has an article on Tether and how tether is the perfect business except for them loaning crypto to customers. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-09-21/tether...

It is great as long as they are actually sticking to short dated US t-bills. They've just been super sketchy about if they are or are not in the past. Personally I think they're fine. The absolute worst case there's a run and depositors only get back like 75 cents on the dollar. Which is way better than most places that people park crypto.

The worst case is zero cents on the dollar.

Re: Binance is under threat

#66

Post by zzyzxd »

MrRadar wrote: post #49

> One institutional trader told The Wall Street Journal that his company has conducted fire drills to withdraw its assets from Binance quickly in the event of a meltdown. If you think a crypto exchange you're doing business with is on shaky ground, the time to withdraw is now . So many crypto exchange collapses have shown that you need to withdraw before the "meltdown" if you want to ensure your assets are safe. If y…

Well, as long as the exchange is not going down right now, there's still money to make and they will just keep trading.

However, there's no reason to keep your assets on exchange if you are not actively trading them. I know many trading firms withdraw daily (or maybe even more frequent), and I would imagine the drills mentioned in the article are probably about withdrawing their assets before EOD.

Re: Binance is under threat

#67

Post by wmf »

kkielhofner wrote: post #57
MrRadar wrote: post #49

> One institutional trader told The Wall Street Journal that his company has conducted fire drills to withdraw its assets from Binance quickly in the event of a meltdown. If you think a crypto exchange you're doing business with is on shaky ground, the time to withdraw is now . So many crypto exchange collapses have shown that you need to withdraw before the "meltdown" if you want to ensure your assets are safe. If y…

> ensure your assets are safe It's been demonstrated time and time again this isn't practical. In crypto your choice is either worry about an exchange collapsing or worry about losing your keys, having your wallet cleaned out by some scammer, etc. The chances of either are very, very high. "Not your keys, not your coins" just as easily (or even more so) becomes "you don't have your keys" or "some scammer has your coi…

At the institutional level I don't think this is true. There are pretty reliable custody options that are far less shady than Binance.

Re: Binance is under threat

#68

Post by rsynnott »

> One institutional trader told The Wall Street Journal that his company has conducted fire drills to withdraw its assets from Binance quickly in the event of a meltdown.

… If you’re conducting fire drills on withdrawing your assets when Binance implodes… why not just withdraw them now? Like, it is not the only exchange.

Re: Binance is under threat

#69

Post by rsynnott »

causi wrote: post #31
weevil wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the most infuriating attitude, and the reason you can't reason cryptobros out of their delusion.

You see far too much of this attitude on HN with regards to a number of idiotic business plans.

Yeah, HN is _big_ into the “rich people are magic” thing. Maybe a bit blunted at the moment, with FTX, and, er, Twitter, but it goes _deep_.

Re: Binance is under threat

#70

Post by rsynnott »

Analemma_ wrote: post #35
suckitsam wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, the NYAG/JPM report from a few years back almost explicitly said "this is totally criminal and entirely fraudulent, but it's too late to stop, because if we do, the entire global financial system will explode"

I think you're remembering incorrectly. Crypto is large, but nowhere near large enough to cause contagion risk, especially because nobody is stupid enough to lever against it as though it was a AAA asset (like they did for American mortgages). If every single cryptocurrency was zeroed tomorrow, the global economy would shrug and move on.

Arguably the crypto blowup last year did result in some contagion, being one of the triggers for the US’s recent Medium Sized Bank Crisis. Though, also, arguably that was coming anyway, one way or another.
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