111–120 of 267 posts
> there was never more than $61.5 million backing Tether, even as more 442 million coins were circulating at one point. Ah, pulling the classic "fractional reserve" I see.
This is simply insolvency, not fractional reserve.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
fiat debasing the currency. What I find ironic is that the crypto ecosystem still ended up with something like central banks, only in this case their mandate is make money for its owners, and they have no accountability or obligation to serve the general public.
> What I find ironic is that the crypto ecosystem still ended up with something like central banks, only in this case their mandate is make money for its owners, and they have no accountability or obligation to serve the general public So, like private currency-printing banks before government monopolies (and like private banks, which subject to central regulation still create money though they don't print currency),…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hah. At one point Tether was claiming, during the days where they were holding on to the "1:1 backing!" that they were banking $2 billion A WEEK. And yet the cryptofans were telling us we were curmudgeons for not buying into the hype (or in this case, the bullshit).
From their website: "Every Tether token is always 100% backed by our reserves, which include traditional currency and cash equivalents and, from time to time, may include other assets and receivables from loans made by Tether to third parties, which may include affiliated entities (collectively, “reserves”)." They don't claim 1:1 USD backing. They claim that every tether is backed by 1 USD of value. So, when their cr…
[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20150814185145/https://tether.to... "Every tether is always backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in our reserves."
[2]: https://web.archive.org/web/20160417000232/https://tether.to... "Every tether is always backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in our reserves."
[3]: https://web.archive.org/web/20171201230600/https://tether.to... "Every tether is always backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in our reserves."
[4]: https://web.archive.org/web/20180809053152/https://tether.to... "Every tether is always backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in our reserves."
[5]: https://web.archive.org/web/20190426055956/https://tether.to... (current language)
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> Isn't this pretty much the description of every company? Which is why we don't let private companies create currency willy-nilly anymore.
> Which is why we don't let private companies create currency willy-nilly anymore. As I understand, private banks extend loans, which while not being printing money, the loans being deposits (which can be withdrawn) the effect of creating currency is the same.
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So is having the right to hold other currencies and assets. Tell that to an Argentinian who has had their life ruined because of the lack of foresight from the the people who run their society.
Incorrect, no such right is necessarily guaranteed by societies. For example, during much of the 1900s you were required to sell gold to the US government for USD rather than keep it under your mattress, and if you refused they had the right to seize it with force. For another example, negative savings interest rates in certain European countries.
Many considered this a violation of their rights. Justly so. I would say that "no such right is necessarily guaranteed" is only true in the sense that no rights at all are necessarily guaranteed.
Don’t really get you guys saying Tether should be shut down… the big banks get routinely fined with much bigger fines for much bigger crimes, are we gonna shut them all down then? At least Tether did not steal from nor defraud anyone. Just as a random example: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jpmorgan-chase-co-agrees-pay-...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What I find ironic is that the crypto ecosystem still ended up with something like central banks, only in this case their mandate is make money for its owners, and they have no accountability or obligation to serve the general public So, like private currency-printing banks before government monopolies (and like private banks, which subject to central regulation still create money though they don't print currency),…
But the point of the article is that they essentially did print currency, no?
[0] viewed broadly, but I won't quibble about that.
Don’t really get you guys saying Tether should be shut down… the big banks get routinely fined with much bigger fines for much bigger crimes, are we gonna shut them all down then? At least Tether did not steal from nor defraud anyone. Just as a random example: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jpmorgan-chase-co-agrees-pay-...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> crypto ecosystem still ended up It's decades from its final form.
Perhaps. But we're, what? 10 years in and so far crypto has enabled 'I encrypted your data!' scams, caused political instability, been a vehicle for highly volatile investment (but the world wasn't hurting for such opportunities...), and served as a fine buzzword for dev teams around the world to get a sack of cash to update some systems. That's a pretty poor result for 10 years of this much investment and focus. The…
The big problem here is that the core benefit of cryptocurrency is in removing the bank as a middle man. But the bank is the chokepoint where governments impose constraints.
When you're up against an authoritarian government imposing unreasonable constraints, that's what you need. But it works the same against any constraints. So if you want constraints on "money laundering" or processing transactions related to criminal activity, those constraints are gone too.
The constraints are already gone for anyone willing to break the law. You can't un-invent Bitcoin, so from here on drug dealers will be able to use it or something like it to transfer their drug money etc. That's happened, it's in the past, no regulations you put on law-abiding people will undo it because the people doing it are already the people breaking the law.
We still have all the regulations. They just don't work anymore. We're still paying the cost and the benefit has evaporated. But for all the honest people who are following the law, the regulations still apply. The overhead is still there. All the paperwork and the false positives.
So you can use Bitcoin to buy drugs but you can't use it to buy a sandwich, because to accept Bitcoin the sandwich shop would have to deal with filing fees and lawyers that the drug dealer is just ignoring. Regular people don't get the benefit until we have a regulatory system that makes it as easy to accept cryptocurrency as it is to accept cash.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hah. At one point Tether was claiming, during the days where they were holding on to the "1:1 backing!" that they were banking $2 billion A WEEK. And yet the cryptofans were telling us we were curmudgeons for not buying into the hype (or in this case, the bullshit).
From their website: "Every Tether token is always 100% backed by our reserves, which include traditional currency and cash equivalents and, from time to time, may include other assets and receivables from loans made by Tether to third parties, which may include affiliated entities (collectively, “reserves”)." They don't claim 1:1 USD backing. They claim that every tether is backed by 1 USD of value. So, when their cr…