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You Can Forget About Crypto Now

theatlantic.com

151–160 of 238 posts

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where's the value in crypto? What's the purpose? Decentralisation? Democratisation? And then you have to use wallets, exchanges... There's literally no value in crypto currency, but trust. Like plain old money, which is highly regulated, so much more stability to use it in real economy. So why should I use crypto currencies? And which one, given that everyone can create their crypto currency?

Here are three things that are extremely valuable about blockchain technology: * Financial infrastructure that is transparent and does not rely on corporate CEOs being honest: Enron, Lehman Brothers, and now FTX have shown that global regulators cannot be trusted to protect ordinary people when institutions are corrupted from the top. DeFi markets are fully transparent—with code and data being open and replicated tho…

The point made in this article applies to your first point - companies like FTX playing fast and loose can tank your value even if you are playing as your own bank. Not using their custody doesn’t fully protect you from their actions.

Cryptocurrency does not settle instantaneously, in fact credit cards are usually faster. Nobody is “waiting” for settlement. The transaction is done very fast.

Defi collateralised loans have actually had several instances of losing money and whole schemes failing - ‘whales’ holding illiquid assets have taken out massive loans with no intention of repaying, and the collateral is sometimes only “over” on paper.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#152
post #67

When they say "crypto", what do they mean. No, I understand that it's something to do with cryptocurrencies; but, confusingly, they must mean something more specific than that; because isn't bitcoin the OG of cryptocurrencies? And doesn't it still hold the promise of a parallel peer-to-peer non-inflationary currency, suitable for self-custody, which is totally orthogonal to the meltdown of a cryptoexchange? Does The…

> And doesn't it still hold the promise of a parallel peer-to-peer non-inflationary currency, suitable for self-custody, which is totally orthogonal to the meltdown of a cryptoexchange? The meltdown of FTX is not orthogonal to bitcoin, it's an outright vulnerability of the system. You can't have a crypto exchange crash without underlying crypto tokens, period. If you're going to argue the merits of the design of cryp…

Bitcoin was not created to run with CEX, blockchains as Bitcoin, Monero or Ethereum are built to run decentralized.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do understand that Wiring money is not slow because of the technology right? And it has everything to do with government regulations around anti-terrorism, anti-money laundering, anti-fraud, etc.? I think it’s hilarious that you think your wire was slow because of the geographical distance the message had to travel (“halfway across the world”) as opposed to the fact that it had to travel across jurisdictions with…

Many of us don't want everything we do monitored and tracked. I understand this leads to more financial fraud, laundering, and terrorism, but if I were to list my problems in life, those are nowhere near the top. Privacy is much higher. That's not a universal statement -- that calculus could change -- but this is the case for me in the developed world in 2022.

Blockchains are literally a public ledger.

It's the least private system you could conceive.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#154
The degree to which crypto exchanges mimic wildcat banks of the nineteenth century is striking. They are basically unregulated "banks" issuing and manipulating proprietary currencies against real, central-bank regulated, national currencies. The biggest difference is that people used wildcat currencies due to scarcity of national currencies, and regulated banking institutions, whereas they participate in crypto exchanges purely to speculate, hoping to strike some great return on their money.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#155
A 2018 English graduate, who predominately writes music reviews and opinion pieces, published on The Atlanic which has cherry-picked publishing only their anti-crypto pieces, explains how crypto is actually dead now.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#156
post #92
post #3

> despite the ricketiness of the whole system, despite the constant feeling that everything might fall apart at any moment, there will come a time when crypto really arrives. For me crypto was always Ponzi scheme and nothing more, but it is because I don't laundry money or sell drugs, so I am not the target for crypto.

The narrative that crypto is usefull jusy for buying drugs or laundering money is ridiculous. A couple a weeks ago I did a wire half way across the globe. It took almost 7 days for the money to arrive. With bitcoin? 60 minutes. Remember when OnlyFans was in trouble because of the payments processors wanting to pull the rug? You probably don't and you probably are not aware how many people would have been impacted. Do…

> ”A couple a weeks ago I did a wire half way across the globe. It took almost 7 days for the money to arrive. With bitcoin? 60 minutes.”

And how long does it take to convert the Bitcoin to money in the destination country?

SWIFT wires normally clear the same day. If it took seven days, your transaction was being held for legal reasons. It’s foolish to think that Bitcoin somehow solves this problem — it just moves the responsibility for inspecting transactions to the “off-ramp” exchange you’d be using in the destination country.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they really though? https://restofworld.org/2022/argentina-nigeria-terra-crash/ ( "From Argentina to Nigeria, people saw Terra as more stable than local currency. They lost everything" )

Terra was sus from the beginning. 20% APY in dollars was too good to be true. And when it started to crash most of us quickly converted everything away from it. I lost a few bucks though. But I had a friend who didn't know better back then who tried to apply the "HODL" meme and yes, he lost everything

I don't need to be diligently checking the news to see if Chase Bank or Fidelity is crashing 24/7!

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#158
post #141
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The narrative that crypto is usefull jusy for buying drugs or laundering money is ridiculous. A couple a weeks ago I did a wire half way across the globe. It took almost 7 days for the money to arrive. With bitcoin? 60 minutes. Remember when OnlyFans was in trouble because of the payments processors wanting to pull the rug? You probably don't and you probably are not aware how many people would have been impacted. Do…

So the use cases you're going with are: * Wire transfers * Paying for porn * Avoiding civil asset forfeiture I think 99% of people watch free/ad-supported porn, and anyone concerned about civil asset forfeiture is likely either a criminal, or a conspiracy theorist and/or paranoid schizo (i.e. a small minority of the population). Wire transfers are a legitimate use-case maybe. I don't really know much about that as I'…

> Wire transfers

Wise or CurrencyFair take your money on a local account anywhere on the globe, and deposit it anywhere else with a local currency from a local account.

Rates are within 0.5% of the currency exchange, and no fixed or percentage fee, no wire fee since it’s all local accounts (it’s an example / please check the terms / this is not financial advice).

I honestly don’t see what’s there to save with crypto. Fees for credit card transactions are often 5 times above (2.5%).

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#159
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did it take 7 days? wire from Netherlands to US (ING to BofA) took 2 minutes

If it took 7 days it was probably due to AML/KYC issues. Bitcoin would have been faster, of course, because it doesn't do AML/KYC, but that just means it's unsuitable for conducting business (other than businesses that are outside the law).

There's no good reason for KYC to take days.

It's perfectly reasonable for the party receiving the funds to ask for a proof that the money didn't come from human trafficking. But that should be a fully automated process in most cases, and no one but the receiving party should have anything to say.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#160
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the use cases you're going with are: * Wire transfers * Paying for porn * Avoiding civil asset forfeiture I think 99% of people watch free/ad-supported porn, and anyone concerned about civil asset forfeiture is likely either a criminal, or a conspiracy theorist and/or paranoid schizo (i.e. a small minority of the population). Wire transfers are a legitimate use-case maybe. I don't really know much about that as I'…

> Wire transfers Wise or CurrencyFair take your money on a local account anywhere on the globe, and deposit it anywhere else with a local currency from a local account. Rates are within 0.5% of the currency exchange, and no fixed or percentage fee, no wire fee since it’s all local accounts (it’s an example / please check the terms / this is not financial advice). I honestly don’t see what’s there to save with crypto.…

Unless you live in one of the countries they don't want to touch.
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