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Secret Deals, Foreign Investments: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm

nytimes.com

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Re: Secret Deals, Foreign Investments: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm

#161

Post by ethbr1 »

dylan604 wrote: post #151
Sammi wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not wrong, but your comment lacks so much necessary detail that I find it's just causing noise.

I mean, how much details do you need for this to be understood? Every tinpot dictator openly run black markets, are the definition of corrupt, while many openly operate or support terrorist organizations within their borders. Depending one looking at the US from the point of view of someone living in a country they have rained freedom down on for the past quarter century probably feels the same towards the US. Launch…

Don't leave out money laundering! The US is also competitively good at that, post-9/11.

Err, I mean "good at ensuring the absolute privacy and confidentiality of financial clients."

Re: Secret Deals, Foreign Investments: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm

#162

Post by Nursie »

echelon wrote: post #77
angusturner wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would actually say that scams and financial crimes seem to be the only concrete use case of the technology at the moment. (Unless you count speculation/gambling).

I'm 99% against crypto and think it's mostly a tool for wasting limited human innovation capital, enabling fraud, terrorist financing, ponzi scheme gambling, and pump and dump rug pulling. There are a few areas where I find crypto interesting or useful: - The existing banking and payments industry is too Christian / Mormon. It extra-judicially regulates anything it views as "vices". This industry is supposed to be du…

> "Stablecoins" or whatever the hell they're called seem like a wickedly efficient way to move money between businesses and countries without paying large fees or having to wait for clearance.

This seems to be 'regulatory arbitrage' rather than anything concrete to do with the tech though. i.e. there's nothing inherent in a stablecoin that can't be done more simply, it's just currently a way to skirt bureaucracy and fees, which are already diminishing in many places.

Re: Secret Deals, Foreign Investments: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm

#163

Post by angusturner »

Nursie wrote: post #162
echelon wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 99% against crypto and think it's mostly a tool for wasting limited human innovation capital, enabling fraud, terrorist financing, ponzi scheme gambling, and pump and dump rug pulling. There are a few areas where I find crypto interesting or useful: - The existing banking and payments industry is too Christian / Mormon. It extra-judicially regulates anything it views as "vices". This industry is supposed to be du…

> "Stablecoins" or whatever the hell they're called seem like a wickedly efficient way to move money between businesses and countries without paying large fees or having to wait for clearance. This seems to be 'regulatory arbitrage' rather than anything concrete to do with the tech though. i.e. there's nothing inherent in a stablecoin that can't be done more simply, it's just currently a way to skirt bureaucracy and…

Yeah this is what I don’t really get about the stable coin hype.

In Australia for example, we are almost cashless now and most bank transfers are instant and cheap - no blockchain required.

Digital currency is a good idea - unclear what value the blockchain part actually provides?

Re: Secret Deals, Foreign Investments: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm

#164

Post by Capricorn2481 »

shwaj wrote: post #131
Capricorn2481 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's all well and good, but that money would never be spent here. That's not how our budget works. It's our defense budget, determined ahead of time, and America's defense budget is huge The idea that Biden was taking food out of our mouths to send to Ukraine was pushed by the very people that approved that budget because it was easy to do. And Americans know this, they really do, they just forget it because they'v…

It’s true that the large majority of aid came in the form of weapons that the military industrial complex wanted to replace anyway. However, there has still been many billions of “cash” sent, totaling over $40 billion. That’s nothing to sneeze at. For example, from two years ago: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-us-aid-ukraine-money-e...

No, that's military support. We sent $26 billion in 2022, which is less than 3% of our defense budget. That's peanuts in a conflict like this.

Re: Secret Deals, Foreign Investments: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm

#165

Post by tim333 »

echelon wrote: post #157
tim333 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>seems compatible with the existing FinCEN / FINRA / AML regulations Barely. If $1m of crypto moves from one private wallet to another how do you know who's doing it or what the purpose is? Could be something legit, could be paying for drugs/terrorism - no definite way of knowing.

I was under the impression Circle with USDC was trying to be very FinCEN / AML compliant. That you had to agree to their terms to be able to use the token, that you couldn't transact off of a regulated exchange, and that they do plenty of KYC to know what's going on. I might have the wrong assumptions?

I'm not sure of the details to be honest. Certainly if I want to change normal US$ in a bank into USDC then I have to go through KYC etc. If I then transfer it to a private wallet and then send it to someone else's wallet for an iffy transaction they'd see on the blockchain it was me but not necessarily who the other wallet was.

A way to make it less traceable is to transfer it to an iffy crypto exchange, change it and then withdraw it somewhere else. Some of those are not very good at keeping records and the like. Like I use mexc who can change usdc and when I wanted to do my tax return they said they couldn't retrieve transactions over 18 months ago - they delete the data they say. And mexc isn't the worst.

Re: Secret Deals, Foreign Investments: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm

#166

Post by conception »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #126
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give some examples of policies that were bad for ordinary, everyday Americans?

Honestly, no. Biden was a really terrible president by any metric except for "isTrump? yes/no". To be fair though, he excelled on that one pretty consistently throughout his term

Biden’s record is public and the number of bipartisan bills passed under his admin is extraordinary in this day and age. No serious ranking of presidents puts Biden low at all.

Re: Secret Deals, Foreign Investments: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm

#167

Post by tphyahoo2 »

victorbjorklund wrote: post #153
tphyahoo2 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Furious words and threats won't stop bitcoin. Neither will bans and prohibitions, unless you are willing to go full north korea with cameras everywhere and computers locked down. And you'll probably fail with that. You're beating your fists against an ocean. Touch some grass.

Of course you can. 20 years in prision for using Bitcoin. Not a lot of people would wanna risk that. And when 99,99% chooses to not touch it with a pole the value will collapse. Then a few people can sit there with Bitcoins that no one wants to buy from them. Is it a good idea? Mayne not. But obviously one can crush Bitcoin if one wants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dekulakization

"Is it a good idea?"

No, not "obviously one crush" and nor are there no consequences if one were to try.

https://archive.md/qlbDM#selection-49.0-49.64

("Georg Ritter von Flondor, and what his unhappy life can teach us")

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