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Solend seized $170M of user funds

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171–180 of 221 posts

Re: Solend seized $170M of user funds

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xkcd of course had it right even back when "crypto" meant something else :) https://xkcd.com/538/ Regulation and law indeed may not be able to beat crypto technologically. They don't need to. Humans are the weak squishy link in the chain. I don't need a supercomputer to crunch down your crypto, I need a warrant for your arrest or subpoena to ask for all your documents. I can outlaw your ability to operate without log…

Go ahead, unlock your hard drives then. Disable HTTPS, it makes no difference right? The government can just do evil maid attacks while you're asleep or rubber-hose whatever CA you're using anyways. While you're at it, why don't you leave the door to your house unlocked? The government can just kick it in whenever they want, no biggie, right? Strong cryptography still remains a formidable barrier for law enforcement,…

I’m curious how you know it’s a formidable barrier. You sure they just don’t care about you? I’ve never tested this hypothesis, I assume everything I do online is basically “in the clear” for advanced nation states.

Re: Solend seized $170M of user funds

#173
post #164
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I am thinking about how many crypto fans suggest fiat money and banks are a thing of the past. I don’t think fiat money or banks can go away unless all their functionality can be replaced by crypto and do at least as well. With finances, it’s more about preventing the bad over getting the good. As long as crypto introduces a big problem, there’s no way it becomes the primary financial tool. In fairness, I am makin…

If you look at the history of finance, all it takes is some better notion of credit. If I can get a better deal using one system over another, that’s what I’ll do. I don’t care how many millions of people are employed offering thousands of niche services by the system I don’t choose.

Hasn’t the current system of banks and paper currency basically been the financial system of chose since the 1700s? I see additions to financial systems, not total replacements.

Crypto is trying to replace banks and modern finance, correct?

Re: Solend seized $170M of user funds

#174
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be super “arm chair psychologist” about this, but I always thought the whole “you deserve it if you got scammed” mentality comes from the people that believe crypto will replace all modern finance. For crypto to replace modern finance, it needs to be better in every way (so it’s a total replacement). Decentralized currency is better for some things, worse for things like preventing scams. If modern finance pre…

It's a form of just-world fallacy. It's comforting to think "bad things happen only to stupid people, and I'm not stupid." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis

Right but I am saying why they adopt that mentality. They want a “just-world” of crypto not just for feeling safe but to justify crypto’s superiority.

Re: Solend seized $170M of user funds

#175
post #25

One of the themes in pro-crypto writings has been the idea that as long as you “do your own research” then the bad things won’t happen on your chosen cryptocurrency. The prevailing idea (among pro-crypto spaces) is that bad things only happen to other people who deserve them because they didn’t do the right research. Recently we’re seeing the bad things happen in more and more mainstream chains. Even famous NFT propo…

Not to be super “arm chair psychologist” about this, but I always thought the whole “you deserve it if you got scammed” mentality comes from the people that believe crypto will replace all modern finance. For crypto to replace modern finance, it needs to be better in every way (so it’s a total replacement). Decentralized currency is better for some things, worse for things like preventing scams. If modern finance pre…

Is it truly decentralized when it’s so reliant on exchanges and wallets that are abstracted away from the chains - often through third party layers akin to Infura?

Re: Solend seized $170M of user funds

#177

> The proposal succeeded hours after it was proposed, with one whale providing 1 million votes out of the 1.15 million votes in favor. Decentralized my ass

Just like land under feudalism -- the land was /everywhere/ !

... but the ownership was not.

Re: Solend seized $170M of user funds

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're building ones of those games people get paid to play and you're... proud of this work? As someone who has watched gaming become ruined by micro transactions and loot boxes, that's challenging for me to wrap my head around. Sorry if that seems rude but I literally can't imagine a sketchier idea than that. If you have game dev skills, please please, just make an actual fun video game that you purchase and own fo…

No, I'm building a game that runs entirely on EVM. I love the notion that players pay per transaction and that money goes to people who run nodes that support the network. We are not designing any intentional "play to earn" mechanics. But thanks for assuming.

You pay per chess move (or whatever) and the money exits the game economy so the winners (and coders) get nothing but a pat on the back?

I don’t really play games but I guess that sounds fun.

Re: Solend seized $170M of user funds

#179
post #134
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This whale is probably just happy to default on the loan and get liquidated at this point. It's too bold to assume this. This whale is probably so angry right now because they ruined his/her plan causing him/her million of dollars. 1) Find an opportunity to drive the price of SOL down due stupid DeFi design lacking 101 Economy knowledge. 2) Go short on SOL 3) Use the opportunity to cause a slippage of 46% in price…

If they wanted to do that, they would have deposited stablecoins and borrowed Solana.

Unless they had a plan that only worked by doing it the way they did it.

People don’t really make crazy profits by following the herd, they see something everyone else misses and bet big.

Re: Solend seized $170M of user funds

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Go ahead, unlock your hard drives then. Disable HTTPS, it makes no difference right? In what world is the Government your only threat?

It's a good question. I wonder this too. But until we can make cryptography that is criminal-proof but not government-proof, and until the government can feasibly enforce its use, then I don't think it really matters. It's hard to imagine any tool that only works against criminals but not against the government. Especially considering that there's a spectrum between criminal organizations and government organizations…

>It's hard to imagine any tool that only works against criminals but not against the government. Especially considering that there's a spectrum between criminal organizations and government organizations.

You are missing the point; the point of Randall's comic is that most, if not all, cryptographic methods fails under the threat of physical violence. For most of us in the western world, and certainly for most of us on this forum the most likely threat of someone using violence to extract cryptographic secrets from you would be the entity that claims a monopoly on it - the government (your local mugger is not going to request you install his CA root store).

Most criminals, and the majority of white collar criminals who would benefit the most from the world disabling HTTPS do not have the mechanism, infrastructure or capability to exact violence on me the same way the government can.

So your implication that "because cryptography is violence resistant, we should unlock our hard drives" is very naive.

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