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Fintech dystopia

fintechdystopia.com

201–210 of 288 posts

Re: Fintech dystopia

#201
post #141
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO US is heavily exporting its inflation by leveraging its world reserve currency status as other countries have to buy it's treasuries (petrodollar system legacy). No other country would be able to run 30+% budget deficits and sell long duration government bonds under 5%. This will break, sooner or later. When external buyers stop buying treasuries US will have to massively inflate its money supply, taking bondhold…

This is already happening if you know where to look and it isn’t esoteric data. The share of retail in treasury buyers has been increasing for years. If the administration doesn’t reduce spending (it won’t since it can’t) yields will blow out, we had a taste of this a couple times in the past years. Watch 5.5% on the 10. Expect YCC. Possibly buy gold if you think of buying treasuries…

> This is already happening

Yes. When I said 5-10 years it wasn't to say that the effects would start then. That was my WAG at the time when normal, mild methods like localized YCC stop working and we should expect significant system-level problems.

For investments, I think now "buying index" will stop working well and buying chosen quality, profitable companies will work much better. My 2c.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#202

This is a very American-centric post. E.g."Stablecoins won’t bank the unbanked, because people get stablecoins by purchasing them on a crypto exchange, and no crypto exchange will open an account for a customer unless they have a bank account." Well, I understand that US has dystopia level of financial surveillance, but in many places in the world you can change cash in person to crypto without many issues. And you d…

But how does crypto police the sexual morals of others?

Re: Fintech dystopia

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think the same system that chose to bail out the banks in 08 should be fully responsible for our financial future? I believe a more distributed financial system would provide more stability for all of us. The GENIUS Act establishes some very strong standards that I believe will strengthen the economy, the dollar, and enable more people to enter the financial services industry in a competitively healthy way. A sca…

That system is still deciding your financial future

i use one of the largest credit unions in the usa (grown through m&a over the last twenty years). their ability to follow instructions is at best at tech-intern level. their fees are incredibly fat and their people exhibit serious cya and complacency in almost every interaction. my confidence is at an all-time low in their competence.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expensive relative to what? When people are rescuing their hard-earned savings of 200k USD out of a third-world country, they would be happy to pay even double-digit per cent commissions, and crypto is much, much cheaper, faster and safer than all other available options. Of course, if you're a US citizen transferring 200k USD from Chase to Bank of America, crypto doesn't make any sense.

Who are these people in 3rd world countries that have 200k USD cash? You make it sound like they've scrounged to make it happen... But its far far more likely to be people either trying to wash the money or they were from less than legitimate sources. Definitely not lower class people like you seem to imply (or perhaps I'm just reading into it?)

I only know the situation which touched dozens of my friends and acquaintances. Say, you’re a relatively successful software professional in Russia, who has a small apartment and a car in a big city. Then the war with Ukraine starts, and all Russians are automatically sanctioned and blacklisted from the international financial system. You don’t want to make drone software or facilitate black-market oil trading, so you decide to sell everything and leave the country with your wife and kids to work elsewhere.

What, in your opinion, are your options for transferring abroad the cash you got from selling your hard-earned assets?

Re: Fintech dystopia

#205
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ideally you could just have a foreign bank account that your country cannot touch. Doesn’t solve the problem as these assets can still be seized by foreign governments.

I can’t really think of a better, more concise pitch for cryptocurrencies than “ideally you could just have a foreign bank account that your country cannot touch.”

I'm sure you forgot that your country can send a uniformed guy to seize said foreign bank account on a whim. Or you think you'd keep it for long, while being roughed (or simply stored) in a dark cellar?

Re: Fintech dystopia

#206
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or a CD, or maybe just a bank account. I think of stablecoin issuers as banks because why not: they keep your cash, pay you some yield and promise to give it back to you when you ask them. Walks like a bank, quacks like a bank…

Does holding stablecoins require any sort of KYC? Or do I just need to maintain the security of a private key? If the latter, I think that explains why stablecoins are popular in countries with weak institutions. In a country with strong laws, and strong rule-of-law, "Code is Law" is a solution in search of a problem. But in a country with weak laws, it can be a lifesaver.

Coins discourage if not undermine rule of law and weaken strong institutions. It’s the cat chasing it’s tail.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#207

This is a very American-centric post. E.g."Stablecoins won’t bank the unbanked, because people get stablecoins by purchasing them on a crypto exchange, and no crypto exchange will open an account for a customer unless they have a bank account." Well, I understand that US has dystopia level of financial surveillance, but in many places in the world you can change cash in person to crypto without many issues. And you d…

But how does crypto police the sexual morals of others?

They'll find a way to police the sexual morals of the Other, no matter the technology.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And yes, Russians, Iranians, Palestinians are known to use crypto, for example Yes and mostly (as in 99% by amount of crypto moved) it's their governments For example Russia it is not legal to pay with crypto, and to cash it out allowed crypto exchanges must submit your transactions to the government etc otherwise they get blocked. But the bandit state is free of course to use it to trade with its friends like NK (…

> For example Russia it is not legal to pay with crypto, and to cash it out allowed crypto exchanges must submit your transactions to the government etc otherwise they get blocked. Sorry, but it's very naive to think that Russian people use only "allowed" crypto exchanges and comply with the laws. That would be an impossible country to live in. Direct connections with people and being street-smart are important kinds…

He "just checked for me" online and he thinks I'm the one naive

I'm from Russia. People who get paid tether travel out to cash in anonymously. I know because I know them. Believe me you don't want to gamble on this

> That would be an impossible country to live in.

Really? I have no words. Not being able to use crypto and it's now an impossible country to live in? How about this, people just use cash. 99.9999% of people cashing in loads of tether are criminals or connected to the government or both. Who do you think is so rich they just casually throw around tens thousands tether? On average a good salary is like 1k at best

Re: Fintech dystopia

#209
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know why people would choose to use stablecoins, rather than trade shares in an ETF that held government bonds, or something like that? That's what stablecoins are, effectively just a share in the holding company's bank account.

How do you transfer those shares to another company to pay them?

As someone who tried to figure this out. The answer is essentially you must actively seek out a broker that lets you do this in the first place and let me tell you, in my country there are only a handful of them that make it easy and even those will still require you to fill out a signed form on paper and mail it to them.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example Russia it is not legal to pay with crypto, and to cash it out allowed crypto exchanges must submit your transactions to the government etc otherwise they get blocked. Sorry, but it's very naive to think that Russian people use only "allowed" crypto exchanges and comply with the laws. That would be an impossible country to live in. Direct connections with people and being street-smart are important kinds…

He "just checked for me" online and he thinks I'm the one naive I'm from Russia. People who get paid tether travel out to cash in anonymously. I know because I know them. Believe me you don't want to gamble on this > That would be an impossible country to live in. Really? I have no words. Not being able to use crypto and it's now an impossible country to live in? How about this, people just use cash. 99.9999% of peop…

Impossible to live in complying with all the Russian laws, not particularly a crypto one. Well, possible, but quite miserable experience.

So are you saying that people get paid in tether after the sentence that it's used 99.9% by the government only?

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