BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales • Hacker News Board

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#211

Post by Crespyl » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

52804375092485 wrote: post #180

paulie_a wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off topic: why do people put "I am not lawyer" disclaimer on posts? Ive rarely seen that sort of disclaimer about any other occupation

When actual attorney's are talking about legal issues, they'll usually say something like "I am not your lawyer" as a defense against entering into an attorney-client relationship which creates a bunch of complications. So I guess the "I am not a lawyer" is sort of a corruption of that, a magic spell invoked by not-lawyers to save themselves from not-problems.

I always understood it to be a caveat that the speaker does not have much or any formal legal education (much less in the specific state/country relevant to the conversation) and that nothing should be taken as actual legal advice by the reader, even if their situation seems similar.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#212

Post by tim333 » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

cfontes wrote: post #137

toomanybeersies wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People love to think they're smarter than those 'experts'. It's a combination of Tall Poppy Syndrome [1] and the Dunning-Kruger Effect [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

You can add to that that "experts" are pretty clueless as well, 2000 and 2008 are reminders of that. Close to none saw it coming and the ones that did where laughing stock amongst them, you have to be a pretty remarkable person to swim against National bank presidents, government officials and other high ranking people like Alan Greenspan, that was a super respected economist but also has made some of the worst mista…

They are probably not as clueless as you think. There's a difference between what they believe and what they say. Try asking any sales professional if buying something they get a 2% commission on is a good idea or not.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#213

Post by unknown_apostle » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 4:18 PM UTC

Pyxl101 wrote: post #31

spookthesunset wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For starters, they don't deal in USD at all. They deal in "USDT", which isn't at all USD but a token called a tether that is somehow magically supposed to be pegged so 1 USDT == 1USD that you can... well... I dunno what you can do with a tether but one thing you can't do is turn it into actual fiat money on Bitfinex. You might be able to convert it to cold hard fiat on some other exchange though, but odds are good sa…

The fact that Tether does not guarantee in their terms and conditions that they'll exchange Tether back into equivalent reserve currency makes it _super_ sketchy from my point of view. The only way that Tether should be considered backed by and equivalent to USD (risk-reduced) is if Tether is contractually obligated to convert it back into USD. Instead, this is what their TOS says: > Tethers are not money and are not…

What is absolutely amazing is that, since your comment (only 24 days ago), they granted 500.000.000 new USD tethers.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#214

Post by tim333 » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 4:22 PM UTC

gbersac wrote: post #173

toomanybeersies wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People love to think they're smarter than those 'experts'. It's a combination of Tall Poppy Syndrome [1] and the Dunning-Kruger Effect [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

The fact that you invest in crypto is thinking you are smarter than many well respected experts like Warren Buffet. If you invest in cryptocurrencies (and I do), you are not any more clever than those who bought into BitConnect.

Not necessarily true. You should be smarter than the other punters you are intending to sell to, not smarter than Buffett.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#215

Post by cglace » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 4:35 PM UTC

brndnmtthws wrote: post #146

brokensegue wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bitcoin: a tool for teaching libertarians the reasons we created regulations at high speed

Bitcoin is a tool for liberating people from the ruling elites and the oppression of crony capitalism.

Wow, I would love to hear how cryptocurrencies stop crony capitalism. Please explain.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#216

Post by lmm » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 4:41 PM UTC

dom96 wrote: post #154

Pyxl101 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that Tether does not guarantee in their terms and conditions that they'll exchange Tether back into equivalent reserve currency makes it _super_ sketchy from my point of view. The only way that Tether should be considered backed by and equivalent to USD (risk-reduced) is if Tether is contractually obligated to convert it back into USD. Instead, this is what their TOS says: > Tethers are not money and are not…

I'm by no means an expert, but I'm wondering why the people responsible behind Tether do this? Why don't they ask people for a dollar for each Tether coin and then store those dollars indefinitely, wouldn't that guarantee that the currency is pegged? They would always be able to exchange the Tether back to a dollar.

> Why don't they ask people for a dollar for each Tether coin and then store those dollars indefinitely, wouldn't that guarantee that the currency is pegged? They would always be able to exchange the Tether back to a dollar.

They could do that, but why would they when they can instead ask people for a dollar for each Tether coin and then spend those dollars on crack and hookers?

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#217

Post by alien_at_work » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 4:41 PM UTC

allannienhuis wrote: post #62

bhouston wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed this other apparent BitConnect-like Ponzi scheme here: https://polynetwork.org Funny thing, I noticed because it is using an old version of our 3D player on their home page (the 3D robot), and they are getting an incredible amount of traffic.

It's almost shocking how transparently dishonest they are. And yet people put real money (well, I suppose real bitcoins) into a black hole like this...

Most investors knew Madoff was cheating some how, they just all assumed they would get out in time.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#218

Post by Anderkent » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:01 PM UTC

roma1n wrote: post #128

avip wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one should say " neither he had... nor was he giving... " However, I am not a native English speaker and this is not a grammatical advice

this is not grammatical advice (uncountable, no 'a') Disclaimer: I am not a native English speaker and this is not grammatical advice

Your advice was grammatical, actually.

Disclaimer: I am not a native English speaker, and this is advice about grammar.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#219

Post by ckastner » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:01 PM UTC

avenoir wrote: post #68

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One scam down Did...it just re-launch? With a new token, BCCX?! https://bitconnectx.co

This is pretty unbelievable. And they're running an ICO right now.

It's definitely unconscionable, but totally believable to me.

The kind of people who fell for this the first time, are exactly the kind of people who would fall for this the second time.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#220

Post by jandrese » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:29 PM UTC

oil7abibi wrote: post #185

banderman wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. Is there any information available on the ownership of Poloniex? Do they provide any proof of reserves?

My friend has met some of Poloniex’s engineers. I think they’re based out of SF.

Nothing can be more legit about a half remembered third hand account from an anonymous Internet source.

My default assumption when I see a cryptocurrency exchange is that it is either fraudulent or incompetently run, because that has been the case overwhelmingly in the past. It takes extraordinary evidence to make me trust one.