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Fintech dystopia

fintechdystopia.com

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Re: Fintech dystopia

#221

Post by throwaway290 »

dmantis wrote: post #215
throwaway290 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I say government (or let's just say criminals) is at least 99.9% of all crypto moved. The war machine needs feeding. Sanctions. Think about it will other countries use worthless ruble that is pretty much not convertible? Will russia use winnie pooh money (also not convertible)? People who move tether because maybe they found some real work abroad or because they are helping a family or something is rounding erro…

> Sanctions They also affect businesses, not only the government.

International businesses which is also small minority and if they do stuff legally anyway I don't see why they would use crypto and if they do stuff illegally I don't see why they would trust randos in Moscow to give them cash and possibly get burned...

Re: Fintech dystopia

#222

Post by always_smiling »

jongjong wrote: post #7

I was in relatively early in the web as a developer, I was in early on the crypto movement, also as a developer. These technologies didn't fix the problems. There is too much regulation, you can't do anything without a license. The only solutions are political, not technological. Everything feels like a scam within a scam. I feel dizzy just thinking about it. I'm completely demoralised. Everything related to career f…

It is truly baffling to look at the issues in tech, your alienation with your own work and point at regulations. This field has been almost completely unrestrained and egged on by every opportunist and schemer holding political office.

You blame regulations and then mention that everything is pointless because everything is: "sisyphean because of the bureaucracy and monopolization".

The tech industry is lousy with scams, hell the entire model of the global economy is exit scamming everyone. No one builds anything because it is meant to last, everyone is fighting for the next IPO or buyout. You have pointed your ire in the wrong direction... because you were unable to scam first? Confusing...

Re: Fintech dystopia

#223

Post by datadrivenangel »

baq wrote: post #124
pjc50 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is basically the valid use case, yes. It turns the bitcoin goldbug inflation paranoia on its head: the stable currency is defined to be the US dollar, and an elaborate proxy system allows people to access that stability when their local government doesn't want them to. Circumventing exchange controls and so on. Although the current government is having a good go at reducing the value of the currency, it's barely…

> Circumventing exchange controls and so on. This is the only new thing. Maybe.

Also it takes on the mobile phone money providers with direct 'dollars', which means it basically becomes a currency denominated bank.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#224

Post by datadrivenangel »

fireflash38 wrote: post #199
nlitened wrote: post #181

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?)

In Argentina, the money changes pay more pesos for 100 dollar bills than 20 dollar bills, and won't accept money that is too beat up. Definitionally it's not the poorer people who can buy dollars in large denominations.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#225

Post by jodrellblank »

voxl wrote: post #6
Herring wrote: post #4

> Home ownership and the rest of the American dream seem out of reach for many people, and there’s very little safety net available when it comes to healthcare expenses, retirement, or just bad luck. I empathize with the author, I really do, but you can't care about someone more than they care about themselves. If anyone has had the supremely unpleasant experience of trying to get loved ones to work out, they know. T…

Why do you think these two things are connected? Working out is a personal choice that should have zero barring on how we care for and help one another. For example, someone shouldn't have less access to healthcare because they don't or didn't work out. Democrats losing support can be explained by several reasons that have nothing to do with tackling healthcare. It can be the fact that it ended up being a weak half m…

> "the Hilary Clinton scandal fiascos"

"Why do you see the speck in your neighbour's eye, but do not notice the plank in your own eye?"

Re: Fintech dystopia

#226

Post by southernplaces7 »

atemerev wrote: post #163
malthaus wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and in what fantasy world would a system primarily used by questionable countries/organisations/individuals ever become a global standard?

Questionable individual here. My bank accounts are all blocked now just for the reason of my nationality, nothing else. Crypto is currently my lifeline.

How do you find work, or business perhaps, that pays you in crypto to begin with? I've been paid in crypto on multiple occasions but it can be tricky to find a party that's willing, so I'm curious.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#227

Post by baq »

ptero wrote: post #201
baq wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Eh, that's what the index should be comprised of anyway, with some lags.

Or, to put it differently, nothing new: it was always much better, if you knew which companies will exceed expectations. After they do so consistently, they get included in the index eventually.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#228

Post by gronglo »

calebh wrote: post #47
gronglo wrote: post #26

[flagged]

As a videogame developer, I've always thought this take was just silly. I couldn't even imagine spending the time and effort into integrating someone else's assets into my game and keeping things balanced. The closest thing that we will get to this is something like Fortnite or Roblox, which will limit the type of games and creative choices that can be made.

> I couldn't even imagine spending the time and effort into integrating someone else's assets into my game and keeping things balanced

Isn't this something that AI could take care of? I feel like if you gave Claude those same instructions you'd probably be pretty amazed.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#229

Post by carleverett »

soco wrote: post #205
carleverett wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

This is a great pitch for digital privacy as a global standard as well.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#230

Post by throwawaycoins »

mattbillenstein wrote: post #103
nytesky wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah who in this world has never had to reset a password? That’s what this means. That laser inscribed metal fob with you keys on it may as well be made of platinum. And I’ve never felt clear on how people trust wallet, hot or cold — at some point they connect to the internet for transactions, and all the vendors seem suspect. I really doubt most users are building their wallet from code reviewed cryptographically si…

I think most users have no clue how any of it works - there are so many footguns doing it yourself that probably an exchange like Coinbase is the best bet, but again, not your keys, not your coin...

I lost 13 bitcoins when the TradeHill exchange disappeared.

A decade later, I have 0.2 bitcoins in Coinbase. I want to move to owning my own keys and it's hard to be confident in avoiding footguns.

Any advice on how to securely transition to owning my own keys would be much appreciated.

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