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Fintech dystopia

fintechdystopia.com

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Re: Fintech dystopia

#231

Post by throw101010 »

FergusArgyll wrote: post #196
neumann wrote: post #32

This is a really fun well-written and on point set of articles. Thank you for sharing. I feel like at this point there isn't anybody defending stablecoins who isn't using them primarily speculative investment/trading. There has yet to be a usecase for distributed ledger that isn't solved better by a centralised ledger other than niche counter-culture solutions whose users are typically blinkered to the fact that they…

This is an awful case of preconceived notions! Stablecoins are not speculative or investments at all - their price stays the same. That's where stable in stablecoin comes from. You see crypto and think day trading

> their price stays the same.

TerraUSD enters the chat

You're right that they aren't speculative in the financial sense of "hopefully gaining value over time", but you do speculate (in the more general sense) on the fiat-pegging mechanism(s) to work to preserve the value you are storing in them...

Re: Fintech dystopia

#232

Post by throw101010 »

baq wrote: post #121
whatshisface wrote: post #111

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.

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…

> keep your cash, pay you some yield

The GENUIS act and I think MICA both disallow that part, exactly for this reason... traditional banks were seeing the writings on the wall and lobbied for such yield distributions to remain their own privilege only. For now.

But you can pretty easily find similar/better yield using DeFi and stake/bond some of your crypto assets in various strategies.

The difference is that there are virtually no minimum and usually no KYC... but there are also not many guardrails/gatekeeping, which leave the place to many scams/traps. It's best to stick to the largest platforms/communities and not fall for insane APY claims.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#233

Post by scyclow »

throw101010 wrote: post #231
FergusArgyll wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an awful case of preconceived notions! Stablecoins are not speculative or investments at all - their price stays the same. That's where stable in stablecoin comes from. You see crypto and think day trading

> their price stays the same. TerraUSD enters the chat You're right that they aren't speculative in the financial sense of "hopefully gaining value over time", but you do speculate (in the more general sense) on the fiat-pegging mechanism(s) to work to preserve the value you are storing in them...

There are different flavors of stablecoins though. There's the ponzi scheme flavor that is propped up based on hand waving alchemy, and there's the boring (and now regulated) flavor that's actually backed by real money.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#234

Post by throw101010 »

nytesky wrote: post #97
mattbillenstein wrote: post #72

I looked at crypto a little for a startup - the thing that isn't usually mentioned is the huge downside of custody. Not your keys, not your coin - and holding those keys securely, think fire, theft, hacks, backdoored hardware wallets, etc - is really really hard to get correct. And if you mess up once anywhere - poof - all your money is gone and there's nothing you can do to get it back.

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…

> That laser inscribed metal fob with you keys on it

Unless you manually inscribe it with a laser (good luck), that wouldn't really be a great idea unless the computer assisting you in the inscriptions is completely air-gapped.

Stamping/manually engraving your seed on fire resistant stainless steel (308 is my preference) is still one of the most "air-gapped" way to do this.

> at some point they connect to the internet for transactions,

Some don't, for example ColdCard. It is possible to use it without ever connecting it to a computer. Using a power source and a USB cable, they even offer a way to avoid using power adapters (using common batteries) as these tend to become "smarter" these days and could one day be the source of an exploit.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#235

Post by wmf »

joshtbradley wrote: post #139
wmf wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other legit use for stablecoins is allowing people in Venezuela, Argentina, etc. to hold US dollars while the US government pretends they don't know this is happening. (Officially the US does not encourage dollarization of other economies against their will.) I agree that a centralized US dollar CBDC that isn't run by scammers would be a simpler way to do this.

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…

Despite its "mismanagement", people in shithole countries seem to prefer USD not EUR/CNY/RUB/XAU.

I do hope regulation drives Tether out of business.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#236

Post by [deleted] »

dartharva wrote: post #128
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…

Had this been the default attitude of people, humanity wouldn't have progressed past the hunter-gatherer stage.

[deleted]

Re: Fintech dystopia

#237

Post by atemerev »

southernplaces7 wrote: post #226
atemerev wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I learned to write some useful code for crypto trading firms (portfolio management, automated market making, risk screening), so that part is covered. Looking for customers is still tricky though. Even crypto firms are now increasingly about compliance and sometimes refuse to work except by hiring me, and then reject my application because of my passport (why we even invented crypto then...)

Re: Fintech dystopia

#238

Post by atemerev »

throwaway290 wrote: post #212
dmantis wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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…

Well, hello from a rounding error. I am Russian, I live in another country, and my bank accounts are closed because of "sanctions" even though I support Ukraine and will be immediately sent to prison were I to return to Russia. So I am sorry, don't touch my crypto.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#239

Post by xboxnolifes »

throw101010 wrote: post #231
FergusArgyll wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an awful case of preconceived notions! Stablecoins are not speculative or investments at all - their price stays the same. That's where stable in stablecoin comes from. You see crypto and think day trading

> their price stays the same. TerraUSD enters the chat You're right that they aren't speculative in the financial sense of "hopefully gaining value over time", but you do speculate (in the more general sense) on the fiat-pegging mechanism(s) to work to preserve the value you are storing in them...

Sure, in the same way that holding USD is speculating that the government won't halve its value tomorrow. There's speculation, and then there's speculation.

Re: Fintech dystopia

#240

Post by lurk2 »

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?

You are misinterpreting his comment. He is saying that the idea that you need to store your money in a foreign bank account to keep it safe is an argument in favor of cryptocurrency, because that way you don’t need to rely on a foreign bank at all.
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