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Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

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Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#241

Post by basilikum »

paxys wrote: post #194
basilikum wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is traceable by design. That's how a public ledger works. It is merely pseudonymous. But it leaves complete public money trail. If your Bitcoin ever associate with your real identity, which they tend to do when you actually use them, your anonymity is gone. There is a reason why Monero exists.

The ledger is traceable, the coin is not. Not all transactions have to happen on the blockchain. In fact very few do. If I put $80m worth of BTC in my hardware wallet and physically hand it to you in exchange for a truck full of black market rockets, who is going to trace it?

Transferring private keys defeats the point of Bitcoin. The whole reason for the whole ledger and PoW thing is to prevent double spend.

Lightning is an attempt to do that in a more efficient and potentially private way. But why would I ever accept your private keys as payment without transferring the coins out to my wallet on chain?

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#242

Post by embedding-shape »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #238
embedding-shape wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Doesn't matter, tbh. It does matter, for non-Americans, that America isn't the world police and doesn't dictate laws, norms and how other countries behave. Maybe it used to be relatively fringe to have this point of view, but last few years really vindicated this point of view, and I agree that many countries in the world should continue focusing on decoupling themselves from the US, this particular issue highlight…

> It does matter, for non-Americans, that America isn't the world police and doesn't dictate laws, norms and how other countries behave. Maybe it used to be relatively fringe to have this point of view, but last few years really vindicated this point of view, and I agree that many countries in the world should continue focusing on decoupling themselves from the US, this particular issue highlights one motivation for…

> Like, how would you even spin this as a good change?

I'm not American, why would I want American laws to apply to me? How could you possibly spin that as a negative change?

> but that doesn't change the fact that these laws exist basically everywhere

So you're saying that there is a Maltese law (or whatever jurisdiction Binance actually is right now) that is saying Maltese companies cannot do business dealings with anyone from Iran? That's the important part, not whatever the US laws says.

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#243

Post by embedding-shape »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #239
embedding-shape wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So going back to the original question, "Is Iran supposed supposed to be banned on Binance?" still doesn't have a clear answer? It might be that Binance are OK with being cut off from banks or what not, and since there is no thing like "global sanctions", and Binance doesn't seem related to the US either legally or by the individuals running the company, they probably don't need to have Iran banned?

> So going back to the original question, "Is Iran supposed supposed to be banned on Binance?" still doesn't have a clear answer? I mean, theoretically not, but practically yes. Basically every bank has dollar reserves and as such get caught up in the sanctions screening process. Again, sanctions are most problematic for entities when used by the US, but the EU and other governments also do this, and if you want to t…

Ok, but isn't that then up to Binance to decide themselves, if to allow that to happen or not? Lots of people here seem to assume because US embargoes say this or that, means Binance should obviously make one particular choice, but shouldn't that be up to Binance and/or whatever jurisdiction they're in, in actuality?

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#244

Post by xnx »

carshodev wrote: post #110
rwmj wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a rather narrow view of crypto's uses. What about subverting democracy by bribing the President?

Has the lack of crypto ever stopped this from happening? Look up cases of gold bars being found in senators houses, those are actually MUCH less tracable. Shitcoins and Shitstocks(some SPACs) do allow of a legal way to "give" others money through the transfer of value in a way that is technically legal. This again is not crypto specific though.

Has the scale of bribery ever been as large and as broad before crypto?

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#245

Post by throw0101a »

carshodev wrote: post #119
numbers_guy wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in 2011 I remember a lot of people talking about how the Chinese oligarchs were using it to evade currency controls and funnel their wealth out of China.

Yes but we should be reminded that this also allows people to be protected from government overreach. If you say something the Chinese government does not agree with they can choose to take all your money and control of your company instantly. Not just oligarchs although those are the bigger targets due to the high value. Even a small business owner could THEORETICALLY have their assets and equity seized for saying s…

> Crypto allow someone to distribute their wealth in a way where they can be free to speak their mind and still protected even if the country which their business is based out of decides to take action against them.

Transferring money between people internationally has been around for centuries:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala

You transfer X units of value from you to someone else in the network locally, and an equivalent amount is transferred to you in a remote location.

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#246

Post by throw0101a »

carshodev wrote: post #111
wpietri wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems entirely accurate to me, at least in a POSIWID sense. The original theory of Bitcoin was, as described in the paper, decentralized digital cash. But in practice it was never optimized for what normal people use cash for. As system like that would be something like M-PESA. Even at the time, cash was declining in usage. In the 18 years since, it has declined a lot more. And for good reason, because what most p…

Although it was originally intended to be cash it actually now is used as a "store of wealth" It allows people to build up wealth and be able to preserve it from government intervention and inflation. If you have stocks the ownerhsip and registration is controlled by a government and can be taken at any time from you. Look at china where if you have a large company and take a stand against the government all your equ…

> Although it was originally intended to be cash it actually now is used as a "store of wealth"

For some definition of "actually", given how much it has dropped recently. When he was still a just a candidate, the current Opposition leader in Canada was very excited about Bitcoin:

> As Poilievre campaigned for the Tory leadership on the way to a landslide victory, he spoke positively about decentralized finance and cryptocurrency. At one point, he argued that crypto would allow Canadians to "opt-out" of inflation, which was soaring at the time. And he famously used Bitcoin to purchase a shawarma at a London, Ont., restaurant in March 2022.

* Nov 2023: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cryptocurrency-political-co...

> In 2022, when Pierre Poilievre was a Conservative leadership candidate, he said he’d make Canada the crypto capital of the world. According to him, the Bank of Canada was “ruining” the Canadian dollar, printing money and ramping up inflation to fund COVID-19 relief. His solution? Give Canadians crypto as an alternative currency.

* Apr 2025: https://macleans.ca/politics/who-stands-to-win-in-poilievres...

Given the noise that was made about inflation at the time and the (alleged) devaluation of the CAD, I'm curious to know what the inflation rate equivalent would be now (Feb 2026) if Bitcoin is used as the monetary base.

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#247

Post by Shocka1 »

VirusNewbie wrote: post #152
beAbU wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The moment that crypto is cashed out at a bank, no matter how sketchy, a record is created in a ledger. This completely destroys the so-called anonymity of cryptocurrencies.

No it doesn't. If I go to an escrow company, transfer my ten million in bitcoin to their wallet and they put money into the bank, the only paper trail is the escrow company. Escrow companies open and close all the time for this very reason. People wash money alllll day long with US real estate for this reason.

Curious though, if escrow company gets subpoenaed and is a legit business, would they not be inclined to reveal the customer they interacted with?

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#248

Post by [deleted] »

basilikum wrote: post #241
paxys wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ledger is traceable, the coin is not. Not all transactions have to happen on the blockchain. In fact very few do. If I put $80m worth of BTC in my hardware wallet and physically hand it to you in exchange for a truck full of black market rockets, who is going to trace it?

Transferring private keys defeats the point of Bitcoin. The whole reason for the whole ledger and PoW thing is to prevent double spend. Lightning is an attempt to do that in a more efficient and potentially private way. But why would I ever accept your private keys as payment without transferring the coins out to my wallet on chain?

[deleted]

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#249

Post by bulbar »

lacoolj wrote: post #94

Contrary to a lot of comments here, the only way to use bitcoin (or any cryptocurrency) without tracking is to mine it yourself, and even then... Where did you get it? Purchased/transferred? Where did they get it? What else did the person with that wallet do? If the answer is "mined", even then, you have to actually do something with it, right? Buy something? Where is that something shipped? At worst you'll have to p…

> Where did you get it? Purchased/transferred? Where did they get it?

NFTs solved that problem by providing plausible cause of "I got the money from selling this money image for 100,000 USD"

Re: Binance fired employees who found $1.7B in crypto was sent to Iran

#250

Post by crazygringo »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #178
crazygringo wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a major distinction, however, in that it's a heck of a lot harder to safely and reliably lug briefcases or suitcases full of $100 bills from Chicago to Tehran, than it is to click and transfer some Bitcoin. Which is the whole point.

Yes, mostly they are distributed via pallets out the back of C130s (Definitely in Iraq and Afghanistan, I don't know if there's any back channel deals at the moment paying off Iranians in 100$ bills but I wouldn't be surprised if we were nudging for regime change by funding revolutionaries)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's limited exclusively to countries the US is currently invading...
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