CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming • Hacker News Board

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#251

Post by SubjectToChange » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:02 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #64

lambda_obrien wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USG could kill it by using a 51 percent attack; the NSA must have rows upon rows of servers that could be repurposed for a week or two to destroy the market. Split the blockchain every couple of hours into several different versions, eventually there would be little chance to reconcile things.

>the NSA must have rows upon rows of servers that could be repurposed for a week or two to destroy the market Their general purpose servers are nearly useless for mining bitcoin because their hashrates are orders of magnitude lower than the ASICs that professional miners use. If you want to 51% attack bitcoin you either need an absurd number of general purpose computers (possibly more than all CPUs/GPUs that exist on…

$1B would be more than enough to design and manufacture all the necessary ASICs to cripple the network. They wouldn't even need to do a 51% attack to do so, e.g. selling coins at a complete loss would bleed the other miners white.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#252

Post by choward » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:03 PM UTC

Salgat wrote: post #120

liquidise wrote: post #4

> U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other officials have warned about the use of cryptocurrencies for illicit transactions. Wait until you hear about cash. More seriously (and hopefully less reductionist) i feel nations who embrace cryptocurrencies early will see mixed results as the landscape matures. I am more confident that nations which turn their back on it, or shut it out completely, will see a loss of o…

I don't ever see most nations willingly giving up monetary policy by ceding to cryptocurrencies. This is especially true for China and the US. They can however adopt their own version, where they remain the authority and would operate the nodes responsible for handling transactions. This would allow many of the advantages of cryptocurrencies while still allowing a country to control not only the money supply but also…

This isn't different from what we have now with central banking except you threw blockchain in for some reason. What value does that add?

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#253

Post by cslarson » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:05 PM UTC

graeme wrote: post #226

cslarson wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you not see what the importance of this new infrastructure? I come here and read these comments and am just at a loss for words at this point. Forget Bitcoin and look at Ethereum. This tech is so powerful I am in some ways scared of it and you call it a fad. The gulf between our interpretations drops my jaw to the floor :)

Can you name some use cases that aren’t trading crypto derivatives or crypto debt? Ethereum is certainly more interesting than Bitcoin but the use cases so far seem to be more speculation.

Sovereign identity, DAOs, NFTs (not just the art stuff which atm is a little cringe but game items, land registries, deeds), stablecoins (usdc, dai, yes there is also wilder experimentation here).

I think people can quickly get dissuaded by some negatives like lack of scaling or environmental issues. These are real but are being solved. We really need communities like HN to engage because if proponents are right then the change will be vast and we are unprepared.

My personal favorite outcome is playing out right now. When a tech company is successful they capture near 100% of the value, despite leeching content off users. Ethereum based projects generally share rewards with the community of users that make the protocol/network successful. Applications are forkable, not just the code but the community, too. The community is in control.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#254

Post by OGWhales » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:06 PM UTC

drog wrote: post #221

puranjay wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto maximalists - and I know a LOT of them - are drawn to crypto because of ideology, not just the money. The idea that a person should own his/her own assets, be able to share and use them whenever they want, and be free from government censorship and foolhardy economic stewardship is incredibly powerful. When governments talk about banning crypto, what scares them isn't crypto; it's this ideology. And this ideol…

Why is this post so downvoted? It seems that antigovernment sentiment is not popular here It’s not only that but also all that “crypto is not technologically interesting and it’s just Ponzi scheme!”. There are so many interesting and unique things there. You can mix cryptography, finance, etc. into endless amount of protocols. Here is some interesting ideas in crypto: decentralized stable coin (dai), automatic market…

> Why is this post so downvoted?

Oddly, HN is over all rather closed minded about cryptocurrencies/blockchain. I can understand being jaded at all the bitcoin maximalist out there that are frankly ignorant or even just being generally weary about the idea of such currencies... but it seems like the general sentiment is very negative in almost every thread with very minimal understanding of cryptocurrencies or frankly currencies in general.

Shame, tbh. I wish there was better discussion on the topic. Blockchain is very cool, even if you don't believe bitcoin is replacing your dollars ever.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

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Post by fock » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:07 PM UTC

bko wrote: post #153

kelnos wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whatever your stance on cryptocurrencies are, what is of little dispute is the business opportunities they have created. Binance and Coinbase are large, successful companies. Poloniex was sold for ~400M. I find this argument a little weird, because I think we can all agree that bubbles and fad tech isn't really great for society as a whole. If you believe cryptocurrencies aren't a fad and actually provide useful be…

Crypto is a better version of gold and a store of wealth that whose supply isn't at the whims of central banks. Gold has a purpose. Central banks may pretend that gold serves no purpose in a modern economy, but they still hold on to trillions in gold. I hope eventually they'll get around to holding a crypto currency like Bitcoin. They're just upset they don't have a head start in accumulating a reserve.

yay, now it's at the whims of connectivity to a global computer network and cheap energy (not only in the past, but also in the future).

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

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Post by puranjay » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:07 PM UTC

arcturus17 wrote: post #178

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #86

HN is boomer central when it comes to crypto. Haven't had a single enlightening discussion about it here. I see a lot of misconceptions about scams and pump and dump schemes carried over from the 2017 run, and complete neglect of the innovations created since. If anyone wants a refresher, I'm always willing to chat. I will also write a primer to help get folks up to speed on what's the latest in crypto.

Yea no I've seen plenty of you folks talking about recent innovations in crypto and I'm just not persuaded that any of it is remotely useful other than maybe store of value and certainly speculation. I'm not a boomer, and I even own a decent position in BTC / ETH.

I'll give you an example.

The most "mainstream" revolutionary idea in crypto right now is automated market makers (AMMs) like Uniswap. These essentially allow anyone to create a "pool" to trade between two assets and earn fees from it.

You can tokenize any asset, pair it with a liquid token (such as ETH or USDT) and offer it to anyone to trade while you earn fees. Or you can join an existing, popular pool (such as between wBTC-ETH) and earn fees on any trades that happen on it.

Essentially, anyone can:

- Create a decentralized exchange economy

- Participate in existing exchange economies with any amount of capital and earn fees from it

The latter part is important because that's been the purview of banks. Countless trades happen between currency pairs daily. Banks earn all the fees because they supply all the liquidity. You can't participate in that market even if you wanted to (or unless you had tens of billions in capital).

AMMs turn that around. You could have $1 worth of liquidity but you can still earn fees on it.

This is the first time in the history of finance that creating and participating in exchange economies has been so cheap and accessible. I think that alone is revolutionary. It makes previously inaccessible financial avenues available to the little guy

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

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Post by walterbell » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:08 PM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #200

walterbell wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See this comment from a larger thread on CBDCs: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26205741 May or may not be repurposed: https://www.goodhealthpass.org & https://www.lfph.io/ & https://trustoverip.org/ There's been talk of a KYC requirement for all customers of US web hosting because cyber.

Having worked with more than one of those member companies in that foundation, the one thing I've learned about conspiracy theorists is that what they really lack is imagination and vision.

Identity is necessary but boring. US SSNs were used by third-parties far beyond the original purpose. Any identity system that achieves global scale can be used to anchor a risk score. Which systems do you consider good candidates for global digital identity and credit score? Cryptocurrency exchanges are using driver's license and utility company bills. The IaaS KYC EO basically says "record as much as possible", https://www.steptoeinternationalcomplianceblog.com/2021/02/u.... If we take inspiration from online advertisers, no formal "identity" is required, they can construct a profile from online signals, but there would zero legislative recourse for false positives.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

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Post by hatsunearu » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:09 PM UTC

rudderz wrote: post #137

kelnos wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whatever your stance on cryptocurrencies are, what is of little dispute is the business opportunities they have created. Binance and Coinbase are large, successful companies. Poloniex was sold for ~400M. I find this argument a little weird, because I think we can all agree that bubbles and fad tech isn't really great for society as a whole. If you believe cryptocurrencies aren't a fad and actually provide useful be…

Take crypto out of the equation, what are the implications of the fed issuing a programmable currency? Many financial services would become obsolete. What do I need a stock broker for? What do I need a bank for? You have Wall St and other sophisticated investors profiteering and competing against the general public, devaluing our purchasing power, making leveraged trades because they know the public will hold the bag…

The majority of economic activity is not "programmable"--if I order a ship load of steel from some country, how is that contract going to be enforceable/verifiable with cryptoeconomic techniques?

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

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Post by noxer » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:10 PM UTC

RealityVoid wrote: post #185

noxer wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It already is. You cant buy one without KYC. Unless you go to "dark" places where you may or may not get scammed. Unless you already have cryoto then ofc you can exchange it but most people need a fiat on-ramp.

Don't be silly, of course you can. It's inconvenient, but not impossible. ON/OFF ramps are the parts that they could regulate but the tighter they squeeze, the better the circumvention methods will be. I think HN really overestimates the ability of states to keep this under wraps and underestimate the ability of the ecosystem to adapt.

Name one place where you can buy BTC with fiat without KYC.

Re: CEO of a top Bitcoin exchange warns: crackdown on cryptocurrencies may be coming

#260

Post by admg » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:10 PM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #109

liquidise wrote: post #4

> U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other officials have warned about the use of cryptocurrencies for illicit transactions. Wait until you hear about cash. More seriously (and hopefully less reductionist) i feel nations who embrace cryptocurrencies early will see mixed results as the landscape matures. I am more confident that nations which turn their back on it, or shut it out completely, will see a loss of o…

> Whatever your stance on cryptocurrencies are, what is of little dispute is the business opportunities they have created. Binance and Coinbase are large, successful companies. Poloniex was sold for ~400M. I find this argument a little weird, because I think we can all agree that bubbles and fad tech isn't really great for society as a whole. If you believe cryptocurrencies aren't a fad and actually provide useful be…

Totally get your point here, however the counter that always gets me is the rate of quantitative easing in the US/UK. Not sure on accuracy of this but I've seen figures(cityam website) saying around 18% of all US dollars were created in 2020. There's a good argument that it's safer financially to put money into crypto. Personally I feel quite unsettled with both traditional finance and crypto at the moment.