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We’re discontinuing the Stablegains service

blog.stablegains.com

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Re: We’re discontinuing the Stablegains service

#281

Post by formerkrogemp »

empathy_m wrote: post #277
jmyeet wrote: post #100

What's funny about this is that I can recall discussions here and elsewhere from only a few months ago questioning the "guaranteed" super-high returns. I forget who said this but someone awhile ago said in finance said that if someone is promising you consistent above-market returns it's either a scam or there is unknown or undisclosed risk. And the Crypto Andys were all like "you just don't understand DeFi!" to whic…

I invested money with Stablegains rather than in UST/Anchor more directly because of the YCombinator branding. I figured that if the system collapsed, I would be able to notice it early and withdraw, and that YC-affiliated investor money would help compensate me with more luck than if I had to liquidate out of the system myself. I withdrew after seeing a friend on Cryptography Twitter send a message showing the desta…

> The YC brand worked here, I think.

Congratulations? You weren't one of those who lost all of their money to this YC supported scam. Scams and get-rich-quick or get-more-rich off of the backs of others: that's the YC brand here and increasingly elsewhere. Paul Graham started this accelerator to make himself and his wife rich. YC exists to enrich its owners not as your litmus test for trustworthiness. Money over morality is the motto here. Libertarian values, limited government, startups as silver bullets, founding workers working themselves to death to enrich venture capitalists, and Dunning-Kruger for days in the form of Paul Graham. Are you poor? 'Have you tried making a startup?' is Paul Graham's solution to poverty as with everything else. You might as well ask 'Have you tried not being poor?'

Re: We’re discontinuing the Stablegains service

#282

Post by smugma »

323 wrote: post #211
koheripbal wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What most people don't understand about finance is that there are fundamental rules that you really cannot break without consequences. Anyone who has studied quantitative finance knows that it is a HARD science. I worked with a Nobel prize winner in economics, and the math dominated. There was no politics, no opinions, no ethics involved. It really is a science. Most social media characterize finance as some ethical…

> It really is a science. Physics is a science. Math is. Or Biology. Finance is not. Because it deals with the madness of crowds. > Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street > And Li's Gaussian copula formula will go down in history as instrumental in causing the unfathomable losses that brought the world financial system to its knees. > Nassim Nicholas Taleb is particularly harsh when it comes to the…

Math is not science. Arithmetic and geometry were two of the original liberal arts (defined by Plato). Math doesn’t follow the scientific method. Math is a foundation for much of science and social science, but it is distinct from them.

Re: We’re discontinuing the Stablegains service

#283

Post by vgatherps »

djenendik wrote: post #257
mettamage wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Work at a HFT firm in Amsterdam. That type of finance knowledge will make you rich.

So you can guarantee 20% returns? We're back where started.

Market makers/HFT firms can have astronomical returns, hundreds of percents is not uncommon depending on how capital intensive the strategies are. The returns don't compound since strategies in this space are usually very capital constrained.

Re: We’re discontinuing the Stablegains service

#284

Post by insta_anon »

Hamuko wrote: post #122
nrmitchi wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further little notes from their documentation that, lets just say, "downplay the risk": - "You will not lose your funds because all loans are 100% asset-backed." ( https://stablegains.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402680425... ) - "Regardless if crypto markets are soaring or crashing, the value of assets under our management remains stable." ( https://stablegains.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402687671... ) It's ki…

> How long do you expect users can earn such high yields? > The basis for Stablegains' rate is Anchor Protocol's yield. At the time of writing, Anchor yield is set at 18% - 20% APY and expected to remain so for a long time. > We expect the rates of open finance protocols to beat those of traditional finance for a very long time. https://stablegains.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402680471...

https://archive.is/Rw891 archived just in case

Re: We’re discontinuing the Stablegains service

#285

Post by nieve »

empathy_m wrote: post #277
jmyeet wrote: post #100

What's funny about this is that I can recall discussions here and elsewhere from only a few months ago questioning the "guaranteed" super-high returns. I forget who said this but someone awhile ago said in finance said that if someone is promising you consistent above-market returns it's either a scam or there is unknown or undisclosed risk. And the Crypto Andys were all like "you just don't understand DeFi!" to whic…

I invested money with Stablegains rather than in UST/Anchor more directly because of the YCombinator branding. I figured that if the system collapsed, I would be able to notice it early and withdraw, and that YC-affiliated investor money would help compensate me with more luck than if I had to liquidate out of the system myself. I withdrew after seeing a friend on Cryptography Twitter send a message showing the desta…

It seems like what worked for you was having a source who was paying close attention, not the branding at all.

Re: We’re discontinuing the Stablegains service

#286

Post by caminante »

downandout wrote: post #268
rspeele wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, ok, so this is more like a thing where you drive around looking for loose change on the ground, and you find enough to exceed your fuel and maintenance expenses. But you can't scale it up by hiring more drivers, because there is only so much loose change to be found. Surely you see how even a 10% safe return on investment like these DeFi schemes offer is a whole different thing, when it's a compounding return. Th…

You are correct, but all investments have a maximum size at which returns will stop. That said, even large banks are seeing returns considered impossible in traditional markets with DeFi strategies, often with lower risk. Arb bots like mine are now generating more than $1 billion per year in risk-free earnings, so the pie is not exactly small. Estimates are that statistical arbitrage bots, which do take on some small…

>But in DeFi, intelligence and strategy translate directly to greater yield. Math has proven time and again that those things matter very little in traditional markets.

You're all over the place with your usage of concepts.

Here you say that intelligence and strategy matter little in "traditional" (vague) markets. Yet, in DeFi, they do.

Not buying it. It feels like I could copy and replace your replace all of your uses of "DeFi" in this thread with .

It's "different" than normal markets...I made it work personally (but not at scale)...

Re: We’re discontinuing the Stablegains service

#287

Post by chx »

null0pointer wrote: post #227
chx wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All crypto is a scam and it's so simple to see, it's astonishing anyone fell for this. Look. Imagine an otherwise empty room with a table and a few chairs. A couple people come in with some money in their pockets and cards. They play a few round of a card game, some lose, some win. When they leave, the room as it was before so it is crystal clear the sum of their money couldn't change. Some won, some lost but overall…

If you don’t think there is fundamental value in permissionless, uncensorable, peer-to-peer online money transfer that is not controlled by any government or any single entity at all then nothing anyone can say will be able to convince you otherwise. Notice how what I just described does not match the vast majority of these “crypto” projects. That is because they are not crypto. They do not adhere to the ethos of cry…

It's not money transfer. It's crypto"currency" transfer. See my comment on this thread elsewhere https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31462909

Re: We’re discontinuing the Stablegains service

#289

Post by vkou »

tjs8rj wrote: post #200
state_less wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we could all get a stable (guaranteed) 15% per year, everyone would invest. But the world economy doesn’t grow at 15%.

The US economy doesn’t grow at 7% a year but that’s what the s&p is expected to do

Population growth + inflation + transfer of wealth from workers to capital owners + productivity gains has over the long run been pretty close to 7%.

Re: We’re discontinuing the Stablegains service

#290

Post by tptacek »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #147
giantg2 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, they are also a YC backed company.

> For what it's worth, they are also a YC backed company Severely disappointing. I respect PG too much to believe he would knowingly condone this. The partner who did this didn't understand what they were investing in or should be decoupled with haste. At the very least, the Alaska RMB, U of M Endowment, Bloomberg's family office and SMC should be asking why their capital is backing what should have been clear as day…

What does Paul Graham have to do with any of this? He hasn't been operationally involved with YC for years, lots of them, so far as I know. Also: YC invests in companies that are 2-3 people and a vague idea; that's the whole concept. Why wouldn't YC end up backing a shady cryptocurrency company? I read all of your comments and guess we're on the same page about "crypto" and wish YC was staying the hell away from it --- but if they're going to invest in "crypto" startups, they're going to get their share of companies like this.
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