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Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

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Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#451

Post by [deleted] »

WA wrote: post #275
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to disagree with your timescale, mainly in the use of 'web' rather than 'internet'. The 'internet', which set the foundation for the 'web' started its existence in the 70's, and the 'web' wasn't really invented until the late 80's / early 90's. Memory of time passing seemingly gets very compressed the further back you go. Additionally, Bitcoin is an attempt at disrupting elements of the financial world (and…

Smartphones, internet, web – these things had perceived value without complicated language. Bitcoin, crypto, NFTs, it's always the same: "You don't get it, because you don't understand the fundamentals. ". It's just wrong. There is no real value for most people. That's why crypto bros hide behind complicated terminology. That's why the value proposition of Bitcoin changed a couple times. That's why the terminology sh…

[deleted]

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#452

Post by BLKNSLVR »

WA wrote: post #275
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to disagree with your timescale, mainly in the use of 'web' rather than 'internet'. The 'internet', which set the foundation for the 'web' started its existence in the 70's, and the 'web' wasn't really invented until the late 80's / early 90's. Memory of time passing seemingly gets very compressed the further back you go. Additionally, Bitcoin is an attempt at disrupting elements of the financial world (and…

Smartphones, internet, web – these things had perceived value without complicated language. Bitcoin, crypto, NFTs, it's always the same: "You don't get it, because you don't understand the fundamentals. ". It's just wrong. There is no real value for most people. That's why crypto bros hide behind complicated terminology. That's why the value proposition of Bitcoin changed a couple times. That's why the terminology sh…

"It's just wrong" is wrong. It's complicated because it's complicated. Try explaining quantum physics. Complexity is a function of the shoulders upon which the new thing is standing. Cryptocurrency sits atop cryptography, which is conceptually difficult to grasp even for HN regulars.

The potential (I say potential because I'm aware enough to know that certain things are not yet proven) value for "most people" is a reduction of the corruption inherent in the processing of financial transactions. This is far enough separated from the average persons day to day that it doesn't seem to have value. But things like the GFC bring that awareness to the fore... briefly.

The terminology doesn't "shift all the time" and if that's how you see it then you're not keeping up and therefore your opinion and commentary carries little weight. The terminology you're talking about is new functionality offered by the ecosystem, it's not a rebranding or business pivot, it's a new branch of services.

DeFi is an example of the services that can be built upon cryptocurrency (with smart contracts) and, like the cause of this discussion, takes time to build awareness and a customer base.

Web3 is just another branch of functionality that can sit atop cryptocurrency / smart contracts. The terminology may well be bullshit, just like "social" was web-2-point-oh way back seven years ago, but it's the concept that matters, and the alternative, or disruption, that it facilitates.

Web3 appears to be a kind of meta-internet. Bullshit terminology aside, I'm interested to see what will come of it.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#453

Post by perl4ever »

qeternity wrote: post #307
ahtihn wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’re already short USDT anytime you buy crypto in USDT terms (i.e. BTC/USDT That doesn't make any sense. If I buy BTC with USD and then transfer it to an exchange with a BTC/USDT pair, I'm not suddenly "short USDT". So I don't see why buying BTC with USDT directly makes me short USDT either if I didn't borrow the USDT but bought it with USD

> If I buy BTC with USD and then transfer it to an exchange with a BTC/USDT pair, I'm not suddenly "short USDT". It does, it just doesn’t make you short against USD which is what you’re thinking of. It only makes you short vs. BTC which we expect to collapse in price as well. This is why you need the other leg. > So I don't see why buying BTC with USDT directly makes me short USDT either if I didn't borrow the USDT b…

>So when we talk about (for instance) the price of AAPL stock, what we really mean is AAPL/USD. Or when we talk about the price of crude oil we really mean CL/USD. I am buying AAPL, selling USD. Or I am selling crude oil, buying dollars.

This sounds eminently reasonable to me.

However, it immediately reminds me of all the people (I haven't seen one in a while though) who go on about the geopolitical significance of what currency oil or other commodities is denominated in.

I'm just not sure how numerous and influential the latter sort of view is, and it unsettles me at times when they appear to be everywhere and the things you say aren't.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#454

Post by BLKNSLVR »

acdha wrote: post #356
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to disagree with your timescale, mainly in the use of 'web' rather than 'internet'. The 'internet', which set the foundation for the 'web' started its existence in the 70's, and the 'web' wasn't really invented until the late 80's / early 90's. Memory of time passing seemingly gets very compressed the further back you go. Additionally, Bitcoin is an attempt at disrupting elements of the financial world (and…

Okay, use the Internet and computer networks in general. Network connectivity was expensive and slow until the late 90s. Computers were very expensive, further limiting reach, until the personal computer revolution opened it up and prices came down in the 1990s. Software was primitive, too, limiting reach and capabilities - people who could afford Macs or Amigas had GUIs but that wasn’t mainstream until the Windows 3…

A pure fiat currency like Bitcoin with weak backing, plenty of competition, and no innate demand

And yet 13 years later it seems to be pretty healthy. I wonder if there's maybe more to it than what you are allowing yourself to see?

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#455

Post by perl4ever »

qeternity wrote: post #349
arcticbull wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Separately from all this, there are SPX options, they're cash-settled European index options (for those on the sidelines American options can be exercised any time up to expiry, European only on the day of expiry) with a $100/tick notional contract value. They're super useful if you want to trade indices (as compared to say SPY options) because you don't have to deal with dividend-triggered exercise risk and they off…

Yes, you've got the CBOE crap, you've got a gazillion other smaller venues, and you've got desks at every bank which will write you options on whatever you like. OP is talking about trading ES and SPX, and it was more likely they had confused it with SPY given the other confusion around tick sizes and given the size of the big daddy SP contract (and the language suggested this person had just gone to the CME site and…

I don't have any experience trading index options on the S&P 500, but they seem to be (at least sometimes) displayed as "$SPX.X".

I would've thought that SPX would be a natural shorthand, even though it is also the index itself.

Also, I thought Joe/Jane Schmoe could just trade (some) index options with a regular broker, providing they have enough money.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#456

Post by nrb »

imtringued wrote: post #320
nrb wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Included in the coinbase parameter of the genesis block of Bitcoin is the following message: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”

Bitcoin doesn't eliminate the need for bailouts. It doesn't even do lending, at least nobody is crazy enough to borrow something that is going up in value.

Well, essentially it seemed to be pointing out that existing financial systems are inherently unstable by design. Whether these alternatives do any better is a different topic, I was merely answering the question above.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#457

Post by acdha »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #454
acdha wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, use the Internet and computer networks in general. Network connectivity was expensive and slow until the late 90s. Computers were very expensive, further limiting reach, until the personal computer revolution opened it up and prices came down in the 1990s. Software was primitive, too, limiting reach and capabilities - people who could afford Macs or Amigas had GUIs but that wasn’t mainstream until the Windows 3…

A pure fiat currency like Bitcoin with weak backing, plenty of competition, and no innate demand And yet 13 years later it seems to be pretty healthy. I wonder if there's maybe more to it than what you are allowing yourself to see?

Healthy would be normal people using it for things other than speculation. Who’s using it because it makes their life better in some way?

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#458

Post by graeme »

jvilleBrat wrote: post #441
adflux wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tether most likely holding CHINESE paper. The kind that probably lost a lot of value in the past weeks. Follow BennettTomlin on Twitter, he has been researching tether for years.

Why are they downvoting you? The article mentions that they do claim to own a lot of Chinese paper

Not just that. The reporter saw their statement listing ownership.

They value their paper “at redemption value” which is a loophole so big they don’t need to lie. They can hold $10 billion worth of paper and value it at $30 billion.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#459

Post by FatalLogic »

qeternity wrote: post #345
anonymoushn wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't just cited it! I said I saw a screenshot. I don't have a date or whatever, but if someone has a date then I can download the ticks from that day and check it out. Without a date I can't compare the short interest at Kraken to e.g. the $100,000,000 OI in USD-settled USDT futures at FTX today.

May 11, 2019 - https://trade.kraken.com/charts/KRAKEN:USDT-USD Took me all of 10 seconds to find this.

Are you sure that actually happened?

It should have been a huge story, but there seems nothing reported

https://www.google.com/search?q=kraken+usdt&tbs=cdr:1,cd_min...

If something that weird (a USDT price spike to $1000) really did happen, somehow nobody noticed and nobody was affected, in spite of millions of dollars of daily trades in that market at that time

It's probably a glitch in Kraken's historical chart

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#460

Post by skinnymuch »

numair wrote: post #274
Daishiman wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every other crypto investment seems to be run by someone with past criminal convictions, accusations of sexual misconduct, or shady past. I have somehow been able to avoid all of this in my own career without much effort. It speaks volumes that this is the kind of characters interested in this space.

So you’ve never used anything connected to Facebook?

What could this possibly mean? Why single out Facebook?
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