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South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

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Re: South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

#51
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why is that? The web3/crypto community seems to select for individuals with an almost proud ignorance of the law and state power. The same personality that can make a 21st-century gold bug pitch ( e.g. a world on crypto is one without wars, Bitcoin is impossible to ban, or Luna is magically stable et cetera ) is one that reacts to an arrest warrant by no showing and tweeting.

You know, it's kinda funny that you mention gold bugs. Because gold shares a lot of properties with Bitcoin, and therefore should be considered a sham by most of HN. Yet somehow it sits currently at $1,670/oz and is owned by all major central banks in the world.

We could argue (and agree) that Canada isn’t major, but their central bank sold off their bullion gold reserves ~ 2 decades ago. And finished off its hodl of gold coins ~7 years ago.

https://www.kitco.com/news/2022-05-26/Gold-is-an-antique-ins...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/gold-canada-reserves-1.3443...

Re: South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

#52
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> gold shares a lot of properties with Bitcoin, and therefore should be considered a sham by most of HN Gold and gold buggery are separate. Gold and silver have deep precedence as money. They're also useful commodities. Gold buggery involves retail investors disproportionately allocating to gold as a buy-and-hold asset, often with emotional attachment. Those buying crypto because it's going to free the world or whate…

Central banks definitely don't own gold because it's such a useful commodity. Are central banks gold bugs?

> Central banks definitely don't own gold because it's such a useful commodity. Are central banks gold bugs?

Are central banks retail investors? Are they buying gold to "to free the world or whatever"? No [1]?

Gold and silver have deep precedence as money. This leads to them trading as haven assets, i.e. their price rises when financial conditions deteriorate. Bitcoin doesn't. It trades as a risk asset, i.e. its price falls when financial conditions deteriorate. This could change! But that's true of literally every thing traded.

[1] https://www.bis.org/publ/work906.pdf

Re: South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remove KYC+AML from the banking/monetary system Luna's downfall and Do Kwon's pending red notice have nothing to do with KYC or AML.

>Luna's downfall and Do Kwon's pending red notice have nothing to do with KYC or AML. I disagree here. The 'killer app' feature of crypto is that it's basically imperfect banking without KYC/AML. Without crypto's popularity it's doubtful Do Kwon and Luna would have gotten such a foothold.

> [crypto is] basically imperfect banking without KYC/AML

Pretty solid case for why these folks should go to jail. Or at the very least, be disgorged of their gains and banned from finance.

Re: South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

#54
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of an old skit, I think from Monty Python. Where a bunch of people in ancient rome are pissed off. "What has Rome ever done for us?!". "Expect for roads" "And sewers" "And protection from invaders" "And enforced contracts" And so on...

Quoted post unavailable.

Surely you realize that if the power vacuum isn't filled by a democratic or mostly democratic or even somewhat democratic government, it will be happily met by a despot or a warlord?

The steady state of parts of the globe that don't have governments is 'government, but by cartels or warlords or revolutionary people's liberation armies'.

Which have all the powers of governments, without any of the self-constraints, legal processes, protected abilities for petition or redress, or mechanisms for peaceful transfer of power.

Re: South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

#55
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not the Korean elite. He screwed over the Korean elite. They will throw the book at him I'd guess.

> He screwed over the Korean elite There is zero chance they’re falling for crypto. This is a problem for the gambling masses. To the degree it harms any elite, it’s by introducing political instability in Korea and reducing Singapore’s standing as a stable financial centre.

a) Screwing over a large amount of the Korean population is screwing over the korean elite(because it creates a populist outcry) (I lived in Korea for years. And I can tell you that a way higher percentage of the population is betting on crypto than in western countries

b) This appears to be across the socio economic spectrum. If you think there aren't a ton of rich people throwing money into crypto I guess I'll just say I think you are wrong.

Re: South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

#56
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Surely you realize that if the power vacuum isn't filled by a democratic or mostly democratic or even somewhat democratic government, it will be happily met by a despot or a warlord? The steady state of parts of the globe that don't have governments is 'government, but by cartels or warlords or revolutionary people's liberation armies'. Which have all the powers of governments, without any of the self-constraints, le…

No I don't realize that.

Re: South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

#57
post #34
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, it's kinda funny that you mention gold bugs. Because gold shares a lot of properties with Bitcoin, and therefore should be considered a sham by most of HN. Yet somehow it sits currently at $1,670/oz and is owned by all major central banks in the world.

Thousands of years of cultural significance enables gold to be assigned more value then it otherwise would have.

Exactly. There are plenty of other precious metals that could have been used for the same purposes as gold (e.g., platinum, palladium, iridium). But they aren't. For various historical reasons.

Re: South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

#58
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why is that? The web3/crypto community seems to select for individuals with an almost proud ignorance of the law and state power. The same personality that can make a 21st-century gold bug pitch ( e.g. a world on crypto is one without wars, Bitcoin is impossible to ban, or Luna is magically stable et cetera ) is one that reacts to an arrest warrant by no showing and tweeting.

So it's a counter-culture thing like hippies and punks of the past? I thought those all died with moderated social media. Is it at all about "sticking it to the man" or is it purely profit motivated (by the followers of those individuals)? It's most likely a mix of the two, but to what degree.

A lot of the crypto culture is IMO not counter-culture, but almost "hyper-culture". Crypto lives on hype. Most rhetoric used by the likes of Do Kwon is focused around building hype for their particular brand of crypto, hoping to entice other people to invest in it.

They may use some terminology that sounds similar to counter culture at face value (eg "stick it to the big banks!") but they aren't doing this in the counter culture mode of rejection, they are simply using it as a sales pitch towards moving more crypto.

Re: South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

#59
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why is that? The web3/crypto community seems to select for individuals with an almost proud ignorance of the law and state power. The same personality that can make a 21st-century gold bug pitch ( e.g. a world on crypto is one without wars, Bitcoin is impossible to ban, or Luna is magically stable et cetera ) is one that reacts to an arrest warrant by no showing and tweeting.

You know, it's kinda funny that you mention gold bugs. Because gold shares a lot of properties with Bitcoin, and therefore should be considered a sham by most of HN. Yet somehow it sits currently at $1,670/oz and is owned by all major central banks in the world.

https://images.app.goo.gl/kYh4i5pcJupVpacR8

Gold scams have been around for a significant number of decades. Bitcoin has been hyped to death for its entire existence, in spite of the "properties" it shares with gold.

Note: I own neither.

Re: South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon 'obviously on the run', asks Interpol help

#60
post #3

I naively thought that it would take centuries of inflation before seeing ponzi schemes beating the magnitude of Madoff, it only took 10 years.

The vast majority of Madoff's victims were middle class pensioners who had their entire lives upended because their fund managers trusted the wrong person. In this case it's hard to feel any sympathy for crypto speculators.
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