Live data from Hacker News

Binance to acquire FTX

bloomberg.com

511–520 of 790 posts

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've been reading the DID spec.

Which is basically an energy-wasting form of the Blue Checkmark?

With the proof of stake release for Eth, is this point still valid?

Bitcoin is still energy intensive, but that has nothing to do with NFTs.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#512
Crypto had been interesting experiment. My take away is that there cannot be decentralized currency or finance. Dectralization does not prevent bad actors. Someone with an army and authority must be there to punish bad actors and keep them in check or otherwise they are out to con you. The argument that people just need to be smart to not get dupped does not work.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#513
post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those not up to date on crypto people, SBF is Sam Bankman-Fried [1] and CZ is Changpeng Zhao [2]. I don't know why they insist on being called by their initials like they're some sort of ticker symbol. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bankman-Fried [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changpeng_Zhao

It’s common in many internet circles to refer to prominent people by their initials. Hackerdom has a long tradition of this: rms gls esr jwz et al. It also tends to happen in US federal politics for some reason (jfk rfk gwb fdr et al) but not to everyone.

Fun crossover: IKE, internet key exchange had a proposed successor JFK

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#514

Binance was threatening to dump a huge amount of FTT tokens on the market. FTX has a big+vulnerable position in FTT. FTX asked Binance to sell them the tokens for a fixed price, so as not to crash the FTT token price. Binance declined - this was yesterday/today. Of course the price of FTT crashed today. And now Binance buys FTX to help them out... smells like Binance played 4D chess all along. https://decrypt.co/1136…

FTX should never been in this position. They are an exchange. Nobody should be able to obliterate them by playing around with their crypto.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#516

Crypto had been interesting experiment. My take away is that there cannot be decentralized currency or finance. Dectralization does not prevent bad actors. Someone with an army and authority must be there to punish bad actors and keep them in check or otherwise they are out to con you. The argument that people just need to be smart to not get dupped does not work.

My takeaway is that cryptocurrencies will continue to exist like the BitTorrent protocol remains used even when Netflix, and all exist.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What have you been "using" Bitcoin for, may I ask?

- Long term "Savings account" - a volatile one, of course - I buy stuff from online with it, household items (In country I live you can basically buy anything with BTC) - Travel, I book hotels/flight with it and once I rented a boat for a family trip In addition to that I now and then try to pay with Bitcoins at other stores. Last time got excited about boltcards ( https://github.com/boltcard/boltcard ) there are few…

What country is that, if you don't mind sharing? It's the first time I hear this

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That experiment already failed to be honest. Cryptocurrencies were prophesized to get rid of banks. Instead exchanges reinvented banks with all the drawbacks and none of the benefits. Cryptocurrencies were supposed to be in wide circulation just like USD, eliminating the need for fiat on/off ramps. Instead we got these centralized corporations and endless KYC/AML surveillance with none of the regulation and governmen…

The coins have failed because the exchanges failed and people use them incorrectly. Got it.

The coins have failed at the moment because prices have crashed. No one was complaining about coins failing when prices were soaring.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#519
post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those not up to date on crypto people, SBF is Sam Bankman-Fried [1] and CZ is Changpeng Zhao [2]. I don't know why they insist on being called by their initials like they're some sort of ticker symbol. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bankman-Fried [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changpeng_Zhao

You see the same thing with Middle East Leaders - MBS, MBZ, etc. When the names are even semi-complex and the reach is global, people default to acronyms.

Also AOC, MLK, FDR, and JFK!

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#520
post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also turns out that "decentralized" in practice means "centralized"

Centralization is more efficient than consensus building.

This is true. Don't know why people are down voting you. But it calls into question why we need centralized exchanges of decentralized assets. The answer, of course, is financial speculation and sophisticated shell games that make some folks billionaires at the cost of the marks who get suckered into believing they're getting in the ground floor of the next big thing.
Post reply on HN