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Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

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Re: Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

#71

Post by ggm »

ramraj07 wrote: post #38
ggm wrote: post #8

Thiel is a smart investor but even smart investors lose money on some investments. "backed" can have many meanings. I would imagine he has some kind of stop-loss on his exposure to risk here. And indeed, its "Valar Ventures" which has invested, an indirect vehicle. Note: I dislike the guys politics, but that has nothing to do with an objective assessment of his financial investment chops. Same with Andreessen, he doe…

Thiel is not too smart. He’s smart. As smart as Steve Bannon? In fact I cannot differentiate who’s talking if you play their podcast interviews. Thiel has a sputtering of good ideas, and he was in the right place to invest in some successful ventures, but he’s not some once in a life time visionary. As of now, it looks like he’s nothing but a hypocritical selfish vindictive rich asshole with a blood boy (every adject…

From what I read elsewhere, he was judged as very very smart at uni, and his motivations in part stem from what I would call bullying: he was not only unloved at school, he was really put down. He decided to show people the inner steel. By now you think he'd have decided "goal achieved" but apparently, he's still on track.

Re: Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

#72

Post by cortesoft »

notch656a wrote: post #47
cortesoft wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matt Levine always likes to say that cryptocurrencies are relearning hundreds of years of financial lessons in just a few short years. He describes the current crypto crisis as a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. Every single problem that cryptocurrencies face are extremely well known and studied phenomena in traditional economics. It is all very predictable.

If that's true, at that rate crypto will blaze past traditional finance in only a few years, and be hundreds of years ahead of traditional finance in a couple decades. Sounds pretty good to me.

Sure, but the solution will end up looking just like traditional banking, only more expensive to run.

Re: Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

#73

Post by ggm »

mym1990 wrote: post #58
ggm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but his position overall is still high-net-worth surely? I'd be delighted if the wunderkid of the libertarian right lost his shirt, but I suspect he's still ahead of where he was 10 years ago, and in the long run is going to continue to make a shedload of money. Clarium lost bigtime. No disagree. He has about 5 other vehicles as I see it. His roth IRA alone is going to be fantastic. I wouldn't use him as my fina…

I generally don't think he is playing the same game as someone looking to invest some money for retirement. He is clearly going for strategic moonshots and probably isn't checking his bank account daily to see if its all gone.

If I had his cojones and his money this would be my goal too. We all dream about ending world hunger, but I am callow enough to concede I might actually not. callow: I'm 5 years older than Young Thiel. I think by now, I know its not my problem.

Re: Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

#74

Post by lamontcg »

cortesoft wrote: post #18
Barrera wrote: post #3

> A cryptocurrency lender backed by Peter Thiel and Coinbase Global Inc. suspended withdrawals, trading and deposits on its platform, citing volatile market conditions and financial difficulties facing key business partners. > The platform, Vauld, said Monday that it froze the operations after users pulled almost $200 million over the last three weeks. A sharp decline in cryptocurrency prices that began with the coll…

Matt Levine always likes to say that cryptocurrencies are relearning hundreds of years of financial lessons in just a few short years. He describes the current crypto crisis as a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. Every single problem that cryptocurrencies face are extremely well known and studied phenomena in traditional economics. It is all very predictable.

> He describes the current crypto crisis as a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.

That's optimistic.

Re: Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

#75

Post by edaemon »

zeptonix wrote: post #41
gruez wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>(Given Coinbase's debt trades comparably to Russia's [2], the smart money is betting users will get nothing in a failure.) The intention of your comment is to paint coinbase debt as worthless, but after doing some research I came to a different conclusion: that russian debt isn't as worthless as I thought. Right now 10 year russian bond yields are at 9.15%[1], which is only a little over 6 percentage points above th…

PSA that the (severely underreported) inflation is ~8%, so both these yields are meaningless in real terms.

Inflation in Russia is more like 14%.

Re: Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

#76

Post by dc-programmer »

sacrosancty wrote: post #67
ramraj07 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thiel is not too smart. He’s smart. As smart as Steve Bannon? In fact I cannot differentiate who’s talking if you play their podcast interviews. Thiel has a sputtering of good ideas, and he was in the right place to invest in some successful ventures, but he’s not some once in a life time visionary. As of now, it looks like he’s nothing but a hypocritical selfish vindictive rich asshole with a blood boy (every adject…

What's the externally visible difference between being in the right place at the right time and being a visionary? He's about the 500th richest person in the world, so he's certainly not insignificant. I think you're confusing your personal dislike of him (asshole) with his abilities (not a visionary). There's no reason those qualities should be aligned.

I think the discrete conclusion to draw from this story is that it’s completely unsurprising that someone of his moral caliber was invested heavily in what turned out to be a complete veneer (and that’s putting in nicely)

Re: Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

#77

Post by andsoitis »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #42
andsoitis wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People need lots of things. The principal constraints on real estate are political. (The entire concept of real estate is a social construct.) Not physical space. Even if (the amount of) physical space isn't one of the main constraints on real estate, any particular location may be more desirable relative to others, e.g. a gorgeous view, away from factories or highways.

> any particular location may be more desirable relative to others, e.g. a gorgeous view, away from factories or highways It's politics, usually, keeping the factories and highways away. More fundamentally, the notion that a piece of paper (the deed) gives you certain rights (but not others) over some land is totally made up.

> It's politics, usually, keeping the factories and highways away.

I don’t see how this changes the fact some locations are more desirable than others.

> More fundamentally, the notion that a piece of paper (the deed) gives you certain rights (but not others) over some land is totally made up.

It is very useful though, otherwise how would I know where to sleep tonight? By lottery a few hours before the sun sets?

Re: Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

#78

Post by labrador »

cf-d-ycom wrote: post #63
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Real estate is an outlier in your examples due to there being limited supply and people need shelter People need lots of things. The principal constraints on real estate are political. (The entire concept of real estate is a social construct.) Not physical space.

Is not also the "idea of a social construct" a social construct? And by extension is also arbitrary and meaningless? And surely then every idea of any category is dissolved as meaningless and arbitrary, and then reason itself is absurd?

When you then see yourself as a social construct, then you are on the path to enlightenment

Re: Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

#79

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

lamontcg wrote: post #74
cortesoft wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matt Levine always likes to say that cryptocurrencies are relearning hundreds of years of financial lessons in just a few short years. He describes the current crypto crisis as a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. Every single problem that cryptocurrencies face are extremely well known and studied phenomena in traditional economics. It is all very predictable.

> He describes the current crypto crisis as a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. That's optimistic.

Agreed. No one is coming to the rescue. No one backed by guns really cares a ton.

The idea is solid, but a wiping of the slate will allow for a new generation. One that will better benefit established powers.

Re: Peter Thiel-Backed Crypto Lender Vauld Suspends Withdrawals

#80

Post by codehalo »

hindsightbias wrote: post #64
cortesoft wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matt Levine always likes to say that cryptocurrencies are relearning hundreds of years of financial lessons in just a few short years. He describes the current crypto crisis as a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. Every single problem that cryptocurrencies face are extremely well known and studied phenomena in traditional economics. It is all very predictable.

In the ashes of cryptolibertarianism, Krugman is right again.

A comment that finally explains HN's sentiment on cryptocurrencies. I take it then that crypto is the financial equivalent of a fax machine (as Krugman described the early internet)? Well then, let's see how it all works out...
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