Okay, non-crypto user here.
Just how big was AAX?
Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals
751–760 of 843 posts
Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals
#752Okay, non-crypto user here. Just how big was AAX?
I’m deep into crypto and nobody I know has ever heard of it, and nobody I follow has ever mentioned it.
Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals
#753Earlier quoted context omitted.
As I've noted before on HN the entire concept of people being able to manage their own wallets flies against everything we know about people. People forget stuff, make mistakes, and lose things. The margin of error for a wallet is tiny. It's not rare for crypto forums, twitter, etc to prescribe completely ridiculous processes and systems for securing wallets, backing up seed phrases, etc. There's an entire cottage in…
>There's an entire cottage industry built around people etching their seed phrases on steel plates for people to (I'm not kidding) bury them like they're gold in the 1800s. I was about to say this isn't the worst opsec until I realized you mean people are sending businesses their passphrases and not purchasing an etching kit to make the plate themselves.
It's still some of the worst opsec if they're literally burying steel and expecting that to be hunky dory.
Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals
#754Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals
#755Earlier quoted context omitted.
it's superior in terms of not having the trusted third party that facilitates your trade make off with your money, as is happening in these self-described exchanges right now . Keeping a trusted third-party in the loop is always cheaper than automating that function using a blockchain, unless the risk is factored in.
The risk of misplacing your keys/passphrase or getting hacked with it in plaintext on your computer may be higher across the end-user population.
"May be higher" is a gross understatement. Is "provably much higher" is closer to the truth.
Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals
#756Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The issue here is crypto exchanges severely mismanaging the assets of their customers. "Severely mismanaging" is a euphemism for fraud and theft, right?
Those of us who were around during the Saving and Loan Crisis learned that the best way to rob a bank is to own one.
There's a great book called The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Buy by William K. Black, a former regulator during the S&L period.
It is not an easy book for the uninitiated, but well worth it.
It is tragic that the lessons of that period were so quickly forgotten.
Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals
#757Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can say that, but when MtGox went bankrupt, and also lost 4 fifths of its stored crypto, the court just heaped together all assets into one big pile and all creditors into one big pile and let them fight it out. So now there's a bunch of assholes including but not limited to Peter Vessenes, that are suing the bankrupt entity for billions (completely frivolous of course) and all the depositors have waited for 8 ye…
To do this legally, one can have a separate legal entity to hold on to third party assets. In the Netherlands this can be done using a foundation (stichting derdengelden). Any transactions of third party assets go through this entity and don’t touch the company at all. And this entity doesn’t take on any risk, whatsoever. Fees etc, of course, happen separately and are paid to the company. So in closing: this has noth…
What is there to gain? When one type of depositors can't be repaid, the liability of the rest of the company is limited?
What makes you think the whole company was more than a front for an exit scam? Dividends could have gone to the owners well before it went bankrupt.
Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals
#758Earlier quoted context omitted.
Firstly, people keep their Crypto with the exchange for trading purposes and because it is easier than self custody. This means if the exchange goes bankrupt they potentially lose their money. Secondly, as it is an unregulated space, we have instances such as FTX where they were using clients funds which should be segregated. This arguably crosses into fraud, and we do not really know which exchanges have been doing…
Re point #2 - this is one of the crazy things for me. When you work in finance, in the UK at least, you get it drilled into your head what "client money" is, what that implies, what you can do with it, and notably you get reminded during any training session the size of the fines that get imposed on people who fuck with client money. So to me it suggests that they simply don't employ anyone with any experience in ban…
I’m sure some of the people working there raised alarms, only to be shut up by the owners of the exchange, who skirted regulations on purpose.
Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals
#759Can someone actually explain what the intrinsic use of coins is supposed to be (aside from speculating). Their value is so volatile they suck as actual currency, not to mention if you were the guy that spent 10,000 bitcoins on a pizza back in the day you'd feel pretty stupid about your 300 million dollar pizza. They're not even particularly good for illegal purchases -- you have to know what you're doing to keep your…
When Ethereum/ another crypto VM becomes fast enough, decentralised applications will be the new iPhone - stuff we can’t imagine will be built there. As far as NFTs, 90-99% of the activity is nonsense, fraud and money laundering, but there are real artists in the space. Whether that’s satisfactory for you is really a matter of perspective.
Can you say what are the current bottlenecks that are limiting the Ethereum VM?
How far off into the future is decentralized apps being as revolutionary as the iPhone?
Re: Crypto exchange AAX suspends withdrawals
#760Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the correct take, and why American regulators need to address crypto sooner rather than later.
But the WHOLE point of crypto was to avoid governmental control. If the government is regulating it that means they can control it. And it becomes completely worthless. If you want digital gold as an inflation hedge you can literally buy a GLD ETF. It gives you digital shares in actual GOLD.
Not really.
The purists care about independence from government but they also don’t like centralized exchanges so they don’t care if they are regulated.
The other people are in for the gamble rather than the fundamentals of crypto. A certified casino is probably more trustworthy to them.
As long as the government doesn’t try to regulate the chain, both groups are satisfied.