It appears that a lack of regulation inevitably leads to disaster in markets of this type. — frank
It appears that a lack of regulation inevitably leads to disaster in markets of this type — frank
do you think some entities are just more upstanding than others? And if so, how would you identity them? — frank
Wow! Okay. I'm gonna say it outright that you are mistaken and -- Jesus Christ!to note that all of the investors in FTX got their funds back, which was announced in May this year. Which, I think, tends to throw the very long sentence that SBF received into some question. Lewis doesn’t say it outright, but he seems to suggest it. He says in conclusion ‘I think the truth is closer to “young person with an intellectually defensible but socially unacceptable moral code makes a huge mistake in trying to live by it” than “criminal on the loose in the financial system.” — Wayfarer
The damage to the financial industry is much more than getting their money back. Are you really saying "No harm done"? — L'éléphant
On May 7, 2024, John Ray, FTX’s new CEO, revealed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware that, against the $8.7 billion in missing customer deposits, FTX was now sitting on something like $14.5 to $16.3 billion. Whatever the exact sum, it was enough to repay all depositors and various other creditors at least 118 cents on the dollar — that is, everyone who imagined they had lost money back in November 2022 would get their money back, with interest. After paying off FTX’s debts — and paying themselves at least half a billion dollars — Ray and his team will likely still be sitting on billions of dollars. How many billions of dollars is still an open question, but very few of these dollars can be the result of Ray’s various lawsuits to claw back money paid out by FTX in good times. The money came almost entirely from a fire sale of the contents of Sam Bankman-Fried’s dragon’s lair.
The success of the bankruptcy clearly surprised, and maybe even alarmed, the lawyers running it. Months after Sam Bankman-Fried handed him the company, Ray had been keen to stress how little of value he’d been given. More than a little bizarrely, he talked down the value of the assets he was meant to dispose of to repay creditors. Ray called the 20 percent stake Sam had acquired in Anthropic “worthless.” The giant pile of Solana tokens Sam had acquired for pennies were “shitcoins” whose value had been falsely inflated by Sam’s purchases. The Anthropic stake has wound up being worth billions. The Solana token, even without Alameda Research around to prop it up, popped back up from roughly $10 at the end of 2022 to $150 a year and a half later. To this day, Ray hasn’t spoken to Sam Bankman-Fried. It’s hard not to wonder, if they had simply called Sam, what else the lawyers running the FTX bankruptcy might have learned about the contents of his lair. Also, how much more money would be on hand if, for their first 18 months on the job, the bankruptcy lawyers had simply not shown up for work.
It's quite telling that cryptocurrencies marketed as "freedom from governments and the central banks" then will have these shady frauds etc. I think it's basically a natural result when you don't have legislative supervision. — ssu
I think it's something that was forgotten in the ideological fervour of liberalism, that free markets have to have institutions to keep them trustworthy and operational. Otherwise simple theft is so easy. — ssu
https://atomicdex.io/en/blog/atomic-swaps
An atomic swap is a trade of cryptocurrency made directly from one user to another, without any intermediary to facilitate the transaction.
These swaps are called "atomic" because either the trade is successfully completed and each trader receives the other one's funds, or nothing happens and both traders simply keep the funds they started with. Atomic swaps are made wallet-to-wallet, in a fully peer-to-peer (P2P) manner.
The basic idea is that Bob and Alice can send each other funds that are locked by the hash of a predetermined secret code. Bob publicly reveals the secret code to collect Alice's funds, which allows Alice to also see the secret code and use it to collect Bob's funds. If Bob doesn't collect Alice's funds, then Alice can never spend Bob's funds. In this case, the locktime set by the CLTV command would expire and both Bob and Alice would get their money back. That's what makes the swap atomic.
And unfortunately we do need that thing called "taxation". Also the ruling mafia also defends their monopoly legal tender. Which cryptocurrencies aren't, but currencies of sovereign states are.The official ruling mafia defends their monopoly on expropriation, called "taxation". — Tarskian
Do you think that is a great solution? Just like a previous chairman of NASDAQ and the board of "National Association of Securities Dealers" (nowdays called FINRA), which the latter acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets.A market authority is usually necessary but it does not need to be the government. — Tarskian
Method how your payment is done different from the various roles a market and it's actors have.We are only at the very beginning of tokenizing commercial traffic. In my opinion, just 0.1% of the possibilities have currently been implemented already. It will completely change the world of commerce. — Tarskian
And unfortunately we do need that thing called "taxation". — ssu
Also the ruling mafia also defends their monopoly legal tender. Which cryptocurrencies aren't, but currencies of sovereign states are. — ssu
https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/russias-cryptocurrency-legislated-sanctions-evasion
In response to mounting financial pressures of Western sanctions, Russia enacted significant legislation legalizing cryptocurrency mining and permitting the use of cryptocurrency for international payments.
Hence there were also some reasons just why legal tender was monopolized. — ssu
https://www.tokenmetrics.com/blog/hyperbitcoinization
Defining Hyperbitcoinization
At its core, Hyperbitcoinization envisions a future where Bitcoin supplants fiat currencies as the predominant medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account globally.
This phenomenon transcends mere adoption; it represents a paradigm shift in which Bitcoin becomes the universal currency, facilitating transactions, settlements, and economic activities worldwide.
The concept of Hyperbitcoinization was first introduced in 2014 by Daniel Krawisz, an entrepreneur and researcher at the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hodl.asp
Cryptocurrencies will eventually replace government-issued fiat currencies as the basis of all economic structures. Should that occur, then the exchange rates between cryptocurrencies and fiat money would become irrelevant to crypto holders.
Predictably, a meme best captures this HODL maximalist philosophy. Neo from The Matrix asks Morpheus, "What are you trying to tell me, that I can trade my Bitcoin for millions someday?" Morpheus responds, "No Neo, I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready … you won't have to."
Certainly not to the extent that it exists in the West. For example, personal income taxation was introduced only in 1913 while the human race has been around for almost 300 000 years. Governments outside the West may also have it on the books but until this day they still do not collect it and they probably never will. — Tarskian
Having to deliver 15 sacks of grain you harvested is effectively income tax. It existed quite a bit longer, at least since the Egyptians. — Benkei
The Egyptian tax collector would measure the farmer's land and compute taxes based on that information. He would not ask the farmer if he somehow made some more money in other ways and try to get half of that too. — Tarskian
I find the practice of demanding people to fill out a tax return form to be particularly detestable. Why on earth would I give that kind of information to someone else? — Tarskian
Seriously, I don't want to live in a country where the ruling mafia asks me how much money I have made last year and then demands that I give them half. — Tarskian
But in any case, you're not refusing the point that income tax has existed for millenia. — Benkei
Good luck in those failed states when you get sick. — Benkei
The Egyptian tax on a farmer's harvest is not the same as modern personal income tax. The farmer did not have to give any information to facilitate the collection of that tax. — Tarskian
You're a funny man and obviously have no idea how taxes worked in Egypt. — Benkei
The three countries you mention have huge issues with modern slavery or human trafficking — Benkei
Also, nice false analogy showing a picture of poverty and a rich bitch on the beach. — Benkei
In the US, I assume. But for example in @Benkei's country it was introduced earlier. Yet first income tax was introduced in Ancient Egypt and in China and England had it's introduction in 1188 ( each layperson in England and Wales be taxed one tenth of their personal income and moveable property), so the idea isn't actually so new.For example, personal income taxation was introduced only in 1913 — Tarskian
Thanks for the correction, I forgot El Salvador.Bitcoin is now already legal tender in El Salvador. We are also rapidly making geopolitical progress with the Russian Federation — Tarskian
:roll: Somehow I would refer to these two countries as being examples of liberalism and respecting the free market.Getting the Russian Federation on our side is a significant breakthrough because now the system is also backed by an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons. The next step, is getting China onboard in matters of cryptocurrency. That will be hard, but I suspect that Russia will sooner or later manage to convince them. — Tarskian
Hmm. But who owns the bitcoins? I think the people from the West. A lot more people (as I) prefer gold in the role of preserving value, something far more older than fiat currencies.In this new multipolar world order, it is the cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, that will eventually reign supreme. — Tarskian
The death of the sovereign states is in my view highly exaggerated and basically false. And they (sovereign states) do love their central banks, just as Russia and China do. So perhaps you taking over the World along the other people holding the 19+ million Bitcoins is a bit of an exaggeration too.Hyperbitcoinization is why Bitcoin maximalists do not care much about the exchange rate or about measuring its value in dollars or in euros, as we seek to destroy the dollar and the euro — Tarskian
Somehow I would refer to these two countries as being examples of liberalism and respecting the free market. — ssu
But who owns the bitcoins? I think the people from the West. — ssu
The death of the sovereign states is in my view highly exaggerated and basically false. — ssu
And they (sovereign states) do love their central banks, just as Russia and China do. — ssu
In fact when the fiat system collapses, it won't be such a catastrophic event that society collapses. — ssu
How many actually think of the last time the US dollar defaulted as a default? — ssu
You ought to think about this a bit more:The people who mine them or somehow buy them. It is the same question as "who owns all the gold?". Same answer. — Tarskian
Global central banks own about 17 percent of all the gold ever mined, with reserves topping 36,699 metric tons (MT) as of year-end 2023. They acquired the vast majority in the last 14 years after becoming net buyers of the metal in 2010.
You can hold on to the technical fig leaves, but hyperinflation is similar to default, even if the government "respects" it's obligations. And let's remember: if it happens immediately, it's hyperinflation and people understand it. Yet if it just takes a little bit more time, everything is just fine and people don't worry about it.The dollar cannot "default". How can the dollar even "default"? If they do not have enough dollars, the Fed simply prints some more. The dollar can only hyper-inflate, i.e. become worthless. That is what we want to achieve. That shit has to go, now already. — Tarskian
And why talk about the possibility of hyperinflation as an achievement? You think the US will be better afterwards? And in the end there's many ways the US can do this. — ssu
https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/the-fatf/what-we-do.html
Identifying high-risk jurisdictions
The FATF holds countries to account that do not comply with the FATF Standards. If a country repeatedly fails to implement FATF Standards then it can be named a Jurisdiction under Increased Monitoring or a High Risk Jurisdiction. These are often externally referred to as “the grey and black lists”.
https://kycnot.me
https://kycnot.me/about
why kycnot.me?
Cryptocurrencies were created to revolutionize the way we pay for goods and services, aiming to eliminate reliance on centralized entities such as banks and governments that control our economy.
Exchanges that enforce KYC (Know Your Customer) operate similarly to traditional banks.
With KYCNOT.ME, I hope to provide people with trustworthy alternatives for buying, exchanging, trading, and using cryptocurrencies without having to disclose their identity, thus preserving the right to privacy.
The truth is that KYC is a direct attack on our privacy and puts us in disadvantage against the governments. True criminals don't care about KYC policies. True criminals know perfectly how to avoid such policies. In fact, they normally use the FIAT system and don't even need to use cryptocurrencies.
KYC only affects small individuals like you and me. It is an annoying procedure that forces us to hand our personal information to a third party in order to buy, use or unlock our funds. We should start boycotting companies that enforce such practices. We should start using cryptocurrencies as they were intended to be used: without barriers.
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