[Discussion] Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency! Either it's going to disrupt everything and usher in a new era of artistic and consumer freedom, or it'll hasten the climate apocalypse while largely benefitting a tiny number of investors. Let's yell about it!

Sam Bankman-Fried donated millions to Democrats (both personally and through his PAC) this past election cycle, but his co-CEO Ryan Salame donated equally to the Republicans. But since Sam was the face of everything FTX, only his half seems to get talked about.

Quote The Daily Beast:

In the 2022 election cycle alone, Bankman-Fried personally gave more than $13 million to dozens of candidates and campaign organizations of both parties. While the vast majority of the CEO’s donations were to Democrats, Salame gave nearly $24 million to Republicans. Outside PACs associated with the two also spent heavily: Bankman-Fried’s PAC spent over $23 million supporting Democrats, while Salame’s PAC spent over $12 million for Republicans.

If you add those numbers up, each guy's total is $36 million. Such a coincidence...

You can read some of his DMs where he talks about how everything about his public persona was a mask for $$$$.

The EA, the Dem donations, all of it just a front to get crypto legitimized.

Top_Shelf wrote:

Has anyone looked into the books of any of the rest of these platforms? Do we honestly think FTX is the only one?

I doubt they let anyone look at their books, but if you ask nicely enough they might sell you an NFT of a picture of the cover of one of their books.

Keldar wrote:
Top_Shelf wrote:

Has anyone looked into the books of any of the rest of these platforms? Do we honestly think FTX is the only one?

I doubt they let anyone look at their books, but if you ask nicely enough they might sell you an NFT of a picture of the cover of one of their books.

They lobby pretty heavily to remain unregulated. They are practically the "nutritional supplements" of the financial instruments world.

Paleocon wrote:
Keldar wrote:
Top_Shelf wrote:

Has anyone looked into the books of any of the rest of these platforms? Do we honestly think FTX is the only one?

I doubt they let anyone look at their books, but if you ask nicely enough they might sell you an NFT of a picture of the cover of one of their books.

They lobby pretty heavily to remain unregulated. They are practically the "nutritional supplements" of the financial instruments world.

Hahaha.

Oh, Orrin Hatch, what couldn't you do?

I remember watching how Bill Ackerman lost a lot trying to short Herbalife...but really only because Carl Icahn went against him and no one in government had the [intestinal fortitude] to call real balls/strikes and put that scam into the ground.

So much worse than we thought.

So a thing similar to FTX, i learned today that Voyager went bankrupt. hadn't checked it for awhile, but I had about 1500 invested on that platform. People have lost a lot more so i consider myself fortunate, but still... ouch. some articles say maybe i can get 70% of it back from some bankrupt sale of the company, but i have no idea how that even works/ makes sense.

I don't really know how crypto can survive if the sites used to buy it can just go under and lose any investment. There has to be a way to actually hold currency without using a middleman right?

Not those dollar pegged cryptos. You can hold bitcoin with your own wallet. But seriously all of crypto is a scam. Don’t do it.

FiveIron wrote:

There has to be a way to actually hold currency without using a middleman right?

There certainly is. Indeed, some would say this is the entire point of crypto.

Where Have the FTX Depositors Gone to Panic?

I know sympathy might be light on the ground around here, but I thought this was a really well-done piece that gets at the rot at the heart of the crypto, or certainly how the current crypto sphere works. The relentlessness of the ripoffs, the absolute cruelty with which marks are robbed of everything they have.

I didn't even need to click. I read the question and said, "Telegram". It's where all the crypto scamming and NFT rug-pull planning happens.

*Legion* wrote:

I didn't even need to click. I read the question and said, "Telegram". It's where all the crypto scamming and NFT rug-pull planning happens.

NYMag wrote:

Nova, a 32-year-old trader in Brazil who said he had more than $80,000 in the platform, told the group that if he couldn’t get his funds back, suicide was an option, and he posted a photo of a loaded syringe. Asked if he has a message he’d like to convey to SBF, he says “no”: “People at the top look at us in disgust; they have no empathy for the lower class, and we are just a means to their end to get rich.”

It doesn't have to be this way.

Crypto always has been, at it's heart, a scam. Its dutch tulips.

It's an attempt to build a libertarian fantasy economy, that shows what happens when your currencies are unregulated, privately controlled, and unmoored from any practical base of value. (Cue "not all libertarians..." ...but yeah, today's libertarians for sure.)

Robear wrote:

It's an attempt to build a libertarian fantasy economy, that shows what happens when your currencies are unregulated, privately controlled, and unmoored from any practical base of value. (Cue "not all libertarians..." ...but yeah, today's libertarians for sure.)

Why bother when they can just play EVE?

Eve's currencies and markets were set up and are monitored and adjusted by an actual economist. Heck, they may even have a small team doing it now. It's not a libertarian free for all. Also, high sec space.

So our money is safer if we invest in Isks?

IMAGE(https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/75000660/7dfa91614ce34a23af44df2bd51ea2f8/eyJlbmFibGVfZ2lmX3RyYW5zZm9ybSI6MSwicSI6MTAwLCJ3ZWJwIjowfQ%3D%3D/1.png?token-time=1670544000&token-hash=PtClZuwo8PhDlUCRu2T93KPjUwcCKZ8cL_-Ze96noYo%3D)

Shamelessly reposted from Jeph Jacques at Questionable Content. I love his work and hope he won't sue me because then I'd have to stop paying on his Patreon.

Crypto bros: "Govt is evil and regulation is the real problem in the banking system."

Also Crypto bros: "Everything is fine, MY exchange/platform/coin is perfectly solvent."

Also also Crypto bros: "Our industry will be OK, we just need some regulation and THEN we will realize the promise of crypto!"

Top_Shelf wrote:

Crypto bros: "Govt is evil and regulation is the real problem in the banking system."

Also Crypto bros: "Everything is fine, MY exchange/platform/coin is perfectly solvent."

Also also Crypto bros: "Our industry will be OK, we just need some regulation and THEN we will realize the promise of crypto!"

I was actually impressed by the audacity of the crypto bro that suggested that the FDIC had an obligation to bail out crypto.

Randian Libertarians are nothing if not selfish.

Binance is setting up a $1bb pot to "help stabilize" The Island of Misfit Cryptos and is seeking others who would like to contribute. The pot can be drawn on by weaker entities to stay afloat and is expected to sunset in six months.

Included in the pot is Binance's own stablecoin.

ETA:
Per Binance, 150 companies have applied for rescue. This is fine.

Crypto Lenders’ Woes Worsen as Bitcoin Miners Struggle to Repay Debt

Beleaguered crypto lenders are being dealt another blow from Bitcoin miners as they weather the aftermath of the FTX collapse.

Miners, who raised as much as $4 billion from mining-equipment financing when profit margins were as high as 90%, are defaulting on loans and sending hundreds of thousands of machines that served as collateral back to lenders. New York Digital Investment Group, Celsius Network, BlockFi Inc., Galaxy Digital, and the Foundry unit of Digital Currency Group were among the biggest providers of funding to finance computer equipment and build data centers.

The liquidity crunch hitting digital-asset markets after FTX failed comes as low Bitcoin prices, soaring energy costs and more competition weigh on miners. Loans backed by the computer equipment, known as rigs, had become one of the industry’s most popular financing tools. Many lenders are now likely facing substantial losses since they can’t seize any other assets besides the machines, whose value has dropped by as much as 85% since last November.

“People were pouring dollars into the mining space,” said Ethan Vera, chief operations officer at crypto-mining services firm Luxor Technologies. “Miners ended up dictating a lot of the loan terms, so the financiers moved ahead with a lot of the deals where only the machines were collateral.”

Meanwhile, in amazing timing, Fidelity has just opened up early access to Fidelity Crypto accounts, allowing retail investors far too boomer for Robinhood to finally invest in crypto.

As a Fidelity customer, I got the email and went ahead and said OK to get access, but declined to put any money into it. It WAS amusing to look around and open the value history screen of a crypto coin and see the "why is crypto so up and down?" help link:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Zlp6QUQ.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/zZOqYuB.png)

I wonder if this will lead to a crash in video card prices.

Already has. You can buy cards at MSRP now!

GPU sales are the lowest in a decade, and NVIDIA's stock price was slashed in half.

Of course, this hasn't caused NVIDIA to actually lower the price of their cards from their crypto-scalping elevated MSRPs. They're not ready to come to terms with that yet.

BTW, air quotes are required whenever using the word "stablecoin."

Mixolyde wrote:

BTW, air quotes are required whenever using the word "stablecoin."

Terra proved that.

Prederick wrote:

Crypto Lenders’ Woes Worsen as Bitcoin Miners Struggle to Repay Debt

Beleaguered crypto lenders are being dealt another blow from Bitcoin miners as they weather the aftermath of the FTX collapse.

Miners, who raised as much as $4 billion from mining-equipment financing when profit margins were as high as 90%, are defaulting on loans and sending hundreds of thousands of machines that served as collateral back to lenders. New York Digital Investment Group, Celsius Network, BlockFi Inc., Galaxy Digital, and the Foundry unit of Digital Currency Group were among the biggest providers of funding to finance computer equipment and build data centers.

The liquidity crunch hitting digital-asset markets after FTX failed comes as low Bitcoin prices, soaring energy costs and more competition weigh on miners. Loans backed by the computer equipment, known as rigs, had become one of the industry’s most popular financing tools. Many lenders are now likely facing substantial losses since they can’t seize any other assets besides the machines, whose value has dropped by as much as 85% since last November.

“People were pouring dollars into the mining space,” said Ethan Vera, chief operations officer at crypto-mining services firm Luxor Technologies. “Miners ended up dictating a lot of the loan terms, so the financiers moved ahead with a lot of the deals where only the machines were collateral.”

Ah, the ol' "We'll sell you prospectors on your way to that fancy gold rush on the other side of the country all the equipment you need. For collateral, we'll accept...pans and axes, the same ones you're buying with our dollary-do's. And when you fail, we'll just take back...wait what are we going to do with pans and axes and half-eaten horse feed?"

Who was in charge of these places doing this lending?