Bitcoin: no angel investors, only Faustian bargains

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > Bitcoin: no angel investors, only Faustian bargains

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

Main Paineframe posted:

they convince themselves that no one would ever take the JPEG seriously without the accompanying NFT proving that you're the TRUE OFFICIAL OWNER

They are correct in that but assume that people will somehow take the jpg seriously with the vaguely associated personal hyperlink

# ? Oct 8, 2021 05:47

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# ? May 29, 2024 01:11

Collateral: Feb 17, 2010

DerekSmartymans posted:

Why are his teeth so small and white? He doesn’t even look British!

The British do not, usually, look particularly British. It is a problem that has confused philosophers for centuries.

# ? Oct 8, 2021 05:53

bollig: Apr 7, 2006; Never Forget.

Oh Baby

Anyone seen Tether's billions

quote:

Then, this year, Tether Holdings started putting out a huge amount of digital coins. There are now 69 billion Tethers in circulation, 48 billion of them issued this year. That means the company supposedly holds a corresponding $69 billion in real money to back the coins�an amount that would make it one of the 50 largest banks in the U.S., if it were a U.S. bank and not an unregulated offshore company.

...

Elsewhere on the website, there�s a letter from an accounting firm stating that Tether has the reserves to back its coins, along with a pie chart showing that about $30 billion of its dollar holdings are invested in commercial paper�short-term loans to corporations. That would make Tether the seventh-largest holder of such debt, right up there with Charles Schwab and Vanguard Group.

To fact-check this claim, a few colleagues and I canvassed Wall Street traders to see if any had seen Tether buying anything. No one had. �It�s a small market with a lot of people who know each other,� said Deborah Cunningham, chief investment officer of global money markets at Federated Hermes, an asset management company in Pittsburgh. �If there were a new entrant, it would be usually very obvious.�

...

It was hard to believe that people had sent $69 billion in real U.S. dollars to a company that seemed to be practically quilted out of red flags.

...

Almost two centuries later, the same temptation appeared before Brock Pierce, a former child actor who�d played the younger version of Emilio Estevez�s character in the Mighty Ducks films. Now Pierce wears loud hats, vests, and bracelets, like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, and speaks in riddles, like Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. After founding a successful brokerage for buying and selling video game items�at which he employed, of all people, future Trump consigliere Steve Bannon�Pierce was one of the few early Bitcoiners with real money to invest. �I�m not an amateur entrepreneur throwing darts in the dark,� he told me by phone as he prepared for a trip to promote Bitcoin in El Salvador. �I�m a doula for creation. I only take on missions impossible.�

...

In February 2019, Tether revised its 1-to-1 pledge, changing its website to read: �Every Tether is always 100% backed by our reserves, which include traditional currency and cash equivalents and, from time to time, may include other assets and receivables from loans made by Tether to third parties, which may include affiliated entities.�

---

But when I asked Chalopin if he knew for sure that Tether�s assets were fully secure now, he laughed. It was a difficult question, he said. He only held cash and extremely low-risk bonds for Tether. But recently the company had started using other banks to handle its money. Only a quarter of it�$15 billion or so�is still with Deltec. �I cannot speak about what I cannot know,� he said. �I can only control what�s with us.�

After I returned to the U.S., I obtained a document showing a detailed account of Tether Holdings� reserves. It said they include billions of dollars of short-term loans to large Chinese companies�something money-market funds avoid. And that was before one of the country�s largest property developers, China Evergrande Group, started to collapse. I also learned that Tether had made loans worth billions of dollars to other crypto companies, with Bitcoin as collateral. One of them is Celsius Network Ltd., a giant quasi-bank for cryptocurrency investors, its founder Alex Mashinsky told me. He said he pays an interest rate of 5% to 6% on loans of about 1 billion Tethers.

[ed: !!!]

...

Just last month, traders bought $3 billion in new Tethers, presumably sending billions of perfectly good U.S. dollars to the Inspector Gadget co-creator�s Bahamian bank in exchange for digital tokens conjured by the Mighty Ducks guy and run by executives who are targets of a U.S. criminal investigation.

The whole thing is worth a read but it is all a bit much.

Matt Levin also covered it and it's actually a pretty great explanation of how the financial system works.

# ? Oct 8, 2021 12:12

Collateral: Feb 17, 2010

A fool and his money are soon on the blockchain.

# ? Oct 8, 2021 12:19

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

bollig posted:

Matt Levin also covered it and it's actually a pretty great explanation of how the financial system works.

So I presume next week we're going to find out that China Evergrande Group is actually backed by cryptocurrency and that's then reason it ultimately collapses, or at least, gets the blame.

(I presume it's also because of total and complete corruption by high level execs and managers in Chinese and Western banks and governments, but the crypto will be the economists blame target so that why Capitalism itself is totally blameless).

# ? Oct 8, 2021 14:08

Sashimi: Dec 26, 2008; College Slice

Collateral posted:

A fool and his money are soon on the blockchain.

# ? Oct 8, 2021 15:12

Prurient Squid: Jul 21, 2008; Tiddy cat Buddha improving your day.

Is there some deep human instinct to blindly follow what you see other people say and do?

# ? Oct 8, 2021 17:31

dumby: Oct 25, 2007

Prurient Squid posted:

Is there some deep human instinct to blindly follow what you see other people say and do?

obviously, yes

# ? Oct 8, 2021 17:36

shame on an IGA: Apr 8, 2005

Prurient Squid posted:

Is there some deep human instinct to blindly follow what you see other people say and do?

Where is your home planet and can you take us there

# ? Oct 8, 2021 18:19

PhazonLink: Jul 17, 2010

Prurient Squid posted:

Is there some deep human instinct to blindly follow what you see other people say and do?

there's also a deep human instinct to say gently caress you dad andor nerds, I'm the protag of reality/a true galaxy bean, this is a moon shot and I'm right youre wrong.

# ? Oct 8, 2021 19:30

Ad by Khad: Jul 25, 2007; Human Garbage
Watch me try to laugh this title off like the dickbag I am.
I also hang out with racists.

Prurient Squid posted:

Is there some deep human instinct to blindly follow what you see other people say and do?

historically very yes, recently even more very extremely yes

mega-billion dollar companies like instagram are built entirely upon the concept

# ? Oct 8, 2021 19:37

Alan Smithee: Jan 4, 2005; A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...

Collateral posted:

A fool and his money are never parted so long as he hodls

# ? Oct 8, 2021 22:22

Zil: Jun 4, 2011; Satanically Summoned Citrus

Seems like a normal coiner

Hedrigall posted:

NFTs sure are a thing for regular, sane people

# ? Oct 9, 2021 02:04

HootTheOwl: May 13, 2012; Hootin and shootin

Zil posted:

Seems like a normal coiner

This has to be parody. Like it's too on the nose.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 02:15

Barudak: May 7, 2007

There is 0 way that is not a copy and paste or a troll, its too distilled.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 02:29

Main Paineframe: Oct 27, 2010

Zil posted:

Seems like a normal coiner

i'm just about positive that's a satirist doing a parody bit

real crypto nerds are WAY more obsessed with crypto, NFTs, and "investing" than that

# ? Oct 9, 2021 03:25

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1446618928873103361

# ? Oct 9, 2021 03:49

Paladinus: Jan 11, 2014; heyHEYYYY!!!

You can tell if it's satire or not by checking blockchain for the NFT of his avatar. Or, like, by reading his twitter, I guess.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 04:25

ikanreed: Sep 25, 2009; I honestly I have no idea who cannibal[SIC] is and I do not know why I should know.

syq dude, just syq!

Paladinus posted:

You can tell if it's satire or not by checking blockchain for the NFT of his avatar. Or, like, by reading his twitter, I guess.

I can do neither of these things because they both sound intensely boring

# ? Oct 9, 2021 05:55

Parkingtigers: Feb 23, 2008; TARGET CONSUMER
LOVES EVERY FUCKING GAME EVER MADE. EVER.

Haven't thought about Cracked in like a decade, but this owns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUs5y9leCyA

# ? Oct 9, 2021 08:03

Hammerite: Mar 9, 2007; And you don't remember what I said here, either, but it was pompous and stupid.; Jade Ear Joe

PhazonLink posted:

there's also a deep human instinct to say gently caress you dad andor nerds, I'm the protag of reality/a true galaxy bean, this is a moon shot and I'm right youre wrong.

andor nerds? galaxy bean?? stop trying to make me read star trek poo poo in the buttcoin thread

# ? Oct 9, 2021 10:48

Hammerite: Mar 9, 2007; And you don't remember what I said here, either, but it was pompous and stupid.; Jade Ear Joe

if there's one thing i know about rape victims, its that they have to go to school

# ? Oct 9, 2021 10:50

Collateral Damage: Jun 13, 2009

Collateral posted:

The British do not, usually, look particularly British. It is a problem that has confused philosophers for centuries.

Immigration in the past century has drastically improved the British gene pool.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 12:09

Prurient Squid: Jul 21, 2008; Tiddy cat Buddha improving your day.

Hammerite posted:

andor nerds? galaxy bean?? stop trying to make me read star trek poo poo in the buttcoin thread

Actual lmao

# ? Oct 9, 2021 12:31

Prurient Squid: Jul 21, 2008; Tiddy cat Buddha improving your day.

It's basically like you sent your son to sell the donkey but instead of even coming back with magic beans he just came back with cum.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 12:33

Barudak: May 7, 2007

Prurient Squid posted:

It's basically like you sent your son to sell the donkey but instead of even coming back with magic beans he just came back with cum.

Now hold up, is it Kentucky Derby winning cum?

# ? Oct 9, 2021 12:39

Cowcaster: Aug 7, 2002

some cum won the kentucky derby this year?!

# ? Oct 9, 2021 16:22

titty_baby_: Nov 11, 2015

Collateral posted:

The British do not, usually, look particularly British. It is a problem that has confused philosophers for centuries.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 16:43

repiv: Aug 13, 2009

https://twitter.com/VICE/status/1446218827918974978

# ? Oct 9, 2021 19:18

Zil: Jun 4, 2011; Satanically Summoned Citrus

repiv posted:

https://twitter.com/VICE/status/1446218827918974978

Just sounds like something that is good for bitcoin, these weaker NFTs couldn't compete and are crawling away from true wealth.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 19:21

Paladinus: Jan 11, 2014; heyHEYYYY!!!

Why do they need 'projects' behind their NFTs? Just trade NFTs like before, nothing's changed.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 19:30

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

Why does this keep happening.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 19:36

Orange DeviI: Nov 9, 2011; by Hand Knit

Paladinus posted:

Why do they need 'projects' behind their NFTs? Just trade NFTs like before, nothing's changed.

The project is to track the real nfts, and probably hosts the images

# ? Oct 9, 2021 19:38

repiv: Aug 13, 2009

Paladinus posted:

Why do they need 'projects' behind their NFTs? Just trade NFTs like before, nothing's changed.

Most of these projects were promising some kind of future utility to the NFTs beyond JPEG ownership, like being usable in a game that will eventually exist, then they do a runner as soon as the NFTs are all sold

# ? Oct 9, 2021 19:45

PhazonLink: Jul 17, 2010

The answer is youre putting more thought into it than any true believer or conartist does.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 20:04

Collateral Damage: Jun 13, 2009

Someone should create a twitter account that scrapes Twitter for people posting their NFTs, changes one byte of metadata in the image and reposts it as Creative Commons - Public Domain

# ? Oct 9, 2021 20:11

PhazonLink: Jul 17, 2010

Why change anything at all? Copy right only matters if there's lawyers with a stick willing/paid to enforce poo poo.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 20:41

jokes: Dec 20, 2012; Uh... Kupo?

repiv posted:

Most of these projects were promising some kind of future utility to the NFTs beyond JPEG ownership, like being usable in a game that will eventually exist, then they do a runner as soon as the NFTs are all sold

You�re using a lot of words here that, strictly, are incorrect

Like �ownership� and �sold�

It was just stealing money nothing else

# ? Oct 9, 2021 20:59

ikanreed: Sep 25, 2009; I honestly I have no idea who cannibal[SIC] is and I do not know why I should know.

syq dude, just syq!

PhazonLink posted:

The answer is youre putting more thought into it than any true believer or conartist does.

Not convinced. Con artists have to think a lot on what exactly suckers expect.

They have it pretty easy in the crypto space though, because wild promises and complete lack of accountability are the norm.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 21:03

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# ? May 29, 2024 01:11

Collateral Damage: Jun 13, 2009

PhazonLink posted:

Why change anything at all? Copy right only matters if there's lawyers with a stick willing/paid to enforce poo poo.

Because one of the points NFTers love to push is that "it's cryptographically unique!" which turns out to just mean it has a unique hash which anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows is not the same as being visually similar.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 22:21

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