Bitcoin: no angel investors, only Faustian bargains

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

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Dmitri-9 posted:

They didn't sell 100% more like 20%.

No, it was more like 100% unless for some reason you count un-exercised options. These insiders dumped most (or all) of the shares they actually held. You cant sell shares you dont own.

When the CFO cant be bothered to keep even a single share, lol

# ¿ Apr 18, 2021 21:49

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 22:41

drk: Jan 16, 2005

BTC is boring, elon said we should buy dog coin

# ¿ Apr 19, 2021 02:00

drk: Jan 16, 2005

With their stock decreasing massively in value every day since IPO, Coinbase decides now is time to allow Tether on the platform (except in New York, cuz the AG is on to them there):

https://www.coindesk.com/newly-public-coinbase-lists-tethers-controversial-usdt-for-pro-traders

# ¿ Apr 23, 2021 00:49

drk: Jan 16, 2005

this kills the bitcoin

# ¿ Apr 23, 2021 03:25

drk: Jan 16, 2005

So, the day after Elon poo-poos Bitcoin, Tether announces they are only 3.9% backed by cash and the DOJ and IRS announce they are investigating Binance.

# ¿ May 13, 2021 21:04

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Yes, I actually rounded up to 3.9% The rest is "backed" by dubious, unnamed sources of debt (could be legit, could be nearly worthless).

https://amycastor.com/2021/05/13/tethers-first-breakdown-of-reserves-consists-of-two-silly-pie-charts/

# ¿ May 13, 2021 21:22

drk: Jan 16, 2005

problem: most crypto exchanges are fairly (extremely) unsavory

problem: banks ask for all sorts of like, documents

problem: occasionally, even bag holders would like to cash out so they can buy things that arent crypto (or, lets be honest, buy different crypto)

solution: mint some crypto-IOUs!

Tether's real customers, and undoubtedly the major holders of tether are exchanges. Most likely, tether gives tokens to them in exchange for a short term debt obligation (this is probably what their "commercial paper" is), and the exchange instantly has liquidity in its markets. In hot markets, it all works because more (real) money is coming in than is going out.

drk fucked around with this message at 02:21 on May 14, 2021

# ¿ May 14, 2021 02:18

drk: Jan 16, 2005

edit: cant read posts

# ¿ May 14, 2021 03:11

drk: Jan 16, 2005

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/technology/colonial-pipeline-ransom.html posted:

Colonial Pipeline paid its extortionists roughly 75 Bitcoin, or nearly $5 million, to recover its stolen data, according to five people briefed on the transaction.

The payment came after hackers last week held up Colonial Pipeline�s business networks with ransomware, a form of malware that encrypts data until the victim pays, and threatened to release it online. Colonial Pipeline pre-emptively shut down its pipeline operations to keep the ransomware from spreading and because it had no way to bill customers with its business and accounting networks offline.

should play well with regulators

# ¿ May 14, 2021 03:46

drk: Jan 16, 2005

lol

https://blockworks.co/el-salvador-to-become-first-nation-with-bitcoin-as-legal-tender/

TIL the president of El Salvador is a cryptobro, hat and all

# ¿ Jun 5, 2021 22:39

drk: Jan 16, 2005

crosspostin from the relationships thread

quote:

My [40F] daughter's [15F] cryptocurrency club is creating problems at our church

My family has been part of our church for several generations. My husband and I have been blessed with five children, and our whole family loves being involved in spiritual life.

A few months ago, my oldest daughter Hadley started a cryptocurrency investment club at the church. It's grown rapidly as members have become interested in investing and saw the club's results. I'm proud of Hadley's entrepreneurial spirit and leadership skills.

A few days ago, our pastor approached me concerned that Hadley's club is not in line with the church's values. He told me that she needs to shut it down.

In truth, our pastor is worried about Hadley stealing his thunder. I'd love to point out his hypocrisy and remind him how he initially loved the idea and said it would increase younger members' involvement in the church. But there's no room to push back because I'm applying for a leadership position in the church mother's ministry, and I need his support.

I want to guide my daughter towards phasing out the group, but she doesn't have enough money to pay everyone back. She's been doing so well with the club that cash has never been a problem, but if she shut down immediately, she'd owe thousands of dollars that she can't repay.

Closing the club in this way would create a huge scandal. It would definitely jeopardize my chances at the mother's ministry and could create legal headaches for me even though I've had no involvement with the club at all.

I asked Hadley to get a job to make up the difference, but she's gotten the idea that investing is her life path. She wants to earn the money by starting a TikTok about investing, but I think she needs to get over this cryptocurrency phase altogether.

How do I convince my daughter to give up this cryptocurrency stuff and that she's not too good for babysitting?

TL;DR - Daughter's cryptocurrency investment club has gotten out of control, and I want her to get a regular job instead.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2021 18:43

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Andy Dufresne posted:

Butt is down 8% in the last 24 hours again, for the dude who said we care too much about the price of butt. This has been a long, slow, sad burn. It's like nobody even cares anymore

FBI seized some butts from a ransomware attack, which is one of the main sources of "institutional investment".

Apparently, the market thinks this, unlike most things, is bad for bitcoin

drk fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Jun 8, 2021

# ¿ Jun 8, 2021 02:36

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Today in: is this... the dip?

Internet ransomers fail to to consider that Americans like gas and may get mad, lose their butts

The Fuzz at Scotland Yard and the Bank of England notice that cryptocurrencies are used in crimes

r/bitcoin is convinced every country south of San Diego is imminently going to embrace ~~dictatorship~~ bitcoin

John McAfee II announces he will sell another $400M of soon to be worthless debt to buy soon to be worthless bitcoin

Hedge fund that bought $600M of Bitcoin last November announces they sold it all, probably made a lot of hodl memes along the way

# ¿ Jun 8, 2021 05:09

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Head of the CFTC posted:

Not only do I think that unlicensed DeFi markets for derivative instruments are a bad idea, I also do not see how they are legal under the CEA. The CEA requires futures contracts to be traded on a designated contract market (DCM) licensed and regulated by the CFTC.[20] The CEA also provides that it is unlawful for any person other than an eligible contract participant to enter into a swap unless the swap is entered into on, or subject to, the rules of a DCM.[21] The CEA requires any facility that provides for the trading or processing of swaps to be registered as a DCM or a swap execution facility (SEF).[22] DeFi markets, platforms, or websites are not registered as DCMs or SEFs. The CEA does not contain any exception from registration for digital currencies, blockchains, or �smart contracts.�

Apart from the legality issue, in my view it is untenable to allow an unregulated, unlicensed derivatives market to compete, side-by-side, with a fully regulated and licensed derivatives market. In addition to the absence of market safeguards and customer protections in the unregulated market, it is unfair to impose the obligations, restrictions, and costs of regulation upon some market participants while permitting their unregulated competitors to operate wholly free of such obligations, restrictions, and costs. Experience with the development of the �shadow banking� system shows that competition between regulated and unregulated entities in the same market can result in the regulated entities assuming either more risks in order to generate the higher yields necessary to compete with the unregulated competition, or seeking less regulation for themselves to level the playing field.[23] Either of these reactions can introduce significant risks into the financial system. For all these reasons, we should not permit DeFi to become an unregulated shadow financial market in direct competition with regulated markets. The CFTC, together with other regulators, need to focus more attention to this growing area of concern and address regulatory violations appropriately.

Remarks from earlier today

# ¿ Jun 9, 2021 01:56

drk: Jan 16, 2005

But the crypto in cryptocurrency is encryption, which was invented by Dorian "Satoshi" Nakamoto in 2014.

checkmate

# ¿ Jun 9, 2021 04:24

drk: Jan 16, 2005

More on the IRON collapse here: https://irony-97882.medium.com/the-melting-of-iron-89469b01e083

tl;dr: they thought they could back their new "stable" coin with 75% another stablecoin and 25% some new shitcoin they invented. They failed to consider no one would want thier shitcoin, which caused its price to fall, which caused more shitcoins to be emitted, which caused the price to fall even further, eventually falling by something like 99.99999%. The price got so low, a crucial piece of code rounded it to zero, which completely broke part of the "smart" contract (though that was later resolved?) Also somewhere in here there were 30,000% APR yields and Mark Cuban, because reasons.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2021 01:23

drk: Jan 16, 2005

TSB (Bank in the UK) moves to block their 5 million customers from sending money to cryptocurrency exchanges after Binance ghosts them by responding to zero of their inquiries on 849 of their customers getting scammed.

Number go down

https://archive.is/kZx4a

# ¿ Jun 19, 2021 01:43

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Binance is by far the largest BTC/USDT exchange, but yeah its all a big incestuous mess - Tether is involved with pretty much all of the large exchanges, and provides a substantial percentage of trade volume. Exactly what kills Tether at this point almost doesn't matter, the writing is on the wall.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2021 05:06

drk: Jan 16, 2005

https://twitter.com/NASCARonNBC/status/1406349369276735489

wow

drk fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Jun 19, 2021

# ¿ Jun 19, 2021 22:16

drk: Jan 16, 2005

ACH push is a thing. So are wire transfers, and a million slightly higher level things like Zelle or Venmo. There are weird crusty parts of the US banking system, but electronic payments work... just fine, and are pretty widespread these days. I haven't written a check in years, and only use cash once every few months (mostly, for :420:

# ¿ Jun 20, 2021 17:25

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Strong Sauce posted:

75%, but it had a further breakdown, of the 75%, 65% was "commercial paper", enough where they'd be one of the biggest holders of commercial paper/aka short term debt. 3.87% was in cash which if you take that that is 75% of their total holdings amounts to just under 3% of the amount they should have is backed by actual cash. there's

# ¿ Jun 22, 2021 23:29

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Mans posted:

Binance is the most reliable one you can find and they have a million guides on how to do this i assume.

Don't sure anything outside of Binance. It's sketchy enough to use an app from a company based in Malta with servers in Xinjiang, the others are even more sketchy.

Binance isn't available in the US. Clearly you should use local bitcoins dot com, and take whatever the highest offer is. No one has ever gotten ripped off selling bitcoin in person for cash in a dark alley.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2021 01:30

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Craptacular! posted:

Dumb question but this is the best place for it:

I've heard "BTC is falling because China is cracking down on mining." If most of the world's mining supply is going offline, shouldn't the value of BTC be going up due to reduced resources mining the remaining coins?

Not really. The amount of coins emitted is fixed - you dont get any more minted each day by using a billion miners than you do by using a single dusty PC in a basement. So as miner supply decreases, each remaining miner gets a higher number of coins per day. This means they can afford to sell for lower prices.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2021 20:09

drk: Jan 16, 2005

salt shakeup posted:

It reduces friction and makes it easier to move USD around, since you're outside the outdated and slow traditional banking system.

Do you know how long it takes to transfer money into my US brokerage account and trade with it, using that crusty old banking system?

Literally zero seconds. Submit the transfer request, and you can immediately trade with the funds. I dont have some rich-guy account or some special features enabled. I pay the princely sum of nothing in account fees, and nothing in transaction fees for this ability.

(yes, technically this takes a day or two to settle on the back end, but thats is an irrelevant detail)

# ¿ Jun 29, 2021 18:47

drk: Jan 16, 2005

but you see, the blockchain is secured by math (and Chinese coal plants)

checkmate, banks. come back when you've heard of math and CO2

# ¿ Jun 29, 2021 20:14

drk: Jan 16, 2005

The funny thing about the Butters is they are in a weird intersection of people who took away the wrong lessons from previous recessions and people who think "hmm, this smart contract I haven't read and wouldnt understand anyways is paying 800% APR, sounds legit and I could really use that cash".

# ¿ Jun 29, 2021 23:29

drk: Jan 16, 2005

The funniest thing is that the cost of this insurance is... 34%/yr

# ¿ Jul 2, 2021 06:28

drk: Jan 16, 2005

�The lake is so warm you feel like you�re in a hot tub,� said a woman who lives near a gas-fired New York plant that powers 8,000 computers mining Bitcoin:

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/some-locals-say-bitcoin-mining-operation-ruining-one-finger-lakes-n1272938

# ¿ Jul 5, 2021 22:58

drk: Jan 16, 2005

https://twitter.com/interlunations/status/1413167704333164546

# ¿ Jul 8, 2021 17:18

drk: Jan 16, 2005

As far as I know, most cryptocurrency related services were already not allowed to operate in China, though this was mostly all talk until earlier this year, when enforcement seemed to step up. However, they hadnt actually blocked exchanges with the great and powerful (fire)wall of china until today. A followup tweet said backend API calls are getting blocked too, so the smartphone apps wont work without a VPN.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2021 17:51

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Yeah, I dont think much of anything would be lost forever. No regulation can be enforced 100%, and its not like existing laws on capital controls work perfectly. A cryptocurrency key is really just a big number (or sometimes represented as a string of 20 words or so, that one could memorize with practice). So, so long as people are willing to break the law, which they arguably were already, those assets will probably be spent or cashed out in a safer location.

Heavy handed enforcement of the current rules and regulations certainly would likely reduce new money entering into the system though, and reduce the volume of transactions.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2021 18:33

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Oh, the bitcoin satellite is a thing: https://blockstream.com/satellite/

But, the ground stations are connected to the internet, and its a one way system. So yeah, in a hypothetical post-internet world, it wouldnt do anything.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2021 22:42

drk: Jan 16, 2005

Lol, the company these rubes are wiring money to is literally in a mall across the street from a Casino in Las Vegas. Nothing suspicious about that.

The fact that this mall has a bitcoin ATM is almost certainly not a coincidence:

# ¿ Jul 10, 2021 18:51

drk: Jan 16, 2005

David is the one who posted that twitter link - hopefully thats not doxxing, it seemed pretty clear from his twitter shout out there, and I know he's talked about his books here as well.

Seconding his blog is a great read - its generally snarky, but full of good stuff. Hat tip to @ahcastor (on twitter & amycastor.com) as well if you dont follow her. They both are pretty frequent commenters in other media outlets as well.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2021 02:24

drk: Jan 16, 2005

His first post in this thread was "i have a blog" with a link to his blog, so its a poorly kept secret if it is one. If mods want me to remove my post, no problem

# ¿ Jul 14, 2021 03:09

drk: Jan 16, 2005

MickeyFinn posted:

Do you have the google search terms to get this chart/data? This sounds like a fun watch, and all I can find are sites that want me to convert dollars into bitcoin.

Tradingview has decent charts by exchange. Here's Coinbase for example: https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=COINBASE%3ABTCUSD

As shouldnt be too surprising, volume tends to increase when price is changing the most:

# ¿ Jul 16, 2021 05:23

drk: Jan 16, 2005

If you were expecting to see a lot of real USD trading, think again. Most of the volume in crypto exchanges is with stablecoins, which are largely unregulated, and in the case of Tether, likely mostly backed by uncollectable debt and coiner wishcasting.

Here's the top 5 BTC markets by volume:

#1 and #4 are direct pairs with Tether. #2 is FTX, who is one of the largest Tether partners and also has no KYC/AML (so, money laundering friendly). #3 is Binance's stablecoin which I dont know much about, other than its actually issued by a US company - either way Binance is sketchy, so even if this stablecoin is 100% backed, I wouldn't assume people wont get burned when Binance fails (or, gets banned in their country, as has happened in quite a few places recently).

That just leaves Coinbase at #5 - they're certainly the least shady player there, but regulations on cryptocurrency related business are still pretty light. The USD is probably real and in a bank account somewhere, but even Coinbase has been caught (and fined for) wash trading.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2021 15:43