Is Crypto Dead?

[JeffS7444]

To date, crypto has been a vehicle for speculation and not much else. PoW, PoS; it doesn't matter, it's all as vaporous as the fortunes of the South Seas bubble of the 18th century.

 

[Destination: Moon]

To date, crypto has been a vehicle for speculation and not much else. PoW, PoS; it doesn't matter, it's all as vaporous as the fortunes of the South Seas bubble of the 18th century.

It's been highly successful giving criminals an untraceable means of ransoming and extorting billions of dollars from business and innocent victims..... So there's that

 

[Chromatischism]

It's been highly successful giving criminals an untraceable means of ransoming and extorting billions of dollars from business and innocent victims..... So there's that

False. Crypto is more traceable than cash. Cash is what you use if you want to be untraceable.

 

[Somafunk]

Crypto is the holy grail of currency for libertarians and those such as Peter Theil, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Jack Dorsey, Cathie Wood etc. That should tell us every we need to understand regarding emergent digital currencies, the Uber rich want a stable deregulated digital currency to shield themselves from the government dabbling in their wealth and are complicit in driving demand, Elon and dogecoin being one example, these freaks want to build empires that no longer rely on the dollar as currency.

 

[Chromatischism]

I'll admit: I like the technology, but I cringe at some of the personalities involved with it.

 

[Destination: Moon]

False. Crypto is more traceable than cash. Cash is what you use if you want to be untraceable.

Then please educate me as to why hacker Ransome is always demanded to be paid in crypto? And why crypto is touted as being free from government controls or oversight?

 

[Chromatischism]

Then please educate me as to why hacker Ransome is always demanded to be paid in crypto? And why crypto is touted as being free from government controls or oversight?

I don't know, but I would guess the ease of moving it around, including self-custody. Most bank transfers are orders of magnitude slower, especially if they cross country lines. And, governments can seize assets held at banks.

But all transfers are recorded on the blockchain – so to be clear, it is definitely traceable, but it's anonymous. You see every transaction destination, but you don't have a name attached to it, unless someone isn't careful and makes moves that reveal who they are. However the FBI has successfully recovered stolen funds in some cases using their own forensic hackers.

 

[Destination: Moon]

I don't know, but I would guess the ease of moving it around, including self-custody. Most bank transfers are orders of magnitude slower, especially if they cross country lines. And, governments can seize assets held at banks.

But all transfers are recorded on the blockchain – so to be clear, it is definitely traceable, but it's anonymous. You see every transaction destination, but you don't have a name attached to it, unless someone isn't careful and makes moves that reveal who they are. However the FBI has successfully recovered stolen funds in some cases using their own forensic hackers.

In other words, it's facilitating billions in criminal activity .... Because if crypto didn't exist, there's no way to transact the enormous sums with printed cash or gold or whatever, without a lot of risk

 

[Galliardist]

I don't know, but I would guess the ease of moving it around, including self-custody. Most bank transfers are orders of magnitude slower, especially if they cross country lines. And, governments can seize assets held at banks.

But all transfers are recorded on the blockchain – so to be clear, it is definitely traceable, but it's anonymous. You see every transaction destination, but you don't have a name attached to it, unless someone isn't careful and makes moves that reveal who they are. However the FBI has successfully recovered stolen funds in some cases using their own forensic hackers.

I'm scratching my head a bit here, how can you argue that crypto is both traceable and anonymous at the same time?

 

[antcollinet]

I'm scratching my head a bit here, how can you argue that crypto is both traceable and anonymous at the same time?

You can track every transaction between every "account" back to the beginning of the system - it is all recorded on the blockchain.

But there is no link between an account and a real person. If the account holder is careful enough to not reveal themselves as the person accessing the blockchain, then you cannot trace the transactions to a person.

Where this can easily go wrong is at the exchanges when you turn your bitcoin into real money, or vice versa.

 

[Chromatischism]

In other words, it's facilitating billions in criminal activity .... Because if crypto didn't exist, there's no way to transact the enormous sums with printed cash or gold or whatever, without a lot of risk

Gee, what did they use before crypto existed? It's not like money laundering started in 2009.

 

[Destination: Moon]

Gee, what did they use before crypto existed? It's not like money laundering started in 2009.

Real estate and maybe art

And Ransom or Extortion is not money laundering

 

[Chromatischism]

It's also a great way to help friends or family in a country that has either a government blockade on foreign currencies (Venezuela) or destroyed infrastructure (Ukraine).

 

[JeffS7444]

As currency, crypto's a flop because there's too little of it circulating, and too many hodlers. Economists don't want hodlers because they aren't buying goods and services which stimulate the economy, but rather, are delaying purchases in hopes of higher buying power tomorrow. This is why governments prefer to see modest rates of inflation rather than deflation.

 

[Chromatischism]

As currency, crypto's a flop because there's too little of it circulating, and too many hodlers. Economists don't want hodlers because they aren't buying goods and services which stimulate the economy, but rather, are delaying purchases in hopes of higher buying power tomorrow. This is why governments prefer to see modest rates of inflation rather than deflation.

This is true for crypto assets that have price volatility due to supply and demand (circulating supply). That is why Bitcoin changed from "money" pretty early on, to more of an alternative to gold. With the advent of stablecoins, they are pegged to the USD.

 

[JeffS7444]

With the advent of stablecoins, they are pegged to the USD.

Until they're not.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/steven...les-to-regain-its-dollar-peg/?sh=6194bb1f4c1f
May as well just hold US Dollars, which have no associated gas fees and nothing to become "unpegged" from.

 

[Chromatischism]

Until they're not.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/steven...les-to-regain-its-dollar-peg/?sh=6194bb1f4c1f
May as well just hold US Dollars, which have no associated gas fees and nothing to become "unpegged" from.

Luna is gone and was structured very differently. It was very unfortunate what happened. But, look at USDT and USDC.

 

[Galliardist]

Real estate and maybe art

And Ransom or Extortion is not money laundering

True, but the illegal gains do need to be gathered in and then converted to cash or goods.
The advantage of crypto is that not only does the extorter get an excellent chance to remain anonymous, but the extorted will probably remain anonymous as well.
So crypto wraps the whole criminal process up in one easy deal.

 

[Galliardist]

Luna is gone and was structured very differently. It was very unfortunate what happened. But, look at USDT and USDC.

Pray tell, what are USDT and USDC and related coins backed by? Wouldn't be other, wildly unstable cryptocurrencies, would it? The risk is lower than Luna, but maybe not that much lower.

 

[Chromatischism]

Pray tell, what are USDT and USDC and related coins backed by? Wouldn't be other, wildly unstable cryptocurrencies, would it? The risk is lower than Luna, but maybe not that much lower.

Luna was backed by other crypto assets and is why it depegged. The assets backing it dramatically dropped in value.

USDC is backed by U.S. dollar-denominated assets held at regulated and audited U.S. financial institutions.

USDT is similar, but there is some question as to whether the company has 100% backing. All I can do for you is copy what I was able to find with a quick search. "As of May 12, 2022, it was reporting assets of $81.3 billion for USDT. As of the same date, Tether reported holding 83.74% of its reserves in cash, cash equivalents, short-term deposits and commercial paper, 4.61% in corporate bonds, 5.27% in secured loans to unaffiliated entities, and 6.38% in other investments including digital tokens."