More On The Crypto Scam - "There's A Sucker Born Every Minute."
The FTX crypto bezzle continues to make waves.
Yves Smith remarks on Sam Bankman-Fried, the front-man of the fraud:
Yours truly must admit that if SBF does participate in the New York Times Dealbook conference on the 30th as scheduled, it would either indicates that his judgement is severely impaired and he is ignoring legal advice or he has good reason to believe that his risk of being prosecuted is extremely low. Given the rush of press stories that go insanely easy on this crypto grifter by skipping over inconvenient facts, like SBF “borrowing” over $3 billion that appears to have gone poof (see one shredded below), one has to suspect that the Southern District of New York effort to develop a case is unserious.Mind you, this is not over until the fat lady sings. What it took with the very connected Elizabeth Holmes was tenacious reporting by the Wall Street Journal, which refused to back down in the face of thuggish threats by star litigator David Boies (and despite, or perhaps because, Rupert Murdoch had invested $125 million in Theranos). There’s a lot of Silicon Valley money riding on the crypto project. A full or even partial but revealing expose of what went on at FTX and Alameda could readily cast more well warranted doubt on the entire ecosystem.
The New York Times and other top news sites are running cover for the FTX culprits:
A piece on the interconnections between Bankman-Fried’s exchange (FTX) and the investment company he controlled (Alameda) soft-pedaled the outright illegality of his making trades with customer funds. To hear the Times tell it, “Alameda’s need for funds to run its trading business was a big reason Mr. Bankman-Fried created FTX in 2019. But the way the two entities were set up meant that trouble in one unit shook up the other as crypto prices began to drop in the spring.”But that’s not what happened. When customers demanded their money, Fried didn’t have it, because he had been using it and losing it, illegally, for his own trades.
Not only that. To me the most egregious part of the FTX story is the use of 'tokens' which essentially were some kind of discount ticket one could buy to trade on better terms:
A giant part of understanding exactly what went down at FTX is understanding the Tokens they had launched or partnered with. In 2019 FTX launched FTT, an Ethereum ecosystem token which represented a cut of exchange fees and offered discounts to traders for holding it. It was the same model that Binance launched their token with in 2017. Tokens would be bought out of the market with a portion of exchange profits on a regular basis, delivering a return to investors.A huge portion of FTT tokens were held on the FTX balance sheet as an asset.
Think of a grocery that offers a $10 discount ticket to regular customers. The ticket gives them 15% off of their next $100 grocery buy. The total discount ticket sale is limited to 50 tickets. The people who did not get a ticket see good value in them and soon start to trade a few of them at $12.50.
But the FTX grocery did not only print the 50 discount discount tickets it had planned to sell but a total of 50,000 discount tickets. It then claimed that the 49,950 tickets times the market price of $12.50 per ticket were $624,375 in capital assets supporting the business. The grocer then went to a bank to get a real money loan of maybe $500,000 while offering those self printed assets as collateral. The money he got was then used to finance his grand lifestyle.
FTX was worse than that:
Even more egregious were the Solana ecosystem tokens which FTX helped launch. The leaked balance sheet showed that FTX had large holdings of Serum, Maps and Oxy.It showed Serum tokens marked as a $2.2 billion asset. Available market cap at the time was less than $500 million.
We don’t know for sure, but it seems likely that loans were taken out backed by FTT and other minor tokens.
Essentially, it seems that SBF invented his own currency from this air and then took out US dollar loans against it from anyone that would offer.
That last sentence essentially describes the whole crypto Ponzi scheme including bitcoin. It is build on the assumption that worthless things can be converted in something of value. Well, as P.T. Barnum may have said: "There's a sucker born every minute." Bitcoin and other tokens become 'assets' because eventually some sucker will pay real money for them.
The Bankman-Fried trick can only work when the lenders do not really care about the collateral because they think that the grocery business is doing great:
And why wouldn’t Crypto lenders offer loans to FTX on whatever collateral was offered?
FTX was the fastest growing exchange in industry history. It had prestigious investors. Its CEO was throwing around cash on advertising and political donations. Surely FTX was profitable enough to service their loans.
They lenders were all suckers.
There are also lots of suckers in Ukraine.
Until November 15, four days after FTX was officially bankrupt, the official website https://aid-for-ukraine.io/ still looked like this:
bigger
There was the FTX logo and a quote from its founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried:
bigger
A day later the logo and the quote were gone:
bigger
But Ukraine continues to be in the crypto scam business. It had planned to integrate the international crypto scammer Binance into its official government app. Local crypto scammers protested against that:
Ukraine has paused its planned integration of Binance's crypto payment service into the government's official app after backlash by the embattled nation’s crypto community.That integration is now on hold to “clarify a few moments” first, according to a government minister.
The outrage was prompted by the government’s plans to integrate the service from the world’s largest exchange by volume at a time when Binance continues to do business with Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February. The nation's crypto exchanges don't want a foreign company to provide a service they can do as well. They showed their displeasure by blocking trades of Binance's BNB token on their platforms.
Binance had integrated its know-your-customer (KYC) process into Ukraine's Diia mobile app in late October, local crypto news media Forklog reported. Diia allows Ukrainians to make digital copies of their state-issued documents and government services online.
...
Using the Binance system would allow Ukrainians to register on the crypto exchange faster by using their Diia profile, said Kyrylo Khomyakov, Binance’s general manager in Ukraine, to Forklog.
The Binance scam had bribed someone to become the most easily accessible crypto 'exchange' in Ukraine. The app integration would have sucked in new Ukrainian customers into the Binance system. The local crypto scam entities protested against that:
Exchanges Kuna, WhiteBit and crypto lending service Trustee Plus filed a petition to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky asking him to block the move. They also froze trading of BNB, Binance’s token, on their platforms.“All the attention now is on Binance, and local exchanges are upset,” said a Ukrainian crypto entrepreneur who asked not to be named.
...
While Kuna, WhiteBit and Trustee are all officially registered outside Ukraine, the founders and teams are Ukrainian, and all three used to be based in the country before relocating after the invasion of Ukraine.
While being safely outside of the country, and having avoided the draft, the Ukrainian embezzlers want to continue to feast on their compatriots' funds. No foreign competition should be allowed for that.
I find it a bit astonishing that Ukrainian government employees have time for such nonsense. Are they on the winning side of such scams?
Posted by b on November 29, 2022 at 17:20 UTC | Permalink
next page »I,m more concerned about the possibility of the subject crypto was being used as a money laundering route to funnel U.S. government monies through the Ukraine back to corrupt Democratic and other elected politicians in the U.S. for them to vote favorably on Ukrainian policies hence perpetuating the subject money scheme. I,m thinking the ponzi aspect is a side show to what was really going on.
Posted by: robert | Nov 29 2022 17:46 utc | 2
Crypto would be fine as a national currency issued by the local governments to pay for local goods/services and can recirculate these tokens via taxes. It falls short when those that create a crypto make themselves billionaires at everyone else's expense.
Posted by: Jon | Nov 29 2022 17:47 utc | 3
I recall back in about 2010 when Max Keiser moved over to work with Palpatine. He suddenly became a crypto spokesperson and went as far as admitting he was being paid to do it. Now Max knows a ponzi when he sees it and he jumped right in. Greed makes people do bizarre things that quickly amount to crimes. We have seen many types regarding crypto currency and the block chain that show it has built in holes for the purpose of quietly looting wallets of their contents that won't show up for long enough to allow the perp to get away clean.
The exchanges are being allowed by governments when they know it is a crime scene, so they must be profiting from the grift. The IRS is waiting to collect big bounties because they have the keys to the block chain and the fines accumulate. What should we expect from our governments?
Posted by: Tard | Nov 29 2022 17:50 utc | 4
Is Binance next? Is crypto real economy? How so many can make so much money trading air is a mystery to me. I guess PT Barnum was right. "There's a sucker born every minute".
b wrote:
I find it a bit astonishing that Ukrainian government employees have time for such nonsense. Are they on the winning side of such scams?
Of that you can be sure.
Probably in full collusion with those banksters lending money. The best way to rob a bank is to own it, according to Bill Black
Black developed the concept of "control fraud"–-frauds in which the CEO or head of state uses the entity as a "weapon." Control frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime combined and kill and maim thousands.
Posted by: Anne B | Nov 29 2022 17:59 utc | 6
I'm hearing lots of rumors that Disney had invested more than a billion dollars of their cash reserves in FTX and are now in a cash crisis and that is why Bob Iger was brought back to arrange either a buyout by Apple or a harsh downsizing of some of their resources. I remember about a year ago Disney said that they were going to invest in Crypto, but it's incredible to think that a huge multi-billion-dollar company wouldn't do due diligence on what they are investing in. But perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, if you stop punishing failure and reward people only on seniority and party loyalty this is the type of crap you get
Posted by: Kadath | Nov 29 2022 18:04 utc | 8
"The Binance scam had bribed someone to become the most easily accessible crypto 'exchange' in Ukraine. "
Does anyone know what Hunter Biden is up to these days?
Posted by: ian | Nov 29 2022 18:04 utc | 9
Background on BlockFi's bankruptcy today.
So BlockFi is a creditor to FTX that lent to Alameda that lent to Emergent which is a shell company owned by SBF that bought Robinhood shares that were pledged as collateral to guarantee to BlockFi the loan to FTX that was used to bailout BlockFi itself
https://twitter.com/ayko2718/status/1597432454070956032
Jenga!
Posted by: too scents | Nov 29 2022 18:05 utc | 10
SBF will be fine. In todays Clownworld America, if you hold the right political opinions even murder and rape are not really criminal acts. Conversely, if you hold the wrong ones, traditional rights like habeas corpus are denied to you.
Posted by: Wade Hampton | Nov 29 2022 18:09 utc | 11
i particularly liked the part about protecting local crypto scammers. "we must protect our national industry of scamming"
Posted by: pretzelattack | Nov 29 2022 18:09 utc | 12
Ok. Now someone should have a look at Tether. It makes FTX look like kindergarten.
Posted by: DG | Nov 29 2022 18:11 utc | 13
Jon @ 3
It falls short when those that create a crypto make themselves billionaires at everyone else's expense.
Unlike the federal reserve system and fractional-reserve banking, of course.
Not that I think crypto's anything special. What's notable is that it was supposed to liberate money from the tyranny of the federal reserve system but hardly anyone uses it for transactions, a part is to park dirty money but most of what I see is tulip bulb fervid speculation, dodgy unregulated shadow speculation at that, predator vs prey scamming. Prosecution futures - if you can find something solid to nail a lawsuit on.
Maybe one day when the California and Yukon gold rush mad moment abides and the crypto system settles in it might prove worthwhile.
I wonder if Bitcoin will survive the pilling in by big Wall Street investment banks. They aren't in it for the return percentage they are in it for a galactic smash and grab, just waiting for the right moment. If it survives that Bitcoin might then become what people imagine crypto could be, ie something useful in everyday life.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Nov 29 2022 18:14 utc | 14
Bankman-Fried is Bank man fried.
Get it? A man with a ponzi scheme for bank finally ran out of luck and is now fried .
Bank man, fried.
Hilarious. Where do they find these people with these names? Hahaha
Posted by: FieryButMostPeaceful | Nov 29 2022 18:19 utc | 15
Ok. Now someone should have a look at Tether. It makes FTX look like kindergarten.
Posted by: DG | Nov 29 2022 18:11 utc | 14
---
37% of Tether volume was handled by FTX partner Alameda.
Posted by: too scents | Nov 29 2022 18:23 utc | 16
I'm currently reading the insanely dizzying book One Nation Under Blackmail by Whitney Webb. The main message is that there have been endless political and financial conspiracies going on since the end of WWII as I knew but could not document. Financial fraud was, for example, at the heart of the financial crisis in '08--I knew this was going on in 2006 from a Wall Street insider who informed me of fraudulent derivatives etc. The reality was that "everyone knew" this was going on just as "everyone" knew about this fraud and all the frauds going on in all areas of contemporary life from Big Pharma to the Ukraine scam.
This is the reality we face. When this particular operation crashes three others will emerge and why not? Barring a de facto common moral foundation what else can we expect?
Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Nov 29 2022 18:29 utc | 17
This is now acceptable behavior for the privileged. Failure to prosecute, which seems certain, will confirm that.
Financial crime cannot be explained to ordinary citizens. Eyes glaze over immediately. Prosecutors and their staffs do not have the concept of chastising their social betters. If there were some ambitious US attorney who went after SBF their entire office would be busy passing information in expectations of favors. Which would make perfect sense. A US attorney who would prosecute this has no future, SBF and his cronies rule the world. Or at least as seen from US they rule the world.
Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 29 2022 18:35 utc | 18
Worthless things can be made to create “value” out of nothing.— —
Governments create Pseudo-currency when they regulate and restrict and sell permits which can be traded and form the basis for speculation and the building of financial castles in the air. Bankers love them.
Carbon credits, dairy farmer milk quotas and taxi medallions spring to mind. In the past you could buy absolution for one’s sins, an earlier cryptocurrency; creation of value from nothing.
It’s legal if the Government does it.
Posted by: CitizenSmith | Nov 29 2022 18:36 utc | 19
@chris Cosmos
Wait until healthcare collapses, the fraud is staggering.
Posted by: Whocares | Nov 29 2022 18:37 utc | 20
When you need a SWIFT clearing account ... for reasons.
Threads.
https://twitter.com/EpsilonTheory/status/1595916161526468609
https://twitter.com/EpsilonTheory/status/1595757535188885504
Too much money has been vaporized for this conspiracy to simply go away.
Posted by: too scents | Nov 29 2022 18:41 utc | 21
Posted by: Jon | Nov 29 2022 17:47 utc | 3
wrote:
Crypto would be fine as a national currency issued by the local governments to pay for local goods/services and can recirculate these tokens via taxes. It falls short when those that create a crypto make themselves billionaires at everyone else's expense.
Exactly - that's why it's crucial to understand how money really works, and probably why they are so eager to conceal it.
A very good introduction is "The Lost Science of Money" by the late Stephen Zarlenga (like Graeber a great loss).
Posted by: Anne B | Nov 29 2022 18:43 utc | 22
Indeed, b is correct. The whole 'token' thing is the basis of almost every recent crypto crash/scam. It's as if these exchanges can't be happy with an IPO and overvalued share prices - they've got to create silly tokens and attempt to push them as though they're a valuable asset. This almost always entails pumping up the value through tricks and marketing campaigns. I hope that the investigation into FTX and Alameda goes as deep as possible because it will show that the entire ecosystem needs regulation, but also that this type of fiasco is nearly always associated with a bad actor/scam artist and not the technology itself.
TL/DR: Nobody f*cking needed FTX to buy and/or sell BTC or other cryptocurrencies and certainly nobody should have left any amount of $ (fiat or crypto) on the exchange for a period of time longer than it takes to make a transaction. Further, nobody should buy these shitcoin tokens despite the various "rewards" and discounts the upstart exchanges will offer. Any time I see a "rewards" program without tangible (service related) benefits I immediately smell a scam of some kind.
P.S. As always I do not encourage anyone to get into the crypto market unless you're very willing to risk your money in a volatile, unregulated ecosystem rife with frauds and crooks like SBF.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 18:45 utc | 23
I really can't comment on the current evolving crisis except to note that in the novel I previously recommended, the perpetrator of the scam was indeed brought to trial early on and was able to escape retribution. It was only after the scheme had built on that so-called reputation of legitimacy to further heights of illegality that everything finally imploded.
I'll recommend it again, and give a quote here to explain some of what goes on inside such schemes:
"...You know what I've learned about money? I was trying to figure out why my life felt more or less the same in Singapore as it did in London, and that's when I realized that money is its own country."...It wasn't the stuff that kept her in this strange new life, in the kingdom of money;...What kept her in the kingdom was the previously unimaginable condition of not having to think about money, because that's what money gives you: the freedom to stop thinking about money. If
you've never been without, then you won't understand the profundity of this, how absolutely it changes your life...
[The Glass Hotel Emily St.John Mandel]
It's its own country.
Posted by: juliania | Nov 29 2022 18:46 utc | 25
Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Nov 29 2022 18:29 utc | 18
Exactly. The scammer class will immediately figure out ways to attach themselves to any new asset, commodity or service.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 18:49 utc | 26
It's a bit facile to argue that the entire crypto enterprise is just one big scam, unless you're honest and admit that fiat currency is essentially the same. That said, there are numerous overt scams in the cryptosphere, FTX being the most egregious. But the idea that money can be separated from governmental control isn't silly or even novel (hello, gold and silver). Will private crypto endure after CBDC's are in circulation? Nobody knows, but the clever and nimble have made a killing in crypto. The late followers and true believers? Not so much.
Posted by: Booboo | Nov 29 2022 18:58 utc | 27
Ukraine in the scam business!? Well I never.
Oh wait. It's their main source of GDP.
It takes a particularly empty kind of sociopath to do even a fraction of the lying, scamming, defrauding, cheating and bullshitting that goes on in Ukraine. I'd call it a mafia state but the mafia have some ethics. I've just been watching footage from Bonnel's Donbas be rebranded by Ukrops as Karkhov 2022. Fucking savages have no shame.
One day, my dear b, when all this huge floating waste from the dying days of bandit finance capitalism washes up on shore we shall properly see but still we will not believe. It is just too awful. We will be like Marlow in Heart of Darkness.
Posted by: Patroklos | Nov 29 2022 18:58 utc | 28
Bitcoin is not crypto.
Unlike tokens that scammers create (including federal dollar shitcoins), bitcoin is not controlled by any central authority. That's what makes it valuable.
Bitcoin and other tokens become 'assets' because eventually some sucker will pay real money for them.
sounds smart but it's a trivial statement. Yes, I value Bitcoin because of its properties, and thus I save with Bitcoin, secure that other people who want to save will do so in the future with Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is the escape from fiat shitcoins (i.e. the dollar system)
Posted by: Vince | Nov 29 2022 19:04 utc | 29
Posted by: CitizenSmith | Nov 29 2022 18:36 utc | 20
wrote:Carbon credits, dairy farmer milk quotas and taxi medallions spring to mind. In the past you could buy absolution for one’s sins, an earlier cryptocurrency; creation of value from nothing.
It's called monetization - and is how they usurp control.
"The Corporation" - must watch.
Posted by: Anne B | Nov 29 2022 19:04 utc | 30
Kadath @ 9
I'm hearing lots of rumors that Disney had invested more than a billion dollars of their cash reserves in FTX and are now in a cash crisis and that is why Bob Iger was brought back...
Disney is one of the world's biggest corporations, you can be sure their investment honchos are tied to Wall St.'s top investment banks and not prey of them. If a billion disappeared from Disney in FTX it is because it was meant to disappear. I would apply this to any of the big investors there. Bankman-Fried's seeming self assurance is likely because he protected himself by sharing the scam with very heavy hitters both corporate and Wall St. They can kill him but they can't try him.
Best thing about crypto is its particle physics nature where things come in and out of existence from one moment to the next. Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat, ta-da!... Poof! Where'd it go?
Supposedly, Bankman-Fried is chillin' in the Caribbean, maybe he actualized his quantum money and bought Epstein Island LOL. He can pimp out that idiot-savant imp that ran Alameda.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Nov 29 2022 19:05 utc | 31
The means of primitive accumulation continue to evolve. This is just more of that. Now Marx divided capital accumulation into two types, but I'm coming to the conclusion that finance capitalism is at least heavily dependent on, if not totally dependent on, primitive accumulation schemes. Money can't really make money. It has to be taken from somewhere or something. Crypto as a means to settle accounts between individuals in a market works just fine. Bitcoin as the transactional currency of long-distance crime worked really, really well. Not as well as a cash, but cash doesn't work over distance. Bitcoin or any crypto as an investment has nothing to do with transactional use. Ergo, it must just be a vehicle of capital accumulation for someone.
Posted by: Lex | Nov 29 2022 19:17 utc | 33
It's called "Chutzpah", and it's why the Khazars appear more intelligent than your garden variety gringos.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Nov 29 2022 19:23 utc | 34
@Vince #30
I'm no expert but this crypto crash will be used to regulate and control all things crypto, this could have a serious effect on sky high values.
Although with criminals in charge of everything it might be one of the only ways for the west to make money.
Posted by: OhhCanada | Nov 29 2022 19:28 utc | 35
Everyone should own a little bit of physical gold, proportionally to other assets.
If we all did it, it will have enough value to act as a hedge against greedy money changers (what the crypto exchanges really are) and will take the power over our lives away from high finance.
Posted by: alek_a | Nov 29 2022 19:29 utc | 36
And if you liked The Corporation, you'll LOVE Tax Free Tour, describes the nuts-and-bolts of how the 0.001% corporatists avoid paying taxes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4o13isDdfY
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 19:32 utc | 37
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Nov 29 2022 19:05 utc | 32
I suspect it to be much as you outline: a gigantic slush fund where at least some big investors were well aware that their investment was really a kickback to the political class, a kind of bribe “tumbler”. Big Name investors also served as a celebrity endorsement to draw in smaller crypto investor / speculators, giving the big boys a kind of leverage multiplier on their bribes!
It will be interesting to see if the true beneficiaries of the FTX Ponzi are revealed and, likewise, what monies cannot even be accounted for.
Posted by: anon2020 | Nov 29 2022 19:43 utc | 38
DG at 14
A few days ago I tried to make sense of Tether. I think you might be right. That whole company is so obtuse as to be incomprehensible. It smells of one major Ponzi scheme.
But, how? I do not know.
Posted by: Toivos | Nov 29 2022 19:43 utc | 39
Vince | Nov 29 2022 19:04 utc | 30
How is Bitcoin not a crypto currency? Mt. Gox comes to mind as maybe the first Bitcoin smash and grab, though I believe the coins were eventually recovered. Gox was an exchange, which goes against crypto coin logic, certainly the purity of the concept. The whole point of crypto was to avoid banks which is what exchanges are. People still see the need for banks and that's the con exchange scammers work.
If you stick to using peer to peer wallets as Satoshi intended then you are safe enough from the little I understand. But, seems to me that that is like keeping your money in a Pop Tarts box in the far back of the cupboard, ok for mad money but not too useful or safe for big sums, like the ones corporations and hedge funds gleaned up. The crypto problem is the exchanges which are needed for ease of transactions with large quantities and where you need credibility, insurance, guarantees, and all that financial plumbing that makes the world go round. The exchanges are where the scams happen.
Bitcoin whatever you believe about its intrinsic value and safety of where you hold it has huge speculation around it. It likely won't go out of existence, you can't un-invent it, but it could drop from $15K to $1 just like anything that is traded. Unlikely but expect a big move in value, when the Wall St. super duper crooks move in get ready for a sacking and pillaging to be sprung at some point. Bitcoin will survive, like I said it can't be un-invented, but you might not survive if you have essential savings in it.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Nov 29 2022 19:50 utc | 40
I find it a bit astonishing that Ukrainian government employees have time for such nonsense. Are they on the winning side of such scams?
@b.
Thanks for this post.
Well b, certainly UKr government employees have all the time for this. UKr is the money laundromat capital.
What a web of thieves?
You ain’t see nothing yet as this crypto thingy unravels. Many players you would not suspect.
FTX is a family affair. Pops and Mommie (both lawyers, Standford Univ) didn’t want to know – but enjoyed.
LINK
FTX created mouse-click currency, the latest “client - victim”
Failed crypto lender BlockFi is expected to reveal today why it went bankrupt – as it sues disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried for $575 million of shares in trading app Robinhood
LINK
Good luck, getting a wooden nickel from Sammy Bank man, now well stir-fried.
And also, a hearty Good luck to the guys and gals at SEC.
You can’t make this up.
Feb. 14, 2022, SEC Press Release
BlockFi Agrees to Pay $100 Million in Penalties and Pursue Registration of its Crypto Lending Product
SEC is confident
Posted by: Likklemore | Nov 29 2022 19:58 utc | 42
@8 Kadath
I haven't heard those rumors yet, but oh my what a glorious situation if true! Apple probably would make an offer, just to continue their awfulness.
Posted by: NJH | Nov 29 2022 20:02 utc | 43
Arch Bungle made this video link available earlier on MoA.
This threat is its rightful place.
A must watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6nAxiym9oc
Wall Street Sharks knew who this guy was.
If it was you or I saying what the Zio scammer is saying in this video about our "box" investment scheme we'd be in Jail.
Now back to World Cup ;-)
Posted by: Tom_12 | Nov 29 2022 20:04 utc | 44
Indeed, many players on the cryptomania wagon.
See how easy you can start a bank…only if you are well-connected. “Nobody is looking behind the curtain." You bet.
Sheila Blair, former Chair of FDIC Now an Organizer/Director of a Cayman Islands Crypto Company that got a National Bank Charter last year
LINK
Posted by: Likklemore | Nov 29 2022 20:04 utc | 45
On political donations:
The interview is most revealing in showing how Bankman-Fried has been able to craft his persona, particularly through the media, and how political donations played a major role in that. Bankman-Fried became well known as the second-largest donor to Democrats prior to the 2022 election, behind George Soros. But he says he donated about equally to Republicans, just using dark-money groups that obscure the source of that funding. (As of right now, the data to prove this isn’t publicly available, though it may come to light during bankruptcy proceedings. Still, FEC filings show FTX donated $1 million to a political committee controlled by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that backed Republicans.) “Despite Citizens United being literally the highest-profile Supreme Court of the decade, and the thing everyone talks about when they talk about campaign finance, for some reason, in practice, no one can possibly fathom that someone, in practice, actually gave dark. So all my Republican donations were dark,” he said. “The reason was not for regulatory reasons. It’s because reporters freak the fuck out if you donate to Republicans, they’re all super-liberal, and I didn’t want to have that fight.”
The "woke" defense?
And...
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX US donated $1 million to a super PAC linked to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) just weeks before the parent company declared bankruptcy early this month, shorting clients, creditors and investors out of billions of dollars, Bloomberg first reported Saturday.The political contribution can be seen in the Senate Leadership Fund political action committee’s latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. The super PAC, which is aligned with McConnell and supports GOP Senate candidates, was the biggest spender ($239 million) in the midterm elections, according to OpenSecrets.
The payment was made Oct. 27 by West Realm Shires Services Inc., which does business as FTX US. Just weeks later, more than 100 FTX-related companies, including the U.S. operation — which had been one of the largest financial exchanges in the world — filed for bankruptcy.
https://sports.yahoo.com/ftx-us-donated-1-million-140152333.html
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 20:05 utc | 46
LightYearsFromHome @31
I'm sure the big money hacks who "invested/stole" other people's money in FTX knew damn well that it was a scam (I knew it was a scam within 2 mins of seeing their promo videos they posted up on youtube). What I'm getting at is that the "elite" of Western society have run out of victim societies to pillage so they are increasingly preying upon their own citizens. in the 1950s Western Elites wanted to improve the lives of their citizens, not out of the goodness of their hearts, but in terror that COMMUNISM was on the march and they might end up hanging from the streetlights like all those Russian "nobles" who feasted while the serfs starved. They afforded this was a while by pillaging the poor Southern states. Yet now those states are too strong to make pillaging them profitable, so they are now engaged in auto-cannibalism, eating their own societies and economies to make the rich richer.
If Disney gets sold to Apple then more wealth will be concentrated into an even smaller group of institutional investors. The small investors will of course be ruined and over time will be forced to sell their reduced investments at a loss, while the big institutions will ride out the crises they provoke and buy out the small guys when they get into trouble. Welcome to serfhood 2.0 where you will own nothing, live in micro-apartments, eat bugs and be happy or else!
Western elites know that they have failed and their disastrous policies will lead to a Russian style revolution or a Soviet style collapse, which is also why they are so desperate to destroy Russia and China they want to pillage those countries for more resources to keep the Ponzi scheme going a few more years. What the West will discover however is once you start pillaging your own society there is no turning back, the Elites have now normalized shitting in their own beds. Even if they won over Russia and China, they would never give back to their own populations they will simply steal all of the wealth for themselves, and their societies will be in an even worst position at the end of it. Revolution or Collapse is the only result facing the West, if Russia and China win the West will have a revolution to finally overthrow the corrupt Elite. If China and Russia are defeated, then the West will collapse when it is realized that all of the wealth they had hoped to steal to bribe the Populus has already been stolen.
Posted by: Kadath | Nov 29 2022 20:12 utc | 47
Since the linked article brought up Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, that was valued at $9 billion and raised more than $400 million in VC. And because of that scam we have now final evidence that the whole biotech industry is a scam as well. At least following the logic of MoA ...
Mind you FTT was valued between 20-30$ before the crash towards $1. There are over 300 million tokens so $6-9 billion evaporated over night! That the FTX scammers used the high riding value of FTT as collateral elsewhere, has little to do with how the crypto industry works. It has to do with how people like Holmes work. And many others everywhere in the world. People. People. People. Understanding crypto will make it clear that human fraud on exchanges and VC funds have as much to do with the industry as Holmes with real and working biotechnology. Whatever the technology it doesn't protect us from scammers. Like the current economical models don't protect you from fraudulent banks (IceSave, one example).
Posted by: John Dowser | Nov 29 2022 20:17 utc | 48
How is Bitcoin not a crypto currency?
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Nov 29 2022 19:50 utc
If you really want to learn about Bitcoin...
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/
Bitcoin is to other cryptocurrencies as holding physical gold bullion in your own safe is to fiat currencies/banking. Crypto exchanges are like banks, the casino stock markets, ETFs and anything where someone else manages/stores your money for you.
Not your private keys, not your Bitcoin is correct.
Exchanges came into being because the tech-side of early Bitcoin was a barrier to adoption. Ironically, it is now fairly easy to buy Bitcoin (if you ignore the KYC/AML privacy issues). If you don't care if the gov't, and every Tom, Dick and Harry that can use a blockchain crawler knows how much Bitcoin you hold, there are ATMs and currency exchanges everywhere. Give them your driver's license and you're a Bitcoiner.
There is still a bit of a tech learning curve if you want privacy, but you don't have to be a computer programmer to get underway anymore.
Follow the above link to read about Bitcoin accurately and honestly. But remember, Bitcoin is a "trust free" system... you are your own bank and carry all the responsibility for your activities in that system. No mommy-bank or nanny-gov't to run to if you screw up or get scammed.
BUYER BEWARE
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 20:26 utc | 49
Holmes ended up in jail because of the Big Players that invested in Theranos.
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/hospitals-health-systems/healthcare-roundup-how-much-investors-like-besty-devos-lost-theranos
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 20:42 utc | 50
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 19:32 utc | 37
Love isn't the word I would've picked, for something so dirty.
I'll raise you "The smartest guys in the room"
That makes me want to pay extra attention to the machinations going on in the European energy-sector.
Posted by: Anne B | Nov 29 2022 20:46 utc | 51
There are some crypto pundits who think the FTX scam was as much about crashing crypto in general in the public eye, as well as stealing the ID details of those holding FTX coins. FTX bought at least one existing book of clients (Blockfolio), and after the sale changed the ToS so that FTX could sell that info in case of a bankruptcy... a little planning goes a long way eh?
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 20:49 utc | 52
Bitcoin is to other cryptocurrencies...
@ Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 20:26 utc | 49
Mysteriously neither fish nor fowl, click here to find out more, such tedium!
Look: If Bitcoin stands in whatever relationship to "other cryptocurrencies" then you've just classified Bitcoin as that thing: a cryptocurrency.
The inability of crypto enthusiasts to speak plain English, to agree on obvious definitions of the most basic terms, impresses me as exquisitely crooked.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Nov 29 2022 20:56 utc | 53
meh guys, its really lame
we from the north were kind of a really nice family until well it never was like that, we were always a broken family but we loved each other at some point at least...
what comes now? Well a big fat family, enjoy that your cousin even he is rtrd though has more rights than you, cause, well he is part of it
Lets see how it may come in the future but I hope our charme and flair can come back :)
Posted by: Macpott | Nov 29 2022 21:12 utc | 54
Let's play change the topic. 😁 ...
"And if you liked The Corporation, you'll LOVE Tax Free Tour, describes the nuts-and-bolts of how the 0.001% corporatists avoid paying taxes."Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 19:32 utc | 37
Old canadian on Europe's Economic And Social Suicide - Provoked by The U.S. And Helped Along By Europe's Leaders | August 30, 2022 at 14:17 https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/08/europes-economic-and-social-suicide-provoked-by-the-us-and-helped-along-by-europes-leaders.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02a2eed37d00200d#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02a2eed37d00200d
Bitcoin is not a shitcoin. Bitcoin is decentralized proof of work, shitcoins are centralized proof of stake. Learn the difference to be taken seriously. Bitcoin is limited in the number to EVER be issued. Shitcoins are THE SAME as fiat-
Old canadian on Behind The Crypto Scam - "Complete Absence Of Trustworthy Financial Information" | November 19, 2022 at 13:36 https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/11/behind-the-crypto-scam-complete-absence-of-trustworthy-financial-information-.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02af1484dc9f200c#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02af1484dc9f200c
The crypto bad chorus out again it seems, but having a hard time making any factual arguments. And again for the record, Bitoin is NOT the same as any Proof of Stake (POS) coin, token, NFT, exchange or corporate investment in crypto. So s
Caveat emptor: "That lung-full of possible graphene-type particulates is far less invasive than injecting that same amount into the bloodstream." —Old canadian | Nov 26 2022 12:58 utc | 326 [ https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/11/ukraine-open-thread-2022-207.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02af14a74567200b#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02af14a74567200b
Why vaccines are injected in your upper arm muscle, and not in your veins - ABC News https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-01-08/covid-19-vaccine-injection-upper-arm-muscle-deltoid-immune/13031918
First up: unlike the layer of fat just under our skin, muscle has an excellent blood supply to help disperse the vaccine, says Joanna Groom, an immunology researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.Muscle contains and recruits immune cells called dendritic cells, which take up antigens quickly and stick them on their surface, like a flag.
Dendritic cells then migrate to and slip into lymph nodes, "which are like large meeting places for the immune system",
A vaccine injected directly into the bloodstream, on the other hand, is vulnerable to destruction.
Posted by: Laurence | Nov 29 2022 21:14 utc | 55
sec exposed as dirtiest of all,
another truth buried,
in circus news mall.
when peasants became money printers,
war ceased between royal minters.
Riding the waves of inflation,
the poor hedged
a better future nation.
Swinging gains Never hodl,
usecases created a model.
If they destroying the dollar,
than what brings tomorrow?
30thousand coins of all,
helped in the fight,
as they servitude y'all.
freedom of success short,
freed families from generational extorts.
when they crypto hating,
crypto celebrating. We eat good.
Posted by: meow | Nov 29 2022 21:15 utc | 56
Kadath @ 47
I agree with all you said but keep in mind, the collapse of the west won't be any time soon, as most posters here seem to think. I'm not saying it won't be in the next five years but expect 20 and could be fifty, it'll be up and down with lulls in between. The west will diminish, maybe a lot, most likely just a bit, but in time, seen in retrospect, it will be an important bit
Societies are extremely resilient, 300 years of western hegemony aren't just going to go poof, it will be a transition, hopefully without a world war. If it is a world war, it'll likely be a hybrid war like the Russians claim we are already in, which only reinforces the idea that it will drag on for decades, with lots of "unknown, unknowns" ie fuck-ups along the way.
Think about all the upheavals Europe and the USA underwent the last 300 years (USA: civil war, depression, WW1 & 2) Germany and Japan were wall to wall rubble just 80ys ago, and yet here they all still are not much different than before the cataclysms. What's that Clausewitz phrase, war is just a continuation of politics by another means? Well collapse is just transition by an other means.
50ys on, the USA will still be around, still big, still powerful, still a dangerous bitch on the world scene, just not a hegemon.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Nov 29 2022 21:19 utc | 57
Posted by John Dowser | Nov 29 2022 20:17 utc | 48
And because of that scam we have now final evidence that the whole biotech industry is a scam as well. At least following the logic of MoA ...
That's a huge straw-man you got there, considering the diversity of the MOA population.
Not that the bio-tech industry does much to help you fight them.
It's kind of their tradition to prove themselves unworthy. If you want a list, you can just ask for it. The problem is always the lack of transparency.
Posted by: Anne B | Nov 29 2022 21:23 utc | 58
The inability of crypto enthusiasts to speak plain English, to agree on obvious definitions of the most basic terms, impresses me as exquisitely crooked.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Nov 29 2022 20:56 utc
What a load of... well you know what it is, you just made it up.
Then Bitcoin is not for you. Stay away. Ditto for any other FUDsters. Stop ragging on about something you know nothing about.
Seriously. Blockchain is a simple concept, even if the technology is not. Can you build a car from scratch, let alone repair one? (If you happen to be a mechanic, pick some technology you don't understand, like bio-tech) But you drive a car and take medicines don't you? But you have ZERO understanding of what goes on "under the hood".
And if you don't have the bottle to be SELF-RESPONSIBLE, don't bitch at those who do.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 21:41 utc | 59
Rafi Farber said it best. "He has a hyphenated name. Sam Bankman-Fried. Bank man freed. If you are not seeing the signs then you aren't looking".
Posted by: John Nudo | Nov 29 2022 21:45 utc | 60
thanks b.... i wonder where this ftx story is headed? the tie in to ukraine is especially fascinating...
@ Tom_12 | Nov 29 2022 20:04 utc | 44
thanks so much for posting that link... it is very prescient! the guy nails it 6 months in advance.. thanks arch... others would benefit from watching that video tom shared here @44..
Posted by: james | Nov 29 2022 21:52 utc | 61
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Nov 29 2022 20:56 utc | 53
What impresses me is the very low level of education regarding Bitcoin displayed by many MoA contributors.
There is Bitcoin, and there is crypto. Bitcoin is decentralized; cryptos are centralized - all of them. Bitcoin is a commodity; cryptos are securities - and unfortunately, most of them (including Ethereum) are unregulated. What is the difference between a commodity and a security? There are many, but the key one here is that securities have an issuer who profits from their success; commodities do not. Another difference is that crypto securities can be censored by OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury) - and if they aren't today, they soon will be. Cryptos carry counter-party risk; self-hosted Bitcoin does not.
Bitcoiners understand that the enlightenment is unfinished business. The first stage - the separation of church and state - has mostly been achieved in the west. The second stage - the separation of money and state - is something that we could only dream about before the invention of Bitcoin. Now, we know that this is possible - and perhaps even likely.
Let's be clear about what is happening. Bitcoin is in a 2-round fight. In the first round, it is in the ring against a rag-tail army of centralized securities. The centralized securities are indeed scams - all of them. Bitcoin is taking a battering, but we should all be hoping that it survives in reasonably good shape for round 2 - a much tougher fight against the dystopian CBDCs.
Again, let's be clear - the incentive for governments to produce CBDCs arises from the challenge of Bitcoin. There are many differences between them - but perhaps the key one is that CBDCs will be inflationary, and Bitcoin is by its nature deflationary.
If Bitcoin is successful, theft by government - otherwise known as "inflation" - will come to an end. The consumer society will be replaced by the thrift society. Bitcoin will win - it must win, because the alternative is too awful to contemplate. Bitcoin is freedom; CBDCs are slavery.
Posted by: geralds | Nov 29 2022 21:57 utc | 62
Mommy... why are all the financial criminals Jewish?
Hmmmm.....
Posted by: Don Stevens | Nov 29 2022 21:57 utc | 63
Posted by: Laurence | Nov 29 2022 21:14 utc
Hit a nerve or ten did I?
Here, go argue with the man who INVENTED the mRNA technology.
https://maloneinstitute.org/blog
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 21:58 utc | 64
I agree w old Canadian. Bit coin is the OG, it will most likely stand the test of time. Its the "dot com bubble" style coins/tokens/EFT that the scammers are gonna game. Staying away from banks is a huge draw for me.
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Nov 29 2022 22:03 utc | 65
Bitcoin is a fucking cryptocurrency. Built on a blockchain. Good grief, if we can't even admit that much...
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 22:12 utc | 66
@57 Lightyearsfrombrain
The words typed in his post do not make any sense at all. The life of a thoroughly rotten to the core, dying from the inside-out entity, perfectly describes the usa experiment. The Roman example perfectly suits what we are seeing today however the timeline for collapse will be hundreds of years quicker. Clausewitz would NOT be able to understand what the usa embodies today. The grift, corruption and insane evil means of operation are tenfold worse then anything this guy could imagine back then. In 50 years, this country will look like what the ukraine will be next year. There is NO way the usa will be as powerful, relevant or involved in world affairs like they're destroying today. Get over it man!
Posted by: safe | Nov 29 2022 22:14 utc | 67
Bitcoin is a commodity; cryptos are securities - and unfortunately, most of them (including Ethereum) are unregulated.
Posted by: geralds | Nov 29 2022 21:57 utc
Good, except the US gov't via the IRS, says Bitcoin is property. Bitcoin has no physical form, so therefore cannot be a commodity in the standard sense.
Gold is unusual in that it can be property (jewellery), a commodity (as used in electronics), money (when in coin form) or a store of value (as bullion). And it can be converted from one to the other by changing its form or simply by declaration. Coins can be treated as property or bullion if the content is certified, fine jewellery can be a store of value/collectible above the metal value.
Bitcoin is merely an entry on the blockchain. Like the entry of electronic "dollars" in your bank account. Except you are your own banker if you non-custody your Bitcoin.
Self-reliance, such a quaint idea... seems to scare the daylights out of some people.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 22:14 utc | 68
Bitcoin is a fucking cryptocurrency. Built on a blockchain. Good grief, if we can't even admit that much...
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 22:12 utc
But Bitcoin is DECENTRALIZED, so different from other CENTRALIZED crypto. Some cryptos (the most vulnerable/scammy ones) wont let you hold your PRIVATE keys for NON-Custodial ownership.
All Ford CARS are automobiles, but not all automobiles are FORD CARS.
I'd draw you a Venn Diagram but MoA doesn't do Grade 5 math graphics.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 22:19 utc | 69
"Hit a nerve or ten did I?
Here, go arg"—Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 21:58 utc | 64
"That lung-full of possible graphene-type particulates is far less invasive than injecting that same amount into the bloodstream." —Old canadian | Nov 26 2022 12:58 utc | 326 [ https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/11/ukraine-open-thread-2022-207.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02af14a74567200b#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02af14a74567200b
Why vaccines are injected in your upper arm muscle, and not in your veins - ABC News https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-01-08/covid-19-vaccine-injection-upper-arm-muscle-deltoid-immune/13031918
Posted by: Laurence | Nov 29 2022 22:21 utc | 70
Bitcoin is to other cryptocurrencies...
@ Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 20:26 utc | 49
Mysteriously neither fish nor fowl, click here to find out more, such tedium!
Look: If Bitcoin stands in whatever relationship to "other cryptocurrencies" then you've just classified Bitcoin as that thing: a cryptocurrency.
The inability of crypto enthusiasts to speak plain English, to agree on obvious definitions of the most basic terms, impresses me as exquisitely crooked.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Nov 29 2022 20:56 utc | 53
I'm not a crypto enthusiast. I'm a bitcoin enthusiast.
Bitcoin has important category differences from all other cryptocurrencies. So we "bitcoin enthusiasts" distance ourselves from "crypto".
Posted by: Vince | Nov 29 2022 22:23 utc | 71
GAAP: a sales "discount" AKA sales "coupon"--or, in this case, sales "token" or "ticket"-- offered and taken by a buyer reduces realized revenue:unit cost, so is booked as a current liability. Unsold inventory is a liability, too, not an asset.
Also, Ms McKinsey, is correct, in general, as to B-F's well-earned arrogance in running numbers for and laundering DNC campaign treasury. Besides accepting an appearance at NYT Times Dealbook "beauty pageant", the Democratic Party Congressional Caucus (DCC) has schedule an (extra-judicial) hearing of FTX officers' testimony, deflecting SEC, FTC, and DOJ criminal investigations forthcoming. Doing so, will surely compromise admissable fact and law at trial, in the unlikely event any of these agencies decide to indict...in this century.
Posted by: sln2002 | Nov 29 2022 22:23 utc | 72
Anyone have any insight on the Binance guy? He was either in the right place at the right time or he's a Machiavellian Super Shrewd Genius. He definitely wanted FTX out of the way, ostensibly he wanted to buy it, but I think the insider that he is he saw right through them.
My guess is he set them up for a crash by tweeting they were cooking the books, then when they crashed from the rumor he planted he offered to buy them, but not to buy them but to get a hands on look at their books which he knew were cooked, which he made public and delivered the coup de grace.
If that's how it went it's big time hustler stuff. Some of these goofy gen x/y/z kids actually grow up. Amazing.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Nov 29 2022 22:24 utc | 73
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 22:19 utc | 69
In your Venn diagram, the middle portion of overlap would be the cryptocurrency category/set - hence, BTC is a cryptocurrency. I don't see why it's necessary to try arguing that. So BTC is different from MOST other cryptos. I think what you're trying to say is that BTC is a thing in and of itself where other "decentralized" cryptos are part of their respective "ecosystems" and therefore not truly decentralized?
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 22:24 utc | 74
@Vince #30
I'm no expert but this crypto crash will be used to regulate and control all things crypto, this could have a serious effect on sky high values.
Although with criminals in charge of everything it might be one of the only ways for the west to make money.
Posted by: OhhCanada | Nov 29 2022 19:28 utc | 35
They certainly could, but no regulation can stop me from holding, sending, or recieving bitcoin. That is its power.
Posted by: Vince | Nov 29 2022 22:24 utc | 75
@68 Old canadian
I'm a little confused as to why you are frustrated with bitcon deniers posting here. If your handle is truly descriptive, I wonder how you would know anything about this invisible, backed by speculation, wannabe asset. It's blockchain carrier isn't as hack proof as people have said from years ago. The asset(?) itself must be the most volatile thing since the tulip mania or South Seas con. And boomers as a whole have completely shunned and ridiculed this millennial "get something for nothing" easy money charade as 60+ seniors in Canada hold mostly blue-chip dividend aristocrats or actual physical gold and silver. ???What's up dude?
Posted by: safe | Nov 29 2022 22:25 utc | 76
Posted by: Laurence | Nov 29 2022 22:21 utc
WOW you are a fast reader... Both Malone's website and thehighwire.com.. in 5 minutes.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which can not fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
--HERBERT SPENCER
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 22:26 utc | 77
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 22:14 utc | 68
Gary Gensler of the SEC is on record as saying the Bitcoin should be regulated by the CFTC, not the SEC.
It remains to be confirmed, of course, but at the moment it looks like Bitcoin is going to be classified as a commodity. So the class of "commodities" is somewhat broader than the "standard sense" to which you refer.
Posted by: geralds | Nov 29 2022 22:26 utc | 78
@78 geralds
I read the same thing as well. Looks like it's a commodity then. With futures!
Posted by: safe | Nov 29 2022 22:30 utc | 79
^^^ or Binance guy was in on it with them, just played his roll as The Face to FTX's Heel to enact the smash and grab. It might all have been a set up by the Fed working with Wall St. To cause disrepute and eventual regulation on crypto while allowing Wall St. pals to perpetuate a legal multi billion theft. Crime in the service of country is the highest form of patriotism in capitalism.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Nov 29 2022 22:32 utc | 80
@LightYearsFromHome #40
How is Bitcoin not a crypto currency? Mt. Gox comes to mind as maybe the first Bitcoin smash and grab, though I believe the coins were eventually recovered. Gox was an exchange, which goes against crypto coin logic, certainly the purity of the concept. The whole point of crypto was to avoid banks which is what exchanges are. People still see the need for banks and that's the con exchange scammers work.
There is nothing impure about exchanges per se, but yes, keeping your bitcoin on an exchange brings in the same counterparty risk that doomed the gold system. The difference is that you must put gold into a centralized exchange for it to be spent anywhere outside your neighborhood. Bitcoin can be sent anywhere in the world would a need for "trusted" third parties.
If you stick to using peer to peer wallets as Satoshi intended then you are safe enough from the little I understand. But, seems to me that that is like keeping your money in a Pop Tarts box in the far back of the cupboard, ok for mad money but not too useful or safe for big sums, like the ones corporations and hedge funds gleaned up. The crypto problem is the exchanges which are needed for ease of transactions with large quantities and where you need credibility, insurance, guarantees, and all that financial plumbing that makes the world go round. The exchanges are where the scams happen.
Agreed. Get your bitcoin off exchanges. Not your keys, not your coins.
Bitcoin whatever you believe about its intrinsic value and safety of where you hold it has huge speculation around it. It likely won't go out of existence, you can't un-invent it, but it could drop from $15K to $1 just like anything that is traded. Unlikely but expect a big move in value, when the Wall St. super duper crooks move in get ready for a sacking and pillaging to be sprung at some point. Bitcoin will survive, like I said it can't be un-invented, but you might not survive if you have essential savings in it.
While I agree that there is huge speculation and manipulation in bitcoin markets, that takes nothing away from the properties of bitcoin that make it valuable. I would be thrilled if bitcoin plummeted to $1000 from here. Any saving beyond what I need for say a year of spending is in bitcoin...what better savings vehicle is there?
Posted by: Vince | Nov 29 2022 22:32 utc | 81
BTC is a cryptocurrency.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 22:24 utc
Ok, you're getting closer. Yes Bitcoin is "a cryptocurrency". One of many with ONE defining difference.
IT IS DECENTRALIZED. Got that? DECENTRALIZED. So therefore different from ALL THE OTHERS.
Y'know like in the Seasame Street Song... "one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong.."
C'mon Tommy, you know the words, sing along.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 22:32 utc | 82
Vince@75
Stopping you from holding, sending or receiving bitcon will be the easiest thing they can do to your dreams. And bitcon's super power(?) sucking the wealth of your hard-earned savings till there's nothing left!
Posted by: safe | Nov 29 2022 22:34 utc | 83
@82
De-centralized just means it's a tougher nut to crack! Do NOT underestimate the ability of plain evil and corrupted entities to continue what they're doing....
Posted by: safe | Nov 29 2022 22:38 utc | 84
C'mon Tommy, you know the words, sing along.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 22:32 utc | 82
If you're going to resort to silly and childish retorts, I'm not interested in conversing with you. And frankly it's always annoyed TF out of me when someone hiding behind a handle uses my real name sarcastically.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 22:40 utc | 85
Gary Gensler of the SEC is on record as saying the Bitcoin should be regulated by the CFTC, not the SEC.
It remains to be confirmed, of course, but at the moment it looks like Bitcoin is going to be classified as a commodity. So the class of "commodities" is somewhat broader than the "standard sense" to which you refer.
Posted by: geralds | Nov 29 2022 22:26 utc
I am not going to rely too much on gov't definitions, as they can change these to suit their agenda. Michael Saylor has dealt with this concept at length, and can explain his position far better than I. And he has put his $millions where his mouth is.
Whichever govt agency is tasked to "regulate it" will fail. There is no central point to gain full control. Hence the attempt to enforce KYC/AML to know who holds it, so it can be taxed and restricted in its use.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 22:43 utc | 86
Posted by: geralds | Nov 29 2022 21:57 utc | 62
"Bitcoiners understand that the enlightenment is unfinished business. The first stage - the separation of church and state "
Not part of the enlightenment. Part of many religious denominational distinctions, Orthodox Christianity included.
Good government would seem to be the appropriate regulator of the financial intricacies most of us find hard to understand. Let's get that back.
Posted by: juliania | Nov 29 2022 22:46 utc | 87
@ Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 22:26 utc | 77
A declaration of your principle is not a rebuttal. You posted false information and refuse to acknowledge it. QED.
However, speaking of nerves, you seem rather jumpy when the topic is vaporware scams. Is that part of the `work' that inflates Bitcoin value?
Posted by: Laurence | Nov 29 2022 22:50 utc | 88
ICYMI: FTX "suckers" have filed for class certification and economic remedy in at least two US district courts. These are civil suits.
1. N. District of CA complaint alleges RICO cause of action, conspiracy of named officers and auditor to defraud "depositors" by means of wire. (Try to ignore the colorful bathos and moral turpitude flung at respondents' ummm lifestyle choices. Focus on "prohibited activities"--criminal conduct of the conspiracy.)
2. S. District of FL complaints naming broadcast "celebrities" as paid co-conspirators.
Posted by: sln2002 | Nov 29 2022 22:53 utc | 89
Now comes the comedy portion of the program from the ensemble cast of EU commissioners who can't seem to collect fines from US Big Tech, white wash their own price-fix and bid-rigging operation, OR agree to whom they will permit the "terrorist" RF to sell gas and oil at a loss.
Europe: FTX-style crypto crash won’t happen here
Posted by: sln2002 | Nov 29 2022 23:04 utc | 90
If you're going to resort to silly and childish retorts, I'm not interested in conversing with you. And frankly it's always annoyed TF out of me when someone hiding behind a handle uses my real name sarcastically.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 22:40 utc
Call the man a "whaaambulance". Or you could stop attacking me.
FACTS, INFORMATION, not hyperbole and FUD. (That's F_ear, U_ncertainty and D_oubt, all the kids are saying it these days.)
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 23:09 utc | 91
Bitcoiners understand that the enlightenment is unfinished business. The first stage - the separation of church and state - has mostly been achieved in the west. The second stage - the separation of money and state - is something that we could only dream about before the invention of Bitcoin. Now, we know that this is possible - and perhaps even likely.
Posted by: geralds | Nov 29 2022 21:57 utc | 62
yes I always thought bitcoin was the new Religion of the US Libertarians and this statement just confirmed it.
Bitcoiners "believe" therefore it is so.
Most definitely refer to the video link @44 where SBF says exactly the same thing.
Posted by: K | Nov 29 2022 23:13 utc | 92
... FUD. (That's F_ear, U_ncertainty and D_oubt, all the kids are saying it these days.)Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 23:09 utc | 91
"That lung-full of possible graphene-type particulates is far less invasive than injecting that same amount into the bloodstream." —Old canadian | Nov 26 2022 12:58 utc | 326 [ https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/11/ukraine-open-thread-2022-207.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02af14a74567200b#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02af14a74567200b
Why vaccines are injected in your upper arm muscle, and not in your veins - ABC News https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-01-08/covid-19-vaccine-injection-upper-arm-muscle-deltoid-immune/13031918
Posted by: Laurence | Nov 29 2022 23:17 utc | 93
Libertex crypto exchange head Vyacheslav Taran dies in helicopter crash in France.
Various claims have been made about his Russian loyalties.
Posted by: Related News Poster | Nov 29 2022 23:18 utc | 94
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 23:09 utc | 91
Boy, do you have a persecution complex or what? Show me one instance of me "attacking" you and stop projecting your own whining and whinging onto me, Karen.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 23:19 utc | 95
From Naked Capitalist:
The Bezzle
"Yours truly must admit that if SBF does participate in the New York Times Dealbook conference on the 30th as scheduled, it would either indicates that his judgement is severely impaired and he is ignoring legal advice or he has good reason to believe that his risk of being prosecuted is extremely low."
Observation: Does the dog wag the tail, or does the tail wag the dog?
What everyone should know, by now, is that the MSM machine was compromised decades ago by the national security state apparatus of your own Republic. That has been fairly well documented. For example,
" . . . but Bernstein also confirmed that some 400 bona fide American journalists had secretly carried out assignments for the ClA during the previous 25 years. He noted that “journalists provided a full range of clandestine services — from simple intelligence gathering to serving as go‐betweens with spies in Communist countries. Reporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Bernstein emphasized that the most valuable of the close associations were “with the New York Times, CBS and Time Inc. [the publisher of both Time and Newsweek].”
Noting further that, "Reforms enacted in the late 1970s after investigative hearings by the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Sen. Frank Church (D ID), supposedly brought an end to such CIA penetration of the press. However, evidence of recent media‐intelligence agency collaboration suggests that while the manipulation may have become more subtle, it has not gone away. A startling September 2014 exclusive report in the Intercept confirmed that the problem of excessively close ties between the CIA and certain prominent journalists is not a merely a historical artifact. . . . It is unsettling how often most mainstream media outlets advance the agenda of the narrative put forth by the CIA and other portions of the national security state."
"How the National Security State Manipulates the News Media"
https://www.cato.org/commentary/how-national-security-state-manipulates-news-media
And again, by Caitlin Johnstone, "The CIA used to infiltrate the media. Now the CIA is the media."
https://mronline.org/2021/04/28/the-cia-used-to-infiltrate-the-media-now-the-cia-is-the-media/
Further, regarding 'crypto-currencies': "Did the NSA Outline Bitcoin In 1996?"
"The NSA was one of the first organizations to describe a Bitcoin-like system. About twelve years before Satoshi Nakamoto published his legendary white paper to the Metzdowd.com cryptography mailing list, a group of NSA information security researchers published a paper entitled How to Make a Mint: the Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash in two prominent places, the first being an MIT mailing list and the second being much more prominent, The American Law Review (Vol. 46, Issue 4 )."
https://www.ccn.com/nsa-bitcoin-1996/
"The NSA was investigating cryptocurrencies in 1996"
https://cointelegraph.com/news/the_nsa_was_investigating_cryptocurrencies_in_1996
“In conclusion, the potential risks in electronic commerce are magnified when anonymity is present. Anonymity creates the potential for large sums of counterfeit money to go undetected by preventing identification of forged coins. Anonymity also provides an avenue for laundering money and evading taxes that is difficult to combat without resorting to escrow mechanisms. Anonymity can be provided at varying levels, but increasing the level of anonymity also increases the potential damages. It is necessary to weigh the need for anonymity with these concerns. It may well be concluded that these problems are best avoided by using a secure electronic payment system that provides privacy, but not anonymity.”
Finally,
"While the Federal Reserve has made no decisions on whether to pursue or implement a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, we have been exploring the potential benefits and risks of CBDCs from a variety of angles, including through technological research and experimentation. Our key focus is on whether and how a CBDC could improve on an already safe and efficient U.S. domestic payments system."
"Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)"
https://www.federalreserve.gov/central-bank-digital-currency.htm
As usual, draw your conclusions as you see fit to do so.
"There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”
Posted by: deliriumtremens | Nov 29 2022 23:20 utc | 96
Posted by: Laurence | Nov 29 2022 22:50 utc
HOOOEEE!!! You used a Latin thingy!
All you "demonstrated" is you don't WANT to know. The information is there to be understood, if you can't or won't, no skin off my nose. While you cut off your nose to spite your face.
And BTW, my Applied Mechanics instructor used to put that at the end of each proof. Mind you, he graduated Suma Cum Laude from U of Edinburgh, so had the right to do so.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 23:21 utc | 97
Posted by: K | Nov 29 2022 23:13 utc | 92
There was a documentary series recently on American HBO about this 'event' that uberlibertarians (anarchists) put on down in Acapulco, MX. They called it, unsurprisingly, "Anarchapulco" yuk yuk yuk.
Needless to say, yes, the BTC bros descended on the affair and kind of took over. There developed a rift between the BTC bros who had gotten recently rich on crypto sales/mining and the rest of the anarchists and libertarians.
It's worth a watch if you're bored. https://www.hbo.com/the-anarchists
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 29 2022 23:22 utc | 98
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 29 2022 23:09 utc | 91
I don't think anyone is attacking you.
You are just being a good capitalist, Nothing wrong with that until it fails for you. And maybe it won't.
One thing I can tell you is that 100% crypto of any kind including BTC does not change any fact on the ground for the ordinary working people. It is for the privileged who have money to spare for investing.
This is why for me it makes no difference how special or decentralised BTC might or might not be. As the darling of cashed up or leveraged up westerners it is irrelevant to most of humanity.
Posted by: K | Nov 29 2022 23:24 utc | 99
"...it's incredible to think that a huge multi-billion-dollar company wouldn't do due diligence on what they are investing in..."
Kadath | Nov 29 2022 18:04 utc | 8
Kathleen Kennedy. and lots of other examples. they ain't cash poor. people don't waste trillions on crypto or star wars from something called "poverty". what the hell these people know about poverty?
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Nov 29 2022 23:24 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
My compassion for crypto investors is on hold until I see what happens to conventional savings.
Posted by: Passerby | Nov 29 2022 17:36 utc | 1