Is it too soon to talk about Crypto yet?

[etpm]

Interesting article I will only provide a link to so that I don't violate fair use. Link: Bitcoin's downward spiral gets worse as the Trump-led crypto party is over
Eric (not Minnesota Eric)

 

[quicksandfarmer]

No they hacked the exchanges "cold" (lol) wallet (which isn't their ledger wallet - which actually wouldn't have been .. quite.. as bad). There are, of course, as you're admitting a lot of scams directly targeting the users as well but that wasn't specifically the problem in this case.

https://www.theblock.co/post/342667/crypto-exchange-bybit-hacked-as-over-1-billion-worth-of-eth-leaves-wallets

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bybit-hack-withdrawals-5-3b-reserves-secure-hacken

"Dolev said the Ethereum multisig cold wallet was compromised through a deceptive transaction, tricking signers into unknowingly approving a malicious smart contract logic change. This allowed the hacker to gain control of the cold wallet and transfer all ETH to an unknown address,”

That's part of the great thing about "smart wallets", you can get incoming transactions that create trap doors you can't ever touch or they'll drain your wallet (or sometimes even if you don't touch them there are vulnerabilities in the wallet... which can also drain all of your assets...).

What I think is hilarious is that one of the bigger investors in Ethereum is now pushing for Ether blockchain to be rolled back to undo the hack. It's hilarious because crypto is supposed to be decentralized and immutable.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

What I think is hilarious is that one of the bigger investors in Ethereum is now pushing for Ether blockchain to be rolled back to undo the hack. It's hilarious because crypto is supposed to be decentralized and immutable.

As I understand it, the people calling for rolling back Ethereum are Bitcoin maxis trying to wreck Ethereum. That said, I agree with you: rolling back is stupid and funny all at the same time. This makes a good case for not-Ethereum cryptos for decentralized development. I'm on the Cardano bandwagon, myself.

In other news, the FBI confirmed that it was North Korea's Lazareth Group who did the hack, making me wonder why the FBI cares about ByBit, a Singapore-based exchange? My conclusion is that people related to or connected to our new Administration own ETH—thus the FBI's interest in Ethereum. Anyway, the FBI called on private sector entities including RPC node operators, exchanges, and DeFi services to block transactions with addresses TraderTraitor actors are using to launder the stolen assets. Here is a link to the actual FBI PSA which also includes all the ETH addresses to be blocked.

Anyway, the rapid rise of Bitcoin from the low $70s to the $90s immediately following November's election is getting backfilled and so people like myself have little limit orders on the way down and bigger limit orders on the major support levels. 30-40% pullbacks in Bitcoin are commonplace in its history and are viewed as a feature and especially so if your position gets stop-lossed out and you're looking for new entry points. What does stink is if American crypto exchanges operated like proper US-based equity exchanges, then each tax lot could be assigned trailing stops, thereby limiting tax exposure, but at this time I'm unaware of any US-based exchanges offering proper risk-management tools.

Meanwhile, The new administration's plan for solving our national debt on the crypto side of this appears to be taking shape.

Step 1: Create Gold Card for foreigners to relocate to US for $5,000,000.

Step 2: Enact a Strategic Bitcoin Stockpile causing Bitcoin's price appreciation to rip.

Step 3: Remove capital gains for crypto.

Step 4: Thereby making the USA a haven for rich Bitcoin HODLers to relocate to avoid taxes with Gold Card fees paying down the national debt.

 

[Fixastuff]

I mined over 2k pi coin over a few years.(no cost to me just clicked a button on phone daily) Never thought it would go live but it has and it’s increasing in value fast. Pretty crazy and can’t say I understand it but it’s cool!

 

[mikester]

There are over 2,400,000 cryptocurrencies and over half have failed.

Don't be so pessimistic I just created an NFT and it's worth BILLIONS of dollars. Just you wait, don't miss the bus! Make sure to wear your hockey helmet on the bus too.

Crypto is an important part of every scammer, criminal and charlatan's portfolio. Without it the Russian prince and the guy monitoring my computer camera recording me wacking off won't be able to move money around the world without oversight.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Now I'm curious since there's nothing tangible to back up cryptocurrency then why is it referenced to $money?
That's like me...I know nothing about jet engines, but I charge $500/hour labor to not work on one.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Now I'm curious since there's nothing tangible to back up cryptocurrency then why is it referenced to $money?
That like me...I know nothing about jet engines, but I charge $500/hour labor to not work on one.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Meanwhile, Cardano's founder, Charles Hoskinson, is apparently meeting with the President. The speculation for over a month is that somehow our Nation's expenditures are going to be put on a blockchain but also Charles has a seat at the table for shaping the forthcoming Crypto regulation. Last month Charles announced that he is now working with SpaceX who uses stable coins as a method to transfer and bring into the USA subscription fees from StarLink services from around the world.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I recommend this episode about John Law, the man who essentially invented paper money in the European world (although ultimately he failed and his money was rejected) :

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/909876702

A couple of good quotes: "a reasonable definition of money is, it's the thing you pay your taxes with - 'cause once the government says you have to use this thing to pay your taxes, whether that thing is silver coins or cloth or dollars or paper money from the banque generale, then everybody knows that at some point, they're going to need to have that thing to pay their taxes."

Also: "So there is this question, why did John Law fail? I think he failed, at least in part, because for modern money to work - for this kind of system he was trying to create to work, you need to have a balance of power. You need to have banks and governments and ordinary people all pushing and pulling and arguing over who gets to do what and how much and when. And it's this arguing, this pushing and pulling, that at least gives you a shot at keeping things in check. France did not have any of that, really. It was an absolute monarchy."

I'd argue that the latter property is what crypto currently lacks.

 

[ConawayFarms]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around all this crypto stuff, but it definitely seems like it's becoming more mainstream. I'm not sure if it's the end of the world or the future of finance, but it's wild to see how much things have changed in just a few years.