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Are members invested in Bitcoin/crypto?

Sa Calobra
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Traveler Traveler
This is a fantastic summary of FTX latest by Bloomberg’s Matt Levine (mirror post that avoids the paywall)

https://archive.ph/hZszH

original post here

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/out?url=https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-11-14/ftx-s-balance-sheet-was-bad

excerpt: “And then the basic question is, how bad is the mismatch [between liabilities and assets on the balance sheet]. Like, $16 billion of dollar liabilities and $16 billion of liquid dollar-denominated assets? Sure, great. $16 billion of dollar liabilities and $16 billion worth of Bitcoin assets? Not ideal, incredibly risky, but in some broad sense understandable. $16 billion of dollar liabilities and assets consisting entirely of some magic beans that you bought in the market for $16 billion? Very bad. $16 billion of dollar liabilities and assets consisting mostly of some magic beans that you invented yourself and acquired for zero dollars? WHAT? Never mind the valuation of the beans; where did the money go? What happened to the $16 billion? Spending $5 billion of customer money on Serum would have been horrible, but FTX didn’t do that, and couldn’t have, because there wasn’t $5 billion of Serum available to buy. FTX shot its customer money into some still-unexplained reaches of the astral plane and was like “well we do have $5 billion of this Serum token we made up, that’s something?” No it isn’t!”

Thanks! I really enjoyed reading this Twitter thread as well: https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi/status/1592502785873825794. With guest appearance of Elon Musk
 
Observer
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Archer Archer
Okay, that's a case for owning some crypto as some hedge against inflation - I get that. But you said we won't have a choice but to use crypto if I read the comments correctly - that's what I was asking about. How is it that we won't have a choice?
My guess, and that’s all it is, is that the archaic currency system using expensive coins and printing will be replaced by digital currencies. It’s already started in some places and people who seek power will observe every transaction that takes place and have the opportunity to disallow transactions they deem to be inappropriate.
Maybe it’ll happen and maybe it won’t, but if I were a government busybody it would sound fantastic to me.
 
Evitzee
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Observer Observer
My guess, and that’s all it is, is that the archaic currency system using expensive coins and printing will be replaced by digital currencies. It’s already started in some places and people who seek power will observe every transaction that takes place and have the opportunity to disallow transactions they deem to be inappropriate.
Maybe it’ll happen and maybe it won’t, but if I were a government busybody it would sound fantastic to me.
The use of notes and coins are already on a big downtrend due to credit and debit cards, the use of cryptos aren't needed for this trend to continue. Governments love the idea of everything going electronic because it is far easier to track people financially. That's why there is a concerted effort to get rid of high value notes in circulation, governments can't easily track the transactions. I believe Switzerland is pondering the withdrawal of the CHF 1,000 note, the busybodies question why such a high value note is needed to be in circulation.
Edited:
 
Archer
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Observer Observer
My guess, and that’s all it is, is that the archaic currency system using expensive coins and printing will be replaced by digital currencies. It’s already started in some places and people who seek power will observe every transaction that takes place and have the opportunity to disallow transactions they deem to be inappropriate.
Maybe it’ll happen and maybe it won’t, but if I were a government busybody it would sound fantastic to me.

Okay thanks. That’s what I thought it would be about...
 
Archer
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Evitzee Evitzee
The use of notes and coins are already on a big downtrend due to credit and debit cards, the use of cryptos aren't needed for this trend to continue. Governments love the idea of everything going electronic because it is far easier to track people financially. That's why there is a concerted effort to get rid of high value notes in circulation, governments can't easily track the transactions.

Honestly, I can’t recall the last time I used actual cash, even to pay for something small. I did try to use coins to get out of a parking lot the other day, but the machine wouldn’t take them...
 
eugeneandresson
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pdxleaf pdxleaf
No one has mentioned "the mark of the beast" yet. ::stirthepot::

It’s actually known as the Apple Watch. “It will be a chip beneath thy skin, ye shall pay with it and they shall track thee with it…”. Them Old Testament naysayers got one detail wrong : it’s above the skin, not beneath it…
 
Tony C.
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From FTX's new CEO and liquidator, John Ray III, who also oversaw the unwinding and liquidation of Enron:

Below we excerpt some of the most notable highlights from the affidavit, which we embed at the bottom of the post and which everyone should read to get a sense of just how massive Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud was.
  • I have over 40 years of legal and restructuring experience. I have been the Chief Restructuring Officer or Chief Executive Officer in several of the largest corporate failures in history. I have supervised situations involving allegations of criminal activity and malfeasance (Enron). I have supervised situations involving novel financial structures (Enron and Residential Capital) and cross-border asset recovery and maximization (Nortel and Overseas Shipholding). Nearly every situation in which I have been involved has been characterized by defects of some sort in internal controls, regulatory compliance, human resources and systems integrity.
  • Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here. From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.

source:

https://www.zerohedge.com/political...lams-unprecedented-failure-corporate-controls

 
The Father
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All these cool celebrities encouraged the rabble to invest in FTX. Steph Curry has that puzzled look “WTF?”

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RevZMan123
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They wanted FTX to crash, they want the outside crypto market to crash because they want you to use the CBDCs they are working on. Haven't heard of that? Central Bank Digital Currencies. They want you using THEIR crypto. Period. However, look no further than how bad of an idea this is than Canada during the trucker protests. They turned off bank accounts, froze crypto accounts ... based on lies. See how Chase turned off Ye? It's designed to make it easy for them to silence us.

There's no conspiracy theory here any longer, it's reality now.
 
Tony C.
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RevZMan123 RevZMan123
They wanted FTX to crash, they want the outside crypto market to crash because they want you to use the CBDCs they are working on.

C'mon, now. FTX crashed because it was a fraud, and it's not the only one. More importantly, it isn't a cryptocurrency, but rather an exchange, so it isn't in direct competition with CBDCs.

It may well be true that those who are invested in promoting CBDCs were, to varying degrees, happy to see the broader crypto environment sullied by FTX, and other exchanges and coins blowing up. But as governments can make cryptocurrencies illegal with the stroke of a pen, they hardly need to rely on the broader industry to self-immolate, even if it would be convenient, in a sense.
 
pdxleaf
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Is it time to change the title of this thread from:

Are members invested in Bitcoin?

to:

Are members letting it ride on Bitcoin?
 
Observer
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Tony C. Tony C.
C'mon, now. FTX crashed because it was a fraud, and it's not the only one. More importantly, it isn't a cryptocurrency, but rather an exchange, so it isn't in direct competition with CBDCs.

It may well be true that those who are invested in promoting CBDCs were, to varying degrees, happy to see the broader crypto environment sullied by FTX, and other exchanges and coins blowing up. But as governments can make cryptocurrencies illegal with the stroke of a pen, they hardly need to rely on the broader industry to self-immolate, even if it would be convenient, in a sense.
Funny how SBF hasn’t been arrested.
 
Observer
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btw, Bitcoin is already illegal in China and many other places where it’s still very popular. It would be easier to make drugs illegal.
 
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