Bitcoin, crypto currency and block chain...

[Brian Roth]

I have been saving coffee cans for years...Mom and Dad were depression era folks.

Gonna get hard gold and bury those cans! lol

Uh oh..... Never Mind! The only thing buried in my backyard will be the bones of my beloved Beagle dog, Pokey.....RIP.

Bri

 

[iampoor1]

He was scheduled to testify to congress tomorrow, but was too busy to fly in person... He was expecting an easy day since he greased both political parties.

[edit] The timing is not very clear why he was charged and arrested just before he was scheduled to testify to congress under oath for hours. He has been pretty talkative in a number of softball interviews, so prudent prosecutors should give as much rope as they can to hang himself with self-incriminating testimony. Make up your own conspiracy theory about this. [/edit]

It still stands to be seen whether he was clever or just really stupid. He did manage to get a lot of money from a lot of people less clever than him, using FTX... His gig was not a typical ponzi scheme while there were hints of Madoff. He may not have intended to steal money from people just had no idea of what he was doing, while he was in effect stealing money from people.

My bitcoin investment is still even $0=$0

JR

PS:

He was scheduled to testify to congress tomorrow, but was too busy to fly in person... He was expecting an easy day since he greased both political parties.

[edit] The timing is not very clear why he was charged and arrested just before he was scheduled to testify to congress under oath for hours. He has been pretty talkative in a number of softball interviews, so prudent prosecutors should give as much rope as they can to hang himself with self-incriminating testimony. Make up your own conspiracy theory about this. [/edit]

It still stands to be seen whether he was clever or just really stupid. He did manage to get a lot of money from a lot of people less clever than him, using FTX... His gig was not a typical ponzi scheme while there were hints of Madoff. He may not have intended to steal money from people just had no idea of what he was doing, while he was in effect stealing money from people.

My bitcoin investment is still even $0=$0

JR

PS: I wonder if the miami heat have to change the name of their arena...

Stupid and a fraudster. Sorry but billions of dollars in customer deposits don't usually vanish when you claim to hold them all 1 to 1. His PR campaign of trying to present himself as a simple honest business failure rather than a fraudster has been comically unbelievable if you follow the case closely. I don't think a single honest thing has come out of his mouth for the past month....well minus the part that he "f***** **"

His trading firm Alameda was one of the primary crypto market makers, and would often countertrade users on ftx. If you ever tried day trading with leverage on ftx it was pretty brutal. Amazing how he could loose that amount of customer deposits with an entire exchange worth of market data for his trading firm

 

[JohnRoberts]

one tidbit he shared during one of his several softball interviews, when he first started out he couldn't get a legal bank account for FTX so they had to route customer deposits through Alameda's account. That's how the funds originally became commingled and when nobody fixed that the fraud just got bigger and worse.

JR

 

[boji]

e-outch.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Excellent summary. Thanks for sharing, boji.

 

[JohnRoberts]

There are several (conspiracy) theories floating around concerning the timing of the SBF arrest just before he was scheduled to testify before congress. For a criminal on his way to jail he has been unusually talkative so we must speculate about who wants to keep him quiet and has that much influence over the use of government force?

I am not very good at predicting the future but expect this (crisis?) to not be wasted and used as justification for government regulation of crypto. What could possibly go wrong with that?

It appears that the MTX collapse is just an old school fraud and not some new technology machination, while crypto was the shiny bait to attract investment. With multiple high profile influencers well compensated to promote it (like Shaq and Stef Curry from the NBA).
====
I have long been a proponent of blockchain technology and followed the fits and starts in the news. IBM has been working with multiple industries to support use applications. I read about two recent challenges in the newspaper.

#1 Walmart has been trying to implement blockchain as a technology to oversee their grocery supply chain. The benefits would be obvious but the hurdle they are still wrestling with is to get low tech vendors to invest in the infrastructure needed to manage the front end blockchain setup/capture. Bell Peppers are reportedly still trying to use blockchain but without much success across the entire grocery section.

#2 Another promising application for blockchain is to track contents of shipping containers moving around the world. Apparently Maersk recently discontinued their "Trade Lens" blockchain freight tracking program started in 2018.

I remain optimistic about the promise of blockchain but apparently it requires wider industry buy-in and capital investment to control supply chains.

JR

 

[MicDaddy]

Bitcoin likely won't be money because the inferior money will be spent, always (sans a few evangelists who will preach how they use it for currency)
"blockchain" beyond proof of work is mostly opportunistic scams and hype
sound "money/reserves/scarcity" and p2p trustless transactions are still in play
headwinds: bitcoin devs could inflate/break the network if desired, if captured.
Network users will run the "trusted" developer code they're told to run, see ETH booting miners from network
Analog to digital blockchains of real world things will be very hard(impossible?)
in the end it's a database subject to human error/malice.

 

[JohnRoberts]

How did SBF raise $25M for a $250M bond?

The feds got two of his business partners to plead guilty and flip on him..... He would be wise to stay of NYC jail so he doesn't get Epstein'ed.

JR

 

[crazydoc]

His parents, I believe. They must have a very nice house.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/12/22/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-bond-250-million/3491671739168/

 

[AnalogPackrat]

SBF parents' home valued at $4M. Word is that some "friends" ponied up the $25M.

 

[JohnRoberts]

They were both college professors or something like that, I've seen speculation that the house was only worth single digit millions, but don't really care. He will be living under his parents roof wearing an ankle bracelet house arrest. Similar to so many of his generation except for the ankle jewelry.

Back on topic this will not be good for perception of bitcoin, and likely to drive government efforts to regulate. Not sure which is worse.

This crime looks like simple fraud, that is already illegal.

JR

 

[MicDaddy]

It's a massive US/western laundering fraud, China/Binance pulled their card, no chairs when music stopped.
We are in a digital war for global hegemony.
Nothing about this scam surrounding players with ties deep into the US regulators (Gensler/MIT friends, politics) can be blamed on bitcoin. This is a fiat scam scenario. This is a TARP and Too Big To Fail cutout. Watch, we're gonna get fleeced so our big savior government can shove more oppressive regulatory bullshit down everyone's throats because they got caught scamming.

Had Binance not stop hunted the market, FTX would still be operating this scam.

You cannot rehypothecate bitcoins on chain, do it, you cannot.
Fake money is broken and we're being scammed by those with the keys to the printer. gg

gold + silver has zero counterparty risk
silver is the superior conductor, wen circuits all silver traces not copper? wen someone besides Lundahl is winding silver transformers? (i need a wire supplier)

 

[JohnRoberts]

gold + silver has zero counterparty risk
silver is the superior conductor, wen circuits all silver traces not copper? wen someone besides Lundahl is winding silver transformers? (i need a wire supplier)

My gold and silver positions have been dead money for years but I would buy more before selling any....

JR

 

[MicDaddy]

My gold and silver positions have been dead money for years but I would buy more before selling any....

JR

I'm heading to the antique mall in hopes of finding a creepy snowman and will keep an eye out for and scoop up any eagles that are priced correctly. The premiums on physical are steep but it's the only way to "invest" unless you're trading the paper markets. Too much tom foolery with rehypothecation and outright scammery as seen with FTX to not hold it. Not your keys/metal not your coins/bullion.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Regulators have just approved about a dozen Bitcoin ETFs so it will be easier for the public to hold interests in bitcoin.

I suspect this is more of a "sell the news" event for short erm traders, long term it just got easier.

My personal bitcoin investment is still flat $0=$0

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

Buy the rumor sell the news..... I'm still even at $0.

JR

 

[cyrano]

I dunno. We've had access to Bitcoin for many years now. I've got one friend who put all his savings into Bitcoin since the very beginning. He's sold his company and retired. He's 38 and looking to diversify his portfolio a bit...

He told me all other investments were a headache. More scams than things worth your attention. Like vultures, the banks keep harassing him. Once they smell real money, you can't avoid their sales droids.