Some concerns about crypto (In General)

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Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by ppnewbie » Tue Dec 28, 2021 10:49 pm

I was all set to buy some Bitcoin and maybe Solana, Ada, dot. But then I read an article in Bloomberg about a tether and the associated freak show - no audits, 48 billion printed of potential funny money printed in a year, only a few entities can actually redeem tether for dollars with tether directly, child actors, offshore banks run by the inspector gadget creator, etc, etc… And listened to someone discussing a deeper dive on tether.

Why does this matter? Because a large number of Bitcoins could have been purchased using the potentially fugazzi tether, running up the price.

Also heard an interesting theory about foreign based exchanges and their US “partners”. The US company is an arms length client of the main company that charges (ALOT) for us of its platform. So basically it’s a funnel of US dollars to the main company without it having to comply with US regulations.

Then I heard a interview with the FTX founder and it seamed like the main motivation to start the exchange was to help them continue some type arbitrage Alameda was doing.

Plus Bitcoin is a thinly traded asset. Taking a pause and researching more.

Any comments welcome. I could be totally wrong here.
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by I Shrugged » Wed Dec 29, 2021 9:05 am

FOMO.
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by var » Wed Dec 29, 2021 3:20 pm

ppnewbie wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 10:49 pm
I was all set to buy some Bitcoin and maybe Solana, Ada, dot. But then I read an article in Bloomberg about a tether and the associated freak show - no audits, 48 billion printed of potential funny money printed in a year, only a few entities can actually redeem tether for dollars with tether directly, child actors, offshore banks run by the inspector gadget creator, etc, etc… And listened to someone discussing a deeper dive on tether.

Why does this matter? Because a large number of Bitcoins could have been purchased using the potentially fugazzi tether, running up the price.

Also heard an interesting theory about foreign based exchanges and their US “partners”. The US company is an arms length client of the main company that charges (ALOT) for us of its platform. So basically it’s a funnel of US dollars to the main company without it having to comply with US regulations.

Then I heard a interview with the FTX founder and it seamed like the main motivation to start the exchange was to help them continue some type arbitrage Alameda was doing.

Plus Bitcoin is a thinly traded asset. Taking a pause and researching more.

Any comments welcome. I could be totally wrong here.

USDT already settled with SEC.

yes USDT is not perfect. But its pretty much the defacto standard for trading pair outside of US. You can use USDC. if your holding.

regardless I would start with a little BTC if you are concerned about something you can afford to lose. Just to understand what crypto is all about.

otherwise not holding and just reading articles you won't understand it.

I sort of wrote crypto off after the 2018 crash, but my friend got me to buy some dogecoin. I figured it all out after doing some extensive research.

Just think of BTC = Bitcoin as hard asset like digital house or something.


Long story short I know think BTC has value. I also mined some ETH forgot about. happy to find out it decent amount after 2-3 years.

But DYOR.

The only thing manipulating bitcoin is Smart Money. Wall st coming in. So trading crypto has been a little bit harder.

However, the only reason I decided to post it on this forum - Is the rebalancing formula is actually useful for crypto.

I am in computer engineering so I personally would hold BTC ETH Luna Sol

ADA --- last development has been slow... their using a programming language that not many people use.. thus developers arent really flocking to ADA. however ada suppose to deliver a DEX soon, they also have ERC-20 converter in testnet.. so if they can deliver early qtr1 2022.. it will start moving up.

for you newbie to crypto -- use the Exodus wallet.

and write down your recovery phrase and don't lose it!!! put it in the bank lockbox.

use coinbase pro -- the commission are cheaper. or gemini--- which I think even cheaper then coinbase.
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by ppnewbie » Wed Dec 29, 2021 6:39 pm

Thanks for the response. Very helpful. I don’t view the SEC settlement (I thought it was with the NY attorney general) as any kind of a useful signal. I’m hearing of strange things like Alameda Research and Cumberland global being the market makers for most bitcoin transactions, tether being a potential complete fugazzi. Which is important because potentially a fugazzi purchased most of the Bitcoin, 10000 wallets controlling 20 percent of all BTC.

I created a binance.us account only to realize this could be very shady.

But…your info is still super helpful. Especially your thoughts on ADA.
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by ppnewbie » Wed Dec 29, 2021 6:53 pm

It feels like there could be high level of centralization combined with some gigantic amounts of fraud.

Also - from a second hand source - Satoshi’s intention for BTC was very different. It was more an up to date version of secure money transactions.

And I do not believe Tether is redeemable for dollars (except for a few parties). Basically there can’t be a bank run if you can’t access the bank.

Anyway throwing it out here. I’m sure this could cause flames but i like to have as full a picture as possible. And I wish I did not open that Binance account!
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by ppnewbie » Thu Dec 30, 2021 8:55 am

Sam Bankman-Fried:

- its not obvious to to people on the outside, is that there is very little fiat trading in crypto.
- With Tether being the largest bulk of that.
- Derivatives trade alot...Possibly 2/1 vs spot trading. Unlike spot they are super concentrated on a few exchanges.
- Alot of trading volume on exchanges is fake...You see a BNB/Tether trade on Binance and then three hundred milliseconds later,
BNB/Tether trade at exactly the same price on another exchange.
- He has mentioned "socialized losses" where stuff just disappears off of an exchange and all the users pay for the loss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AD9BRbcPrg

This was from 2019, which is a lifetime in crypto. Definitely feels like the extreme wild west. Going to check out FTX more. This Tether thing is a huge red flag for me. But the entire space if fascinating. One interesting play is to put money into exchange tokens where you participate in the exchanges success. Basically mining the miners.
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by vnatale » Tue Jan 04, 2022 10:15 am

Currently on C-Span. Once it is over ... you can go to the C-Span archives and watch it at any time.

NOW ON C-SPAN 1
Discussion on Cryptocurrency
American Enterprise Institute holds a discussion with cryptocurrency experts on the future of digital currency.
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by vnatale » Tue Jan 04, 2022 10:57 am

It is just ending now on C-Span but it is available here for watching at any time:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?516984-1/ ... tocurrency

....which I will be doing as soon as it ends.
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by vnatale » Tue Jan 04, 2022 8:54 pm

After listening to the panel three straight times I decided to buy this recent book from one of the participants:

CryptoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
by J. Christopher Giancarlo (Author), Cameron Winklevoss (Foreword), Tyler Winklevoss (Foreword)

https://www.amazon.com/CryptoDad-The-Fi ... l_huc_item

To give you an idea of the book's orientation ... below is the 1st page of the book ...

Foreword
 
Cryptocurrency, or “crypto” as it is colloquially known, is a pretty big deal. In our opinion, a bigger one than the Internet itself. And we believe it has the potential to have as great an impact on personal freedom as the printing press, the personal computer, and the early, open Internet. Why? Because crypto makes decentralization possible, which is to say its center of gravity is you, the individual.

 
Prior to the invention of Bitcoin, the idea of a decentralized network, in which unrelated computers around the world could reliably reach agreement with each other on something (e.g. who owns what), was thought to be entirely theoretical. The challenge lies in the possibility that one or more computers in the network could be bad actors trying to confuse the others.

 
In computer science, this agreement problem is known as The Byzantine Generals' Problem. When Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, published the Bitcoin white paper in 2009, she, he, or they presented the world's first ever solution to this hitherto intractable problem. As described, the Bitcoin mining algorithm ensures that a network of computers that don't know each other will in fact reach agreement with each other in a reliable manner. And that this agreement or consensus—what today, we call a blockchain—would be immutable and verifiable.

 
Historically, such agreement had to be entrusted to a central party or ended up concentrating toward one. Money has long been the purview of governments and finance the domain of big banks. Tim Berners-Lee's original, utopic vision for the commercial Internet—an open network of interconnected computers—has become a closed, dystopic oligopoly of data cartels. When you log on to the Internet today, you're really logging on to one of five companies: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, or Google, aka the FAANG companies. Has there ever been a more appropriate acronym?

 
The problem with centralization of power was captured best by Lord Bryon: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” These sectors are centralized, not because it is the best approach, but because it has been the only approach … until now. Satoshi's breakthrough not only made the decentralization of money possible, but it also provided a blueprint for the decentralization of anything.

 
We now can envision a future where the Internet, finance, and money will not be controlled by a few, but by the many. Where the value of these social networks (they are all social networks) will not accrue to just a handful of CEOs and companies, but to all of us, their users. Where you no longer need someone's permission to invest, borrow, or build. A level playing field with no inside baseball.

 
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency as we have come to know them. It has created an entirely new economic sector we now call crypto. This sector, like the Internet, has grown from total obscurity into one that can't be ignored. While today, it still appears to most as a niche technology, tomorrow it will be everything. When Jeff Bezos was first pitching Amazon to potential investors, the first question he was always asked was, “What's the Internet?” Crypto's story arc will be no different.
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by Jack Jones » Thu Jan 06, 2022 9:24 am

ppnewbie wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 10:49 pm
Why does this matter? Because a large number of Bitcoins could have been purchased using the potentially fugazzi tether, running up the price.
This doesn't really phase me. Just like the other assets in my PP, I buy Bitcoin w/out concern for the current price. Sure, if I had waited until today to buy my Bitcoin holdings, I would have acquired them for less, but it also could have gone the other way. I still sleep better at night knowing I have stake in it. If I had some fiat to spare, I'd be buying today, but the house needs some work, so I'll just be HODLing.
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by seajay » Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:46 pm

The bitcoin algorithm is such that there is a miners squeeze over time, fewer (more powerful) miners. Attack vectors include squeezing out other miners, such that when there are relatively few one might trip out the others to then have authority over the reconciliation, along with massive rewards for achieving such (ownership (theft) of large numbers of bitcoins).

As I see it bitcoin has finite life, maybe a 10 year projected value of $0, whereas the distributed ledger (crypto) indeed has longer term prospects, but is more inclined towards backing tangible assets (crypto gold, crypto dollar ...etc.), and being more regulated to otherwise avoid the likes of large numbers of 'owned' bitcoins having been inexplicably 'lost'.
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by ppnewbie » Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:26 pm

I heard an interesting perspective on crypto today. Most of the currency used in the 2 Trillion dollar crypto is is Tether not USD, which is about 40 or 50 billion dollars. So the real price of Bitcoin could actually be in Tether. Also I heard there could be a high volume of fake trading to bid up the price and then dump it on people like me after the inflate.

No judgement here and I can't vouch for the validity of what I heard (from the folks at Doomberg). Still learning.
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by vnatale » Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:17 pm

From the book I cited above:

Yet, energy-intensive proof-of-work mining of Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies have engendered environmental concerns. According to some calculations, Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than the entire country of Norway.6 On the other hand, compared to overall energy consumption in countries like the United States and China, Bitcoin's energy consumption is relatively light and comparable to energy utilized in the current distribution of cash through bank branches and ATMs.7 It is also comparable to the energy used in physical mining of earth metals for coins.8 Moreover, the energy consumed in Bitcoin proof-of-work mining may be mitigated by so-called “green energy” sources and use of carbon offsets.9

 
Other cryptocurrencies do not share this environmental drawback—at least not to the same degree. Some use a decentralized transaction confirmation protocol called “proof of stake” that is far less energy intensive.10 The reader will recall from Chapter Four the basics of distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain. I explained how it allowed people who have no particular confidence in one another to collaborate without having to rely on a neutral central authority to make sure that nobody spends the same money twice. I said that it replaced central authorities with a “consensus-based authentication protocol” to determine which transactions are legitimate.
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by boglerdude » Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:01 pm

Now that Paypal et al are reporting everything to the feds, how do you send crypto to people directly
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by vnatale » Sun Jan 09, 2022 7:58 pm

More from the above cited book ...


After the speech, I was joined on the dais for an interview by Neel Kashkari, the thoughtful president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank. At one point in the interview, Kashkari asked my views on the future development of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. I explained that, while I did not see Bitcoin as a domestic replacement for the dollar, I did think it was a harbinger of extraordinary change in society's conception of money. I said that it would be silly of us to think that the Internet, in its continuing evolution, will not transform money in the same way it has transformed information, social networking, retail shopping, local transportation, travel and leisure, photography, music, and entertainment. I said it was going to happen, and it may well happen at first far away from advanced economies like the United States.

 
Determined to avoid repeating my earlier, unfortunate slight on CNBC of “two-thirds” of the world's sovereign currencies, I carefully gave a real-world example. I explained that the Sierra Leone currency, the “Leone,” was adequate to purchase food in the market in Freetown but not to buy a Toyota, which required hard currency like Euros or dollars. In such economies—where there were many young people equipped with mobile technology—we might begin to see the use of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as a viable means of exchange.

 
A few minutes later, Kashkari took questions from the audience. A large black man stood up and in accented English said, “I am from Sierra Leone and I just wanted to say—” My stomach took a slight dive that I had insulted this man's country and national currency and risked another international tiff.

 
Fortunately, the audience member continued, “—I agree with you. Crypto is taking off in the part of Africa where I am from.” I was relieved I would not have to direct another call to the State Department.

 
It was a good reminder that nothing you say and nothing you do as a government official goes unnoticed by someone. Even if not reported in the press.
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by vnatale » Sun Jan 09, 2022 8:50 pm

Several months ago there was a discussion here regarding what is money.

Here is the start of that discussion in this book:

The Nature of Money
 
To understand the scale of the change ahead, let's answer this question: what is money?

 
In essence, money is trust. It is a societal construct. It is a shared notion of value, a “shared fiction.”1 Money is what we all agree it is. It has value because we agree it has value. Money may have government authorization and backing, but without social trust, money is worthless. Its value is entirely derived from society's acceptance of its value. In the words of Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England, “money is more of an art grounded in values of trust, resilience, dynamism, solidarity and sustainability. Central banks are its curator.”2

 
This is so with the US dollar, which, contrary to common misunderstanding, has not been backed by gold or silver for the past 50 years. The dollar is not a legal claim on anything at all. Its value is entirely derived from its widespread domestic and international acceptance and use as a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account. That widespread use is a matter of social trust.

 
Money is also inconstant. It goes through long periods of stability and then suddenly morphs into something different.3 “Some wild genius has a new idea, or the world changes in some fundamental way that demands a new kind of money, or a financial collapse causes the monetary version of an existential crisis. The outcome is a profound change in the basic idea of money—what it is, who gets to create it, what it's supposed to do.”4

 
From what I have seen firsthand, I believe we are today going through one of those profound changes in the basic idea of money. To understand why, let me take you on a very short history of money.

 
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by Jack Jones » Mon Jan 10, 2022 12:28 pm

boglerdude wrote:
Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:01 pm
Now that Paypal et al are reporting everything to the feds, how do you send crypto to people directly
1. Get a balance on a wallet on your computer.
2. Obtain address of recipient
3. Make transaction
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by var » Mon Jan 10, 2022 5:57 pm

ppnewbie wrote:
Wed Dec 29, 2021 6:39 pm
Thanks for the response. Very helpful. I don’t view the SEC settlement (I thought it was with the NY attorney general) as any kind of a useful signal. I’m hearing of strange things like Alameda Research and Cumberland global being the market makers for most bitcoin transactions, tether being a potential complete fugazzi. Which is important because potentially a fugazzi purchased most of the Bitcoin, 10000 wallets controlling 20 percent of all BTC.

I created a binance.us account only to realize this could be very shady.

But…your info is still super helpful. Especially your thoughts on ADA.
LUNA project fixed this they use algorithmic stable coin which is UST.

UST is gaining traction as quote pair. UST = basically = US dollar.

so if u have BTCUSDT. BTC is base. USDT is what is Quoted in.
you can have ETHBTC. etc.


the safest place which still sucks to trade crypto is coinbase pro (pro has fewer commissions). just use 2FA like authy dont use SMS.

if you use coinbase exclusively u will never use USDT. thats on other exchanges and DEXs. uniswap. pancakeswap..

I hold the trading coin in usdt. but i would probably move it to USDC if was holding long-term. perhaps to new UST.
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Re: Some concerns about crypto (In General)

Post by var » Mon Jan 10, 2022 6:04 pm

boglerdude wrote:
Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:01 pm
Now that Paypal et al are reporting everything to the feds, how do you send crypto to people directly
quick guide.

Fiat on ramp
coinbase. take your dollars exchange to BTC.
setup exodus wallet on iphone. send you BTC to exodus wallet address make sure its BTC.
do 1 test send for like 50 dollars... make sure it works and then do the full send.
on exodus on iphone its easy as scanning tgt friends QRCODE. but like i said i always do it in 2 steps. so you dont end up screwing up.

also, write down the exodus wallet seed phrase put in a bank lockbox.
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