Utopia Talk / Politics / Crypto Loop

murder Member	Wed Nov 09 16:50:23 The shit is hitting the fan and spraying all over the place.
Rugian Member	Sat Nov 12 09:26:42 Bump bump bump
habebe Member	Sat Nov 12 09:27:25 Bankman fried? So is he on the run now?
Hrothgar Member	Sat Nov 12 09:39:27 Worth mentioning: If you look at historical bitcoin crash from a value spike to the following crash bottom - average loss in value is somewhere around 80%, + or - 10% from there. The value is pretty close to that now. It someone wants to gamble - and it absolutely is a gamble - with averaging down on existing holdings or jumping in for the first time, now is pretty close to as good as it gets historically for an entry point with upside potential. I will say with all the added awareness of massive electricity use required, seemingly unending volatility, governments wanting regulation surrounding the asset class - very well might be in an environment that makes the past spike/crash cycles unreliable for reference. It's as risky as ever imo.
habebe Member	Sat Nov 12 09:57:12 Atleast Soros 2.0 is down. That's worth celebrating.
Seb Member	Sat Nov 12 13:53:31 Hrothgar: That assumes there's some fundamental bottom to bitcoin price. There isn't. You conclusion is right: risky as ever.
Dukhat Member	Sat Nov 12 18:21:09 FTX accounts are locked. Noone can withdraw from them. Pretty sure nhil has killed himself.
Seb Member	Sat Nov 12 18:27:14 No, nhill will tell you to use defi.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Sun Nov 13 08:19:52 If you have tokens on exchanges or anywhere, but your own private wallet, they are not in your custody. That would include defi liquidity pools for instance. They ge The interesting thing here is that SBF is an institutional darling and has been really cozy with lawmakers and lobbying mostly to the dismay of his peers for regulation they didn't want. In many ways SBF embodies the anti-thesis to decentralization efforts that exists in this space. The Bernie Madoff moment of crypto in some regards. Something is really fish if the likes of Kevin O'Leary who prides himself as Mr due diligence got duped by FTX. In other words, massive fraud.
habebe Member	Sun Nov 13 08:23:43 Interesting how I heard more innthe newsmover Peter Thiel legally growing a large Roth IRA than Fried stealing millions and fleeing the country.....I wonder who they each donate to?
Habebe Member	Sun Nov 13 13:39:14 The plot thickens....Ukraine partnered with FTX, which in turn was the largest Democrat donor aside from Soros. ------ Ukraine government partnered with FTX for crypto to fiat donations 11/12/2022 Per CoinDesk, on March 14: The Ukrainian government launched a new crypto donations website on March 14, streamlining its multimillion-dollar effort to turn bitcoin into bullets, bandages and other war materiel. “Aid for Ukraine,” which has the backing of crypto exchange FTX, staking platform Everstake and Ukraine’s Kuna exchange, will route donated crypto to the National Bank of Ukraine, Everstake’s Head of Growth Vlad Likhuta told CoinDesk. Ukraine’s crypto-savvy Ministry of Digital Transformation is also involved. The country's collective efforts have already raised some $48 million in bitcoin (BTC), DOT, ether (ETH), SOL, tether (USDT) and other cryptocurrencies, according to the website. Other estimates place the amount closer to $100 million, but totals vary with market swings and exactly which websites are included. FTX is converting donations into fiat for deposit at the National Bank of Ukraine, a press release said. It described this relationship as a “first.” Everstake’s involvement allows more cryptocurrencies to be accepted by the website.
nhill Member	Mon Nov 14 20:46:21 Holy cow, I need to stop vacationing. Did not have SBF as Elizabeth Holmes on my bingo board. Seems like every big trip I take I come back to news like this. Bear market things. Anyways, that rules out $SOL for my bottom shopping list. Don't think I had any other FTX projects, although I think they were highly invested in $NEAR, so that may be a big ass bottom once they have to liquidate in chapter 11. Seb & Nim are both correct. If you need to exchange a crypto I recommend using DeFi. It was obviously unaffected by this, still works perfectly. The beauty of code. :D Nim is also correct that I recommend personal custody, not storing in a smart contract (unless you can vet the code) or centralized exchange. Everyone here should know now why I said, about 18 months ago, to never use a centralized exchange. That's not crypto, it's gambling, and the casinos are built on sand. Buy crypto on a CEX but immediately transfer to your crypto wallet. As I've said from the beginning. Took 18 months for the wisdom to play out, but here we are. Not quite yet time to bottom shop, but looks like we're getting some sweet deals. Crypto may range for a while before wind hits the sails again, but, when it does, it'll be quite lucrative if you're into that sort of thing. Meanwhile I'll keep travelling, coding, and building our financial future. Stay strong brothers :) Also, stay stable ($USDC). :)
nhill Member	Mon Nov 14 20:50:33 Perhaps I should take $BNB off my list too. Exchanges are going to be under a lot of scrutiny now.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Thu Nov 17 08:17:25 A recession like no generation has seen, into the fourth turning. -McCullough
nhill Member	Thu Nov 17 09:27:27 Gave me chills
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Thu Nov 17 12:28:11 Yes I has to paus and come post. Hold on to your butts I guess.
FUCK YOU FAG Member	Sun Nov 20 12:26:03 Everybody could have seen it coming! http://twitter.com/majinsayan/status/1594079079699021826
McKobb Member	Sun Nov 20 21:44:35 back into 15k
murder Member	Mon Nov 21 14:36:56 Grayscale refuses to share proof of reserves due to ‘security concerns’ as shares trade at a 45% discount to bitcoin Grayscale, the asset manager running the world’s largest bitcoin fund, said in a statement that it won’t share its proof of reserves with customers. “Due to security concerns, we do not make such on-chain wallet information and confirmation data publicly available through a cryptographic Proof-of-Reserve, or other advanced cryptographic accounting procedure,” said a statement Friday. Following the implosion of FTX and its subsequent bankruptcy proceedings exposing that customer funds were missing, multiple crypto exchanges have jumped to release proof-of-reserve audits in order to assuage investor concerns over the safety of their funds. Others, like Binance, say they soon plan to do so. Grayscale wrote in a tweet that it realized that failing to disclose a proof of reserves would be a “disappointment to some,” but added that a “panic sparked by others is not a good enough reason to circumvent complex security arrangements” that have kept its investors’ assets “safe for years.” Grayscale’s flagship fund is the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, known by its GBTC ticker. Even as bitcoin trades at a multiyear low of around $16,000, GBTC is trading at a 45% discount to the price of its underlying asset. While bitcoin is down 72% over the last 12 months, GBTC has recorded an 82% loss in that same period, as of last Friday. The spread reflects a significant disparity between the value of the trust’s sole holding and the open market price for a share in the trust. In its statement Friday, Grayscale said that each of its digital asset products is set up as a “separate legal entity” and reiterated that those digital asset products are “stored under the custody of Coinbase Custody Trust Company.” The firm pointed to a letter sent by Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas on Nov. 18, which breaks down an accounting of the tokens held at Coinbase Custody. Currently, Coinbase holds around 635,235 bitcoin on behalf of Grayscale, or $10.2 billion. In a tweet, the firm added that the “laws, regulations, and documents that define Grayscale’s digital asset products prohibit the digital assets underlying the products from being lent, borrowed, or otherwise encumbered.” Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group is the parent company of Grayscale, Genesis and CoinDesk. Last week, the lending arm of the crypto investment bank Genesis Global Trading paused new loan originations and redemptions. The lending arm of the bank serves an institutional client base and is known as Genesis Global Capital. At the end of its third quarter, it had more than $2.8 billion in total active loans, according to the company’s website. http://www...-due-to-security-concerns.html
murder Member	Mon Nov 21 14:37:15 Not sketchy at all. :o)
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Tue Nov 22 00:44:10 ”DCG is fine. I’m not worried about DCG. -Jim Cramer RIP DCG.
murder Member	Tue Nov 22 13:10:10 lol :o)
murder Member	Tue Nov 22 13:11:29 Does he not realize that aside from being wrong all the time, he's been so wrong so often that he now moves markets? :o)
McKobb Member	Tue Nov 22 19:50:46 i can imagine the memoirs in 10 to 20 years... it's hard to believe the world put so much wealth in the hands so many 20 to 30 year olds who hardly knew what we were doing... " 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. " -John J. Ray III
murder Member	Tue Nov 22 21:20:46 "It's the lure of easy money, it's got a very strong appeal" - Glenn Frye "Smuggler's Blues"
McKobb Member	Tue Nov 22 22:14:11 fleecing on scale
murder Member	Mon Nov 28 18:38:01 Crypto firm BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads http://www...cy-as-ftx-fallout-spreads.html
nhill Member	Tue Nov 29 15:13:33 Turns out the companies that said they have no or little exposure to FTX are the ones going out of business. "We are not affected" is a death knoll at this point.
nhill Member	Tue Nov 29 15:15:38 >Grayscale refuses to share proof of reserves due to ‘security concerns’ as shares trade at a 45% discount to bitcoin Grayscale is correct that exposing public keys decreases security, and, once you expose them, you can't take it back without remixing the coins or filtering them through OTC desks. If that's their security practice, I agree with them that they shouldn't concede. However, it's still possible that this "security practice", while legitimate, is a convenient excuse to hide their lack of reserves, or the loans they took up with reserves as collateral. The latter being more likely IMO.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Wed Nov 30 02:04:53 One of our favorite projects FTM has actually made gains because info came out that they are untouched by Alameda and have a 30 year runway (SOL has 30 months). That’s the light at the end of this tunnel, there are great projects that are not the creation of conmen on meth or shit talking influencers high on engagements.
nhill Member	Wed Nov 30 06:15:23 Diamonds in the rough. :)
nhill Member	Wed Nov 30 11:29:41 Speaking of diamonds in the rough. PTP stablecoin whitepaper: http://cdn...us_Stablecoin_Yellow_Paper.pdf Essential reading for me.
nhill Member	Wed Nov 30 11:30:22 Haven't gotten very far, but it looks like it's not algorithmic! That was my biggest concern. Looks like it'll be over-collateralized, like $DAI.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Thu Dec 01 01:59:23 Saw that the other. I am still torn on another stable coin, but atleast an over collaterized one is far less risk. In other news, the SBF interview is surreal. At one point the audience laughs, when he says he had a ”bad month”. I saw a clip, now watching the whole thing, I thought it was edit for lulz, but no it happened.
murder Member	Thu Dec 01 12:29:01 Why would he get invited to speak anywhere other than in front of a grand jury?
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Thu Dec 01 14:13:36 Because he paid and supported all these people. If he goes down, it will reflect on them, it already has. It was not so much an interview as joint effort damage control dialogue between NYT and SBF. It was successful, People are already saying they believe he is telling the truth.
murder Member	Mon Dec 05 08:56:30 Tim Draper predicts bitcoin will reach $250,000 next year despite FTX collapse: ‘The dam is about to break’ http://www...0000-despite-ftx-collapse.html When all else fails ... they just pump harder. Shame is for the weak.
Habebe Member	Mon Dec 05 09:01:56 Paul Krugman has predicted a permanent crypto winter. So Bullish AF, crypto will takeover currency.
LazyCommunist Member	Mon Dec 12 13:08:09 It's a scam, told you so! http://www...-artist-royalties-under-threat When NFT (non-fungible token) sales surged in the spring of 2021, the art world held its breath for a digital culture shift. While many old-guard dealers, academics and critics rolled their eyes at the notion of strictly virtual art enterprises, business-minded artists everywhere rejoiced; NFTs would theoretically ensure secondary sales royalties, an opportunity for recurring, passive income that has historically evaded art makers in many jurisdictions. But much has changed since the heyday of NFT trading last year—according to Reuters, sales are down nearly 99%, a 15-month low in an already-precarious sector, and creators are feeling the squeeze. Axios reported that four separate crypto marketplaces will stop honouring artist royalties, a worrying trend that impacts those who first introduced blockchain into the cultural consciousness. Magic Eden and LooksRare in particular have pivoted to royalty-optional models, allowing buyers to decide whether or not to pay creators the customary 3%-10% of the resale price for NFTs. The motivation is clear: traders want larger profit margins on NFT resales, and platforms want to retain and reward traders who buy in bulk, a practice that compounds fees at a steeper rate than one-off purchases. This progression has prompted investors to speculate as to whether the NFT bubble is finally ready to burst. Even though NFT creator fees are contracts, blockchain code cannot actually enforce token transfer stipulations, rendering those contracts essentially voluntary by design. From an operational perspective, royalties were never guaranteed on the blockchain; instead, the documentation of each NFT only requests a royalty, a procedure that platforms have previously honoured in more favourable market conditions.
murder Member	Mon Dec 12 21:38:25 People have been warned enough. If they keep getting roped in, then we just have to assume that they want to be roped.
murder Member	Tue Dec 13 08:41:06 Binance temporarily halts withdrawals of stablecoin USDC as investor concerns mount after FTX collapse Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said Tuesday it is pausing withdrawals of the stablecoin USDC while it carries out a “token swap.” The move comes as investor concerns grow about Binance’s stability following the collapse of rival exchange FTX as well as a report of a potential criminal investigation from the U.S. government. Binance said that it has “temporarily paused” USDC withdrawals while it does a “token swap.” This involves swapping one cryptocurrency for another without the need for fiat currency. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, tweeted on Tuesday that the exchange is seeing an increase in withdrawals of USDC, a cryptocurrency known as a stablecoin because it is pegged one-to-one with the U.S. dollar. USDC is used by investors to trade in and out of different cryptocurrencies without the need to move money back into U.S. dollars. If traders are withdrawing USDC from Binance, it could be to move it onto another platform. Zhao said that any transfers into USDC from the stablecoin known as PAX, as well as Binance’s own token BUSD, require routing through a bank based in New York which is not yet open. The suggestion from Zhao is that users are looking to convert their PAX and BUSD into USDC in order to withdraw their funds from Binance. A token swap could be a way for Binance to get more USDC quickly while the banks are closed in order to resume withdrawals for customers. Zhao said users could still withdraw other stablecoins including BUSD and tether. Deposits are not affected, he said. Binance’s own token called BNB was trading down about 5% on Tuesday morning, according to data from CoinGecko. It’s not normally good news when a crypto firm has to pause withdrawals. In the summer, crypto firms including lender Celsius had to pause withdrawals before ultimately filing for bankruptcy. There is no indication of any such trouble for Binance. In the past 24 hours, Binance has seen $1.6 billion of outflows from its platform, according to a tweet from crypto data company Nansen published early Tuesday. Binance has more than $60 billion of assets on its platform, Nansen said. Investors jittery The collapse of FTX and arrest of its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has crypto investors on edge with fears of further contagion across the industry. Binance has been in the spotlight since its decision to sell its stake in FTX’s self-issued FTT digital tokens, which preceded the failure of the rival exchange. Investors have called for more transparency from Binance’s business. Last month, the company issued a proof of reserve in which it claims to have a reserve ratio of 101%. That means it has enough assets to cover customer deposits. But critics have said that the proof of reserves have not gone far enough to give assurances of Binance’s collateral. Mazars, the auditing firm Binance used for its proof of reserves, said in its five-page report that the company does “not express an opinion or an assurance conclusion.” Investors are also keeping tabs on a report from Reuters that U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors are delaying the conclusion of a criminal investigation into Binance. Reuters, citing four people familiar with the matter, reported that the investigation is focused on Binance’s compliance with anti-money laundering laws. Binance responded saying: “Reuters has it wrong again.” “We don’t have any insight into the inner workings of the US Justice Department, nor would it be appropriate for us to comment if we did,” the company said in a tweet on Monday. http://www...dc-stablecoin-withdrawals.html
LazyCommunist Member	Tue Dec 13 09:35:08 Why are stable coins always so unstable?
murder Member	Thu Dec 15 05:46:13 ‘99% of People' Will Lose Crypto Storing in Self-Custody: Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao “Holding your own crypto in your wallet is not risk-free,” said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao today during a Twitter spaces. Binance chief Changpeng "CZ" Zhao has suggested users are more likely to lose crypto by holding it in a cold wallet than by putting it on a centralized exchange. “For most people, for 99% of people today, asking them to hold crypto on their own, they will end up losing it,” he said in a Twitter Space discussion held on Wednesday. The exchange founder, who was speaking a few hours after news broke that he had told his staff to brace for a “bumpy” few months, said his company was “neutral” on whether users wanted to hold their own crypto or put it on an exchange, but suggested that practicalities make self-custody unrealistic for many. “Most people are not able to back up their security keys; they will lose the device,” he said. “They will not have the proper encryption for their backup; they will write it on a piece of paper, someone else will see it, and they will steal those funds. And also today, very fundamentally, if a person passes away, they don’t have a way to give to their next of kin. Whereas we have a standard operating procedure [for that].” CZ added that people who are technically capable of holding crypto safely should do so but claimed that the practice has its own issues. “I always try to educate people so they understand there are risks,” he said. “Holding your own crypto in your wallet is not risk-free; I actually think more people lose money holding their own—lose more crypto when they’re holding on their own than on a centralized exchange.” 'Business as usual' at Binance The collapse of Binance’s rival FTX and subsequent revelations about its financial position prompted a resurgence in the slogan “not your keys, not your coins” in the community.  The phrase refers to the idea that crypto stored using anything other than your very own unique personal keys are not technically yours. This week, Binance has seen billions withdrawn from its platform as investor confidence has been shaken by the continued fallout of FTX’s collapse. CZ has insisted the activity is “business as usual.” He added that the arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was having an effect on market sentiment. “With Sam Bankman Fried’s arrest, I think people generalize. So if you get hurt by one bank, you're gonna think all the other banks are bad. If one politician is corrupt, you think all politicians are corrupt,” he said. “But the fact is that because one bank is bad doesn't mean all the other banks are bad. And just because one politician is bad doesn't mean all the other politicians are bad.” When asked if he would appear in D.C. if invited to testify before congress, CZ said he tries not to go to the U.S. in order to emphasize the separation between Binance.com and Binance’s U.S. business. “I'm also quite busy visiting many other countries [...] I'm not against traveling to the U.S.; I think the U.S. is great [...] I like the place, but you know, I'm busy with my other priorities.” http://dec...ody-binance-ceo-changpeng-zhao
murder Member	Fri Dec 16 05:07:43 Watcher.Guru JUST IN: Mazars suspends audits for #crypto exchanges, which include Binance, KuCoin, and Crypto․com, Bloomberg reports. ====================== Just like they did with Trump.
murder Member	Fri Dec 16 13:29:48 whalechart.org BREAKING: #Binance outflows hit $6bn as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work
LazyCommunist Member	Thu Dec 29 13:02:09 nhill and nimatzo should learn about this service http://www...e-worthless-nfts-tax-write-off Now – alongside the broader crypto market – the appetite for NFTs is so diminished that a specialized market has sprung up for collectors looking to sell off their once-valuable “digital collectibles” as tax losses to offset their income tax bills. A recently launched service, Unsellable, aims to help collectors do exactly that. Think of it as a distressed asset fire sale. “While every investment class has its losers, many of the NFTs we invested in were not only down big; they were now totally worthless … illiquid … unsellable,” the service says on its website. Unsellable – which says it is “building the world’s largest collection of worthless NFTs” – buys the underlying tokens for a fraction of their original price and provides an official receipt for tax purposes. “We realized there was a practical problem that was locking up a lot of resources and we could create a lot of value for people by offering to buy up their worthless NFTs and allow them to harvest the losses,” said Hallgren. “For some folks, the amount they paid for NFTs is quite high and were buying them for a penny so the write-off they can take is quite high.”
Seb Member	Thu Dec 29 13:32:58 Wow. Force the taxpayer to take some of the losses.
murder Member	Thu Dec 29 14:39:24 It's the capitalist way.
Dukhat Member	Thu Dec 29 18:15:23 Here’s why this is good for Crypto.
LazyCommunist Member	Tue Jan 03 09:42:49 Even the super experts get robbed, but amateurs like nhill and Nimatzo think they're safe? http://www...-reportedly-lost-200-bitcoins/ Bitcoin Developer Luke Dashjr Reportedly Lost 200+ Bitcoins Luke Dashjr’s Bitcoins have been transferred to an address in four transactions using the CoinJoin Bitcoin mixer and the address now holds 216.93 BTC. The new year begins with an unfortunate incident in the crypto community as one of the OG Bitcoin core Developer Luke Dashjr reportedly lost over 200 BTC in a hack. Luke Dashjr took to Twitter to reveal that his PGP key was compromised, and many of his bitcoins were stolen. A PGP key, aka Pretty Good Privacy key, is a popular security technique that employs two keys to decrypt data. A sizable amount of Dashjr’s Bitcoins have been transferred to a wallet address using the Bitcoin mixer CoinJoin in four transactions. At the time of writing, the address holds 216.93 BTC, approximately $3.6 million.  In November Dashjr’s server was accessed by an unknown individual via new malware/backdoors on the system specifically created to compromise his server. On Christmas day, someone reaccessed the server and Dashjr shared IPs that were implicated in the attack. But unfortunately, the planned attack was successful with the hackers stealing over 200 Bitcoins. Binance CEO responded to Dashjr’s tweet “Sorry to see you lose so much. Informed our security team to monitor. If it comes our way, we will freeze it.” CZ tweeted on his official account, “Sad to see even an OG #Bitcoin Core Developer lost 200+ BTC ($3.5 million). Self-custody have a different set of risks. We will try to monitor and see where we can help.” The revelation has also sparked a discussion about self-custody, with some arguing that while it’s not necessarily harmful, users shouldn’t control their keys directly. The FTX debacle did push the community to follow one of the core principles of crypto: “Not your keys, not your coins.”
	show deleted posts

Your Name:
Your Password:
Your Message: