Bitcoin & Other Cryptocurrencies

[uair01]

Bored Ape Yacht Club dating app closes because too many men:



A smart Twitter reaction:
You mean it was just a honeypot for creating a marketing list? Who'd have thought?!?!?!

 

[uair01]

Bitcoin and El Salvador conspiracy theories:

 

[uair01]

This is a sarcastic and funny talk. And he has a point:

 

[uair01]

I'm trying not to sound too negative, but I like these analyses, because I'm a sucker for fraud porn / ponzi porn.
If all turns out well for the retail investors, and I'm wrong, I'll just be happy for them.
But we may be in Tulip Mania territory now. Is that Fortean enough for here?

WAPO: Opinion Think you’re the one to beat the crypto crash? Think again.​

... For all the claims the blockchain will revolutionize finance, the only thing it’s so far improved on is the ability to launder cash and transfer money as part of other illegal activities. An inflation hedge? A theory that didn’t pan out. A substitute for cash? Try using it. It’s difficult and time-consuming, and I promise you you’ll flee back to traditional currency immediately.

... Yet 1 out of 5 Americans old enough to invest took the bait, many who couldn’t afford the risk. Poll after poll finds the young more likely to embrace the sector than the middle-aged and older people, and Blacks more than Whites. And one other thing: Half began putting money into the sector in 2021, according to a survey released by Grayscale Investments, a crypto management firm — in other words, when crypto was at record highs. (A survey conducted last fall by Cardify, a market research firm, found only 14 percent had been invested in the sector for more than two years.)

None of this should inspire confidence. That’s true whether you sincerely believe the world has yet to harness the power of the blockchain, or if you believe, as the wits on Twitter put it, that the blockchain and its cryptocurrencies are Beanie Babies for Bros, disguised by techno-libertarian gibberish.

Even if all the potential for Web 3.0 is realized, and the blockchain is its primary architecture, that doesn’t make this stuff a good play. The railroad was a revolutionary technology in 19th-century America that created untold fortunes for a lucky few, but about 25 percent of railroad companies landed in bankruptcy after the Panic of 1873. The same thing happened again after the Panic of 1893.

The dot-com bubble offers a similar lesson: Amazon did so well that its founder now owns this newspaper, but Pets.com is a punchline. As Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler recently put it when discussing crypto, “I don’t think there’s a long-term viability for five or six thousand private forms of money.”

 

[uair01]

Twitter >>> Dare Obasanjo @Carnage4Life >>>
The PM at OpenSea who used to buy NFTs before they were featured on their home page then sell when they pumped has been arrested by the Feds for insider trading. If insider trading on NFTs is now illegal, that's gonna be an industry game changer.

 

[uair01]

 

[uair01]

Apparently some hacker has 137.21GB of hacked Telegram group chats and messages, all focused on illegal + scam activity of prominent crypto folks:
https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1ss24a6

It doesn't matter to me anymore. I am dying from illnesses that are wreaking havoc on my body. Any money I made will just go on to my family, and I will disappear after that.

But not before this feeling of guilt is released from me.

Many of the individuals or projects I name will not survive this, either due to public backlash, financial fraud, or other obscure reasons such as embarrassment. Some may step down from their positions of power, others will likely ignore it as they can't claim the messages that are archvied are fraudulent unless everyone involved in the group chats are all on the same page.

There will be confusion, there will be sadness, there will be anger and there will be frustration. I am intrigued to see what happens next but I let everyone else decide how to proceed forward.

June 15th will publish excerpts from:
- crypto influencers, ranging from as little as 800 followers to as much as 1M followers
- discussions pertaining to racism and homophobia, of adultery and sexual assault on members of the public and those within the crypto communities
- those with 8-9 figures and high amounts of Twitter followers discussing rugpull projects, projects intended to scam the community and individuals, dating between Dec 2019 - Feb 2022
- killing and stealing the crypto of an individual with a group of friends (coordinated through telegram)

 

[ramonmercado]

Elon musk being used in scams; I wonder if he's in on it?

YouTube is being criticised for failing to tackle a network of cyber-criminals streaming fake Elon Musk videos to scam viewers.

The criminals are hijacking YouTube accounts and using the videos to promote bogus cryptocurrency giveaways. BBC News found dozens of these streams being watched by tens of thousands of people over four days this month.

On Tuesday, Elon Musk said YouTube was not tackling "scam ads". YouTube says it removes channels that are reported. For many months, the streams have been fooling thousands of people into sending cryptocurrency to criminals, thinking they will receive a prize from Mr Musk.

One of the most common links to website https://elon-x2.live/, which invites people to double their money by sending Bitcoin or Ethereum to the digital-wallet addresses advertised.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61749120

 

[charliebrown]

Billions and billions of dollars of investors’ money evaporate as Bitcoin continues to fall apart.

People become instantly poor in a second.

Bitcoin’s office is in Saint Kitts and Nevis and has 125 employees, and Monday the CEO told 18% of the employees that they were fired.

Cryptocurrency is fake play money !

 

[Mythopoeika]

Billions and billions of dollars of investors’ money evaporate as Bitcoin continues to fall apart.

People become instantly poor in a second.

Bitcoin’s office is in Saint Kitts and Nevis and has 125 employees, and Monday the CEO told 18% of the employees that they were fired.

Cryptocurrency is fake play money !

I did warn people.
A guy who I used to work with made a lot of money on it over a year ago (or was it 2 years ago?) when the price was rising. But I did say to him, that he should cash it in ASAP.
He left the company, so I haven't spoken to him since. My gut feeling is that he held onto it and didn't exchange it for money.

 

[Ascalon]

Billions and billions of dollars of investors’ money evaporate as Bitcoin continues to fall apart.

People become instantly poor in a second.

Bitcoin’s office is in Saint Kitts and Nevis and has 125 employees, and Monday the CEO told 18% of the employees that they were fired.

Cryptocurrency is fake play money !

That was Coinbase. Bitcoin is not a company.

 

[charliebrown]

Bill Gates calls Bitcoin a “ fools “ buy talking to CNN Business.

Bitcoin went from a high at the end of 2021 of $69,000 to today around $22, 000.

 

[uair01]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1537033411453386753

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1536907143592300545

 

[ramonmercado]

The fallout from a crypto scam

A husband-to-be tried to rob a shop with a gun when he lost money saved for his wedding in a cryptocurrency con.

Student Louis Crosby, 25, "naively" converted his savings into digital cash before he was scammed, a court heard. On 27 November, shortly after learning the money had gone, he went to a shop in Sunderland and demanded cash but was foiled when staff fought back.

Crosby, of Portobello Road, was jailed for two years after admitting attempted robbery and possessing a firearm.

The sentence was suspended for two years by a judge who said Crosby was plunged into a "crisis" by the cryptocurrency "disaster".

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-61838109

 

[Min Bannister]

The fallout from a crypto scam

A husband-to-be tried to rob a shop with a gun when he lost money saved for his wedding in a cryptocurrency con.

Student Louis Crosby, 25, "naively" converted his savings into digital cash before he was scammed, a court heard. On 27 November, shortly after learning the money had gone, he went to a shop in Sunderland and demanded cash but was foiled when staff fought back.

Crosby, of Portobello Road, was jailed for two years after admitting attempted robbery and possessing a firearm.

The sentence was suspended for two years by a judge who said Crosby was plunged into a "crisis" by the cryptocurrency "disaster".

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-61838109

Pretty sad story altogether. It is easy to think that this crypto stuff just affects people with more money than sense but this is a reminder that this is not always the case.

 

[Okarin]

Elon musk being used in scams; I wonder if he's in on it?

YouTube is being criticised for failing to tackle a network of cyber-criminals streaming fake Elon Musk videos to scam viewers.

The criminals are hijacking YouTube accounts and using the videos to promote bogus cryptocurrency giveaways. BBC News found dozens of these streams being watched by tens of thousands of people over four days this month.

On Tuesday, Elon Musk said YouTube was not tackling "scam ads". YouTube says it removes channels that are reported. For many months, the streams have been fooling thousands of people into sending cryptocurrency to criminals, thinking they will receive a prize from Mr Musk.

One of the most common links to website https://elon-x2.live/, which invites people to double their money by sending Bitcoin or Ethereum to the digital-wallet addresses advertised.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61749120

well I suppose he has to pay for twitter some how!

 

[uair01]

I conclude from this tweet that Bitcoin recently sunk through the 18.000 $ boundary. That will be interesting to follow. I pity the amateur investors.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1538250639565799425

Live screen here (I had to fill out two captchas to get here):

https://trade.kraken.com/de/charts/KRAKEN:BTC-USD

 

[Timble2]

Tulip Mania, The South Sea Bubble, closer to our time the Dot-com Bubble, are Cryptocurrencies going the same way?

 

[uair01]

Here's an instructive and surprisingly civil discussion about Bitcoin value. I find the different viewpoints interesting:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1538279162636640256

 

[Swifty]

I did warn people.
A guy who I used to work with made a lot of money on it over a year ago (or was it 2 years ago?) when the price was rising. But I did say to him, that he should cash it in ASAP.
He left the company, so I haven't spoken to him since. My gut feeling is that he held onto it and didn't exchange it for money.

Like all pyramid marketing, it was only ever a matter of time before the people at the top do a runner.

Trillion-dollar crypto collapse sparks flurry of US lawsuits – who’s to blame?​

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/tec...sedgntp&cvid=bec7ce2e5da74f29b05b5d8efff827a5

 

[Iris]

The young chap who does the garden has a couple of bitcoin accounts. A while ago I told him that I read it was better to sell as the price was going to fall but he didn't.

 

[EnolaGaia]

New York (state) is poised to become the first jurisdiction to ban crypto mining activities drawing on fossil fuel power generation.

New York’s New Mining Ban Begins the War Against Crypto’s Climate Sins

... In the wee hours of the morning on June 3, the New York state legislature passed the first moratorium on fossil-fuel powered proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining of any kind in the country. ...

Members of the cryptocurrency industry see those final hours differently: as a swift, surprising move that puts New York on path toward eliminating their sector entirely. ...

Major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are currently validated through a system called proof-of-work, which tasks miners to compete against each other to solve a guess-the-number style algorithmic puzzle with random, brute force attempts. The winner earns the right to mine a new token.

At one point, mining Bitcoin in this fashion could be done on a laptop; today, entire facilities are devoted to it, collectively amounting to a carbon footprint larger than entire countries. Mining a single Bitcoin is estimated to have the same environmental impact as millions of visa transactions. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-y...n-means-a-foggy-future-for-bitcoin-and-others

 

[Lb8535]

New York (state) is poised to become the first jurisdiction to ban crypto mining activities drawing on fossil fuel power generation.

FULL STORY: https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-y...n-means-a-foggy-future-for-bitcoin-and-others

I'm glad to hear this - I lost track of this story although I live in NY - last I heard the lobbyists for the industry were surrounding the legislature waving cash. The use of natural resources in this enterprise is unacceptably high - water as well as fuels. And personally with an MBA in finance and a work background in heavy data manipulation as far as I can tell bitcoin is ultimately a commodities pyramid scam.

 

[Mythopoeika]

And personally with an MBA in finance and a work background in heavy data manipulation as far as I can tell bitcoin is ultimately a commodities pyramid scam.

Just good common sense is required to spot that scam.

 

[Megadeth1977]

Behave people or this will get removed. I got permission to post this.

 

[uair01]

 

[uair01]

 

[uair01]

Cobie
@cobie
bitcoin was $45,000 and ethereum was $3000 when mark zuckerberg's 40 year old sister made a crypto music video about how we're all going to make it

and you didnt sell??

 

[uair01]

‘It’s Ruined Me’: Voyager Customers Fear Life Savings Gone After Crypto Firm’s Bankruptcy​

When Jeffery Cosey, a 37-year-old personal banker in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, first heard about the U.S. crypto brokerage and lender Voyager, he thought it sounded like a better place to keep his money than a traditional bank.

The company had offered him a sign-up bonus, and Cosey appreciated the slick application and the high rate of return on deposits, especially compared to what normal banks could offer. He understood the inherent risks associated with the crypto industry, but felt reassured by the fact that the company was publicly traded in Canada and run by Stephen Ehrlich, a former executive at eTRADE. “They all seemed trustworthy. They all seemed legitimate, not sketchy or fly-by-night or risky,” he told Motherboard.

Over time, Cosey ended up depositing approximately 90 percent of his savings with Voyager, he estimated, split up between Bitcoin, Ethereum, a number of smaller crypto holdings, and USD Coin (USDC), a “stablecoin” that Voyager often reminded customers was “redeemable 1:1 for dollars,” audited by a top accounting firm, and earned “up to 9% annual rewards.”

Now he and other customers are left to guess if they will ever again see the money they had invested in Voyager, a comprehensive crypto platform that allowed people to trade crypto assets, spend crypto in the real world using a debit card, and receive high interest on their deposits, which the company used to make loans to third parties.

Blaming “volatility and contagion” in the crypto markets, Voyager announced this week that it had voluntarily entered the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. The company had struggled through the crypto winter, as its share price plummeted more than 90 percent. Then, in June, the situation grew worse as the company revealed that it had been unable to recoup more then $650 million it loaned to the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, or 3AC, which went bankrupt after it made a series of risky and overleveraged crypto bets.

Etc. It's sad ...

https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5v...fe-savings-gone-after-crypto-firms-bankruptcy

 

[kamalktk]

‘It’s Ruined Me’​

Jeffery Cosey, a 37-year-old personal banker .... He understood the inherent risks associated with the crypto industry,

He said he understood the risks, so I dont feel sorry for him.