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Bitcoin & Other Cryptocurrencies

Speculation that the latest rise in Bitcoin price is artificially caused by a Tether pump and dump scheme:

https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchai...cked-tethers-kickstart-a-fresh-crypto-bubble/

The whole cryptocyrrency structure might still fall if Tether depegs. I would enjoy that spectacle. Unfortunately and mysteriously it seems to hold op well. The prediction markets say it will stay up:

https://manifold.markets/ACXBot/36-will-tether-depeg-in-2023?r=dWFpcjAx
https://manifold.markets/BoltonBailey/will-tether-depeg-even-slightly-in?r=dWFpcjAx
 
Patrick Boyle pointed out something that made the concept of 'bubbles' clear to me.
All 'bubbles', from The Tulip Bulb, to the East India Company, to the Dot Com, should be seen as a big balloon with a tiny, unrepairable leak. It benefits everyone the bigger it gets, but it takes more air going in than is being lost through the leak. To get more, they increase the air intake, to make it bigger. All is fine ... until two endings. Either the bubble 'bursts' because of being over inflated or it collapses because the air intake stops. There's no such thing as a 'knot' in the balloon to keep the balloon inflated, since the leak is still there.
 
Go to Buttcoin r/Buttcoin

Yesterday someone bought 26.9 BTC on Binance and sent it to Satoshi's dead wallet at the Genesis block, losing it forever. ($1.1 million.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/190klwq

Snarky comments :)

Okay they lost it forever, but they only paid $12 in fees to do so!

Try to send $1M to some dead guy's account and see what it will cost you!!!! I double dare you

Meh, probably couldn't even do it.

It would be rejected by the oppressive banking system and their arbitrary limitations.

Boy, do I hate it when I send my life savings to someone by mistake then the evil jack-booted banks show up and give it back to me.
 
Last edited:
uair01 said:
Go to Buttcoin r/Buttcoin

Yesterday someone bought 26.9 BTC on Binance and sent it to Satoshi's dead wallet at the Genesis block, losing it forever. ($1.1 million.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/190klwq

Snarky comments :)

Okay they lost it forever, but they only paid $12 in fees to do so!

Try to send $1M to some dead guy's account and see what it will cost you!!!! I double dare you

Meh, probably couldn't even do it.

It would be rejected by the oppressive banking system and their arbitrary limitations.

Boy, do I hate it when I send my life savings to someone by mistake then the evil jack-booted banks show up and give it back to me.
Click to expand...
There's a deep technical conspiracy theory about this genesis block:
https://zemgao.com/satoshis-secret-in-the-genesis-block/

So I believe the Genesis block contains a secret related to Satoshi’s identity. Satoshi has retained the “keys” to unlock the secret should he ever need to use them to prove his identity.

But he did it in an extremely elaborate way not to give anyone, not even himself, power to unravel the Genesis block, the anchor of the Bitcoin blockchain.

The question becomes relevant given the suspense surrounding the 26.9 BTC coins recently deposited to the address in the Genesis block. I believe even if they were indeed deposited by Satoshi or an agent authorized by him, he would not use the Genesis block proof unless it becomes an absolute necessity. Even then, it would serve to validate the security of the Bitcoin blockchain. Satoshi will never sacrifice Bitcoin for the sake of his own reputation.
 
A bitcoin ETF goes live this week - institutions and people will be able to 'invest' more easily.
 
I foolish put a grand in 2 years ago and now out of and looking for work.....should I cash my Coinbase funds or leave it.
 
Sabresonic said:
I foolish put a grand in 2 years ago and now out of and looking for work.....should I cash my Coinbase funds or leave it.
Click to expand...
I really don't know what to say here.
The Spot ETF approvals will no doubt boost the price of bitcoin initially, but TBH, having worked around blockchain, crypto and web3 for the last two and half years, my only sure pronouncement would be: bitcoin is not an investment opportunity. It is a gamble and you don't know what the stakes are.

I would ride it out for 6 months and see. But, I'd cash out one way or the other.
 
Screenshot_20240116-215948_X.jpg

There was a Bored Ape concert where the organizers bought the wrong kind of UV lighting for the black light effects and ended up inflicting photokeratitus on attendees. From what I understand, they likely rented the kind of UV light used for industrial cleaning.

There was a convention called 'Apefest' including a UV party that decided normal UV lighting was for wimps and instead went with industrial disinfecting UV lights, simultaneously blinding and giving skin cancer to attendees.

:)
 
One attendee (a You Tuber called Oompaville) went there - held in Hong Kong - and experienced what he termed 'sunburned eyes'! Afterwards, he returned to the U.S. and got treatment then heard about all the other victims.
Since he didn't go near the 'rave' area, he suggested the toilets. Being held in a harbourside cargo warehouse, everything was practically what we'd call 'pre-fab' and lack ceilings. The bogs were garishly painted and lit with UV.
I suppose the BAYC organisers thought they should give 'members' more 'benefits' than their lousy JPG's ... er ... NFTs.
 
I feel pity for poor Tether :)

Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, says they are disappointed in the UN’s assessment that singles out USDT “highlighting its involvement in illicit activity while ignoring its role in helping developing economies in emerging markets, completely neglected by the global financial world simply because servicing such communities would be unprofitable for them.”

https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/20...ns-report-and-calls-for-blockchain-education/

A United Nations report published Monday suggested that USDT has become a prominent payment method for money laundering and scams in Southeast Asia, according to the Financial Times.

The UN also reportedly suggested the world's most-popular stablecoin has been widely used in underground fraud, including romantic scams known as “pig butchering.” This may not comes as a surprise — in November, Tether said that it assisted the U.S. Department of Justice and froze about $225 million in USDT in external, self-custodied wallets linked to an international human trafficking group in Southeast Asia responsible for a pig-butchering scam.

https://www.theblock.co/post/272568/usdt-fraud-southeast-asia-united-nations

I have not found the report yet, but I'm looking. Oh, here:

https://www.unodc.org/roseap/upload...24/Casino_Underground_Banking_Report_2024.pdf
 
This is weird:

Roger Stone endorses $TRUMP memecoin with misleading posts​

Amid tweets alleging corruption among jurors in his 2019 criminal case, far-right activist and Trumpworld figure Roger Stone has posted several tweets endorsing "MAGA Memecoin", one of the many memecoins with the $TRUMP ticker. In several posts, he's suggested the token enjoys support from Trump himself, mentioning that the token is "the largest holding in Donald Trump's crypto wallet". "Donald Trump has at least $2M in @MAGAMemecoin in his crypto wallet - get yours- this cryptocurrency is going UP!", he wrote in another.
What he failed to mention is that the tokens in Trump's wallet were airdropped to him, likely without Trump even realizing it. Several of Trump's crypto wallets are publicly known, and people send coins and NFTs to them all the time. Trump has no more endorsed Stone's "MAGA Memecoin" than he has the "HarryPotterTrumpHomerSimpson777Inu" tokens that also sit in his crypto wallet.
Elsewhere, Stone disclosed, "My promotion of MAGAMemecoin is, of course, sponsored." I haven't been able to find where he has disclosed the amount he was paid for these promotions, as he is required to do.

Much more here:
https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/
And here WOW:
https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/charts/top
 
Not exactly cryptocurrency news but apparently Kabosu, the dog who is the face of dogecoin has died.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czkkr8l7jjxo

Kabosu, the dog behind the "doge" meme, has died after 14 years of internet fame, her owner has said.

The Japanese shiba inu inspired a generation of online jokes and became the face of Dogecoin cryptocurrency.

She had been suffering from leukaemia and liver disease and died on 24 May.

"She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her," Atsuko Sato wrote on her blog, thanking Kabosu's fans.

"I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner."
Click to expand...
 
It was supposed to be Doggee-coin, except it was written down by semi-literate tech bros that have all the depth of education of a young Mark Zuckberberg.

Hence the near cute naivete and painful ignorance of the Doge of Venice, or indeed, phonetics.

But they code real good, hey!

LoL!
 
Tether is a total mystery to me. As one commenter said "it is quilted out of red flags", but it still keeps its USD peg:
1717148301015.png
I have two bets running against it, but I suspect I'll lose:
https://manifold.markets/xolith/will-tether-trade-for-less-than-08
https://manifold.markets/BoltonBailey/will-tether-depeg-even-slightly-in-1bf8081ebeb2

But maybe I'll listen to this skeptic and keep the bets:
https://amycastor.com/2024/05/14/tether-and-sanctions-whats-coming-for-paolos-beautiful-launderette/

Use case for Tether: North Korea, Hamas, Russia​

Tether’s sanction violations started hitting the papers two years ago.

In August 2022, the US sanctioned Tornado Cash — the favorite crypto mixer of North Korea’s Lazarus Group for laundering stolen ETH to help the country get hard currency. OFAC posted a list of sanctioned Ethereum blockchain addresses for the Tornado Cash smart contract.

Tether flat-out ignored the sanctions. The company posted that it “does not operate in the United States or onboard U.S. persons as customers,” so is not obliged to comply with US sanctions. [Tether, archive]

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad received $93 million in crypto between August 2021 and June 2023, according to Elliptic. Wallets connected to Hamas received $41 million over a similar period, almost all in USDT, according to Israeli blockchain firm Bitok. [WSJ, archive]

Chainalysis found that stablecoins like Tether were used in the vast majority of crypto-based scam transactions and sanctions evasion in 2023. [Wired, archive; Chainalysis]
ETC ETC

I've run some numerical prediction on the time series and this says Tether will keep working until August and maybe through whole 2024.
 
Funny if true: :)

The Regulators will eventually assert themselves
you have the 99% which is fraud and human trafficking and cyber terrorism and money laundering
I think that if tether goes down then crypto is screwed and Bitcoin crashes if US regulations tighten up
they're slowly ratcheting Tighter and Tighter because the government does not like crypto and they don't like it for sanctions reasons but they also don't like it for economic stability reasons
because in tether you have a hundred billion fund that is controlled by clowns and bozos who don't know the slightest thing about what the hell they doing and that's frightening
if they were just competent Crooks that would be one thing but they're bozos
these guys have no idea how anything Works they have no idea how economics Works they have no idea how a modern economy actually can function
they think that Austrian economics is true they're idiots and so the treasury quite correctly fears these clowns getting in getting any sort of exposure to the real economy
so that's a correct thing to worry about, that's why Janet Yellen talks about stable coins and how bad they are the day after Terra/Luna collapsed sending 20 billion pseudo dollars Up in Smoke

 
ramonmercado said:
Now her adviser has disappeared.

An FBI-wanted former spy and trusted adviser to the fugitive "Missing Cryptoqueen" has disappeared.

Frank Schneider, 53, was under house arrest in France awaiting extradition to the US. But like his former boss Ruja Ignatova, he has gone missing before facing US justice. He faces a maximum of 40 years in prison on fraud and money laundering charges for his alleged role in a $4bn (£3.2bn) cryptocurrency scam.

French authorities confirmed to the BBC that Mr Schneider, who was fitted with an ankle tag, had evaded his electronic surveillance. Nancy's Court of Appeal issued a fresh warrant for his arrest on 16 May, meaning his whereabouts have been unknown for more than three weeks.

Neither Mr Schneider, his wife, or his lawyers could be reached by the BBC.

He worked as a troubleshooter for Miss Ignatova, architect of the OneCoin crypto scam. As investigators closed in on her, she boarded a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens in 2017, never to be seen again. The FBI is offering a $250,000 (£200,000) reward for information leading to her arrest.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65861495
Click to expand...

Update,

In September 2019 a BBC podcast started reporting on the extraordinary tale of Ruja Ignatova, a Bulgarian woman wanted by the FBI after scamming investors out of $4.5bn (£3.54bn) through her fake cryptocurrency, before vanishing into thin air.

Now we have gone on her trail to try to discover her fate. BBC Eye Investigations and Panorama have looked at her close ties to a suspected Bulgarian organised crime boss and allegations she was brutally murdered. Did Ms Ignatova enjoy the stolen billions or was she killed by the very people paid to protect her?

Oxford University graduate Ruja Ignatova was born in Bulgaria and raised in Germany, pursuing a successful career in finance before launching the cryptocurrency OneCoin in 2014. Ms Ignatova convinced millions of people around the world to invest in OneCoin, promising to eclipse the kind of huge returns seen by early Bitcoin investors.

But in reality, Ms Ignatova - known to many as Dr Ruja - had created a cleverly-disguised investment fraud, without the digital record that underlies legitimate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

For the past year, BBC World Service’s Eye Investigations and Panorama have been trying to find out more about what happened to her, and whether she is even alive.

Key to this was establishing who her inner circle was.

Richard Reinhardt, who began the investigation into OneCoin for the US Internal Revenue Service alongside the FBI, told the BBC about a key character investigators have never publicly named before. ...

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only) or on BBC One at 20:00 on Monday 3 June (22:40 in Wales). Outside of the UK, watch on YouTube

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2llvlx2ez9o
 
ramonmercado said:
Update,

In September 2019 a BBC podcast started reporting on the extraordinary tale of Ruja Ignatova, a Bulgarian woman wanted by the FBI after scamming investors out of $4.5bn (£3.54bn) through her fake cryptocurrency, before vanishing into thin air.

Now we have gone on her trail to try to discover her fate. BBC Eye Investigations and Panorama have looked at her close ties to a suspected Bulgarian organised crime boss and allegations she was brutally murdered. Did Ms Ignatova enjoy the stolen billions or was she killed by the very people paid to protect her?

Oxford University graduate Ruja Ignatova was born in Bulgaria and raised in Germany, pursuing a successful career in finance before launching the cryptocurrency OneCoin in 2014. Ms Ignatova convinced millions of people around the world to invest in OneCoin, promising to eclipse the kind of huge returns seen by early Bitcoin investors.

But in reality, Ms Ignatova - known to many as Dr Ruja - had created a cleverly-disguised investment fraud, without the digital record that underlies legitimate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

For the past year, BBC World Service’s Eye Investigations and Panorama have been trying to find out more about what happened to her, and whether she is even alive.

Key to this was establishing who her inner circle was.

Richard Reinhardt, who began the investigation into OneCoin for the US Internal Revenue Service alongside the FBI, told the BBC about a key character investigators have never publicly named before. ...

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only) or on BBC One at 20:00 on Monday 3 June (22:40 in Wales). Outside of the UK, watch on YouTube

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2llvlx2ez9o
Click to expand...
This BBC podcast speculates that she may be dead. Killed by gangsters. But that also might be a ploy to get off the radar. Personally I found that plausible a long time ago. She was too visible and what if she stole some criminals money with her scheme?
 
ramonmercado said:
Update,

In September 2019 a BBC podcast started reporting on the extraordinary tale of Ruja Ignatova, a Bulgarian woman wanted by the FBI after scamming investors out of $4.5bn (£3.54bn) through her fake cryptocurrency, before vanishing into thin air.

Now we have gone on her trail to try to discover her fate. BBC Eye Investigations and Panorama have looked at her close ties to a suspected Bulgarian organised crime boss and allegations she was brutally murdered. Did Ms Ignatova enjoy the stolen billions or was she killed by the very people paid to protect her?

Oxford University graduate Ruja Ignatova was born in Bulgaria and raised in Germany, pursuing a successful career in finance before launching the cryptocurrency OneCoin in 2014. Ms Ignatova convinced millions of people around the world to invest in OneCoin, promising to eclipse the kind of huge returns seen by early Bitcoin investors.

But in reality, Ms Ignatova - known to many as Dr Ruja - had created a cleverly-disguised investment fraud, without the digital record that underlies legitimate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

For the past year, BBC World Service’s Eye Investigations and Panorama have been trying to find out more about what happened to her, and whether she is even alive.

Key to this was establishing who her inner circle was.

Richard Reinhardt, who began the investigation into OneCoin for the US Internal Revenue Service alongside the FBI, told the BBC about a key character investigators have never publicly named before. ...

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only) or on BBC One at 20:00 on Monday 3 June (22:40 in Wales). Outside of the UK, watch on YouTube

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2llvlx2ez9o
Click to expand...

Fugitive: The Mystery of the Crypto Queen: A three episode Channel 4 documentary series about Ruja Ignatova and OneCoin. A few patsys have gone to prison outside of bulgaria, one for 20 years but the Queen is still on the run (or dead). It deals with the con in depth.There were some internal whistleblowers as well as online scambusters, they all suffered harassment, death threats and were stalked. It proved impossible to get any authorities to take the scale of the scam seriously. A variety of victims are interviewed including two from Kenya, one sold his goats to invest and then persuaded his uncle to sell his land. Bulgaria has a different attitude towards law and order, OneCoin still exists now under a different name, some of the same people are working for it, still selling the scam cybercoin. They have brass necks, one of them was even interviewed. Ruja Ignatova may have been a front for others, likely Mafia figures, this is teased out. 8/10.

Streaming at: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/fugitive-the-mystery-of-the-crypto-queen
 
A new article by my favorite cryptocurrency cynic:

https://substack.com/@cryptadamus/p-147604371

The Cryptocalypse Chronicles
Of Tech Bros And Trumpers
The reason so many Silicon Valley billionaires suddenly decided to back Donald Trump is not the mystery the media is making it out to be.

Michel de Cryptadamus
Aug 14, 2024

Most of the obscenely wealthy and obnoxiously loud tech bros you see turning up to Trump’s beat have enormous financial stakes in companies whose business activities include either participating in or indirectly enabling things that the laws of the United States currently forbid5. Things like laundering money for fentanyl dealers, helping Vladimir Putin evade sanctions, running telehealth pill mills for controlled substances, and ensuring North Korea has continual access to sufficient capital for its nuclear weapons program, all set against a backdrop of alleged securities fraud and good old fashioned embezzlement on a scale the world hasn’t seen since 1928.

What is motivating all the sudden Bro On The Road To Mar-A-Lago conversions to Trumpism is simple: the Biden administration6 has, through its various enforcement arms, recently been on an absolute tear of charging most if not all of these companies with various forms of fraud7 which in the minds of the bros has amounted to a level of unjust persecution not seen since the Romans fed Christians to lions just for the entertainment value. (The bros even have a sinister name for the conspiracy they see at work: “Operation Chokepoint 2.0”.)
 
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