COINBASE for Crypto has come

[wild greens]

People get jacked every day

Mt Gox was 400m or do, Poly was 600 "allegedly" (that one stinks to me), the market exit scams must be in the millions, probably dozens more

All in the game player

 

[Clinamenic]

I lost $20 worth of ETH a couple weeks ago, cause I gave some protocol unlimited permissions (which turns out to be a very subtle mistake). I'm still not sure how it works, but I've switched some security things around nonetheless.

 

[Clinamenic]

I'm glad the PoW blockchains are getting singled out here, rather than people just generalizing the problem unto all blockchains.

EU Regulator Calls for Ban on Proof-of-Work Mining Used by Bitcoin, Ethereum - Decrypt

The vice-chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority has called for a ban on proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining.

decrypt.co

 

[wild greens]

I haven't really gone into this defi world as deep as you probably can/have but anything automated will have someone looking at it as a scam or entry point most likely, i know i would be looking for semi-open pathways if i was on the graft

 

[Clinamenic]

I haven't really gone into this defi world as deep as you probably can/have but anything automated will have someone looking at it as a scam or entry point most likely, i know i would be looking for semi-open pathways if i was on the graft

Yeah the term people are using for risk management here is "smart contract risk" which applies even (perhaps especially?) if the protocol is open source.

But the really decentralized protocols are fascinating because anyone can build user interfaces, and potentially slip in their own smart contracts. You can always check on the blockchain explorers to see what exact contracts you interact with, but most people probably wouldn't do this.

Right now I'm using three DeFi protocols, one on Ethereum and two on Stacks, and I haven't had any problems (aside from that mysterious $20 loss, which I presume was from one of the several other sites I connected to without depositing any assets).

But there are also some tools, like revoke.cash, that display which protocols you've granted unlimited permissions to, so you can disconnect from those sites.

 

[Clinamenic]

But already the major VCs have claimed major stakes of the governance tokens of various rising DeFi protocols and DAOs. Some guy I just spoke with, who is a forensic blockchain accounting wizard, was able to walk me through how to track investments by Peter Thiel and the like, who has a major stake in BitDAO and various other projects.

 

[Clinamenic]

Some of these protocols seem like they could kick the elite financial shenanigans into hyperdrive. Atomic transactions with tokenized over-leveraged positions? I have no idea how stuff like this could be regulated.

 

[wild greens]

Some of these structures just end up seeming like a stock market mmorpg to me

I only dip in and out for the sleaze & cons really so i am probably biased but to a lot of it sounds like setting up a wallet to a hooky paypal direct debit connection

Don't trust it

 

[wild greens]

I know conceptually it all has thousands of uses and thousands of clever bastards working hard & all that; im not im not saying its pointless

But its a long way off the upheaval some may eulogise and rush headfirst into

I see Gareth southgate has got his lawyers on a chinese scam that is trying to use his likeness

 

[Clinamenic]

Some of these structures just end up seeming like a stock market mmorpg to me

I only dip in and out for the sleaze & cons really so i am probably biased but to a lot of it sounds like setting up a wallet to a hooky paypal direct debit connection

Don't trust it

Yeah and even if the project happens to be legitimate, theres also the question of the actual liquidity of these assets. Like people with big bags couldn't sell all of it without crashing the market, in some cases. So this leads to a widespread illusion that the market is actually bigger than it is.

 

[Clinamenic]

But all the common scams become obvious quickly enough. You've probably heard of the one where someone promises to send you 2X if you send them X, and plenty of people fall for it. Someone apparently just lost around 20 BTC to this scam.

 

[yyaldrin]

it's so mad the way your brain gets poisoned the moment you own assets such as stocks or cryptos. i'm totally obsessed with it and it's making me so ugly, the other day i was reading about russia vs ukraine and instead of thinking: fuck wars and fuck borders and fuck russia and fuck the usa and let's overthrow all of the powers that oppress us, brothers and sisters, hand in hand, raise up and kill every scumbag out there, start the revolution! instead of all that, i was thinking, hmm maybe i should consolidate my crypto positions and momentarily put them into something less volatile because once russia invades ukraine this will crash the financial market.

 

[luka]

yeah thats exactly what i noticed in australia where everyone invests. they then feel they have a stake in the system

 

[luka]

it's absolutely a corrupting influence and you should get out of it immediately. its ok for lizards with no conscience but not for senstivie artists like yourself. you don't need the money. you're doing fine as it is

 

[yyaldrin]

yes every world event just becomes a little variable of the game that you are playing, and detaches you further from the effects those events have on humans. another example this week was inflation rising, i wasn't thinking about my dearest friends that live in poverty and what it means for them when a bread becomes more expensive, or their energy bill, i was thinking hmm what will this mean on the long term for my investment. it's mad how fast it corrupts you. i'm also convinced it will physically alter you.

 

[luka]

get out before it's too late

 

[wektor]

it's absolutely a corrupting influence and you should get out of it immediately. its ok for lizards with no conscience but not for senstivie artists like yourself. you don't need the money. you're doing fine as it is

my thoughts on working a lot since recently

 

[Clinamenic]

yes every world event just becomes a little variable of the game that you are playing, and detaches you further from the effects those events have on humans. another example this week was inflation rising, i wasn't thinking about my dearest friends that live in poverty and what it means for them when a bread becomes more expensive, or their energy bill, i was thinking hmm what will this mean on the long term for my investment. it's mad how fast it corrupts you. i'm also convinced it will physically alter you.

Yeah and it'll be interesting to watch this trend (or look back on how this trend has already developed) in terms of how investment opportunities have opened up for more and more sub-elite people, the threshold moving down through upper-middle class and now into the middle class, with things like commissionless investing and crypto.

What will this mean, if eventually the majority of the middle class has a non-trivial stake in the system, financially?

 

[Clinamenic]

And don't let @luka fool you, for he's actually a pioneering retail investor at the cutting edge of web3.

 

[Clinamenic]

Yeah and it'll be interesting to watch this trend (or look back on how this trend has already developed) in terms of how investment opportunities have opened up for more and more sub-elite people, the threshold moving down through upper-middle class and now into the middle class, with things like commissionless investing and crypto.

What will this mean, if eventually the majority of the middle class has a non-trivial stake in the system, financially?

Right now the major barrier, or gatekeeping mechanism, is the requirement of a bank account. The big crypto exchanges require you to have a bank account, which almost prevents the unbanked/underbanked from getting exposure to the market.

There are still onramps that don't require a bank account, but these are less established and there is more room for scams and defrauding, presumably. If the crypto ATMs take cash, that would be a major step toward letting unbanked people get exposure to these markets.

Even having a couple hundred dollars in a well-researched portfolio can make a difference here, especially considering that all the research material is free online.