4 ms·

I‘d rather put my trust in an open source community than in centralized banks.

sagichmal 7y ago
A fool and his money are soon parted :)
Nextgrid 7y ago
Just wondering, unless you’re doing something illegal or are targeted by the government and your money is at risk of seizure, why would you keep it in crypto with all its associated risks instead of in a bank? Banks are highly regulated and so can’t just run away with your money.
- hippich 7y ago
  Couple points: 1) If we are talking about central banks such as FED - non-QE QE happening right now in the USA could be good example of why one would not be want to be part of the game. 2) If we are talking about centralized banking as a group of banks operating under the rule of the government - similar question to yours could apply to the general cryptography - why you need it (unless you are a criminal) if the state protects your rights? We seen countless examples where it doesn't quite work like that. I really want you to consider that desire to not be forced to use the only one available medium of exchange does not mean someone wants to do something illegal (also, try to define illegal in the very general way, that would apply equally in the USA and in Venezuela, and in Russia, and in Somalia =))
  - jgalt212 7y ago
    > 1) If we are talking about central banks such as FED - non-QE QE happening right now in the USA could be good example of why one would not be want to be part of the game. Crypto doesn't get you away from this. Not to sound like a mediocre Ashton Kutcher film, but it's all connected. In short, too much fiat, cryto prices in terms of fiat will go up and the converse is true as well. The only way crypto wins or is THE place to put your money is if the entire world stops using fiat money.
    - hippich 7y ago
      Even more than that - crypto developers can decide they want to have more than 21m (or whatever fixed number) of coins out there changing the whole mechanic of it. But it is one fork away if majority disagree. Try to fork USD.
- ShorsHammer 7y ago
  > Banks are highly regulated and so can’t just run away with your money. It's not your money in a bank. The bank barely has $1 or two for every $100 you put in. There's plenty of people who have philosophic disagreement with fractional reserve and some who couldn't care less about ethical matters and just there preparing for the worst as good evolutionary diversity dictates they should. It's easy to sit in a country that hasn't ever suffered these things and think it's all silly, but there's plenty of people who don't have those luxuries. How do you think someone in Cyprus, Zimbabwe or Venezuela would feel about your statement saying to trust the banks? Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the world for a very long time. They still have enormous amounts of mineral wealth and yet people are buying their groceries with wheelbarrows full of money. I doubt crypto is the solution to these problems that are fundamentally burnt into modern economies now but make no mistake crypto was born out of these problems by a lone developer who virtually everyone ignored. It's easy to criticise until you've walked in those boots for a year suffering at the hands of central banksters.
  - tkmunzwa 7y ago
    > How do you think someone in Cyprus, Zimbabwe or Venezuela would feel about your statement saying to trust the banks? Someone from Zimbabwe here - I endorse their statement: trust the banks. I lost my money to a bank closure in early 00s, eventually got some of it back from the zombie entity that the central bank resuscitated. The CEO of a Zimbabwean crypto-exchange[1] "lost the password" of a cold wallet (wink) a year ago - the deposits therein were lost with no recourse; the exchange is struggling with solvency[2]. So yeah, if you're not going to stuff money under your mattress, give it to a bank before going full crypto. 1. Golix - you might have heard of it as it was offering the world's highest USD:bitcoin rates. The fine print was that you couldn't get USD out of Zimbabwe 2. https://cointelegraph.com/news/ceo-of-zimbabwean-crypto-exchange-loses-password-to-bitcoin-cold-wallet https://cointelegraph.com/news/ceo-of-zimbabwean-crypto-exch...
    - strbean 7y ago
      That is very unfortunate, you have my sympathy. But I think it has to be pointed out that leaving your money in a crypto-currency exchange is generally considered to be worse than leaving it in a bank, regardless of where you stand on cyptocurrency in general. Personally, I lost 3 bitcoin when someone hacked my MtGox account in 2012. I think they'd had 2fa for a little while at that point, but I was stupid and didn't enable it. Furthermore, I had reused my account/password on some fledgling bitcoin forum. In my defense, when I made the accounts I didn't think the valuation of bitcoin would peak around $20k :)

A fool and his money are soon parted :)

Just wondering, unless you’re doing something illegal or are targeted by the government and your money is at risk of seizure, why would you keep it in crypto with all its associated risks instead of in a bank? Banks are highly regulated and so can’t just run away with your money.

hippich 7y ago
Couple points: 1) If we are talking about central banks such as FED - non-QE QE happening right now in the USA could be good example of why one would not be want to be part of the game. 2) If we are talking about centralized banking as a group of banks operating under the rule of the government - similar question to yours could apply to the general cryptography - why you need it (unless you are a criminal) if the state protects your rights? We seen countless examples where it doesn't quite work like that. I really want you to consider that desire to not be forced to use the only one available medium of exchange does not mean someone wants to do something illegal (also, try to define illegal in the very general way, that would apply equally in the USA and in Venezuela, and in Russia, and in Somalia =))
- jgalt212 7y ago
  > 1) If we are talking about central banks such as FED - non-QE QE happening right now in the USA could be good example of why one would not be want to be part of the game. Crypto doesn't get you away from this. Not to sound like a mediocre Ashton Kutcher film, but it's all connected. In short, too much fiat, cryto prices in terms of fiat will go up and the converse is true as well. The only way crypto wins or is THE place to put your money is if the entire world stops using fiat money.
  - hippich 7y ago
    Even more than that - crypto developers can decide they want to have more than 21m (or whatever fixed number) of coins out there changing the whole mechanic of it. But it is one fork away if majority disagree. Try to fork USD.
ShorsHammer 7y ago
> Banks are highly regulated and so can’t just run away with your money. It's not your money in a bank. The bank barely has $1 or two for every $100 you put in. There's plenty of people who have philosophic disagreement with fractional reserve and some who couldn't care less about ethical matters and just there preparing for the worst as good evolutionary diversity dictates they should. It's easy to sit in a country that hasn't ever suffered these things and think it's all silly, but there's plenty of people who don't have those luxuries. How do you think someone in Cyprus, Zimbabwe or Venezuela would feel about your statement saying to trust the banks? Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the world for a very long time. They still have enormous amounts of mineral wealth and yet people are buying their groceries with wheelbarrows full of money. I doubt crypto is the solution to these problems that are fundamentally burnt into modern economies now but make no mistake crypto was born out of these problems by a lone developer who virtually everyone ignored. It's easy to criticise until you've walked in those boots for a year suffering at the hands of central banksters.
- tkmunzwa 7y ago
  > How do you think someone in Cyprus, Zimbabwe or Venezuela would feel about your statement saying to trust the banks? Someone from Zimbabwe here - I endorse their statement: trust the banks. I lost my money to a bank closure in early 00s, eventually got some of it back from the zombie entity that the central bank resuscitated. The CEO of a Zimbabwean crypto-exchange[1] "lost the password" of a cold wallet (wink) a year ago - the deposits therein were lost with no recourse; the exchange is struggling with solvency[2]. So yeah, if you're not going to stuff money under your mattress, give it to a bank before going full crypto. 1. Golix - you might have heard of it as it was offering the world's highest USD:bitcoin rates. The fine print was that you couldn't get USD out of Zimbabwe 2. https://cointelegraph.com/news/ceo-of-zimbabwean-crypto-exchange-loses-password-to-bitcoin-cold-wallet https://cointelegraph.com/news/ceo-of-zimbabwean-crypto-exch...
  - strbean 7y ago
    That is very unfortunate, you have my sympathy. But I think it has to be pointed out that leaving your money in a crypto-currency exchange is generally considered to be worse than leaving it in a bank, regardless of where you stand on cyptocurrency in general. Personally, I lost 3 bitcoin when someone hacked my MtGox account in 2012. I think they'd had 2fa for a little while at that point, but I was stupid and didn't enable it. Furthermore, I had reused my account/password on some fledgling bitcoin forum. In my defense, when I made the accounts I didn't think the valuation of bitcoin would peak around $20k :)