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The utility, to me, seems to be creating a global financial market that is truly trustless and permissionless, aka no gatekeepers. Right now, if I want to buy

The utility, to me, seems to be creating a global financial market that is truly trustless and permissionless, aka no gatekeepers. Right now, if I want to buy American stocks, I have to go through the handful of brokers licensed to sell foreign stocks in my country. I have to meet their funding requirements and I have to pay their hefty fees, not to mention meet their kyc requirements. This effectively makes it inaccessible to small players who might not meet the minimum requirements and/or pay the fees. With crypto, I can buy wrapped synthetic versions of the stocks without going through any third party. The only fees I pay are transaction fees.

danlugo92 5y ago
Where can I find synthetic stocks aside from Binance?
- leppr 5y ago
  The Ethereum dApp Synthetix has a "DeFi" version of those. It's extremely inefficient and relies on centralized Chainlink oracles but it's permissionless and the assets keep their pegs. The Korean project Luna has I believe a similar system although it's even more of a decentralization theater.
hakfoo 5y ago
I'm sort of intrigued on this 'synthetic stocks' thing. What exactly are you buying there? In the US, we have 'ADR" (American Depository Receipt) products for foreign companies. A company holds foreign shares, then issues ADRs which can (nominally) be exchanged 1:1 for them. That allows investors to get involved without the legal complexities of actually getting the shares in their name. They're a normal thing you buy through ordinary domestic brokerages.
- puranjay 5y ago
  You’re essentially buying a token that’s pegged to the price of a stock. You don’t have the same benefits as the actual stockholder, but you do get exposure to the price appreciation. I get it that its not the same thing, but if your intention is to profit from stockmarket speculation (like many investors), its a workaround, especially if your local market doesn’t have any brokerages that allow access to US equities to retail investors. Even in India, retail couldn’t easily buy US equities until two years ago. Imagine the situation for someone in a poor African country. There are no local brokerages that allow them to access US markets. They are effectively forced to invest in poorly regulated, low value local companies through heavily manipulated local stock markets. For such people, being able to buy some ETH and buy a liquid, synthetic version of AAPL is a gamechanger

danlugo92 5y ago

Where can I find synthetic stocks aside from Binance?

leppr 5y ago
The Ethereum dApp Synthetix has a "DeFi" version of those. It's extremely inefficient and relies on centralized Chainlink oracles but it's permissionless and the assets keep their pegs. The Korean project Luna has I believe a similar system although it's even more of a decentralization theater.

hakfoo 5y ago

I'm sort of intrigued on this 'synthetic stocks' thing. What exactly are you buying there? In the US, we have 'ADR" (American Depository Receipt) products for foreign companies. A company holds foreign shares, then issues ADRs which can (nominally) be exchanged 1:1 for them. That allows investors to get involved without the legal complexities of actually getting the shares in their name. They're a normal thing you buy through ordinary domestic brokerages.

puranjay 5y ago
You’re essentially buying a token that’s pegged to the price of a stock. You don’t have the same benefits as the actual stockholder, but you do get exposure to the price appreciation. I get it that its not the same thing, but if your intention is to profit from stockmarket speculation (like many investors), its a workaround, especially if your local market doesn’t have any brokerages that allow access to US equities to retail investors. Even in India, retail couldn’t easily buy US equities until two years ago. Imagine the situation for someone in a poor African country. There are no local brokerages that allow them to access US markets. They are effectively forced to invest in poorly regulated, low value local companies through heavily manipulated local stock markets. For such people, being able to buy some ETH and buy a liquid, synthetic version of AAPL is a gamechanger