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Poly Network has asked digital asset exchanges and miners to block any tokens coming from the above addresses [...] Tether froze more than $30 million in respon

Poly Network has asked digital asset exchanges and miners to block any tokens coming from the above addresses [...] Tether froze more than $30 million in response to the hack Decentralized finance at its best - so decentralized that individuals and centralized companies can decide to block transactions by themselves.

PretzelPirate 5y ago
Decentralization doesn’t mean everything is decentralized, it’s a range of decentralization from fully decentralized to fully centralized. You can use DeFi without ever touching centrally-controlled assets like USDC or Tether. The key thing is that you get that choice.
- m3kw9 5y ago
  All I’m seeing is “decentralized” figures making some very centralized moves when they see fit.
  - zionic 5y ago
    Tether is famously centralized, you’re attacking a straw man.
    - valzam 5y ago
      And I think you arefalling for the "true scotsman" fallacy. Tether backs 70%+ of daily BTC trading volumne, saying criticism against Tether is invalid because Tether isn't real crypto is a cop-out given how important it is in the ecosystem.
      - phatfish 5y ago
        Bitcoin (and therefore the whole crypto space) should be valued in Tether-Dollars not USD. I wonder how much Tether-Dollars are really worth...
      - miracle2k 5y ago
        They are not saying criticism against Tether is invalid, merely that you cannot criticize Tether and call it a "DeFi" critique. At the end of the day, centralized assets on Ethereum are as legitimate as decentralized ones. The whole point of Ethereum is that it permissionless. If we celebrate Iranians or 16 year olds being able to build on top of it then certainly Goldman Sachs may do so as well.
sp332 5y ago
Decentralization means that each party gets to decide what assets and transactions they view as legitimate.
sittingplant 5y ago
Miners have always been free to implement whatever logic they like, though. If you send out a mass communication saying "Address 0x12345 belongs to a very mean guy" and every miner out there denies service to that address, the decentralization properties of your system haven't been violated anywhere.
- wmf 5y ago
  Decentralization usually includes the assumption that parties are acting independently and are not all colluding. [Edit: Following the incentives of the protocol is not collusion. In a crypto context I would define collusion as something like multiple parties working together against their own incentives (e.g. rejecting valid, fee-paying transactions).]
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - cle 5y ago
    If nodes in a network are fully independent and not cooperating, then you don't have a network, you have a bunch of disconnected nodes.
    - codehalo 5y ago
      Is cooperating the same as colluding?
      - cle 5y ago
        In the sense the parent used it, yes. If a majority of banks and businesses agree to block transactions of a known terrorist, is it collusion or cooperation? I don't see a meaningful distinction at that point, other than the negative connotation of "collusion" poisoning the well. Which is why I referred to "cooperation" instead.
        loldk 5y ago
gruez 5y ago
$30M far too small for a hardfork. You need something like DAO too be "too big to fail".
paulpauper 5y ago
The miners will not block as it would destroy the credibility of eth itself. It would probably hard fork if such a thing were attempted. So dumb for them to even suggest it
xur17 5y ago
They can only block if you are moving around centralized assets, which really isn't that shocking to anyone. There is a reason the hacker quickly tried to convert it to ETH, etc.

PretzelPirate 5y ago

Decentralization doesn’t mean everything is decentralized, it’s a range of decentralization from fully decentralized to fully centralized. You can use DeFi without ever touching centrally-controlled assets like USDC or Tether. The key thing is that you get that choice.

m3kw9 5y ago
All I’m seeing is “decentralized” figures making some very centralized moves when they see fit.
- zionic 5y ago
  Tether is famously centralized, you’re attacking a straw man.
  - valzam 5y ago
    And I think you arefalling for the "true scotsman" fallacy. Tether backs 70%+ of daily BTC trading volumne, saying criticism against Tether is invalid because Tether isn't real crypto is a cop-out given how important it is in the ecosystem.
    - phatfish 5y ago
      Bitcoin (and therefore the whole crypto space) should be valued in Tether-Dollars not USD. I wonder how much Tether-Dollars are really worth...
    - miracle2k 5y ago
      They are not saying criticism against Tether is invalid, merely that you cannot criticize Tether and call it a "DeFi" critique. At the end of the day, centralized assets on Ethereum are as legitimate as decentralized ones. The whole point of Ethereum is that it permissionless. If we celebrate Iranians or 16 year olds being able to build on top of it then certainly Goldman Sachs may do so as well.

sp332 5y ago

Decentralization means that each party gets to decide what assets and transactions they view as legitimate.

sittingplant 5y ago

Miners have always been free to implement whatever logic they like, though. If you send out a mass communication saying "Address 0x12345 belongs to a very mean guy" and every miner out there denies service to that address, the decentralization properties of your system haven't been violated anywhere.

wmf 5y ago
Decentralization usually includes the assumption that parties are acting independently and are not all colluding. [Edit: Following the incentives of the protocol is not collusion. In a crypto context I would define collusion as something like multiple parties working together against their own incentives (e.g. rejecting valid, fee-paying transactions).]
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- cle 5y ago
  If nodes in a network are fully independent and not cooperating, then you don't have a network, you have a bunch of disconnected nodes.
  - codehalo 5y ago
    Is cooperating the same as colluding?
    - cle 5y ago
      In the sense the parent used it, yes. If a majority of banks and businesses agree to block transactions of a known terrorist, is it collusion or cooperation? I don't see a meaningful distinction at that point, other than the negative connotation of "collusion" poisoning the well. Which is why I referred to "cooperation" instead.
      - loldk 5y ago

gruez 5y ago

$30M far too small for a hardfork. You need something like DAO too be "too big to fail".

paulpauper 5y ago

The miners will not block as it would destroy the credibility of eth itself. It would probably hard fork if such a thing were attempted. So dumb for them to even suggest it

xur17 5y ago

They can only block if you are moving around centralized assets, which really isn't that shocking to anyone. There is a reason the hacker quickly tried to convert it to ETH, etc.