4 ms·

This has nothing to do with crypto, it has to do with people sending their money to a con man. If your friend had "his identity tied up in crypto", then why was

by woah 4y ago

This has nothing to do with crypto, it has to do with people sending their money to a con man. If your friend had "his identity tied up in crypto", then why wasn't he holding it himself?

Bilal_io 4y ago
Yup. Not your wallet, not your money.
- anonporridge 4y ago
  "Not your keys, not your bitcoin." Some of use have been yelling this from the rooftops for years, but apparently some people simply must learn the hard way.
  - itake 4y ago
    I’m happy I stored my Terra on Kucoin so I could have an easy exit. During the crash it took hours for Kucoin to confirm UST deposits. I’ve also lost money in mtGox.
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
> If your friend had "his identity tied up in crypto", then why wasn't he holding it himself? Some people love day trading crypto. They keep funds on exchanges so they can trade immediately and not deal with constant back and forth transactions with their own wallet.
- kypro 4y ago
  Yes, this is exactly the point that needs to be made. A few weeks ago I think it was quite easy to argue that it was riskier not to have it on an exchange because when it's not on an exchange you can't convert it back into USD when significant market moving events take place. But more importantly a lot of these people chose to keep their crypto with FTX specifically because it was seen as the safest pair of hands. If investors like Paul Tudor Jones are "stupid" enough to fall for this "scam", then I think we should probably have a bit of compassion for the average Joe who's lost money here. My heart genuinely goes out to everyone impacted by this.
  - stoplying1 4y ago
    Uhm, yeah, people made the wrong bet because they fell for another hyped up tech company. But let's put a fine point on it -- that specifically fell in with a rent-seeking company capitalizing on a decentralizaed space with a centralized platform and then surprise-pikachu'd when they did the same thing as every one before them. > because when it's not on an exchange you can't convert it back into USD when significant market moving events take place. Weew, well, idk, if y'all know this, and I'll take the karma hit, but the rest of us that know better than to day trade mostly roll their eyes at this ... crap. And if you WERE "day trading" and didn't manage to pull out, well, maybe day trading isn't in your cards. Go watch YT for a few hours and I'm sure youll be on to your next get rich scheme.
    - jbm 4y ago
      > Go watch YT for a few hours and I'm sure youll be on to your next get rich scheme. I laughed, hard. Bravo to you. To be charitable, some people may only be able to afford a normal lifestyle though a successful "get-rich quick" scheme. Think insane markets like Toronto and Vancouver that are flooded with laundered money; how are you going to make enough money for a home without making a YOLO-style bet on something you don't understand (but is portrayed to work for rich people)? I think far less people would be taken by these scams if their basic needs were more easily paid for. (Disclaimer: I own zero Crypto, have never owned any Crypto)
      - stoplying1 4y ago
        Oh, oh dear. Um, that was sarcasm. I clearly don't think people should be looking for get rich schemes, on yt or otherwise. It was aimed at the people that think day trading, lottery tickets, or otherwise longshots are a logical response to a hostile market. Its hard to think of any scam that isn't portrayed as "working out (for the (would be) rich)". Again, a good reason to be wary of such things. I'm totally in favor of helping struggling folks, taking care of basic needs, etc (though I'm not sure laundered money is the culprit I'd offer). But lord maybe some reasoning skills would also do some wonders. Also, Christ, it pains me how often I think "if only I could sleep with myself stealing money from fools". Because I do know you're right, that's the psychology of why get rich schemes work...
- doorman2 4y ago
  I'm not too involved with the crypto space, but why have a centralized exchange at all? Like why can't the exchange setup a transaction directly between me and the counterparty that we both sign?
  - ricochet11 4y ago
    we have lots of decentralized exchanges: uniswap, paraswap, dydx, loopring, etc.... not sure why more people dont use them, perhaps fooled by the convenience/ marketing/ promotional lures of CEXs.
    - seaal 4y ago
      Fees are generally much lower when trading on a CEX, especially with small amounts.
      - doorman2 4y ago
        I guess that makes sense given that the CEX can simply update values in their own (non-blockchain) database. This highlights that blockchain tech isn't really ready for prime-time use, yet. If the cost / tx could be brought down significantly, then there would be no need for a CEX.
  - EamonnMR 4y ago
    Because economies of scale win. Centralizers can consume all available oxygen first, it doesn't matter that they can then go belly up.
datalopers 4y ago
> nothing to do with crypto, it has to do with people sending their money to a con man You've just described 99% of crypto though.
nfw2 4y ago
Crypto is like the wild west by design. Chaos enables con men. They aren't unrelated
harambae 4y ago
> why wasn't he holding it himself? Here's how my story played out -- maybe there are a million stories like me I'm not sure. Bought Monero on Voyager (because my electricity costs are high where I live and I didn't want to mine it). Planned to immediately transfer it out from Voyager to my offline wallet. Saw that Voyager "didn't yet support transferring out" for that cryptocurrency but would soon. Cool, I'll just wait. A month or so later, Voyager goes under and I'll probably get nothing or pennies on the dollar. Genuinely curious, what was the right course of action to buy Monero in a low-overhead, safe way?

by woah 4y ago

This has nothing to do with crypto, it has to do with people sending their money to a con man. If your friend had "his identity tied up in crypto", then why wasn't he holding it himself?

Bilal_io 4y ago

Yup. Not your wallet, not your money.

anonporridge 4y ago
"Not your keys, not your bitcoin." Some of use have been yelling this from the rooftops for years, but apparently some people simply must learn the hard way.
- itake 4y ago
  I’m happy I stored my Terra on Kucoin so I could have an easy exit. During the crash it took hours for Kucoin to confirm UST deposits. I’ve also lost money in mtGox.

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

> If your friend had "his identity tied up in crypto", then why wasn't he holding it himself? Some people love day trading crypto. They keep funds on exchanges so they can trade immediately and not deal with constant back and forth transactions with their own wallet.

kypro 4y ago
Yes, this is exactly the point that needs to be made. A few weeks ago I think it was quite easy to argue that it was riskier not to have it on an exchange because when it's not on an exchange you can't convert it back into USD when significant market moving events take place. But more importantly a lot of these people chose to keep their crypto with FTX specifically because it was seen as the safest pair of hands. If investors like Paul Tudor Jones are "stupid" enough to fall for this "scam", then I think we should probably have a bit of compassion for the average Joe who's lost money here. My heart genuinely goes out to everyone impacted by this.
- stoplying1 4y ago
  Uhm, yeah, people made the wrong bet because they fell for another hyped up tech company. But let's put a fine point on it -- that specifically fell in with a rent-seeking company capitalizing on a decentralizaed space with a centralized platform and then surprise-pikachu'd when they did the same thing as every one before them. > because when it's not on an exchange you can't convert it back into USD when significant market moving events take place. Weew, well, idk, if y'all know this, and I'll take the karma hit, but the rest of us that know better than to day trade mostly roll their eyes at this ... crap. And if you WERE "day trading" and didn't manage to pull out, well, maybe day trading isn't in your cards. Go watch YT for a few hours and I'm sure youll be on to your next get rich scheme.
  - jbm 4y ago
    > Go watch YT for a few hours and I'm sure youll be on to your next get rich scheme. I laughed, hard. Bravo to you. To be charitable, some people may only be able to afford a normal lifestyle though a successful "get-rich quick" scheme. Think insane markets like Toronto and Vancouver that are flooded with laundered money; how are you going to make enough money for a home without making a YOLO-style bet on something you don't understand (but is portrayed to work for rich people)? I think far less people would be taken by these scams if their basic needs were more easily paid for. (Disclaimer: I own zero Crypto, have never owned any Crypto)
    - stoplying1 4y ago
      Oh, oh dear. Um, that was sarcasm. I clearly don't think people should be looking for get rich schemes, on yt or otherwise. It was aimed at the people that think day trading, lottery tickets, or otherwise longshots are a logical response to a hostile market. Its hard to think of any scam that isn't portrayed as "working out (for the (would be) rich)". Again, a good reason to be wary of such things. I'm totally in favor of helping struggling folks, taking care of basic needs, etc (though I'm not sure laundered money is the culprit I'd offer). But lord maybe some reasoning skills would also do some wonders. Also, Christ, it pains me how often I think "if only I could sleep with myself stealing money from fools". Because I do know you're right, that's the psychology of why get rich schemes work...
doorman2 4y ago
I'm not too involved with the crypto space, but why have a centralized exchange at all? Like why can't the exchange setup a transaction directly between me and the counterparty that we both sign?
- ricochet11 4y ago
  we have lots of decentralized exchanges: uniswap, paraswap, dydx, loopring, etc.... not sure why more people dont use them, perhaps fooled by the convenience/ marketing/ promotional lures of CEXs.
  - seaal 4y ago
    Fees are generally much lower when trading on a CEX, especially with small amounts.
    - doorman2 4y ago
      I guess that makes sense given that the CEX can simply update values in their own (non-blockchain) database. This highlights that blockchain tech isn't really ready for prime-time use, yet. If the cost / tx could be brought down significantly, then there would be no need for a CEX.
- EamonnMR 4y ago
  Because economies of scale win. Centralizers can consume all available oxygen first, it doesn't matter that they can then go belly up.

datalopers 4y ago

> nothing to do with crypto, it has to do with people sending their money to a con man You've just described 99% of crypto though.

nfw2 4y ago

Crypto is like the wild west by design. Chaos enables con men. They aren't unrelated

harambae 4y ago

> why wasn't he holding it himself? Here's how my story played out -- maybe there are a million stories like me I'm not sure. Bought Monero on Voyager (because my electricity costs are high where I live and I didn't want to mine it). Planned to immediately transfer it out from Voyager to my offline wallet. Saw that Voyager "didn't yet support transferring out" for that cryptocurrency but would soon. Cool, I'll just wait. A month or so later, Voyager goes under and I'll probably get nothing or pennies on the dollar. Genuinely curious, what was the right course of action to buy Monero in a low-overhead, safe way?