4 ms·

> EU In 2013 the government of Cyprus decided to seize money directly from people's bank accounts. I would not call that stable. https://www.theatlantic.com/b

by ls15 4y ago

> EU In 2013 the government of Cyprus decided to seize money directly from people's bank accounts. I would not call that stable. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-cyprus-bank-disaster/274096/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/everyth... > China In 2022, when some Chinese banks decided to freeze depositors accounts for shady reasons and debitors planned to protest the issue, authorities used Covid codes to block them from accessing the banks. That also does not seem stable to me. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-bank-protest-stopped-by-health-codes-turning-red-depositors-say-2022-06-14/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-bank-protest-stopp...

oblio 4y ago
If a government decides you'll get a haircut, you'll get one, even if they have to take out the sheep shears to do it.
- ls15 4y ago
  The Cypriots who preferred to store their cash in their pillow did not get the haircut though.
  - oblio 4y ago
    That opens you up to the "gun and bag" risk, though.
    - ls15 4y ago
      Who wouldn't empty their regulated bank account in order to get their kidnapped firstborn released?
WinstonSmith84 4y ago
You forgot the truckers in Canada last year
- cocoland2 4y ago
  The government has the ultimate say!, what happens if they order all ISP's to stop traffic to BTC trading sites (or even shutdown internet if it wills) Solutions like the great firewall exists that constantly "learn" and will lock you out immaterial if the government decides so.So the argument that BTC / Crypto will take me to the moon (SafeMoon) is wishful thinking
  - ls15 4y ago
    If your government decides to kill the internet, I think that's a very good reason to try to emigrate. The fact that China is doing it, may make them look powerful, but it also makes them look tyrannical.
    - NBJack 4y ago
      Emigration is a serious and non-trivial matter. Do you have any idea on how expensive, and in many cases risky, it is? https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/08/investing/china-eb5-visa-trend/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/08/investing/china-eb5-visa-tr... https://www.propublica.org/article/operation-fox-hunt-how-china-exports-repression-using-a-network-of-spies-hidden-in-plain-sight https://www.propublica.org/article/operation-fox-hunt-how-ch... https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-uighur/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-ui...
tsimionescu 4y ago
You're speaking as if the second largest crypto exchange hasn't just collapsed, and had turned out to be stealing all of its customers' money.
- ls15 4y ago
  That's not the point. Everyone knows that crypto is full of scams and everyone tells you that you are supposed to hold your own keys instead of leaving coins on an exchange. Almost nobody tells you that keeping coins on an exchange is good practice.
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    And yet, there are many times over more people using exchanges than holding their own wallets. I don't really care about crypto-in-principle, when crypto-in-practice is anything but safe.
  - comte7092 4y ago
    The average person has no idea what you’re talking about when you say you have to hold your own keys, and would be absolutely screwed if/when they lost them. Getting locked out of your own crypto wallet is a much more significant threat than government seizure for 99% of the global population.
- WinstonSmith84 4y ago
  You're speaking as if gambling with other people's money was something new https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=1430 https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=...
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    That's quite different, and virtually no one lost their money in that it was simply stolen by the owners of an accredited brokerage/exchange/bank, like what happened to FTX. And FTX wasn't simply gambling with other's money, they were defrauding their customers (to whom they claimed they are holding all of their money in custody) and also directly embezzling this money for their own gain (houses, publicity, illegal political investments).

by ls15 4y ago

oblio 4y ago

If a government decides you'll get a haircut, you'll get one, even if they have to take out the sheep shears to do it.

ls15 4y ago
The Cypriots who preferred to store their cash in their pillow did not get the haircut though.
- oblio 4y ago
  That opens you up to the "gun and bag" risk, though.
  - ls15 4y ago
    Who wouldn't empty their regulated bank account in order to get their kidnapped firstborn released?

WinstonSmith84 4y ago

You forgot the truckers in Canada last year

cocoland2 4y ago
The government has the ultimate say!, what happens if they order all ISP's to stop traffic to BTC trading sites (or even shutdown internet if it wills) Solutions like the great firewall exists that constantly "learn" and will lock you out immaterial if the government decides so.So the argument that BTC / Crypto will take me to the moon (SafeMoon) is wishful thinking
- ls15 4y ago
  If your government decides to kill the internet, I think that's a very good reason to try to emigrate. The fact that China is doing it, may make them look powerful, but it also makes them look tyrannical.
  - NBJack 4y ago
    Emigration is a serious and non-trivial matter. Do you have any idea on how expensive, and in many cases risky, it is? https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/08/investing/china-eb5-visa-trend/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/08/investing/china-eb5-visa-tr... https://www.propublica.org/article/operation-fox-hunt-how-china-exports-repression-using-a-network-of-spies-hidden-in-plain-sight https://www.propublica.org/article/operation-fox-hunt-how-ch... https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-uighur/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-ui...

tsimionescu 4y ago

You're speaking as if the second largest crypto exchange hasn't just collapsed, and had turned out to be stealing all of its customers' money.

ls15 4y ago
That's not the point. Everyone knows that crypto is full of scams and everyone tells you that you are supposed to hold your own keys instead of leaving coins on an exchange. Almost nobody tells you that keeping coins on an exchange is good practice.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  And yet, there are many times over more people using exchanges than holding their own wallets. I don't really care about crypto-in-principle, when crypto-in-practice is anything but safe.
- comte7092 4y ago
  The average person has no idea what you’re talking about when you say you have to hold your own keys, and would be absolutely screwed if/when they lost them. Getting locked out of your own crypto wallet is a much more significant threat than government seizure for 99% of the global population.
WinstonSmith84 4y ago
You're speaking as if gambling with other people's money was something new https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=1430 https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=...
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  That's quite different, and virtually no one lost their money in that it was simply stolen by the owners of an accredited brokerage/exchange/bank, like what happened to FTX. And FTX wasn't simply gambling with other's money, they were defrauding their customers (to whom they claimed they are holding all of their money in custody) and also directly embezzling this money for their own gain (houses, publicity, illegal political investments).