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If you believe their figures, given their history of outright lies, and the fact that even the crypto-friendly auditing companies are dropping crypto company cl

by Nursie 4y ago

If you believe their figures, given their history of outright lies, and the fact that even the crypto-friendly auditing companies are dropping crypto company clients left right and centre (including BDO, who apparently signed off on this stuff, who are "evaluating" their services to the crypto economy - https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-news-today-12-16-2022/card/accounting-firm-bdo-evaluating-crypto-work-D2AdU122tCqCmnqjXSd1 https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-news-today-12-...)

charcircuit 4y ago
>given their history of outright lies Such as? >and the fact that even the crypto-friendly auditing companies are dropping crypto company clients left right and centre This has to do with the auditing companies being risk adverse as regulatory pressure around crypto increases. It doesn't mean that the reports they made were fraudulent.
- Nursie 4y ago
  > Such as? For years their website claimed that the company was regularly audited, when they hadn't (still haven't AFAICT) undergone a single audit. > This has to do with the auditing companies being risk adverse as regulatory pressure around crypto increases. In at least some cases I think it has more to do with concerns over how the reports they were producing were being used by their clients - "Mazars Group said in a statement to CNBC that it had “paused its activity relating to the provision of Proof of Reserves Reports for entities in the cryptocurrency sector due to concerns regarding the way these reports are understood by the public.” “They do not constitute either an assurance or an audit opinion on subject matter. Instead they report limited findings based on the agreed procedures performed on the subject matter at a historical point in time,” https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/16/mazars-suspends-all-work-with-crypto-clients-including-binance-cryptocom.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/16/mazars-suspends-all-work-wit...
  - charcircuit 4y ago
    >For years their website claimed that the company was regularly audited, when they hadn't (still haven't AFAICT) undergone a single audit. Have you considered they may have audited it themselves? Just because there wasn't an audit published by an external auditer that doesn't mean no one has ever audited their accounts.
    - Nursie 4y ago
      That’s not the claim they were making and is not the common understanding of what an audit is. I would consider this every bit as bad. “We marked our own homework! And guess what? It was great!” The whole concept is ludicrous.
      - charcircuit 4y ago
        The claim I found was "Our reserves are regularly audited." Internal audits still have value as it means that someone can't steakily steal money from the reserves without them noticing.
        Nursie 4y ago
        Internal audits have no value for the outside world, so we have lies or weaselry, neither is a good look. Further, they paid $41 million to settle a case over their lies - https://fortune.com/2021/10/15/tether-crypto-stablecoin-fined-reserves/ https://fortune.com/2021/10/15/tether-crypto-stablecoin-fine... I don't think it's a stretch at this point to say they have a history of, at the very least, being highly economical with the truth and misrepresenting their own level of transparency. And I do think your argument is unreasonable. Take a look back to 2017 on the wayback machine - "Every tether is always backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in our reserves. So 1 USD₮ is always equivalent to 1 USD." "Our reserve holdings are published daily and subject to frequent professional audits." We know that neither of those things was true.

by Nursie 4y ago

charcircuit 4y ago

>given their history of outright lies Such as? >and the fact that even the crypto-friendly auditing companies are dropping crypto company clients left right and centre This has to do with the auditing companies being risk adverse as regulatory pressure around crypto increases. It doesn't mean that the reports they made were fraudulent.

Nursie 4y ago
> Such as? For years their website claimed that the company was regularly audited, when they hadn't (still haven't AFAICT) undergone a single audit. > This has to do with the auditing companies being risk adverse as regulatory pressure around crypto increases. In at least some cases I think it has more to do with concerns over how the reports they were producing were being used by their clients - "Mazars Group said in a statement to CNBC that it had “paused its activity relating to the provision of Proof of Reserves Reports for entities in the cryptocurrency sector due to concerns regarding the way these reports are understood by the public.” “They do not constitute either an assurance or an audit opinion on subject matter. Instead they report limited findings based on the agreed procedures performed on the subject matter at a historical point in time,” https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/16/mazars-suspends-all-work-with-crypto-clients-including-binance-cryptocom.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/16/mazars-suspends-all-work-wit...
- charcircuit 4y ago
  >For years their website claimed that the company was regularly audited, when they hadn't (still haven't AFAICT) undergone a single audit. Have you considered they may have audited it themselves? Just because there wasn't an audit published by an external auditer that doesn't mean no one has ever audited their accounts.
  - Nursie 4y ago
    That’s not the claim they were making and is not the common understanding of what an audit is. I would consider this every bit as bad. “We marked our own homework! And guess what? It was great!” The whole concept is ludicrous.
    - charcircuit 4y ago
      The claim I found was "Our reserves are regularly audited." Internal audits still have value as it means that someone can't steakily steal money from the reserves without them noticing.
      - Nursie 4y ago
        Internal audits have no value for the outside world, so we have lies or weaselry, neither is a good look. Further, they paid $41 million to settle a case over their lies - https://fortune.com/2021/10/15/tether-crypto-stablecoin-fined-reserves/ https://fortune.com/2021/10/15/tether-crypto-stablecoin-fine... I don't think it's a stretch at this point to say they have a history of, at the very least, being highly economical with the truth and misrepresenting their own level of transparency. And I do think your argument is unreasonable. Take a look back to 2017 on the wayback machine - "Every tether is always backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in our reserves. So 1 USD₮ is always equivalent to 1 USD." "Our reserve holdings are published daily and subject to frequent professional audits." We know that neither of those things was true.