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Binance: Nigeria orders cryptocurrency firm to pay $10B
- webninja 3y agoYeah right. I order them and anyone else in the world that has money to pay me $10B too. /s What’s the difference between this and a Somali pirate or a Bonnie & Clyde attempt? Sophistication? Obfuscation? Complexity? I’m curious what the tiny group of apologists and stability-seekers lurking in the comments section will say to polish this turd & maintain the status-quo at all costs.
- viraptor 3y ago> What’s the difference between this and a Somali pirate or a Bonnie & Clyde attempt? Having legal control over local commercial activity and monetary policy. Ignoring whether someone thinks this is good or not, your comparison is silly.
- woleium 3y agoOne is a sovereign state, the other is a criminal?
- koolba 3y agoI was expecting a laugh about Nigerian scammers going after crypto scammers (the setup would be too good!), but looks like this is old fashioned money printing problems. From the article: > After he came into office last year, President Bola Tinubu scrapped the policy of pegging the naira to the dollar, allowing traders to buy and sell the currency at rates determined by the market. But special advisor Bayo Onanuga said the recent collapse was not the result of normal activity. > "All of a sudden the exchange rate went through the roof... and it was being caused by the people on Binance platform," he told the BBC Newsday programme. And later in the article: > To the frustration of Nigerian users, Binance and several other cryptocurrency firms have been suspended in the country in recent weeks including Coinbase, Kraken, Forextime, OctaFX, Crypto and FXTM in an attempt to halt the slide of the naira. > In another measure intended to curb foreign-currency trading, Nigeria has closed thousands of bureaux de change. So they depegged the currency from the dollar, as expected it devalued, then shutdown down forex shops because they’re facilitating people to trade what they feel is the fair market value of the devalued currency. And then they are angry with the crypto exchanges for effectively doing the same thing as the forex shops they shut down, but now at a wider and less traceable scale. What’s the end game? Lock down the exchange and force everybody to accept your devalued currency at gun point?
- tgsovlerkhgsel 3y agoFor now, it seems like the end game is "take two executives hostage and try to extort enough money to fix the economy from their company"
- lern_too_spel 3y agoCrypto promoters still don't understand they have to obey the same laws as the banks in the countries they operate in. Blockchain isn't a get out of jail free card.
- kyleee 3y agoWhereas being president or a high enough level politician in a country is a get out of jail free card
- lern_too_spel 3y agoIn countries where this is the case, somebody who is above the law can save energy by running your scams without blockchain. Blockchain benefits nobody except cross-border scammers stealing from rubes.
- kikimora 3y agoInterestingly blockchain seems to highly benefit Nigerian citizens who can use it to save their assets from devaluation despite government opposing it.
- lern_too_spel 3y agoOnly by breaking laws. As I said, they can do that using less energy without the blockchain.
- Hucklederry 3y ago[dead]
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- tgsovlerkhgsel 3y agoLikely relevant: https://www.binance.com/en/feed/post/666405 https://www.binance.com/en/feed/post/666405 in which Binance CEO claims the "Binance Nigeria" entity implicated here is a scam and unrelated to them. The two arrested executives seem to belong to Binance-the-international-company, not the local subsidiary-or-fake-subsidiary, though. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/02/29/nigeria-detains-binance-executives-as-it-investigates-the-crypto-exchange-reports/ https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/02/29/nigeria-detains-b... says that "The two had been invited by Nigeria to meet officials". This is going to be interesting either way.
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- edg5000 3y agoThe way I see it, is that this is terrible for the reputation of the Nigerian goverment. This is how you scare off businesses from operating in your country. Or am I missing something? Did Binance truly do something morally wrong; would the naira have been ok without Binance?
- shreyansh_k 3y agoIIRC, Nigerian Government depegged their currency with respect to the dollar, which caused their currency to market correct, thus, devaluing itself. Keep me honest, if the above is correct, this seems like a dishonest attempt by the Nigerian Government to extort Binance into paying for their poor policies and finances. It's like claiming a food delivery company is personally responsible for increased fuel prices, when all they do is pay their drivers market rates to deliver food. Bullshit. Completely unrelated. I hope Binance retorts Nigerian Government to pound sand.
- xref 3y ago> The "anonymity and privacy inherent in the cryptocurrency system are what draw individuals, particularly those with illicit intentions, towards its use," 1) people vastly overestimate how much “anonymity and privacy” cryptocurrency gives them (spoiler: far less than using paper money) 2) I’ve never liked this line of reasoning because it’s the same argument for why encryption should have government backdoors.
- rthnbgrredf 3y agoNow I understand where the Nigerian prince scam scheme stems from.