10 ms·
Trump's 'Crypto Reserve' Is Such Brazen Corruption
- mathewdaves13 2y ago[flagged]
- cookszn 2y agolol David Sacks sold all his crypto/divested before all this
- lavezzi 2y agoAnd that's good enough for you is it? Unverified claims, and no insight into who else benefits from his decisions? His venture firm (Craft Ventures) previously invested in Bitwise Asset Management, and their top holdings include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Cardano — the exact assets named by Trump for proposed inclusion in the strategic reserve. Sorry, that's too on the nose. Especially with the nonsensical decision to include Ripple and Cardano.
- chollida1 2y agoOr, and here me out, those are the 5 biggest crypto coins. So if you had to pick what to put into a reserve it would make sense that the 5 biggest coins would be there, no?
- lavezzi 2y ago> Or, and here me out, those are the 5 biggest crypto coins. How long has Cardano been a top five coin? Did you look at the marketcap chart and assume it had been there longer than a few days? Who owns the majority of Ripple? > So if you had to pick what to put into a reserve it would make sense that the 5 biggest coins would be there, no? Who decided five to begin with? And then I should actually refuse your logic and pick coins that weren't in the list of the five biggest?
- chollida1 2y agoCardano has been a top 5 coin for 3-5 years now. Ripple has been the same. Bitwise has a methodology for picking their coins that takes the top 5 by market cap excluding Binance and stable coins. This was all trivially googleable for you, you should take the time to look before you comment next time:(
- blandcoffee 2y agoIn the article it says: > Sacks said that he has sold his personal crypto holdings. I went to his twitter account, that's exactly what he said, but that does not mean the same thing as divesting from companies that hold crypto.
- lavezzi 2y agoIt also doesn't mean anyone he is related to has divested either.
- suraci 2y agoits funny that: how we know if he's telling the truth that he sold all his crypto currency is there anyway to validate/audit this? if there is, doesn't it mean crypto is not 'crypted'?
- healsdata 2y agoOpinions on a crypto reserve aside, we seize tons of cryptocurrency every year in police actions and then auction it off. Just stop auctioning it off and you don't need to buy anything.
- ToucanLoucan 2y agoYeah but that wouldn't do what this is actually designed to do: enrich the people who financially backed the Republican ticket. The fuck are we going to even do with reserve crypto? I'm not even on the crypto bit here, the point of strategic reserves is to have stock for emergencies. What fucking emergency can someone possibly imagine that would be resolved with a pile of ETH?
- harry8 2y agoSell it to prop up the dollar and/or pay down debt, same as gold reserves. Whether crypto is a good idea for that purpose is a matter of opinion. I lean toward no. Strongly. Make the case either way and it can be a sensible discussion.
- red-iron-pine 2y agoin that case why not sell it immediately, turn it into real money, and then spend it immediately? why keep it as a "reserve" at all? what's the point of having a "reserve" in magical internet money if it can fluctuate by 50%? that's not a reserve, that's gambling. it's a non-starter of an idea. Trump wants it to launder money.
- MR4D 2y agoSo, I was in a conversation with someone who made an interesting comment. He said we have a gold reserve and that makes sense, but if we become interplanetary, then you don’t want to pay to ship gold to Mars. Crypto solves that issue. The reserve will last well into the future so preparing now makes sense. Unique take to be sure, but sharing because it was interesting.
- 2y ago
- armada651 2y agoI dislike crypto, but giving a financial benefit to a certain voting block after your election is not corruption, this is just a digital form of pork barreling.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Calavar 2y agoThat assumes that the main beneficiaries are pro-crypto voters and not a small handful of special interest insider traders.
- azundo 2y ago> World Liberty Financial has received $75 million from Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. Last week, Trump’s Securities and Exchange Commission, now purged of its Biden-era crypto enforcement team, dropped its fraud case against Sun. This is not just financial benefit for a voting bloc.
- harry8 2y agoNonsense it is absolutely corruption when anyone from any party does it. It may or may not be illegal and whatever lawyers and judges tell us about that it still stinks just as strongly. Third option is that it's absolutely illegal but you won't get a conviction so it passes. Maintain the outrage no matter who and especially if you feel they're on your "team" in the partisan BS.
- spondylosaurus 2y agohttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/14/silicon-valley-the-new-lobbying-monster https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/14/silicon-valley... > Rather, the person familiar with Fairshake said, the goal of the attack campaign was to terrify other politicians—“to warn anyone running for office that, if you are anti-crypto, the industry will come after you.” > “It’s a simple message,” the person familiar with Fairshake said. “If you are pro-crypto, we will help you, and if you are anti we will tear you apart.”
- reneretord 2y ago[dead]
- neilv 2y agoRelated: > The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was (alexkolchinski.com) | 125 points by kolchinski 2 days ago | 124 comments | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43236752 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43236752
- bongodongobob 2y agoJimmy Carter had to sell his peanut farm. Edit: I'm absolutely positive this isn't exactly right. But the idea should register.
- hypothesis 2y agoWas it a blind trust instead? Which mismanaged the farm so much that Carter had to sell it…
- dredmorbius 2y agoBlind trust, yes: "Fact check: Jimmy Carter put his peanut farm into a blind trust during presidency" Carter put his peanut farm into a blind trust during the presidency – he didn't sell it. An expert told USA TODAY blind trusts allow someone to retain ownership of an asset while transferring management to another person or institution. <https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/02/24/fact-check-jimmy-carter-put-peanut-farm-blind-trust-during-term-president/11340029002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/02/24/fac...> The sale happened after Carter left office, with considerable personal debts: The Carters sold the peanut farm in March 1981, shortly after Carter left office following a failed bid for a second term. Years of drought and changes in warehouse management had left the Carters with more than $1 million of debt at that point... I'm not sure a blind trust makes particular sense for a specific business as an isolation measure. Contrast with, say, an investment portfolio where management of the portfolio is completely handed over to an independent entity. In that case there's no direct managerial control over the individual investments themselves (save shareholder votes), and the contents of the trust can vary over time. Putting an individual business in a trust strikes me as putting a single item in a bag and then into another bag. You're not abstracting or collectivising, only putting more packaging around it. Maybe there's some managerial distance, but everyone on both sides of that gap knows exactly who ultimately benefits. (I'm not calling Carter corrupt. He's likely the least corrupt president the US has seen in 50--75 years. I'm saying that this specific measure, well-intentioned as it may have been, was rather empty. It's also immeasurably better than present practices, of course.)
- SubiculumCode 2y agoYeah, I have few personal doubts that all these tariff threats and sudden second chances aren't being traded on too by the Trump family.
- chasing 2y ago“Taxation is theft. It should be kept to a minimum." What a small-minded little greed-sack. I hate it that since these people have escape-velocity wealth we have to forever sit here and on some level pretend their ideas aren't dumb.
- nonethewiser 2y ago[flagged]
- chasing 2y agoIn a literal sense, taxation is not theft. People often don't like the outflow of money. They complain about it constantly. "Netflix's prices went up!" "The store wanted me to pay for my groceries and wouldn't just let me walk out with them!" "I smashed my neighbor's car with a bat and now the judge says I have to pay for it." These things are not "literally" theft.
- nonethewiser 2y ago>"Netflix's prices went up!" "The store wanted me to pay for my groceries and wouldn't just let me walk out with them!" "I smashed my neighbor's car with a bat and now the judge says I have to pay for it." These things are not "literally" theft. But who is saying they are? I certainly am not. I agree those things arent literally theft. I think the government deciding how much money you owe and getting it with or without your consent basically is theft. The main distinction is that its legal, but that is a coincidental distinction because theft could be made legal as well.
- jhanschoo 2y agoA billionaire can go to a lawless place like parts of Somalia, and see first-hand how much people respect their claims to their safety and property there, if they did not pay yet more for mercenaries. Even for people who do not believe in investing in social welfare and public infrastructure and goods, taxes pay for the police, army, and laws that enforce their claim and monopoly over their own property. Without the government that taxes fund, private property is just a wishful concept, and it is difficult to own anything in the first place.
- aqueueaqueue 2y agoTrump gives US money to finance drug kingpins, paedophiles, human trafficking, scammers, hackers, ponzi schemers, illegal bookmakers, money launderers, polluters and electricity stealers in countries like NK, China, Russia and at home. Amirite?
- block_dagger 2y agoBitcoin (a limited commodity) is the only rational choice for inclusion in a strategic reserve. The others are brazen corruption.
- aqueueaqueue 2y agoGold is more strategic because it has proven its value over millennia. Bitcoin is still choosing which University to attend, and on his first date. Bitcoin is a brand not a fixed tech. Remember when it forked? Don't believe that Trump couldn't order Bitcoin to mint for the US. How? He is a master power broker and Bitcoin is centralized and run by humans. It is not an independent entity like, for example a coronavirus or an idea that cannot be tamed. The big bitcoin buyers are then USA and Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy). The miners incentivised to operate in the US. The US government can now say to the coder: well, (clicks fingers), take this $10m and do what we say or don't and we will make you illegal and under arrest. This would be well within Trump's MO and comfort zone.
- sadeshmukh 2y agoBitcoin is by definition not controlled by one party. It is in all involved interests for that not to be the case, since it would immediately lose all value were it to happen. You know, slavery has also been around for millennia, but I don't think it should make a comeback.
- aqueueaqueue 2y agoThe point about being around for millennia is more about how do you measure a system where value is placed by faith. Longevity is a measure of faith. Unlike slavery, there is nothing inheritly bad or likely to change about gold any more than about bitcoin. Intact gold is backed by physics - you cannot fake it. Gold is gold. Bitcoin is one of many cryptocurrencies. Happened to be the first but that is the only distinction vs. Say litecoin. Bitcoin is not as democratic as you suggest. Mining pools have power. Decisions get made. People are involved. It is like saying the US is not controlled by definition because there is Congress. But those people make decisions and can be heavily influenced by those with money.
- nonethewiser 2y ago>“Nobody announced a tax or a spending program,” responded David Sacks, the venture capitalist serving as Trump’s AI & crypto czar, who has invested in crypto companies through his venture-capital firm Craft Ventures, including ones involved with Solana. Sacks said that he has sold his personal crypto holdings. “Maybe you should wait to find out what’s actually being proposed.”
- roenxi 2y ago[flagged]
- suraci 2y agothis gray comment reminds me many memes... trump corruption: ┗|｀O′|┛ biden corruption: →_→
- rl3 2y agoLater when some proxy for Russia conveniently steals it all, they'll go "aw, shucks."
- red-iron-pine 2y agoexactly this. maybe China or NK or a billionaire who wants to use it to fund Mars adventures, etc.
- JKCalhoun 2y agoAnd...flagged.
- Tadpole9181 2y agoIt's so brazen at this point and dang just apparently could not care less about it.
- AlecSchueler 2y agoWhere can we discuss these things?
- Tainnor 2y agoYou still can, https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active will also show flagged threads.
- AlecSchueler 2y agoThat's what I'm using now but being flagged severely limits visibility, which in turn limits both the breath and depth of discussion.
- Tainnor 2y agoI can see both viewpoints, though. I agree that the current situation is not normal and that there's a danger in normalising it - plus I have some private thoughts about how the tech scene is partially complicit in what's currently happening. I'm also not sure if anyone can afford to be neutral forever (something that HN usually tries to do), simply because the stakes are so high that most participants from both sides won't accept neutrality anymore. But even outrageous news wear off - it's human nature. I'm sure it happened during WWII, too. And there's a certain point at which, even if you do care, you don't want to have to engage with it all the time. So limiting the amount of discussion about political matters becomes a matter of mental health.
- jongjong 2y agoIt's a complex situation. On one hand, I understand why it's not right to buy a specific cryptocurrency which will disproportionally benefit a specific set of people. But on the other hand, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are provably scarce assets backed by a ledger which is far more robust and far more auditable than anything else we have at the moment. A publicly auditable, decentralized monetary system is necessary in this day and age. Money is just too important to be entrusted to any specific political party. There needs to be a reliable mechanism to limit spending. Scarcity is one of the most important characteristics of money to ensure a level playing field for everyone; our current monetary system completely neglects this essential property and has no mechanism to limit government spending. We have an extremely centralized system which is unaccountable to the billions of citizens who are increasingly forced to participate in it as it is becoming increasingly unappealing, asymmetric and inefficient. I think if the government launched a new cryptocurrency, distributed it evenly to every citizen, made it legal tender then started buying it up with fiat USD (intentionally causing hyperinflation of the fiat USD). That would solve a lot of problems. Every country should also do the same and they can agree on maintaining forex rates so that the hyperinflation is even and not too noticeable. Only people who refuse to move to the fairer system would lose; which is fine. Wealthy people who understand the benefits of a scarce money system will be able to maintain much of their wealth by transitioning early and buying up tokens from people who do not understand the benefits... Or they can just hold onto their assets (if they're confident that their assets are productive in real-terms and not just nominally in fiat terms).
- waltercool 2y ago[dead]
- 6510 2y agoTrump should do this: 1) announce the government buying bc repeatedly then not buy anything. 2) The price will go up and drop again every time until people stop believing it. 3) He should announce it again then buy one million worth of bc. 4) No one will believe he will do anything serious with it. 5) Then he should announce the government is considering buying 400 billion worth of bc. 6) Silently purchase the bc spread out over a few weeks using many wallets. 7) The price will go up. 8) Announce the government now holds 400 billion in bc. 9) The price goes up again.... 9) Sell everything. 10) The end :)
- lavezzi 2y agoWhat exactly do you think they have been doing with the tariffs, and these performative announcements with stock market impacts that were a frequent occurrence during his first term in office? But I absolutely guarantee that the final coins that are decided upon change from what's currently there.
- consteval 2y agoThe difference is that we atleast acknowledge that stocks are traded as securities. The crypto bros are under some delusional that they’re a legitimate currency, and they should be immune from the SEC. … and then they betray that thought every chance they get.
- throwaway5752 2y agoThey are brazenly corrupt. If you are logical, you just expect it of them. Otherwise how did a line item for about 4 million dollars with the State Department turning into a 400 million dollar contract for Tesla. It's just brazen corruption, they are stealing your tax dollars as quickly as they can.
- bongodongobob 2y agoIt's bullshit this is flagged. The President of the United States of America, made a scam coin, to exploit his own fucking citizens. This is unusual.
- MrMcCall 2y ago[flagged]
- drivingmenuts 2y agoIt’s a bit disheartening when you start to realize how very little anyone cares about those of us who don’t have a ton of money to burn. After they tank the economy, a lot of is should probably just go chuck ourselves into the burn pits. It will save us from having to go into debt hust to board the meat grinder early.
- takeda 2y agoWhy those articles are immediately flagged? It is tech related.
- dang 2y agoThe title is inflammatory and the topic is inflammatory/repetitive. That's enough to explain why users flag these. In fact, if they didn't, then HN's front page would consist of little else.
- bongodongobob 2y agoYep, all the times presidents of countries make scam coins for their citizens. Amongst other current events. This shit isn't normal.
- bigyabai 2y agoHey, at least we got to see what NetBSD looked like on a JavaStation before the collapse. I'm sure voting-age US citizens will really appreciate the tech caucus' focus on the real issues facing a rapidly modernizing society. "bongodongobob, why is the president's decentralized technology defrauding American citizens?" "Dunno, haven't you ever wondered why FastDOOM is fast though?"
- johnnyanmac 2y ago[flagged]
- bigyabai 2y agoRender forth the samizdat, Americans. > intrigued that in all my years here, this is the first comment I see flagged. FWIW I'm pretty confused too. My parent comment is sitting at a cool -3, but not flagged somehow. You must be getting brigaded, sorry.
- dang 2y agoI don't think I said it was normal.
- t0bia_s 2y agoCalling fiat money as real money is hypocrisy. Fiat is printable, bitcoin is not and have limited amount, same as gold.
- pindab0ter 2y agoBitcoins in practice are not truly limited. The amount of gold on earth is not likely to change much, despite the efforts of alchemists in the past. However, new bitcoins (with new limited supplies) are introduced all the time.
- t0bia_s 2y agoHow so? Isn't 21 mil BTC defntive?
- pindab0ter 2y ago21 mil BTC is set. But how many new BTC alternatives have been launched since?
- t0bia_s 2y agoSo?
- SuperSandro2000 2y agoWho tells you that no one is ever going to change the code and just print more? It is just trust that this is not going to happen.
- t0bia_s 2y agoEveryone who can read source code of bitcoin. Do you belive in debt that current fiat money represent?
- throw0101a 2y ago> Fiat is printable, bitcoin is not and have limited amount, same as gold. Having a limited amount is a bug, not a feature. Being able to create and destroy money is a feature and a not a bug. * https://archive.is/https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the-gold-standard-is-the-worlds-worst-economic-idea-in-2-charts/261552/ https://archive.is/https://www.theatlantic.com/business/arch... Monetary flexibility to deal with economic shocks is a handy thing to have.
- 7e 2y agoIt is much harder to steal gold than crypto. Crypto prices are volatile, and they depend on sophisticated computing infrastructure to work that may not exist after a catastrophe. Crypto depends on 51% consensus (which can be attacked by foreign nations), gold does not. Gold has intrinsic value. The U.S. already has a gold reserve, and an oil reserve. There is no need for a crypto reserve.
- _r4nc 2y agoHow about that 50x leverage $200M BTC + ETH trade mere minutes before Trump announced the crypto reserve? [0] Like we all know Nancy does it but that doesn't make it ok for the Grifter in Chief to do it. 0: https://old.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/1j2891u/whale_wins_50x_leverage_trade_just_before_us/ https://old.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/1j2891u/whale_wi...
- xtiansimon 2y agoWe have oil reserves, helium reserves—why do we need crypto reserves? Not for the same reasons.