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PayPal's crypto partner mints $300T of stablecoins in 'technical error'

33 points by koolba 1y ago

Cpoll 1y ago
I think this is a LMGTFY question, but: If Paypal started doing this maliciously, or otherwise failed in custodianship, would the community have any recourse? Specifically, can they fork the coin? The ledger is public, so I imagine yes?
- walletdrainer 1y ago
  Of course the community can fork the coin, it just won’t be worth anything without PayPal buying it to maintain the peg.
arkensaw 1y ago
Stories like this just reinforce my belief that all crypto is just a big con.
- kobalsky 1y ago
  well, then you are the target demographic of that headline, keep rolling on the confirmation bias. the only reason this is public is because the blockchain ledger is public and unmodifiable. if this mistake had been made on banking system, you wouldn't have heard about it
  - ekjhgkejhgk 1y ago
    This is really funny. You first wrote > if this mistake had been made on banking system, you wouldn't have heard about it, because it gets fixed and its gone without a trace. And then you edited it to > if this mistake had been made on banking system, you wouldn't have heard about it I was going to reply that if gets fixed and doesn't cause anyone problems, you're making a case for it. I guess you must have understood that too and backtracked :-) I actually loled at the dishonesty.
    - kobalsky 1y ago
      I didn't want to discuss whether the banking system provides or not a trustable audit trail when someone screws up, because I don't know about it and I don't want to speculate whether stuff gets sweeped under rug or not. with the blockchain you can't hide the mistakes, that was my point.
      - ekjhgkejhgk 1y ago
        > I didn't want to discuss whether the banking system provides or not a trustable audit trail You did want to discuss it because you said > you wouldn't have heard about it What you wanted to avoid is the fact that because the system works well, it doesn't cause anyone problems.
        kobalsky 1y ago
        Banks wouldn't have made an error like this public. Maybe if there was an investigation an audit trail exists that could bring that to the public. With crypto this isn't an option, you screw up in public by default, there's no possibility to hide it. > What you wanted to avoid is the fact that because the system works well, it doesn't cause anyone problems. I don't know what you mean by the system. But banks, and their ability to create money on the spot, have been the epicenter of uncountable economic crises.
        ekjhgkejhgk 1y ago
        > you screw up in public by default, there's no possibility to hide it. It doesn't matter, because as you admitted yourself, it gets fixed so fast it doesn't cause anyone problems. Better than the alternative, which is if you screw up it's a problem for all eternity.
      - FloorEgg 1y ago
        When I see these interactions play out, I can't help but suspect the people who see crypto only as a scam haven't studied history. I see a lot of crypto as a scam, but immutable distributed ledger technology sure seems like a societal defense mechanism against authoritarianism.
  - lisbbb 1y ago
    Vanguard won't allow clients to even buy anything crypto related in their accounts. That should tell you something right there. If it's so great, why isn't one of the leading wealth management brokers on board? I once worked with a guy who was an Ethereum "millionaire" which I knew because he couldn't stop telling people. He was a nice guy, just really, super annoying. Anyways, he was so well off he sold his house and bought an RV and was going around the country, family in tow, doing whatever. I don't really know what to believe there. Wealthy people don't usually sell everything they own and go live in an RV. Who knows?
    - r_lee 1y ago
      that's because of AML. Crypto is associated with money laundering so it's easier to just ban it as not that many are into it yet
    - kobalsky 1y ago
      you are mixing up concepts. crypto assets like BTC and ETH are insanely volatile, I agree with this, don't put your retirement money there. crypto coins issued by an entity, like in the article, you can trust them as much as you trust the entity, the difference with electronic or paper money is that it cannot be created in private, the ledger is public and it cannot be modified.
- FloorEgg 1y ago
  Have you ever heard of the great depression? Do you know what consumer banking was like in it's first ~50 years?
- jasonvorhe 1y ago
  Haven't seen anyone print Bitcoin like this. Centralized entities will always be able to print money out of thin air. Fiat money has the same issues. Bitcoin doesn't have this problem. Conflating Bitcoin and crypto doesn't really help IMHO.
  - kinakomochidayo 1y ago
    Actually, a hacker printed 184 billion BTC in 2010 and the chain got rolled back by Satoshi
- tim333 1y ago
  It's like a normal bank accidentally tying a wrong number into their system. It has limited bearing on whether the system is a con or not.
  - scrubs 1y ago
    That ... is just argumentative. Minting money in crypto is just another data point in the crappy world of crypto not a one off input error. I mean surely there's an easy invariant to check before publishing?
maxrev17 1y ago
Depressing comments section conflating crypto with DLT. Money bros will always be money bros the platform doesn’t matter.

33 points by koolba 1y ago

I think this is a LMGTFY question, but: If Paypal started doing this maliciously, or otherwise failed in custodianship, would the community have any recourse? Specifically, can they fork the coin? The ledger is public, so I imagine yes?

walletdrainer 1y ago
Of course the community can fork the coin, it just won’t be worth anything without PayPal buying it to maintain the peg.

arkensaw 1y ago

Stories like this just reinforce my belief that all crypto is just a big con.

kobalsky 1y ago
well, then you are the target demographic of that headline, keep rolling on the confirmation bias. the only reason this is public is because the blockchain ledger is public and unmodifiable. if this mistake had been made on banking system, you wouldn't have heard about it
- ekjhgkejhgk 1y ago
  This is really funny. You first wrote > if this mistake had been made on banking system, you wouldn't have heard about it, because it gets fixed and its gone without a trace. And then you edited it to > if this mistake had been made on banking system, you wouldn't have heard about it I was going to reply that if gets fixed and doesn't cause anyone problems, you're making a case for it. I guess you must have understood that too and backtracked :-) I actually loled at the dishonesty.
  - kobalsky 1y ago
    I didn't want to discuss whether the banking system provides or not a trustable audit trail when someone screws up, because I don't know about it and I don't want to speculate whether stuff gets sweeped under rug or not. with the blockchain you can't hide the mistakes, that was my point.
    - ekjhgkejhgk 1y ago
      > I didn't want to discuss whether the banking system provides or not a trustable audit trail You did want to discuss it because you said > you wouldn't have heard about it What you wanted to avoid is the fact that because the system works well, it doesn't cause anyone problems.
      - kobalsky 1y ago
        Banks wouldn't have made an error like this public. Maybe if there was an investigation an audit trail exists that could bring that to the public. With crypto this isn't an option, you screw up in public by default, there's no possibility to hide it. > What you wanted to avoid is the fact that because the system works well, it doesn't cause anyone problems. I don't know what you mean by the system. But banks, and their ability to create money on the spot, have been the epicenter of uncountable economic crises.
        ekjhgkejhgk 1y ago
        > you screw up in public by default, there's no possibility to hide it. It doesn't matter, because as you admitted yourself, it gets fixed so fast it doesn't cause anyone problems. Better than the alternative, which is if you screw up it's a problem for all eternity.
    - FloorEgg 1y ago
      When I see these interactions play out, I can't help but suspect the people who see crypto only as a scam haven't studied history. I see a lot of crypto as a scam, but immutable distributed ledger technology sure seems like a societal defense mechanism against authoritarianism.
- lisbbb 1y ago
  Vanguard won't allow clients to even buy anything crypto related in their accounts. That should tell you something right there. If it's so great, why isn't one of the leading wealth management brokers on board? I once worked with a guy who was an Ethereum "millionaire" which I knew because he couldn't stop telling people. He was a nice guy, just really, super annoying. Anyways, he was so well off he sold his house and bought an RV and was going around the country, family in tow, doing whatever. I don't really know what to believe there. Wealthy people don't usually sell everything they own and go live in an RV. Who knows?
  - r_lee 1y ago
    that's because of AML. Crypto is associated with money laundering so it's easier to just ban it as not that many are into it yet
  - kobalsky 1y ago
    you are mixing up concepts. crypto assets like BTC and ETH are insanely volatile, I agree with this, don't put your retirement money there. crypto coins issued by an entity, like in the article, you can trust them as much as you trust the entity, the difference with electronic or paper money is that it cannot be created in private, the ledger is public and it cannot be modified.
FloorEgg 1y ago
Have you ever heard of the great depression? Do you know what consumer banking was like in it's first ~50 years?
jasonvorhe 1y ago
Haven't seen anyone print Bitcoin like this. Centralized entities will always be able to print money out of thin air. Fiat money has the same issues. Bitcoin doesn't have this problem. Conflating Bitcoin and crypto doesn't really help IMHO.
- kinakomochidayo 1y ago
  Actually, a hacker printed 184 billion BTC in 2010 and the chain got rolled back by Satoshi
tim333 1y ago
It's like a normal bank accidentally tying a wrong number into their system. It has limited bearing on whether the system is a con or not.
- scrubs 1y ago
  That ... is just argumentative. Minting money in crypto is just another data point in the crappy world of crypto not a one off input error. I mean surely there's an easy invariant to check before publishing?

maxrev17 1y ago

Depressing comments section conflating crypto with DLT. Money bros will always be money bros the platform doesn’t matter.