Bitcoin and NFTs

[Ginger Yellow]

Quadriga was a fraud, shock!

FWIW, the regulatory report seems to take Cotten's death as a given - it's not clear if they investigated the facts around it at all. It also treats Patryn very lightly despite his lack of cooperation.

[ursus arctos]

I wonder if the OSC believed that those inquiries were outside of its remit (though it is harder to see how they could w/r/t Patryn)

I happen to know two former members quite well, but it isn't the kind of question I am comfortable asking them.

[Ginger Yellow]

Yeah, I think you're right about the former. Not sure how they justify the latter, it seems like they basically consider all the bad stuff to have happened after he left and haven't looked too much into the build-up to the failed IPO.

[Ginger Yellow]

EC proposes crypto-asset rules

[Ginger Yellow]

FCA finalises crypto CFD ban.

[Ginger Yellow]

Oh, wow, only just saw this:McAfee has been arrested, by Spain, on behalf of the US.

[ursus arctos]

I was wondering where to put that.

Criminal tax evasion.

The trial is going to be an absolute circus

[Nocturnal Submission]

BBC News - Bitcoin: Newport man's plea to find GBP210m hard drive in tip
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55658942

[WOM]

This poor bastard can't remember his password, and there's $220 million of bitcoins locked in. He has two attempts left.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/t...gtype=Homepage

[Nocturnal Submission]

I mean, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to piss yourself laughing at both of their stories.

Then again, when crypto-currency drops out of your hand and rolls down a drain, if there's no plop have you really lost anything?

Makesyoufink.

[elguapo4]

My cynical side thought that the first one was a prank to get a load of credulous and greedy people to start digging up a rubbish dump.

[ursus arctos]

Interesting post by Tooze, with a host of intriguing links

https://twitter.com/mgschmelzer/status/1367153773861306370

[ooh aah]

BBC News - Bitcoin: Newport man's plea to find GBP210m hard drive in tip
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55658942

I saw that story last year, it was in one of the English language coursebooks I use at my school. I googled it and saw articles saying his lost bitcoin was worth 120m. That's a hell of an increase over 8 months or so.

[caja-dglh]

I saw that story last year, it was in one of the English language coursebooks I use at my school. I googled it and saw articles saying his lost bitcoin was worth 120m. That's a hell of an increase over 8 months or so.

Part of the value of Bitcoin is, ironically, how many have been lost on old hard-drives.

[ursus arctos]

Satoshi knows where they all are

[ursus arctos]

Oh goody

https://twitter.com/duncangeere/status/1366320534879932417

[caja-dglh]

[ad hoc]

https://twitter.com/koush/status/1382485115817758720

[Ginger Yellow]

To be fair, most of the "progress on green energy" hasn't been from solar. There's twice as much wind generation globally as solar. But yeah, it's an ecological disaster. It's basically an engine for making money* out of cheap electricity.

*Or something approximating it anyway.

[anton pulisov]

The claim is also not true. Bitcoin uses 20% of the world's solar capacity. Which is still shit of course.

[ad hoc]

Only tangentially about cryptocurrency, but a really fascinating article on North Korea's criminal cyberattacks. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...s-hacking-army

[S. aureus]

Thanks for sharing that ah.

[ursus arctos]

Dogecoin, or (as Levine notes today) the confluence of the Boredom Markets Hypothesis and the Elon Markets Hypothesis

A potential trigger for the latest leg up: Tesla Inc. co-founder and crypto fan Elon Musk is appearing on Saturday Night Live this weekend, spurring speculation he may talk up Dogecoin again on the comedy show.

“When you think about the full spirit of what this crypto revolution is, there’s something pure in what Dogecoin has done,” Mike Novogratz, founder of Galaxy Digital Holdings, said on CNBC. “I worry that once the enthusiasm rolls out, there are no developers, there’s no institutions coming in. But it’s got the moniker of the people’s coin right now and it’d be very dangerous to be short.”

The overnight gain took Dogecoin’s one-week advance to 118% and its value to $87 billion in Wednesday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.com data, eclipsing the largest exchange-traded gold fund and even stocks like Fedex Corp. and Snap Inc. A year ago, the asset was worth just $315 million. …

“At some point, something is just real,” said Sam Bankman-Fried, the Hong Kong-based chief executive officer of the FTX crypto exchange. “If Dogecoin is stupid and valueless, it shouldn’t be worth $90 billion. How about gold or Bitcoin or euros? Our collective imagination has given them value, and now we just think about them having value.”

Dogecoin, started in 2013 as a joke based on the Shiba Inu breed of dog, may become so accepted by the mainstream it might evolve into a payment option at retailers, Bankman-Fried said. At Blockfolio, a firm owned by FTX that helps users manage their crypto portfolios, trading volumes are spiking with Dogecoin’s every gain, a sign it’s become essential to the whole ecosystem. ...

While it’s difficult to assign firm reasons to Dogecoin’s ascent, a few factors have fueled the gains. On April 20, a day normally associated with pot, some users got #DogeDay trending to push up the price. Celebrities from Musk to the Dallas Mavericks’ billionaire owner Mark Cuban also jumped on the bandwagon. The Gemini crypto exchange backed by the Winklevoss twins announced Tuesday it will soon enable trading of the coin.

[matt j]

<blinks>

I genuinely have no idea what the fuck.

[ursus arctos]

Shot

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1392602041025843203

Chaser

https://twitter.com/tracyalloway/status/1392632525420306435