astoor

7 ms·

1.
by astoor 21d ago
Or a gun, because America is famous for its gun culture, and it would be more clearly "shooting yourself in the foot".
2.
by astoor 3mo ago
If it was just a backup against failing/weak institutions it would be relavively benign, but the problem is that it incentivises machiavellian types to undermine society and nation states for their own personal profit - see e.g. The So
3.
by astoor 5mo ago
> "It has always puzzled me a little bit that shooting is a core mechanic in a majority of video games. Does this serve any purpose? My personal theory is that violent video games (and films and other media) are encouraged in high
4.
Crypto donations to UK parties to be banned(bbc.co.uk)
13 points by astoor 6mo ago|0 comments
5.
by astoor 6mo ago
Could be a good use for all the AI datacentres when the bubble bursts.
6.
by astoor 3y ago
Given his past it is easy to imagine his keys got misplaced while on the run or met with some kind of "unfortunate accident".
7.
by astoor 3y ago
In reference to the article's question: "could we turn Community Notes itself into something that's more like an economist algorithm?" My answer would be: no, as soon as you add an economic incentive to a system such as
8.
Razzlekhan and husband guilty of $4.5B Bitcoin launder(bbc.co.uk)
4 points by astoor 3y ago|0 comments
9.
by astoor 3y ago
The article fails to point out that cryptocurrency has already effectively been banned (or at least delegitimised) in other major economies like China and India, so the US is in some sense just playing catch-up. At this stage, at the nation
10.
by astoor 3y ago
The irony is that Bitcoin was created in direct response to the perceived shortcomings of the traditional financial system (see the message in the genesis block), but since then the traditional financial system has cleaned itself up enormou
11.
by astoor 3y ago
Note that this is the same Worldcoin that has been going round poor countries scanning people's eyeballs with an orb in exchange for some shady cryptocurrency with the primary objective of making some billionaires richer. See e.g. prev
12.
Akon's Wakanda, grazing goats and a crumbling crypto dream(bbc.co.uk)
2 points by astoor 4y ago|1 comments
13.
by astoor 4y ago
Thirteen years is a very long time in technology. The "problem" with HN is that many of us have been around since the start of cryptocurrency, and have a very deep rather than superficial understanding of the technology. That mean
14.
by astoor 4y ago
Yes, casinos are pretty well regulated in most countries, which is why I wrote " At best they [cryptocurrency coins and tokens] are like casino tokens". Although casinos don't have a spotless record, e.g. US$63 million from
15.
by astoor 4y ago
Looking for a cryptographic solution to this is certainly missing the point - it presupposes cryptocurrency coins and tokens are assets in the traditional sense, which they are not. At best they are like casino tokens - they have no intrins
16.
by astoor 4y ago
If you're planning on front-running any issues, I doubt you'd put articles like that (which publicly exhibit an almost pathological lack of self-awareness) on your website.
17.
by astoor 4y ago
There are so many red flags in that article, and that article is coming from Sequoia Capital itself. I can't understand how anyone would have invested anything at all in FTX, let alone an astonishing $1.3 billion in Series B and Series
18.
Tether to launch stablecoin tied to pound as UK aims to become crypto hub(theguardian.com)
2 points by astoor 4y ago|1 comments
19.
by astoor 4y ago
This sort of thing is as old as crypto itself - see e.g. "How to steal Bitcoins" with some excellent HN comments (including from one of the thieves referenced in the original article) from 8 years ago: https://news.ycom
20.
by astoor 4y ago
> I remember reading in the last year about one of the crypto companies that hired an anonymous employee. Maybe "Sifu" of DeFi protocol Wonderland[0], or "UmbralUpsilon" of Indexed Finance[1], to take just a couple
21.
by astoor 4y ago
Also, how do you trust anonymous employees not to steal? Pretty extreme example, but just look at the cryptocurrency space which is filled with stories of theft by anonymous founders or employees, e.g. "Sifu" of DeFi protocol Wond
22.
by astoor 4y ago
The problem is that any "legitimate" use case is negated many times over by all the illegitimate ones. It would be like saying let's legitimise terrorism because sometimes the terrorists might (just might) be freedom fighters
23.
by astoor 4y ago
Transaction irreversability is the whole point of the "peer to peer electronic cash system": "Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process
24.
by astoor 4y ago
Or (iii) try to set up a new society elsewhere, e.g. Cryptoland[0], the Crypto-Currency Seastead[1], Blockchain City[2], Bitcoin city[3], etc. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29867057 [1] https://news.yc
25.
by astoor 4y ago
The crypto ethos is antithetical to that of non-commercial content creators - putting a crypto wallet address on a website is like putting a big banner saying "I'm helping legitimise an environment destroying pyramid scheme to enr
26.
by astoor 4y ago
If these scams and frauds are being fueled and legitimised by the venture capitalists, and the venture capitalists are US regulated, shouldn't the regulators be going after the venture capitalists? Even a few seconds of amateur due dil
27.
by astoor 4y ago
The author repeatedly refers to Bitcoin as a "public good", "dependent" on a "volunteer-layer", like the crypto bros such as the article author are putting all their time and effort into running a public servic
28.
by astoor 4y ago
So Tether has become something like an international reserve cryptocurrency, which gives them an "exorbitant privilege"[0], meaning they can do pretty much whatever they want safe in the knowledge that everyone else will do everyt
29.
by astoor 4y ago
Something is only a sound investment if you know all sides are bound by rule of law. If you were to put money into a shell game at the local unlicenced market, then that would not be classed as a sound investment (even if you did know how t
30.
by astoor 4y ago
In my view, how you earn your money affects how you value it. Many with cryptocurrency haven't had to do any hard honest work to obtain it, e.g. the early joiners who have just had to wait as their "wealth" accrues from later

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