Is anyone else starting to become a bit worried? mod note in first post

rapul

Anyone else having difficulty logging into binance?

stockshares

rapul wrote: »

Anyone else having difficulty logging into binance?[/QUOTE

I logged in this morning no problem but I haven't logged in since then.

rapul

Hmm cheers, its acting up on my phone

cnocbui

It might have something to do with Cloudflare having major issues.

q85dw7osi4lebg

cnocbui wrote: »

It might have something to do with Cloudflare having major issues.

This, boards and coinbase had similar.

rapul

Yeah seen boards go wild aswell, resolved now though, panic over thanks folks!

vargoo

cnocbui wrote: »

It might have something to do with Cloudflare having major issues.

When two scams collide!!!

stockshares

Latest exchange hack in Japan

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-12/japan-s-bitpoint-loses-32m-in-lastest-crypto-exchange-hack

cnocbui

stockshares wrote: »

Latest exchange hack in Japan

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-12/japan-s-bitpoint-loses-32m-in-lastest-crypto-exchange-hack

The Japanese seem to have a particular problem with securing systems against hacking. In general I think they have a particular problem with a dearth of IT tallent and this may be a symptom of that.

MT Gox, the biggest hack of them all, was based in Tokyo.

Dohnjoe

And to make it worse, after all the BTC rises, the exchange hack is what makes some front pages

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/12/tokyo-cryptocurrency-exchange-hack-bitpoint-bitcoin

This is the latest hack involving cryptocurrencies, which have become synonymous with vast fluctuations in value, being used in criminality and frequent theft through hacks.

Bob24

Dohnjoe wrote: »

And to make it worse, after all the BTC rises, the exchange hack is what makes some front pages

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/12/tokyo-cryptocurrency-exchange-hack-bitpoint-bitcoin

Also when they say a certain amount was stolen, it would be good to put it in perspective with the overall amount the exchange have under custody and how much customers are actually losing.

I’m not trying to say exchange hacks are not a problem here, but if we are talking 0.1% of the total amount they have under there custody and they have a special fund to compensate customers in this type of scenario it is not exactly the same as losing half of their holdings and being de facto bankrupt and unable to compensate customers.

Dohnjoe

Bob24 wrote: »

Also when they say a certain amount was stolen, it would be good to put it in perspective with the overall amount the exchange have under custody and how much customers are actually losing.

I’m not trying to say exchange hacks are not a problem here, but if we are talking 0.1% of the total amount they have under there custody and they have a special fund to compensate customers in this type of scenario it is not exactly the same as losing half of their holdings and being de facto bankrupt and unable to compensate customers.

Yeah and it's difficult for crypto exchanges to get insurance, so some (like CB) are setting up their own insurance, it's pretty cool actually, they put aside a certain amount to cover losses from a hack, but they make sure that it's under third party custody - to ensure it's only used for coverage. Again, it's not the best, but at least it's baby steps in the right direction

Even though many of these hacks (thankfully) are minor amounts, people are learning what reputational damage is, and how much that crypto as a whole gets bad optics from these hacks

stockshares

Looks like the US is going all out to Block Facebook or any other Tech company from launching Crypto
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/tiny/congressional-leaders-have-drafted-a-bill-that-would-ban-big-tech-from-launching-a-digital-asset/

q85dw7osi4lebg

stockshares wrote: »

Looks like the US is going all out to Block Facebook or any other Tech company from launching Crypto
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/tiny/congressional-leaders-have-drafted-a-bill-that-would-ban-big-tech-from-launching-a-digital-asset/

Just as well the US doesn't govern the world.

el diablo

Gerald Obedient Manicurist wrote: »

Just as well the US doesn't govern the world.

But their lapdogs (Canada, Japan, South Korea, EU etc) will do the same if the US requests them to.

cnocbui

The EU didn't side with the US on Iran sanctions and they are slowly making moves on the tax avoidance perpetrated by US multinationals. Australia, Ireland and the UK are US lapdogs, the EU isn't.

Bob24

cnocbui wrote: »

The EU didn't side with the US on Iran

I’d put it differently: the EU disagreed with the US decision on Iran, and subsequently effectively complied with that decision with all large European companies stopping business with Iran (which is why Iran is now starting to withdraw from the agreement: the Iranians didn’t react strongly st first as they hoped European countries would comply with their commitment to keep business deals flowing to find out they it didn’t happen).

So effectively in this case yes, the US rule the world and have imposed their decision most of the world bar maybe the Russians and the Chinese (the EU just made noise but didn’t do anything to protect European companies from American sanctions meaning those companies had to comply - a telling exemple of this difference is French large oil/gas company Total which had a majority stake in a huge project in Iran with Chinese companies as junior partners, the French are now gone and the Chinese reeling all the benefits as Total know they would have no support from the EU or the French government shall the US go after them).

cnocbui

The EU is still engaged in setting up a financial mechanism that can be used by businesses to circumvent US financial oversight. Without this anonymization, businesses had little option to comply, which is in no way anything to do with the EU 'going along with' the US - which it hasn't done and is factually incorrect.

In a major snub to the United States, the European Union has decided to set up a new mechanism to enable legal trade with Iran without encountering US sanctions.

The EU will create new payment channels to preserve oil and other business deals with Iran, Federica Mogherini, the bloc's foreign policy chief said late on Monday, in a bid to evade US punitive measures.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/eu-iran-agree-payment-system-skirt-sanctions-180925050920569.html

Bob24

cnocbui wrote: »

The EU is still engaged in setting up a financial mechanism that can be used by businesses to circumvent US financial oversight. Without this anonymization, businesses had little option to comply, which is in no way anything to do with the EU 'going along with' the US - which it hasn't done and is factually incorrect.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/eu-iran-agree-payment-system-skirt-sanctions-180925050920569.html

I won't go into this too much as it is off topic, but this so-called alternate paying mechanism hasn't proven useful in any significant way (the article you quote is from 2018 and it hasn't changed anything to date), and it has no chance of working for large companies which have more US related constraints that just needing an independent payment vehicle from the USD and US banks. At best it might work for minor B2B deals involving small European companies which have no connection or business with the US whatsoever and are 100% sure they are not going to do so in the foreseeable future.

In effect the EU has done nothing to protect large European companies - hence in this case the US are indeed governing what European can or cannot do (what matters is not words and communication but what happens in practice - in this case European companies have packed and left en masse and are not going back).

Iran has also been very clear that from its perspective it is not just the US but also European countries which are in breach of the JCPOA. They are not saying the same about China and Russia however and the exemple I gave is very clear: French-Chinese joint venture lead by the French, and within a few weeks the French side transfers the whole of its majority stake to the Chinese at a bargain price and disappears (link here). Very striking illustration of how Europeans are not inclined to dispute the American decision while the Chinese are not budging and are diplomatically and legally protecting their companies so that they can keep operating in Iran.

makeorbrake

Bob24 wrote: »

In effect the EU has done nothing to protect large European companies - hence in this case the US are indeed governing what European can or cannot do (what matters is not words and communication but what happens in practice - in this case European companies have packed and left en masse and are not going back).

I'm not in the business of defending eurocrats but it seems they have attempted to work around it. The Russians and Chinese don't have companies operating in the U.S. to the extent that the Europeans do. If a company operates there, then the yanks apply their own rules. It's all good in a way though - as it's putting pressure on the use of the usd as the reserve currency as countries now are actively looking at alternatives.

Bob24

makeorbrake wrote: »

I'm not in the business of defending eurocrats but it seems they have attempted to work around it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this has pretty much zero effect in practice though, as fund transfers which are independent of the US are only one part of the problem and this won't help large multinational companies going back to Iran. It is just PR for the newspapers, as you said so that that they can look like the are attempting something (attempting something is easy, actually achieving something is harder). When there are significant trade figures associated to this mechanism and the Iranians start seeing it as compliance to the JCPOA we can talk about EU resistance, but for now there is none of that.

makeorbrake wrote: »

The Russians and Chinese don't have companies operating in the U.S. to the extent that the Europeans do. If a company operates there, then the yanks apply their own rules.

To some extend true about Russia, but certainly not about China (first trade partners of the US, and China alone is twice as significant as Germany, the UK, France, and Italy combined - that is a lot of Chinese companies exporting to the US).

makeorbrake

Bob24 wrote: »

As I mentioned in my previous post, this has pretty much zero effect in practice though - it is just PR for the newspapers to say they are doing something. When there are significant trade figures associated to this mechanism and the Iranians start seeing it as compliance to the JCPOA we can talk about EU resistance, but for now there is none of that.

You may well be right - I don't know enough about it. I know the iranians weren't happy. Where the truth lies, who knows.

Bob24 wrote: »

Partially true about Russia, but certainly not about China (first trade partners of the US, and China alone is twice as much as Germany, the UK, France, and Italy combined - a lot of Chinese companies exporting to the US would be at risk for operating in Iran if they didn't have diplomatic backing).

Perhaps...but does it not depend on the nature of that involvement stateside? As regards just exports rolling in to the U.S. from China - that's a bit of a hot potato right now in its own right.
Europe is much closer in terms of alignment with the U.S. whereas Russia and China are increasingly adversaries. It's a sticky wicket for the Europeans I would think.

Bob24

makeorbrake wrote: »

You may well be right - I don't know enough about it. I know the iranians weren't happy. Where the truth lies, who knows.


Perhaps...but does it not depend on the nature of that involvement stateside? As regards just exports rolling in to the U.S. from China - that's a bit of a hot potato right now in its own right.
Europe is much closer in terms of alignment with the U.S. whereas Russia and China are increasingly adversaries. It's a sticky wicket for the Europeans I would think.

To be clear, I am not cheering about all of this, but to go back to the original point about the US ruling the world - they might not rule it but this shows they have very deep influence over a lot of countries, including most if not all developed western countries.

As you said the USD is one of the key components of this dominance (but not the only one), and to go back to our topic it is clear why the US would see the rise of a potential globally accepted cryptocurrency as a threat. When it comes to Libra and to play the speculation game a bit, I think there are two ways for them to look at it:
- either they think, crypto in general is a potential threat to the dollar and we should stop this thing.
- but I think they could also come to a different conclusion: the rise of a global cryptocurrency is unavoidable, we might as well make sure the globally accepted one is issued by a US company over which we have control. In this case they could actually support Facebook's efforts as it is easier from them to control than something like bitcoin.

makeorbrake

@Bob24 - on U.S. dominance - agree completely (especially in the context of the U.S.D. as reserve currency - and then it's influence with setting in place international standards for financial surveillance AML/KYC. etc.

I hope this is the approach they take. We'll know more once the two hearings tomorrow and Wednesday are out of the way.

Dohnjoe

Libra presenting definite confusion within the crypto community. Most seem to be against it, or at the very least suspicious of it - so ironically they find themselves on the same side as government/regulators

However if it does get shot down, then other private cryptos "as a currency" will face the same hurdles

Double edged sword

stockshares

makeorbrake wrote: »

@Bob24 - on U.S. dominance - agree completely (especially in the context of the U.S.D. as reserve currency - and then it's influence with setting in place international standards for financial surveillance AML/KYC. etc.

I hope this is the approach they take. We'll know more once the two hearings tomorrow and Wednesday are out of the way.

Does you know what time the hearings are on?

Do you think the recent statements from Trump and Munchin are whats behind the current Dip?

It will be interesting if Tether gets a mention. If BTCs price collapses on what what they say tomorrow the Market could implode.

Coinmarketcap said the Market is down Billions over the last few weeks as it is.

vargoo

stockshares wrote: »

Does you know what time the hearings are on?

Do you think the recent statements from Trump and Munchin are whats behind the current Dip?

It will be interesting if Tether gets a mention. If BTCs price collapses on what what they say tomorrow the Market could implode.

Coinmarketcap said the Market is down Billions over the last few weeks as it is.

Down billions from artificial high.

Set stop loss for tomorrow.

makeorbrake

stockshares wrote: »

Does you know what time the hearings are on?

Starts at 9am - Eastern Standard Time.

stockshares wrote: »

Do you think the recent statements from Trump and Munchin are whats behind the current Dip?

Impossible to say - that is being interpreted both positively and negatively.

stockshares wrote: »

It will be interesting if Tether gets a mention. If BTCs price collapses on what what they say tomorrow the Market could implode. Coinmarketcap said the Market is down Billions over the last few weeks as it is.

Well, we don't know how that 'discussion' will go. For all we know, it might concentrate on the 'privacy' theme.

As with every minute of every day in crypto, anything is possible.

JohnnyFlash

vargoo wrote: »

Down billions from artificial high.

Set stop loss for tomorrow.

I doubt they’ll mention Tether/Bitfinex tomorrow as they are due in court on the 29th of this month for the NYAG case. You’d also imagine there’s a FBI investigation taking place.

When you see cowboys like Pomp, Tom Lee and Ran Neuner spinning Munchen’s speech yesterday as a positive then you know they are worried.

Dohnjoe

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

I doubt they’ll mention Tether/Bitfinex tomorrow as they are due in court on the 29th of this month for the NYAG case. You’d also imagine there’s a FBI investigation taking place.

When you see cowboys like Pomp, Tom Lee and Ran Neuner spinning Munchen’s speech yesterday as a positive then you know they are worried.

Out of curiousity, why do you follow crypto so closely?

I get that people have a holding and follow it because of that, or some are keenly interested in the tech, but you appear only interested in it's failure, so why follow it? (genuine Q)