Are all cryptocurrencies Ponzi schemes?

PeoplesElbow

Well-Known Member
Transactions are rather expensive, not just inconvenient. The reason they are expensive is because of the amount of CPU power they take.
 

Blister

Active Member
I know a few who got in on Bit, Doge, and Etherium low and have already cashed out. I know many more that bought in later and are riding this out. Someday we'll know who are the smart ones. I am standing on the sideline for good or bad. Musk's tweets were nothing compared to what Xi and Yellen can do with a sneeze. Darkwire and cartels are making too much and the Governments are not getting a cut.
 

Clem72

Well-Known Member
Transactions are rather expensive, not just inconvenient. The reason they are expensive is because of the amount of CPU power they take.

There are crypto currencies that reduce the transaction verification process to a trivial process. And currencies that provide blockchain obfuscation for people worried about true privacy, and currencies that use minimal processing power to "mine". They are all still bullshit.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
FTX, which is headquartered in the Bahamas, was launched in 2019 and had accrued more than one million users by 2022. Users suddenly demanded $6 billion in withdrawals after an article published by CoinDesk revealed last week that the two arms of Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire, FTX and Alamada Research, had significant overlap on their balance sheets in the form of the cryptocurrency FTT, which FTX invented. Rival firm Binance, which had been planning to purchase FTX, announced that it would discharge all holdings in the coin and eventually reversed course on the acquisition.

“Every time a major player in an industry fails, retail consumers will suffer,” Binance said in a statement. “We have seen over the last several years that the crypto ecosystem is becoming more resilient and we believe in time that outliers that misuse user funds will be weeded out by the free market. As regulatory frameworks are developed and as the industry continues to evolve toward greater decentralization, the ecosystem will grow stronger.”

Bankman-Fried, who is 30 years old, went from boasting a $15.6 billion net worth to having “no material wealth,” according to data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The entrepreneur resigned on Friday as his company filed for bankruptcy. “I’m sorry. That’s the biggest thing,” the founder said on social media. “I f***ed up, and should have done better.”





 
Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that at least $1 billion of customer funds had disappeared and that people told the news outlet that Bankman-Fried had secretly transferred $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to his trading company Alameda Research.

 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

FTX Held Just $900MM In Liquid Assets Vs $9BN In Liabilities As Video Emerges Confirming Alameda Knew It Was Pilfering Client Funds




FTX + Ukraine = Money Laundering?


The details are beyond me, but the concept seems pretty simple. The legislature of a powerful government—call it ‘the US Congress’—authorizes payment of tens of billions of dollars to the Ukrainian government to help them fight Russia. Ukraine skims at least some of that money—remember, it’s tens of billions—and sends the skim to FTX, which is already active sending bitcoin to Ukraine. FTX, through its founder Sam Blankman-Fried, then becomes a major donor (second only to George Soros) to the dominant political party of that powerful foreign government (call the party ‘Dems’) that supported Ukraine. That’s a pretty tight, circular flow of money, and it’s popularly known as a kickback.

Here’s the tweet that lays this out, although I’ve seen no other confirmation—click on the attachment to read the full thing:




Now, that Zerohedge article (linked in Luongo’s tweet) provides a lot more detail on FTX related financial shenanigans than I can digest. Whether or not FTX was a total fraud isn’t the important question for our purposes. The important question is, Where did FTX get all that money that FTX founder Sam Blankman-Fried sent to the Dem campaigns?

What we know is:

USG $$$ —> Ukraine,
[FTX active in Ukraine], then:
FTX $$$ ($40 million) —> Dems.

It’s the middle part that we need to see. The only question is, How much was done to disguise the money flow?
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

🗞*FTX.COM AND THE END OF CRYPTOCURRENCY* 🗞​



Meet the Bankman-Frieds

Sam got his hyphenated last name from his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried. Barbara is a Standard law professor who writes on topics like “distributive justice,” a code word for marxist anti-Constitutionalism. Barbara launched a democrat PAC in July 2018.

Joe Bankman also a Stanford law professor, a clinical psychologist as well as a lawyer, who has testified before Congress about the “problems” posed by a “cash economy.” In other words, Joe Bankman is often the government’s expert on how getting rid of cash would help crush tax avoiders.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that Sam’s entire family is part of the democrat machine. For example, I saw claims that his brother, Gabe Bankman-Fried, is the founder of "Guarding Against Pandemics,” was a Legislative Correspondent for the US House of Representatives, and is an advisor to large political donors in the Democrat party. Other commenters said Sam’s aunt Linda Fried is a WEF member on the Global Agenda Council on Aging.

The Rise and Fall of FTX, and its Ties to Democrats

Sam Bankman-Fried started FTX in May, 2019, a few months after his mother started her own PAC, and thirteen days after Joe Biden announced his presidential campaign. The new company would become so successful so quickly that Bankman-Fried would become the second-largest Biden donor, right behind our good friend George Soros.

FTX is headquartered in the Bahamas, where Sam lives in a luxury penthouse suite with ten roommates. Or, “lived” until quite recently.

Fox News reported that Bankman-Fried was the second largest democrat donor in this election cycle, blasting at least $38 million at leftist causes, PACs, and candidates. Earlier this year, Sam told reporters he planned to spend between $100 million and $1 billion on the presidential election in 2024, to help keep democrats in the White House.



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LightRoasted

If I may ...
For your consideration ...

Does anyone think that he'll get the Bernard Madoff treatment? Asking for a friend investor.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Ukraine, a Ponzi Scheme, and a Top Democrat Donor Raise Serious Questions



What makes this so interesting, though, isn’t just that a lot of really wealthy people got scammed. It’s that Bankman-Fried also happens to be one of the top donors to the Democratic Party. In fact, outside of George Soros, no one has done more to bankroll Democrat efforts since the 2020 election. Joe Biden alone received a whopping $5.2 million.

But here’s where things get even weirder. Apparently, while the United States was bankrolling Ukraine and its war effort, that country’s leaders were investing money into FTX.

It was also revealed that FTX had partnered with Ukraine to process donations to their war efforts within days of Joe Biden pledging billions of American taxpayer dollars to the country. Ukraine invested into FTX as the Biden administration funneled funds to the invaded nation, and FTX then made massive donations to Democrats in the US.

There are so many questions that arise from this. For example, why is Ukraine, which we are all assured is broke and needs US taxpayer money, playing around with a Democrat-linked crypto company? This wasn’t just about accepting donations through the portal. The report specifically says that Ukraine actively invested money in FTX.

While that was happening, FTX’s founder was handing out tens of millions of dollars, from the Bahamas, to help elect Democrats back in the United States. That is one of the shadiest things I’ve ever witnessed in politics.




Donations to Ukraine ----> Program Managed by FTX ------> FTX donates to Democrats

No, of course no money laundering going on there
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
This is another example of the bots mindlessly doing what the TV and internet tells them. Cryptocurrency has never made any rational sense. It's imaginary money. You pay real money for imaginary money that you can't actually use to buy anything because it has no real value.

:crazy:
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Like most Ponzi schemes, things often seem great, at least from the outside looking in, while the Ponzi is operating. FTX was running Super Bowl ads, putting its name on stadiums, recruiting A list celebrities, actors, and athletes, all to prop up the operation.

SBF and his team, including his D.C.-based lobbyist brother (who is also committed to the effective altruism ideology), needed to find a way to eventually de-risk the Ponzi. They sought to win the day by achieving a government-sanctioned monopoly of their fraud scheme. Their lobbying efforts included dishing out hundreds of millions of dollars in political donations, mostly delivered to Democrat campaigns, with a clear intention to generate political indebtedness. Contrary to their stated aims, FTX was not, under any circumstances, on some humanitarian mission to “help crypto” or anything of the sort. The activities pursued by SBF and his team display a campaign to further corrupt legislators and regulators, with the hopes to establish an anti-competitive environment to the benefit of their enterprise.

Engaging in sketchy activity and embracing D.C. corruption sure is morally reprehensible, but, as you’ll understand in a moment, effective altruism can be interpreted as sanctioning such actions for the “greater good.”

Given their frequent meetings with Biden White House officials, SEC chair Gary Gensler, and high-ranking legislators, it was clear that the cash-for-regulatory privileges strategy was working. In all likelihood, had the Ponzi not been exposed right before the new congressional session, SBF would have succeeded in further corrupting the system to his advantage, and securing a safe future for his enterprises.



 

stgislander

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
Since I could not care any less about crypto currency, does this mean the demise of all crypto? Which I assume is a good thing?
 

Kyle

ULTRA-F###ING-MAGA!
PREMO Member
Since I could not care any less about crypto currency, does this mean the demise of all crypto? Which I assume is a good thing?
It'll likely take a couple more failures for investors to learn.

Unless one of the big ones, like Bitcoin, tanks.
 
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