←back to thread

Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

(www.wired.com)
544 points josh2600 | 2 comments | 06 Apr 21 16:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
Show context
Geee ◴[06 Apr 21 18:14 UTC] No.26715348[source]▶
There are 250 million units of mobilecoin, and majority of them are owned by the founders. Only 37.5 million have been distributed. With current price ($65), they're worth $14B already. This makes the project a scam and impossible for it to work as a reliable money that holds value. Bitcoin had no pre-mine and has been fairly distributed from the start.
replies(15): >>26716669 #>>26717253 #>>26717289 #>>26717334 #>>26717384 #>>26717443 #>>26717846 #>>26717892 #>>26718428 #>>26718433 #>>26718469 #>>26720601 #>>26721205 #>>26726961 #>>26727388 #
PragmaticPulp ◴[06 Apr 21 21:12 UTC] No.26717443[source]▶
The founding organization owns 85% of the total market cap of a coin? That should be raising red flags for everyone involved.

There is no valid reason for the vast majority of what is supposedly a currency to be owned by the company that created it. Imagine if PayPal launched but required everyone to transact in fractional shares of PayPal to get anything done. Oh and by the way, those shares are majority owned by the founders, but they’ll sell you some so you can send them to your friends.

This is ridiculous.

replies(3): >>26717463 #>>26719110 #>>26725266 #
1. ybalkind ◴[07 Apr 21 14:15 UTC] No.26725266[source]▶
Can you spell out why is that fundamentally bad? I'm asking in good faith not to be oppositional, apologies if its a stupid question. But if you were buying shares in a company it would not matter if most the shares were held by the company (as long as there is enough liquidity to sell your shares in future). Why is it different with the currency? I get that its making the founders rich so perhaps they have greedy intentions, but why does this inherently undermine the validity of the currency?
replies(1): >>26726207 #
2. monokh ◴[07 Apr 21 15:21 UTC] No.26726207[source]▶
A cryptocurrency is generally more easily spendable in an open market. The sell potential that a founder has with 75% of the supply is massive.

If I created a coin today and sold 1% of the supply to you alone, on what basis would you want to store any value in that currency? Given constant buy demand, The currency's market value is defined by what I do. This is why organic price discovery for a currency is important.