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685 points jclarkcom | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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chaps ◴[] No.45948347[source]
Once did some programming/networking work for a company that did the networking of a office sharing building that Coinbase was running out of. Early in my work there I noticed that the company had its admin passwords written on a whiteboard -- visible from the hallway because they had glass for walls. So I sent them an email to ask that they remove it (I billed them for it).

Their fix was to put a piece of paper over the passwords.

What a time.

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650REDHAIR ◴[] No.45948413[source]
This doesn’t surprise me at all.

Bitcoin, and really fintech as a whole, are beyond reckless.

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KetoManx64 ◴[] No.45948453[source]
Bitcoin is a crypto-currency/blockchain. Coinbase is a corporation that allows users to buy/trade crypto-currencies.

With Bitcoin you do not get government bailouts like what happened with the beyond reckless banks in 2008.

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dahinds ◴[] No.45948881[source]
"With Bitcoin you do not get government bailouts" -- yeah maybe not yet? Is it beyond belief that a government with leadership deeply invested in crypto currencies might take action if something super disruptive happens?
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KetoManx64 ◴[] No.45948937[source]
Possible. But Bitcoin is hard capped at 21 million coins. The government can peint more paper money to bail a company out if it makes stupid decisions, but they cannot print more Bitcoin. This will devalue the paper currency even more and also increase the value of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is called a hedge against inflation for a reason.
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majormajor ◴[] No.45950718[source]
You say "devalue the paper currency even more" but if bitcoin holders need to be bailed in any given country aren't we talking about a scenario where bitcoin is the thing that's lost a bunch of value? Some sort of "it turns out shady bitcoin holders or companies were artificially pumping up the value in a sneaky way and then someone connected the dots" situation?

First thing that comes to mind off the top of my head as a US-Govt option here would be something like: bail out US people/companies of bitcoin holdings in USD in conjunction with banning bitcoin in the US going forward. So that would be quite the string of events at that point for non-US bitcoin holders: first a crash that caused all these US bitcoin holders to go screaming to the government for help. Then the overnight removal of a huge chunk of the bitcoin market, coupled with either a firesale to comply with the ban or US gov seizure of a bunch of the coins, which will push the price lower for anyone who hasn't sold yet since their buyer pool is now much lower.

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KetoManx64 ◴[] No.45950864{3}[source]
I wouldn't be surprised if the US government doesn't attempt something just like this in the next 3-5 years. There are a lot of people fleeing the very inflationary US dollar for BTC. I think at this point it would be too late though. There are too many countries, individuals and corporations around the world that own BTC for it to be successful. There was a long term holder that dumped 24,000BTC onto the market in August and the price dropped down about 5% for maybe half a day before recovering, and it's not going to be long until other countries follow El Salvador's lead and invite Bitcoin owners to live there tax free. If the USA bans Bitcoin there will be a massive brain drain of very intelligent people who will just move to those countries.
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1. CPLX ◴[] No.45951655{4}[source]
> If the USA bans Bitcoin there will be a massive brain drain of very intelligent people who will just move to those countries.

Is that really possible? Can we do this today?

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2. pavlov ◴[] No.45952454[source]
It sounds rather wonderful, all the very intelligent crypto people voluntarily deporting themselves to El Salvador.

Everybody who ever created a meme coin should also be put on the same plane, voluntary or not.

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3. mjhay ◴[] No.45953137[source]
Oh no, not the “very intelligent” crypto people!