The real question is, will the big cryptocurrencies hold? Bitcoin is down almost half from its peak, but it's done that before. What's different this time is that more countries, especially China, have banned cryptocurrency operations. Hard to say.<p>At some point, Tether is going to crack. The backing isn't there, and everybody knows it now.
It can't survive a net outflow. It's still possible to exit Tether for another stablecoin. USDT and USDC are still trading at 1:1. You can redeem USDC for US dollars. So if you own USDT, get out while you can. When stablecoins crash, they crash all the way to zero.<p>The SEC continues to bring enforcement actions. 97 so far in the cryptocurrency area.[1] Most recently, "Gold Hawgs". "Instead of using all of the investor funds to develop Gold Hawgs' business, Garcia, the chief financial officer and a 50% owner of the company, allegedly stole approximately $123,000 of the money raised from investors by transferring the funds to another company that he controlled; he then allegedly used the money to pay for various personal and business expenses unrelated to Gold Hawgs."<p>Before that, "Crowd Machine": "In this offering, which occurred between January and April 2018, Sproule told investors that the ICO proceeds would be used to develop a new technology that would enable Metavine, Inc.’s existing application-development software to run on a decentralized network of users’ own computers. Instead, Crowd Machine and Sproule began diverting more than $5.8 million in ICO proceeds to gold mining entities in South Africa – a use that was never disclosed to investors."<p>Before that, "Denaro": "Auzins misappropriated all of the ICO’s proceeds."<p>Before that, "MyMicroProfits": "Defendant Ryan Ginster allegedly engaged in a fraudulent scheme raising millions in cryptocurrency using online investment programs and then converted the cryptocurrency for his own benefit,"<p>Totally ordinary con game rip-offs. Only the hype is new.<p>It looks like 2022 will be the big shakeout year for NFTs and the low end of cryptocurrencies.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/cybersecurity-enforcement-actions" rel="nofollow">https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/cybersecurity-enforcement-acti...</a>
I agree with most of the comments here on falsely accusing the actual technology for the surge. Gift card scams are about triple of 2018 in 2021.<p><a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/data-spotlight/2021/12/scammers-prefer-gift-cards-not-just-any-card-will-do" rel="nofollow">https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/data-spotlight/2021/12...</a><p>Should we start blaming gift cards too?
I don't understand this at all. Shouldn't "cryptocurrency" - I.E. currency based on an understanding of computational complexity and a view into abstract mathematics - appeal to those that have a vague idea of what their money is most-physically represented by?<p>If so, then why are these logically refutable scams ("Give me 1btc and I'll send you 3btc back!!!": Just think that the person would, if they can generate 4btc of value out their ass like that, simply likely keep it, whether they valued the fiat value of it or not) so common?<p>I understand the idea that the emotional gain from giving something to someone who has never had anything of that value may be overwhelmingly tempting or fulfilling on the "giver's" part but similarly, aren't there people more deserving of this than <i>you</i>, the "scam" victim? At that point, I don't even know if I would call it a scam.<p>If someone posed as a verified conveyancer and built a fake profile, payed legitimate businesses and entities off for positive testimonials etc. And encouraged me to hire them to re-mortgage my property for me then I would call that a scam - but someone asking for money with the vague promise that "they need it more than you" not so, similarly not with a "I will give you double the money you give me" scheme. It just feels more like something so stupid that you are entirely at fault if you fall for it.
What was once the biggest NFT, Axie Infinity, has tanked. Today, for the first time, their Smooth Love Potion token fell below one cent, to US$0.009954. The peak was around $0.36 last summer. This is the one all those people in the Philippines were playing a grinding game to earn, and paying about US$1000 up front to get into the game.<p>Axie Infinity combined the worst features of a gig economy, multi-level marketing, and a Ponzi scheme.<p>The company responded by launching another token.
Lol. How about "Crypto leads the surge in online scams". Saying that crypto causes the scams, rather than being the scam, is splitting hairs. This is also a report focusing on social-media scams. The net is Inception-level nesting of scams atop each other. Social Media + Crypto ... what else could it be but a scam?
For anyone interested in seeing what one of these scams looks like:
- <a href="http://ark-musk.com" rel="nofollow">http://ark-musk.com</a><p>They ran a YouTube Live stream on loop with an Auntie Cathy and Elon interview about crypto and made it look very believable. YouTube finally took down the video after about a day.<p>Hard work.
While they fight over which opinion to cancel half the youtube comments on any investment video is scams, half the promoted tweets on twitter are scams, half the facebook ads are some type of scam. Imagine a traditional news paper publishing a single one of those and what consequences they would face.
The internet lead to a surge of online scams, lasting to this very day. The problem isn't the medium/platform, but the idiots falling for them.<p>I simply can not have any sympathy for idiots so greedy they fall for the "I'll double your cryptos" scam. None.<p>The best way of fighting scams is intelligent, critically thinking people. If this wasn't so deliberately undesired by politics, the world as a whole would be a better place.
If you actually read the article, most of the scams of all types start on social media. Why is it so easy for a scammer to talk to my nephew on the same places he talks to his friends? If you look at actually consumer fraud (1) according to the FTC, crypto isn't even mentioned.<p>The abundance of crypto hate is confusing to me as one hand HN believes it's a pointless & worthless technology but also somehow this unstoppable force giving criminals limitless power to burn all the trees and rob the youth.<p>(1) <a href="https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2021/02/top-frauds-2020" rel="nofollow">https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2021/02/top-frauds-2020</a>
"Mechanism to scam leads to surge in scams in place where mechanism exists" yeah they scam you at the carnival too but you still go to the carnival. What matters is if you choose to ride the rides or play the games.
It amuses me how much of an anti-crypto sentiment HN has. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a more nefarious agenda behind it. It's kind of a joke at this point.
We are getting so many 'crypto=bad' basic articles (this one seems particularly devoid of relevant content) that I'm surprised the topic isn't auto-downweighed by now.