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  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1871·
    2 days ago

    Woah, and trump wants to set up a bunch of US bitcoin stuff that will massively pump up its value and give Russia free billions on their holdings???

    I never would have guessed!

      • kreskin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        431·
        2 days ago

        ahhh. ok. This does explain why trump and the republicans want to trade in a portion of fort knox for bitcoin. Its definitely a pump and dump scheme – a bailout of the russian economy. Gotta hand it to Putin, thats clever. Get the American taxpayer to bail out Russia. I bet it works.

      • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        31·
        2 days ago

        in the crypto space, the trading values of most coins are loosely tied to bitcoin’s value- it’s sort of a “reserve currency” of the cryptosphere, most major trading platforms focus on converting Bitcoin to and from other coins. If BTC goes up, the rising tide lifts most/all boats in the space.

  • Mk23simp@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    2018·
    2 days ago

    I’m sort of torn on whether it’s a good thing that this is possible.

    Like, I don’t think it’s good for Russia to be able to keep doing what they’re doing, but US sanctions are also often used for evil (IMO) so in those cases the existence of methods to evade them could be good.

    It’d be nice if the sanctions were only used in good ways in the first place, but that’s not currently the reality.

      • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        481·
        2 days ago

        If you think crypto is utrackable, you haven’t been paying attention.

        The entire ledger of every transaction ever made, is 100% public.

        The only reason it’s kind of anonymous, is that the wallet ids are random strings of characters.

        But the second you know whose a wallet is, you can go back and see every place their money has ever been, as well as transparently watch every place it will ever go.

        HUGE numbers of wallets have already been deanonymized, and that’s a process that can’t be undone. Sure you can make a new wallet, but if you move your money into it from your old one, it’ll be pretty obvius who you are.

        If bank accounts were replaced by crypto wallets, everyones transaction history would effectively reveal who they are, since the ids of hospitals, shops, websites and services would have to be public.

        Matching that transaction data with even a little bit of personal info about someone would be beyond easy.

        No one could anonymously move money ever again.

        • Pips@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          171·
          2 days ago

          Yeah hilariously, cash is actually more untraceable. Anything digital can eventually be tracked. It’s not easy, but it’s doable.

          • grill@thelemmy.clubEnglish
            13·
            2 days ago

            That is true for Bitcoin and most crypto tokens, but not for some that specialize in privacy, like Monero or even Ergo with ErgoMixer.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          54·
          1 day ago

          Crypto ≠ Bitcoin

          Monero is untraceable. At least until quantum computers break the encryption(s).

          But yes, pretty much aside from that, the best you’re gonna get is pseudo-anonymity.

      • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        The greatest demand for anything truly private/secure is from nefarious actors. That’s just the way it is. There are legitimate uses, including for private individuals who like the feeling of protecting their digital nuts. But we have to remember that there are enormous shadow empires with very deep pockets constantly thirsting for these technologies and prepared to use them at scale.

      • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zipEnglish
        18·
        2 days ago

        BTC is trackable, its just immune to sanctions due to not being tied to any body of government.

      • pepperprepper@lemmy.worldEnglish
        17·
        2 days ago

        BTC is very trackable, ZCash and Monero are coins that strive for privacy. Watch ZCash spike as BTC gets cashed out just before BTC retraces down 40%. Has happened for the last 2 or 3 all time highs. That’s how they will mix their Ill gotten gains.

      • Mk23simp@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        92·
        2 days ago

        I said “I don’t think it’s good for Russia to be able to keep doing what they’re doing”

        I don’t know how you could interpret that as simping for the Russian invasion.

        I’m just not going along with the “This helps Russia therefore it is totally bad” knee-jerk. A tool that helps bad people could also help good people. And it probably does, because US sanctions are definitely on the wrong side a lot of the time (although I think they are on the right side regarding Russia’s invasion).