i think this is mostly about preventing exchanges from being used to transmit money to third parties on behalf of customers, as opposed to more orwellian notions like forcing citizens to declare bitcoin holdings.

---not to imply that i'm thrilled about these incoming regulations or anything.


i don't wanna get my hopes up too much, but that's comforting to see!

i was about to say coinbase isn't known for demanding KYC questionnaires---certainly not like some exchanges (cough, cough, *bitstamp*)....

but then i remembered a new trend began emerging last month: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5291636.0

and that is specific to EU residents, which seems relevant for you since you mentioned you'll be receiving euros. the questionnaire sounds less invasive than others i've seen, but unfortunately they're paying more attention now. EU regulators are clamping down pretty hard.


at these amounts, p2p is a terrible idea IMO.

use an OTC desk. they'll vet you before your coins are deposited, they'll walk you through the whole process, and frankly you'll get a better average price.

i hear good things about kraken: https://www.kraken.com/en-us/features/otc-exchange

are there any stablecoins that don't fit that definition? most people think DAI is decentralized, but DAI is actually majority backed by centralized assets like USDC, PAX, and WBTC. there are huge third party risks involved.

the way i see it, different stablecoins come with different risks:

• the odds of USDC or GUSD becoming unpegged due to insolvency (like a bank account getting seized) is extremely low because their issuers are super compliant in terms of licensing and AML. the odds of that happening to USDT are much higher.
• however, the odds of USDC or GUSD becoming infungible (or having your account closed or being reported to regulatory authorities) is much higher than with USDT, since tether and bitfinex are much more lax with AML/KYC stuff re secondary markets.
• "decentralized" stablecoins like DAI represent another risk: bad smart contract execution, bad governance, network congestion, etc can cause unexpected and catastrophic losses, like the $4.5 million lost in DAI during the crash in march.

fun game today, although not my best showing.

i was pretty card dead all day........managed to stay in the game off a big 2-pair pot and a couple bluffs, but eventually i got short-stacked and ran JJ into KK. the knockout was too fast to screen grab. i'm not even sure who took me out, but good game!

i'm out in 8th place, good luck to the rest of you! i'll try to make it for next week's game too.

can someone PM me the password? i sent a PM to @yahoo but i'm not sure what his schedule is like between now and game time. just wanna make sure i get it in time, since there's no late reg and all.

see everyone on the felt later!

imagine handing your passport and bank statement to yobit. they'd probably turn around and sell it on the dark web immediately.

i bet there is massive regulatory pressure on binance.com to implement KYC right now. that's why they finally started geo-blocking americans last month. FINCEN (and possibly others) is all over them. that's who regulators want---the biggest exchanges in the world. tiny exchanges like yobit and livecoin will be the last holdouts.


they're getting worried about tax evasion IMO.

bitcoin---be your own swiss bank account!

a bubble like 2017? or like tulip mania? big difference!


yeah, i don't know shit about gold mining, minting, or anything like that. i just know that other people value gold bars and coins at the spot market price. that's all that really matters to me---that i can buy, hold value, and sell. does that make gold a bubble?

the same logic applies to bitcoin. it's crazy to think the average person would ever become knowledgeable about bitcoin's technical aspects. we'll be lucky if they even use a real wallet, as opposed to an exchange or other custody provider!

you're mixing up two different things IMO.

an index is just a benchmark that tracks the price performance of a basket of assets. when one composite asset rises, the index rises. when one falls, the index falls. that's all. ETFs and futures markets are then set up to track the benchmarks (like the dow jones industrial average) so that people can trade them on public regulated markets.

what happened in the housing crisis was that high risk mortgages were packaged into securities and then privately sold to other banks and institutional investors. when the housing market crashed, those mortgage-backed securities became worthless. banks who were heavily exposed to these toxic assets became insolvent.

this is very different from something like the dow jones industrial average, which just tells us what the stock prices of the top 30 companies are doing.

glassnode tracks the balances of major exchanges:
https://studio.glassnode.com/metrics?a=BTC&m=distribution.BalanceExchangesAll

however, you need a paid account to see up-to-date data. with a free account, they cut data off at 1 year ago---not very useful.

this site tracks the holdings of companies who have bitcoin reserves, including grayscale, coinshares, and other institutional grade custodians: https://bitcointreasuries.org/

if only. they haven't made any substantive changes to the reporting requirements since 2011 when they began requiring the extremely tedious form 8949.

i can think of 3 reasons why they added this question to schedule 1 last year, and now to the main form this year: 1. people are generally fearful of the taxman and seeing this question will simply scare a lot of casual tax avoiders into ponying up. 2. they wanna use this question in combination with 1099s and similar means to quickly flag noncompliance so they can send taxpayers a bill with penalties, and 3. the perjury/falsified return angle pointed out in the OP. they can fine you up to $250k if you falsify info on your return and they catch you.


the IRS is known for making the tax code overly complex and trapping people for noncompliance. also, not to go off on too much of a tangent, but that general attitude towards taxation is up for debate. they use our tax money to bomb children, subsidize all sorts of horrible shit, etc.

oh it's provably fractional: Tether Lawyer Admits Stablecoin Now 74% Backed by Cash and Equivalents

tbh, i don't believe the FUD about tether printing though, and i don't think it's fractional reserve by design. however, the crypto capital seizure did showcase the inherent risks underlying tether's dollar peg. a single law enforcement seizure ate up 1/4 of their entire banking liquidity.

that should be terrifying for USDT holders, but somehow they keep the faith. tether's market cap just grows and grows.

this isn't a perfect analogy of course, but it's worth pointing out there have been a couple bugs in bitcoin's history (2010, 2018) that did/would allow for supply inflation.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Value_overflow_incident
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5035144

the inflation can be forked out of course, but it would be a mess.

yet another step towards institutions taking over the market.

up to 10 coins to start---this looks bullish for altcoins too.

cboe isn't the only one either. S&P (of the S&P500 and dow jones indices) also announced plans for launching crypto indices earlier this month. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sp-dow-jones-indices-builds-crypto-indexing-capabilities-with-lukka-301185622.html

what's the latest on the loan from tether to bitfinex? the last announcement i can find is february 2020 where they repaid $100m. is there really nothing new since then?


i wouldn't say nothing backed. not fully backed, sure.

banking in shady jurisdictions behind shell companies ("like criminals" as giancarlo once said) is how they keep withdrawals flowing. it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it.

i wouldn't pay the lawsuits too much mind. lots of frivolous BS there, just like the lawsuits against other exchanges.


that's reasonable. unfortunately for me, USDT is the only liquid stablecoin on some of the exchanges i use. USDC just isn't big enough yet.

i agree in theory, but in reality that's what caused millions of dollars in losses for defi contract holders during the march crash. https://insights.glassnode.com/what-really-happened-to-makerdao/

and in the aftermath of all that, there was an ongoing inability to re-peg DAI to USD too. that's what spawned the move towards centralized assets.

the truth is that decentralized stablecoins probably just aren't ready for prime time yet. DAI occupies some middle ground where it's partially decentralized.

it's a catch-22. the high volume exchanges like binance, coinbase, bitmex, etc are prone to outages during peak volatility. however, using a small exchange isn't an adequate substitute because there won't necessarily be enough market depth to get in or out.

i guess holding 2nd layer assets like lightning BTC or liquid sidechain BTC/USDT could be useful for this. you could instantly transfer assets to an exchange that is operating normally, who should be able to credit them ~immediately.

kraken is adding support for lightning this year. hopefully others follow suit! https://blog.kraken.com/post/7225/a-need-for-speed-kraken-to-launch-bitcoin-lightning-%E2%9A%A1%EF%B8%8F-integration-in-2021/

they said from day 1 that tokens settle on february 1. i'm pretty confident that's what will happen.

amazingly, TRUMPSTAY is still trading at 0.078.


that would be nice, but it's impossible to do in a way where books are 100% hedged in every situation. in 99.9% of cases, i think we could assume that by the december 14th election certification, that the results have be decided. but what about that 0.01% chance? what if legal challenges (more substantial ones than seen in this election) drag out into january? if they promise in the terms a specific date and the results still aren't clear at that time, they're put between a rock and a hard place: pay out when there is uncertainty or otherwise risk massive lawsuits.

that's why it's always gonna be "at their discretion".

in fact, technically, congress can still overturn biden's electoral college win. there is already one house representative vowing to challenge it when they reconvene in january. he needs to find a republican senator to co-sign the challenge---no one has stepped up yet.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/technology/can-trump-still-win.html

got it, the funds are now available in my main balance. i didn't realize i could just cancel the bonus myself. thank you!

now i'm off to test out your micro-stakes poker games.

in theory, regulators could go after the centralized custodians backing DAI's collateral. after all, the majority of collateral backing DAI's value is held in centralized assets like USDC, WBTC, TUSD, PAX, etc.

if regulators make it untenable for custodians to provide highly liquid stablecoins to back DAI, then it's a return to death by ETH volatility.
https://www.longhash.com/en/news/3339/MakerDAO%E2%80%99s-in-Trouble-%E2%80%94-And-It-Could-Shake-Up-DeFi


thanks for the heads up. they're planning to launch next month! https://www.coindesk.com/facebook-libra-stablecoin-january-2021

and it's a dollar-pegged stablecoin. i have a feeling USA crypto/stablecoin regulation will be passed very soon.

human nature! people are sheep. they go with the crowd.

that's why most people will only adopt bitcoin once it's a "sure thing". and by then, earlier adopters like us will already have bought them all up.

be thankful, because it's the skeptics of today who will be buying our coins hundreds of thousands of $ higher. somebody has to buy our coins.