Tether: not even a scam

[kioicoin]

I saw the news today about the coin stealing event of Tether today. Then I found this thread. In a way, the opionion here is quite interesting and useful. I won't hold too many of Tether coins.

[1714905699]

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[1714905699]

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[Lmaooo]

I think Tether was recently hacked due to sabotage, i don't think someone from outside Tether would be able to hack tether from outside because that will be very hard thing to do.  

[ElmetElmet]

BUT, it raises the question, why can't a 1:1 peg be done with other fiat currencies? Is it is being done? Because then all one has to do is exchange USD for other fiat and exchange that for digital tokens, and banks may be okay with the deposits?

Yes, for example Cryptopia has done a peg 1:1 against New Zealand Dollar, but we don't know if it isn't similar story to Bitfinex (small exchange, easy to keep a secret). There are exchanges all over the world, some of them let you exchange to real money, but it usually will be a local currency and you probably would need an account in local bank to withdraw the money. It may be a solution to protect your wealth (for a short term at least), but there is a problem with liquidity. If you would have wanted to exchange, say, 100 BTC into a local currency, you would end up buying it very expensive, then in order to exchange it back to BTC, you would be selling it very cheap.

NZDT is not listed on coinmarketcap, presumbly it is not freely tradable?

No, it's not. You can only trade with it on Cryptopia.

[ElmetElmet]

I think Tether was recently hacked due to sabotage, i don't think someone from outside Tether would be able to hack tether from outside because that will be very hard thing to do.  

This might be too much of a conspiracy theory, but I was thinking the same. Inside job, someone got paid to move those Tethers in order to create panic, 'coz someone else wanted to buy cheap BTC. A bit crazy, but makes sense, doesn't it?

[ulhaq]

So if they can blacklist the address where the funds was stolen and create their own hard fork, does that mean USDT is centralized? Is what happened opaque, or can anyone see the address that was blacklisted on a public ledger?

In other words is the security centralized?

[eddie13]

I think Tether was recently hacked due to sabotage, i don't think someone from outside Tether would be able to hack tether from outside because that will be very hard thing to do.  

This might be too much of a conspiracy theory, but I was thinking the same. Inside job, someone got paid to move those Tethers in order to create panic, 'coz someone else wanted to buy cheap BTC. A bit crazy, but makes sense, doesn't it?

I hypotheized that a government may be behind it to damage the crypto trade..

Who would want to just damage USDT?

Because the hacker would have to have known that his booty would soon be worthles and the end effect would only be to destroy tether..

IDKs

[iceTony]

Any one having problems with transactions ? Because mine already pending for 2 hours.

[KwizatzHaderach]

I have read a reddit thread that discusses the impact of the 31MM Tether hack.
Seems the tether hacked will be useless but it was expected to have some impact on BTC price.
Turns out, BTC still went up.

Problem is the issue turned up that if the hacked Tether is backed by USD reserves then those reserves should have been lost.
Some redditors are pointing it out that there has been no proof that all Tether are backed by reserves thus could be classified same as fiat money.
With the company, just creating Tethers out of thin air and buying cryptos with it.

[gorodi]

Now when they say Tether is hacked and several millions of USTD vanished somewhere, investors might really feel horrible about everything connected with this crypto. The question is — what’s next, after these events?

[revelacaogr]

Paradise Papers Reveal Bitfinex’s Devasini and Potter Established Tether Already Back in 2014

https://news.bitcoin.com/paradise-papers-reveal-bitfinexs-devasini-and-potter-established-tether-already-back-in-2014/

Bitfinex’s Giancarlo Devasini and Philip Potter has been named in the Paradise Papers – an enormous data leak identifying over 120,000 companies and individuals who have employed the services of offshore service providers operating in ‘tax havens’. The leaked documents contain evidence that Giancarlo Devasini and Philip Potter established Tether in the British Virgin Islands already back in 2014.

The Paradise Papers Reveal That Appleby Assisted Philip Potter and Giancarlo Devasini Set up Tether in the British Virgin Islands in 2014
Paradise Papers Reveal Bitfinex's Giancarlo Devasini and Philip Potter Established Tether in 2014Bitfinex’s Giancarlo Devasini and Philip Potter have been identified in the recent Paradise Papers leak. Italian media outlet, Nuova Societa, describes the leak as revealing “specialized companies to carry capital in tax jurisdictions other than their country of origin.”

The leak saw the release of approximately 13.4 million files which were leaked to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, before being forwarded to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICJC). The Paradise Papers comprises the second largest data leak in history, second only to the Panama Papers leak of 2016.

The leak details the documents of offshore service providers, Appleby and Asiaciti Trust, and the company registers of 19 tax havens. Among the companies named in the Paradise Papers are Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Disney, Uber, Nike, Walmart, and McDonald’s. The individuals identified in the leak include high ranking officials from Kenya, Liberia, Ukraine, Jordan, Nigeria, Lithuania, Greece, Brazil, Indonesia, Uganda, and Kazakhstan, Queen Elizabeth II, and Bono.

The operations of Tether, Bitfinex, and Mr. Devasini have come under increased scrutiny recently – owing to a significant proliferation in the number of Tether in supply since Bitfinex lost its associated banking earlier this year. In response to accusations that Bitfinex has inflated the supply of Tether in order to remain solvent, the company recently posted a tweet stating “Bitfinex is solvent and both fiat and crypto withdrawals are functioning as normal,” and that “a formal announcement is forthcoming.” The following day, Tether announced that approximately $31 million USDT had been “removed from the Tether Treasury wallet on November 19. 2017,” resulting in a hard fork to isolate the hacked funds.

Mr. Potter and Mr. Devasini Have Long Sought to Distance Tether and Bitfinex, Stating That Such Are Separate Entities
The Paradise Papers evidence that Mr. Potter is Tether’s director, and states that Mr. Devasini is a shareholder in the company, in addition to illustrating that the pair established Tether in the British Virgin Islands in 2014. A recently leaked document, however, indicates that Mr. Davasini and Tether chief executive officer, Ludovicus Jan Van Der Velde, are the current directors of the Tether. Mr. Van Der Velde is also the chief executive officer of Bitfinex.

Philip Potter, Bitfinex’s chief strategy officer, worked for Morgan Stanley in the 1990s, but was fired from the company after Mr. Potter was featured in a 1997 New York Times article that portrayed him as shallow and materialistic. Little is known of Mr. Devasini’s background, other than that he founded a computer hardware company during the 1990’s. Mr. Devasini was fined 100 million Italian lira in 1996 for selling pirated copies of Microsoft software.

[KingScorpio]

banking in the ends always turns out to be a scam

regards

[crypto_bit]

hey guys, does exist any alternative to tether if somebody wants to secure his crypto holdings in fiat or fiat-alike. I mean, to avoid exchange rate risk. I see a lot fud on tether. Is there any other alt pegged to USD but more decentralized?

[cryptamod]

Tether was always a scam,the team behind it reaches their goal to get a lot of investment and lastly when the time is right they will announce that tether was hacked genius moves from greedy people.

[European Central Bank]

Very interesting thread but I'm surprised that their are not more threads about the current hack..

I came to bitcointalk today to get the news from the community about the USDT hack and their seem to be little to nothing, except the usual sig spam threads..

Their is this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2436765.0;topicseen
But with a pathetic 10 total posts and no valuable information on the subject..

Where are the goods?

we still know basically nothing about bitfinex's previous mega hack and that was over a year ago.

what makes you think they're gonna tell us anything about this hack? especially when it comes with the added risk of revealing things they don't want known about tether.

[eddie13]

Very interesting thread but I'm surprised that their are not more threads about the current hack..

I came to bitcointalk today to get the news from the community about the USDT hack and their seem to be little to nothing, except the usual sig spam threads..

Their is this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2436765.0;topicseen
But with a pathetic 10 total posts and no valuable information on the subject..

Where are the goods?

we still know basically nothing about bitfinex's previous mega hack and that was over a year ago.

what makes you think they're gonna tell us anything about this hack? especially when it comes with the added risk of revealing things they don't want known about tether.

I don't theink that they would tell us anything at all..

But their are some extremely skilled people around here that get off on figuring things like this out..

[multibit]

I was thinking of using Tether as a dollar proxy in trading swings in BTC and others.
That should work better when most cryptos go up and down at the same time.
It has 100 million units and good volume. Should be fine for risking small amounts of
money for a few days between buying/selling other cryptos.

Someone just pointed me out to a clause in their Terms and COnditions, saying that it should not be used for money laundering. I am unsure what all does that cover. But if they have the ability to pull out coins from someone's wallet who does that, then it would be the most stupid investment ever.

[btcone111]

I'm a little bit surprised as of now there is nothing big coming out of the whole situation?
I was expecting a little bit of negative impact on BTC price 

[eddie13]

I'm a little bit surprised as of now there is nothing big coming out of the whole situation?
I was expecting a little bit of negative impact on BTC price 

Not me really..
This usdt hack kind of showcases the strength of bitcoin..

[Iyanu14]

Can anyone tell me why tether doesn't go beyond $1 even though it's below it now. I found it strange.

[sp_skeptic]

Can anyone tell me why tether doesn't go beyond $1 even though it's below it now. I found it strange.

The price of Tether is supposed to always be $1. That's the whole point of Tether. It is a lot easier to keep it from going higher than $1 than it is to keep it from going lower.

Someone just pointed me out to a clause in their Terms and COnditions, saying that it should not be used for money laundering. I am unsure what all does that cover. But if they have the ability to pull out coins from someone's wallet who does that, then it would be the most stupid investment ever.

That's what you're worried about? Everybody has AML language. What should bother you is this:

...Tethers are not money and are not monetary instruments. They are also not stored value or currency.
There is no contractual right or other right or legal claim against us to redeem or exchange your Tethers for money. We do not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of Tethers by us for money. There is no guarantee against losses when you buy, trade, sell, or redeem Tethers.

And this:

We make no representations, warranties, or guarantees to you of any kind, including with respect to any right of redemption or exchange of Tethers for any property.

And this:

In the event of any inconsistency between these Terms of Service and any other policies, FAQs, whitepapers, or pages on the Site, these Terms of Service shall prevail.

So if Tether says one thing on its home page, and another in its TOS, the TOS win! So much for that guarantee that Tethers are always backed 1:1 with money in the bank.