CZ Sentenced, Your Bitcoin in their Custody

[retreat]

But, my money in binance is safe right?
Sorry got a bit panic when i saw this thread and since i can't access my wallet right now, i'm just making sure everything is alright.

I am sure that your money on Binance will be safe for now. However, we don't know what Binance's condition will be like in the future, so just as a recommendation, it's best not to put all your assets on their services, only put a few percent there, the rest you can put your assets in a custodial wallet, because it's much more secure.

[yazher]

We need more Decentralized exchange for us to easily change our crypto to fiat or vice versa, most of us are aware that not our Keys not our Coins.
Bitcoin or crypto was created for anonymity but it seems that most of us are throwing it away because of the restrictions and cex dominance.

Sometimes we cannot judge them since that's the only way for others to convert their bitcoins conveniently and easily for the sake of getting cash quickly but as we can see right now, is slowly being targetted by the governments and it seems like they don't stop until they fully have the control over crypto industry. I agree, if we only get to support some legit decentralized exchanges like how we used to be, we can subside drastically the number of threats created by SEC every day. The best thing to do right now is exert all effort to stay away from the things they prohibit us or else one day we get to be in the same situations as these guys arrested for the same reasons.

[Cookdata]

Every bitcoiners should understand why they need to have in custody their own digital financial asset and not with third parties like exchange ss, they can be attacked, hacked and if any of these happens, our asset with them are gone, we should learn to avoid the use of exchange, hold our bitcoin on cold storages and remember that not your keys not your coins still ever remains verdict in bitcoin network.

I hope this crusade continues to ring in everyones ears because people will always do what they want no matter you share the bad side of centralized exchanges to them. Centralized exchanges looks simple and easy to use but the simplicity comes with a cost and that cost is not been able to be the custody of your privates keys and in a situation where unforseen event happens, you will be locked in with the rest of the people that love custodial platforms than self custody.

Funny enough, if CZ finally comes out of prison, he will be celebrated and the trust will even increase more but what many people don't understand is that the fight against custodial platform isn't about the trust, is about what will happen later that will is going to beyond their power to handle. If you check Binance reserve today, the Bitcoin is still in billions of dollars like nothing really happen. Sigh!

[KingsDen]

With all these happening, I suggest we should be reminded as bitcoiners on what we are made for and should not loose focus on how we can achieve our target with the use of bitcoin for our financial economy in all modules of it's applications Privacy should be our heritage with bitcoin, using centralized exchanges is the weakest means to have it, because the governments will be after you when you're under a centralized exchange, they have all your details with them.

Bitcoin is decentralized and should be treated as such. I do understand that other people have a lot of various reasons for why they think centralized exchanges are better than decentralized ones. Personally I think we should stick to how bitcoin was made to be used.

Binance still seems to be doing well and is still continued to be used by many despite the huge heft of money that they are going to be paying for.

There lies the problem. It was just in the early days that bitcoin was used the way it ought to be used, as bitcoin adoption enlarges, different unbitcoin ways of using Bitcoin will surface. And these recent ways seem more friendly because they employ the social media and sweet UX trend.

• It is not many bitcoin users want to know about bitcoin beyond just buying and selling.
• Someone who cannot sign contracts and use open non custodial wallets have no business with DEX.
• Many newbies are introduced to exchanges as the first place to create accounts
• During mempool congestion, exchanges become our friends, so we can't do without them.

This is why we still marry with the government and his privies. It's a long journey.

[Woodie]

Doing business with the USA has always been a nightmare, gambling companies avoid this market for their  strict regulations , forex brokers are avoiding this market too and now seeing an indirect attack on one of the big names of the industry says it all.. these guys don't like things that they can not take control of and the Binance CEO taking the fall could mean our US friends would be sidelined from accessing services from one of the best centralized exchanges in the future and it's a big blow as far as I know. .. And besides with the nature of how cryptocurrencies work very few companies can actually escape this money laundering tag, but am certain we shall find a way around this and continue as if nothing ever happened.

[jrrsparkles]

For the title, you still have the choice to move all your funds under your possession, if you're delaying which is your call and prepare to face the consequences.

Now coming to the subject of this discussion, money laundering is crime which should not be tolerated but these authorities doesn't seem to care about stopping the people who abuse it but just trying to get the services down completely. Let's say someone poisoned milk while packaging so instead of finding one who did they just cancel the milk supply entirely.

[Wakate]

We need more Decentralized exchange for us to easily change our crypto to fiat or vice versa, most of us are aware that not our Keys not our Coins.
Bitcoin or crypto was created for anonymity but it seems that most of us are throwing it away because of the restrictions and cex dominance.

If you think that we needed more decentralized exchanges then can you tell me the ones you are using? Many people especially investors do not bother about the decentralized exchanges because the time of transferring a coin from one wallet to another with fee trying to swap to another coin can be annoying and one can mistakenly use the wrong or fake project address which could end up in loses.
The decentralized exchanges are good to use but many newbie's and investors are not adopting the use because they could see it as a waste of time and money.

[Mpamaegbu]

Not your keys, not your coins... the exchanges, when used, shall be a means to just purchase and withdraw, in my humble opinion.

Just like not your pin/password, not your fiat in banks right? Whenever I read people make that assertion of just buy and immediately withdraw out I know those who aren't trading. It's that simple. By the way, what tells you you can't lose your coin even in your noncustodial wallet? This space is full of uncertainty or haven't you read about campaign managers here who got their wallets hacked?

[Smartvirus]

Well but 4 months is a laugh, and he won't go to prison, it's all a consequence of a pact. Although if we think about it more broadly this is part of an attack on privacy, for which it seems to be money laundering anything that has to do with protecting it. And the bad news is that it seems to me that this has only just begun.

It’s more like a plight for the government to have an in on the affairs of exchanges out there where the centralized exchanges would be obligated to allow government agencies have absolute control of exchanges by some policy. Binance is centralized and would always be liable to certain attacks.
Everything just plays in line with, you get too big, you become a game for the government to concentrate their attacks on.

While it might be just 4months sentencing, it should rekindle in the minds of users the risk associated with having your asset left hanging on centralized exchanges. I swipe of the sickle and your cut off from your asset.

[Richbased]

For how long will the government want to control our privacy? It is really getting worst everyday like can't everyone just live their lives without the influence of the government? Four months sentence isn't that a joke? Should have been called four months detention rather than sentence but no matter how long they continue to fight crypto enthusiasts, someday they gonna get tired.

However, four months sentence is just like no sentence at all but I don't think this development should cause any panic among people that trust and performs operations using binance and another thing is to make sure your coin get the best security it can by not storing more of your coins on exchanges or rather not store at all. This is literally one of the many reasons why holdling is the sure way to go because more of the reasons why people keep using exchanges is to convert their Bitcoin to fiat which is not too good as we are looking forward for a crypto friendly atmosphere to make daily transactions instead of fiat. We can only achieve that when we have hold a lot of Bitcoin in our custody. Say no to the use of exchanges to store valuable assets like Bitcoin when you can literally hold them in a non custodial wallets be it cold or hard wallets depending on the size or amount of your holdings.

[DanWalker]

We need more Decentralized exchange for us to easily change our crypto to fiat or vice versa, most of us are aware that not our Keys not our Coins.
Bitcoin or crypto was created for anonymity but it seems that most of us are throwing it away because of the restrictions and cex dominance.

If you think that we needed more decentralized exchanges then can you tell me the ones you are using? Many people especially investors do not bother about the decentralized exchanges because the time of transferring a coin from one wallet to another with fee trying to swap to another coin can be annoying and one can mistakenly use the wrong or fake project address which could end up in loses.
The decentralized exchanges are good to use but many newbie's and investors are not adopting the use because they could see it as a waste of time and money.

I see a lot of people always talking about privacy, protecting their assets from centralized exchanges, they only use DEX, non-custodial wallets and say no to CEX. But I really want to know if they really use DEX for all their trading, or are they just lying and secretly using centralized exchanges? DEXs gives us privacy, but it clearly has many shortcomings compared to CEXs and that is why it has not yet been able to become popular or compete fairly with CEXs. Using CEX is nothing to be ashamed of, but why are so many people denying it? As long as we use them sensibly and avoid storing too many assets on them, there is nothing to fear or be ashamed of when using CEXs.

[Jawhead999]

I see a lot of people always talking about privacy, protecting their assets from centralized exchanges, they only use DEX, non-custodial wallets and say no to CEX. But I really want to know if they really use DEX for all their trading, or are they just lying and secretly using centralized exchanges? DEXs gives us privacy, but it clearly has many shortcomings compared to CEXs and that is why it has not yet been able to become popular or compete fairly with CEXs. Using CEX is nothing to be ashamed of, but why are so many people denying it? As long as we use them sensibly and avoid storing too many assets on them, there is nothing to fear or be ashamed of when using CEXs.

That's really depend on the users, I see some are lying and some are genuine.

Of course it's up to anyone choice whether they want to use DEX or CEX, but just remember CEX could froze your coins and your identity could be compromised if they got hacked.

IMO, what most people do is they trade in both CEX and DEX, they only show small amount holdings in CEX, while most of their coins only traded in DEX.

[348Judah]

We need more Decentralized exchange for us to easily change our crypto to fiat or vice versa, most of us are aware that not our Keys not our Coins.
Bitcoin or crypto was created for anonymity but it seems that most of us are throwing it away because of the restrictions and cex dominance.

If the government are thinking about attacking the exchanges, then i don't think we should have an issue with that, because we had never wanted to have the use of centralized exchanges in the first place for our privacy and safety of our coin, all we wanted is to make use of a decentralized exchange and that is all, we are going to have full control over our asset and exchange it with the use of p2p, i don't know why many feels more comfortable with the use of a centralized exchange in the first place.

[DanWalker]

I see a lot of people always talking about privacy, protecting their assets from centralized exchanges, they only use DEX, non-custodial wallets and say no to CEX. But I really want to know if they really use DEX for all their trading, or are they just lying and secretly using centralized exchanges? DEXs gives us privacy, but it clearly has many shortcomings compared to CEXs and that is why it has not yet been able to become popular or compete fairly with CEXs. Using CEX is nothing to be ashamed of, but why are so many people denying it? As long as we use them sensibly and avoid storing too many assets on them, there is nothing to fear or be ashamed of when using CEXs.

That's really depend on the users, I see some are lying and some are genuine.

Of course it's up to anyone choice whether they want to use DEX or CEX, but just remember CEX could froze your coins and your identity could be compromised if they got hacked.

IMO, what most people do is they trade in both CEX and DEX, they only show small amount holdings in CEX, while most of their coins only traded in DEX.

The liquidity on DEX is very small and insignificant compared to CEX so it can be said that there are still some users using DEX, but what I don't understand is why so many people lie about their use of CEX? Using CEX doesn't make us criminals, why don't we dare admit we use them?

I do not deny the risks of using CEX, but we should also not deny that CEX provides us with many features and services that are completely superior to DEX. As I said in addition to privacy protection, DEX cannot be compared with CEX in terms of transaction fees, transaction speed...and many other useful services.

On the contrary, I personally believe that the majority are using CEX more than DEX, only a small number of users are using DEX and the majority are bitcoin maximalists.

[khiholangkang]

We need more Decentralized exchange for us to easily change our crypto to fiat or vice versa, most of us are aware that not our Keys not our Coins.
Bitcoin or crypto was created for anonymity but it seems that most of us are throwing it away because of the restrictions and cex dominance.

If the government are thinking about attacking the exchanges, then i don't think we should have an issue with that, because we had never wanted to have the use of centralized exchanges in the first place for our privacy and safety of our coin, all we wanted is to make use of a decentralized exchange and that is all, we are going to have full control over our asset and exchange it with the use of p2p, i don't know why many feels more comfortable with the use of a centralized exchange in the first place.

That's because it can be easily done, and people trust centralized exchanges more because they are supervised by the government, especially institutional investors and or new investors who have just jumped in, they will always use CEX compared to DEX, the easy choice is that they can withdraw their money to their own bank account, I heard that from my friend who has only been a crypto investor for 1 year.

Some other people they store their BTC in CEX only temporarily and keep it in their personal wallet if they aim for long-term investment, the average person using CEX is day traders or other short-term because maybe for them it is much easier than using DEX, of course this goes back to their respective knowledge.

BTW 4 months jail is not a punishment in my opinion, it's more like a temporary exile.

[Ale88]

But CZ being in prison doesn't mean that Binance will stop working (especially when we're talking about the global exchange) or that people wouldn't be able to use the funds they have there. I'm all for self-custody and I don't keep funds on exchanges, but I'm just pointing out that this particular news on CZ probably doesn't affect the money on the exchange.

CZ already officially stepped down as CEO months ago, and he did it exactly to prevent any possible bad outcome from the sentence he was going to get.

Do you know how organized crime functions?
Do you know how chain of command functions?

Are you seriously under the impression that there are currently no human beings with similar intentions of money laundering like their leader before them?

I'm not trying to be mean but, come on! If our big successful boss, who's killing it on the media with his flash looks and nice personality, is money laundering we would all wanna do it too  .

Monkey see monkey do type beat.

I'm sorry but I don't understand your point: are you implying that Binance is just a cover for money laundering? The whole exchange has been created with that idea? They make billions just from the commissions, without even considering all the other revenues, CZ is a multibillionaire thanks to BTC and BNB, which is directly linked to the exchange, why should he (or whoever is in control) keep doing something illegal when you are already making a ton of money legally? Back in the days the exchanges took the rules very lightly, now they are paying, but that doesn't mean they keep doing it. Of course it's impossible to completely prevent money laundering but at least they are trying to limit the operations as much as they can.

[Z-tight]

If the government are thinking about attacking the exchanges, then i don't think we should have an issue with that, because we had never wanted to have the use of centralized exchanges in the first place for our privacy and safety of our coin, all we wanted is to make use of a decentralized exchange and that is all, we are going to have full control over our asset and exchange it with the use of p2p, i don't know why many feels more comfortable with the use of a centralized exchange in the first place.

Centralized exchanges work under government regulations, and the government is fine with that, they give them the info they want and the government do not usually try to close down services like that. Centralized exchanges are charged when they do not comply with government regulations, especially on kyc/aml or if they are accused of fraud or related offences.

Take note that so many people use centralized exchanges because it is 'convenient' for them, however p2p exchanges offer better privacy and security, but both centralized and decentralized exchanges are going to co-exist.

[o48o]

The liquidity on DEX is very small and insignificant compared to CEX so it can be said that there are still some users using DEX, but what I don't understand is why so many people lie about their use of CEX? Using CEX doesn't make us criminals, why don't we dare admit we use them?

I do not deny the risks of using CEX, but we should also not deny that CEX provides us with many features and services that are completely superior to DEX. As I said in addition to privacy protection, DEX cannot be compared with CEX in terms of transaction fees, transaction speed...and many other useful services.

On the contrary, I personally believe that the majority are using CEX more than DEX, only a small number of users are using DEX and the majority are bitcoin maximalists.

Imho people don't want to admit it because they are often hypocrites. It's against whole cypherpunk ethos to use highly centralized services. While they like to preach about decentralization and privacy it's shameful to admit that they actually use them for fiat ramps, or what ever reason. Might be liquidity too, but i don't see that as a huge problem for big tokens. Unless they are whales that is.

It's also convenient, as they can provide the level of security that would cost an individual a fortune. And people can often access to their CEX account even if they lose the password and 2fa and phone. In comparison, losing your own privatekey is game over for your funds. And many of us lose their important stuff all the time.

And like you said. Cexes are cheap. Especially if you are dealing with eth or something like that. If you aren't rich, it might not be worth it to withdraw them or god forbid use dex for buying and selling. And saving too much money with those can become even more expensive when sales aren't going trough.

[tread93]

https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1785384669812273570?t=ZGZzfngY_UpyDCLbq4hWTA&s=19


What next after four months,

On Tuesday, the Binance CEO CZ was sentenced to four months imprisonment all on the charges of allowing for the participation of illegal money laundry from his exchange Binance, the US government gile a lawsuit against him and charged him, same way they habe been clamping down of other privacy means in which bitcoiner can use to achieve thier goals, i don't wa t to mention the keyword bit we all know about the recent ban thst took effect since January 1st of this year 2024.

With all these happening, I suggest we should be reminded as bitcoiners on what we are made for and should not loose focus on how we can achieve our target with the use of bitcoin for our financial economy in all modules of it's applications Privacy should be our heritage with bitcoin, using centralized exchanges is the weakest means to have it, because the governments will be after you when you're under a centralized exchange, they have all your details with them.

Every bitcoiners should understand why they need to have in custody their own digital financial asset and not with third parties like exchange ss, they can be attacked, hacked and if any of these happens, our asset with them are gone, we should learn to avoid the use of exchange, hold our bitcoin on cold storages and remember that not your keys not your coins still ever remains verdict in bitcoin network.

With all of the ETFs and mass adoption at this point in all other countries with ETFs and just Bitcoin in general more and more people are new to the game and I don’t think many of them recognize the importance of securing your coins and even keeping them off exchanges. If you do keep on an exchange hopefully it won’t be there for too long- and to your point using an exchange just like basically puts you right in view, finding out how to be more anonymous with Bitcoin will hopefully become less complex to the average user with time as new solutions unfold.

[Suman1]

Some might have the wrong mindset that it's not safe if it's not in your custody, I agree but that doesn't mean every exchange will manipulate your assets. Some are gently running taking proper precautions to protect funds, they ensure funds are SAFU that's where a new concept like the Reserve Fund derived. Exchanges like Bitget have insured users' assets through another layer of security of the User Protection Fund. Hence it also depends on the factor which exchange are you using and if it's well protected.