it's almost as if fraud is mostly a societal problem rather than a technological problem...

And that's why anyone who has any experience in the stock market isn't suprised with what's happening: they've seen it before and they've been warning about this.

EDIT: As I was typing a response, your username seemed familiar. Turns out it's not the first time I see you on HN saying sensible stuff. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16268736

I think the underlying assumption that the "amazing transparency" enabled by crypto currencies will necessarily lead to a fairer more humane world is dangerously naive.

Does it not occur to people how an immutable, publicly inspectable ledger that records all your transactions might be abused by criminals and/or corrupt authoritarian governments?

Maybe HN is the wrong place to quote 90s rap songs, but these guys knew a thing or two about criminality and human nature.

"Rule Number Uno, never let no one know

How much dough you hold, cause you know

The cheddar breed jealousy, 'specially

If that man f---ed up, get yo' a-- stuck up" -Biggie Smalls (10 Crack Commandments)

Well to be fair, the reason we're having this discussion now is because people have been watching and questioning the expansion of the Tether supply via its transparent blockchain.

Someone could probably argue this is a step in the right direction from the days of Mt. Gox and its complete lack of transparency.

You mean the transparency of private individuals and organizations managing their own funds? Ok, let's assume, for the sake of argument, that you are entitled to and able to access that information and that it is somehow more available in _existing_ centralized systems. How are you going to enforce or even verify the degree of a centralized governance system's transparency? You can't. So your comment is somewhat deceptive, imo.

I'm not sure what you are saying. Obviously there is no "entitled" or enforcement. The difficulty in doing that makes it no less a problem. It does contrast with what seemed to be a big Bitcoin positive or selling point (call it what you want) transparency.