Re:DeFi risks and the decentralisation illusion
by fennecfoxen on Tuesday December 21, 2021 @04:06PM
(#29642084)
> For the past decade we've found out -- annually -- that internationally regulated financial provider X/Y/Z is banking narco terrorists, or sheltering funds for politicians, or being the final off-ramp for ransomware.
A scandal, to be sure! You have, indeed, identified the mote of dust in your brothers' eye. But while it's certainly bigger in absolute terms, you should try it as a percentage of transaction volume. The only reason that crypto doesn't blow it totally out of the water on crime volume is that crypto remains obscure, only marginally relevant to the real world.
It's like telling me that there's more crime total in the US than there is in Haiti. It's technically true — and yet, Haiti is much dangerous.
For the past decade we've found out -- annually -- that internationally regulated financial provider X/Y/Z is banking narco terrorists, or sheltering funds for politicians, or being the final off-ramp for ransomware.
> Now let's do the exact same thing in the crypto-verse, except with even dodgier loans [...]
Guess it depends on your definition of "dodgier". I grew up with unregulated pay-day-loans being in every strip mall in Ohio.
> [...] rampant fraud and bank robberies.
The IC3 report <https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2020_IC3ElderFrau...> on state-side fraud implies the per-capita rate of Americans scammed in 'normal banking' far exceeds the rate of Americans scammed by crypto.