Reminds me of the Peruvian general Óscar Benavides: “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”

The whales got a bailout, while retail got market forces.

Perón said a more radical version of this on camera[0]: "To friends, everything; to the enemy, not even justice"

"Al amigo, todo; al enemigo, ni justicia."

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDh9M9aty4U

Why can't non-institutional actors achieve the same level of privacy? Seems like it would be much, much easier for smaller actors since they are dealing in much smaller amounts..

> Why can't non-institutional actors achieve the same level of privacy?

Non-institutional actors are transacting over an immutable public ledger. Institutional actors are transacting via backchannels. In other words: the cryptocurrency transaction space is "schizophrenic": the traffic that supports high valuations is not settled on the chain itself, but via gentlemen's agreements. Non-institutional actors could do the same thing (and get the same privacy), but then it's just normal money laundering instead of "decentralized finance."

> Institutional actors are transacting via backchannels.

As in, they are keeping funds on centralized exchanges? Users can do the exact same thing if they want, not sure I get your point.

See the original comment: the point is that there's no actual way to verify the central claim ("$3B in Bitcoin was sold [...]"). We're expected to take everyone's word for it. This is in marked contrast to how two arbitrary users are expected to transact via a blockchain.

How would you verify that something was sold outside of a blockchain? The receiver of the item would need to prove it's in their possession, which is pretty easy on BTC.

I guess I'm not sure how you get from that to privacy only being achievable by institutions?

I didn't. That's not a property I want in a financial system; it's one I want in a legal system.

The only points being made are that (1) virtually nobody actually wants their entire life's transactions recorded on an immutable public ledger, and (2) the people whose economic activity currently backs the speculate value of these coins play by a different rulebook entirely.

> the people whose economic activity currently backs the speculate value of these coins play by a different rulebook entirely

I guess this is where I don't know what you mean, specifically