The Crypto Thread

This literally used to be called the loanshark scam by mafia members in the 20’s-present. You tell some rich guy you know (lots of doctors, dentists, small business owners etc) that you need money to lend out on the street at 2% a week and in exchange for the cash you’ll pay him back half a point a week. Half a point a week is 26% a year and much better than this guy is getting anywhere else.

At first he gives you a few thousand bucks. And then he gets back his half a point a week. He waits a little longer and deposits some more. Keeps getting his half a point a week. As long the mafioso thinks the mark still has more money to invest he keeps paying the vig.

Then one day the deposits stop because the victim is all in. And then the payments stop and this really scary mob guy forgets all about the investment and becomes very very scary when asked about it.

5 Likes

or he disappears in a tragic santa rosa wildfire

Not intended as a dig at crypto overall.

Seems that scam crypto should be hiring experts in 19th and early 20th century financial fraud to look for the next crypto model. Theres got to be some creative stuff in there that hasnt been tried yet.

I mean wash trading alone is enough to fuck the life out of any legitimacy a ‘market price’ could have. Anywhere that’s possible it’s rampant because it’s really really really good as a strategy for manipulating markets.

:coolbiden:

https://twitter.com/crypto/status/1545539252343250945?t=1bgHn94ruVFxp-TwGdu0ew&s=19

If you’re going to trade crypto, it’s honestly a pretty damn good time to buy whopperking and all the other “looked down upon” shitcoins that have tanked because BTC isn’t going back to 30k without the help from the garbage that would have to 10x again. But nobody ever buys the bottom, same with DASH or Peloton. You’re going to get another surge, just won’t be the same. Because if the crypto thread is bearish on whoppercoin, then you’d be the first in to ride the next wave!

Finally moved my btc riches from Coinbase onto a ledger that I had for the last 6 months. Super stressful getting it set up but now I’m ready for Coinbase to go bankrupt and enjoy my fraction of something that’ll probably be worth about tree fiddy.

2 Likes

If Coinbase implodes is that going to disrupt the Bitcoin market or is that already priced in?

It’s definitely going to disrupt my Bitcoin market.

1 Like

Do I need to figure out how to do this? I don’t trade and just wanted to buy and hold and figured lol Coinbase wallet was fine for that.

yeah i mean i don’t trust them as much as chase or my local credit union. i think it’s not totally unpriced in. i don’t think it’d be as unexpected as lehman brothers going under, but it’d be towards that, on that spectrum.

i don’t leave money on any crypto exchange for longer than a few seconds, but that’s just me. i don’t like playing those games. i think everyone should control the keys to their own wallet

you absolutely should

It’s just that I’m almost sure I’ll fuck something up or forget something or lose something, arghhh.

1 Like

Use something like this to store and protect your seed phrase.

https://www.amazon.com/Cobo-Tablet-Storage-Compatible-Supports/dp/B07RZW8CWY/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1W6ENR5H50E14&keywords=key+phrase+storage&qid=1657332902&sprefix=key+phrase%2Caps%2C239&sr=8-6

2 Likes

well there’s strategy to securing your passphrase. and that’s the only thing that can fuck you up. if you don’t give it away and you don’t lose both it and the ledger at the same time, you’re gonna get hurt.

but if you, say, etched your passphrase into a steel capsule, and buried it under the foundation of your basement like john wick. it’d be pretty tough for anyone to get to it, unless you gave it to them

or you could make a cypher and hide the passphrase in a series of books on your bookshelf

or you could get a full body prison break tattoo that only you can interpret, that seems like the most interesting way to secure your passphrase imo

also you could do like what jason bourne did with that tiny laser projector implanted under your skin

lotta good ways. just memorize it, that’s a good one. fuckin read the 24 words in order one million times, you’ll remember it lol. that’s the most daring one, i wouldn’t recommend it but it’d be fun to try

6 Likes

It was stressful but the Ledger Nano X was really good about walking through the process. Like someone said, you have the USB thumbstick device, which has your private keys on it that allows you to access the wallets on the blockchains for whatever currencies you have. And, you have the magic 24 words that would allow you to recover if you lose the USB device. Lock a copy of the phrases in a fire safe and/or a safe deposit box, and you’re fine.

So essentially get the cold wallet, set it up and generate the recovery phrases, stash those, the device will create empty wallets and the private keys on whatever blockchains you have currency on, and transfer your funds away from Coinbase to that new cold wallet. Toss the thumbstick in the safe along with your phrases (assuming you aren’t trading all the time), and forget about it.

The Ledger has a Windows/Mac app that you install for the setup and to see your balance whenever (doesn’t need the thumbstick plugged in for that, but it does need to be if you want to trade). Same deal with a mobile app, though that connects to the stick via Bluetooth if you’re trading, otherwise you can see your stuff without the stick nearby.

Thanks for coming to my Ledger for morons TED Talk.

3 Likes

This shit all sounds like a nightmare if you die unexpectedly and want any of your money to go to your next of kin.

[edit: thanks emmpee]

if you’re worried about ledger rugging everyone or someone reverse engineering and exposing wallets in the future, maybe the safest would be to download bitcoin core node, the whole 400gb blockchain, create a new wallet, secure that passphrase, move your btc onto it, then delete the wallet and node from your computer. you can reload it in the future and you can keep sending coins to it by saving the address. nobody would be able to touch the coins, EVEN YOU. write down the pass phrase on steel tablet and put it in a safe deposit box (inside a wax sealed envelope addressed to your next of kin jman :wink:)

I left a note on the pass phrases for my wife to call Dan if I die and he’ll help. Everyone needs a Dan.

1 Like