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@Patch

Joined 26 April 2022 · 236 posts

I am a patchy reader and writer...

120 KT

0 KT · $5.79 received · 0 KT · $5.05 given

Posts

@Patch

Will you be watching the Football World Cup in Qatar? If no why not?

@Patch

Good morning everyone, now it is time for breakfast. =) I hope you will have a great day!

@Patch

This morning I have spent probably 4-5 hours looking at Tethers connection to Alameda Research. Trying to make heads or tails of things. So there will be a post about that coming.

@Patch

I am happy to report that my and Zeros first GU tournament is fully signed up as of today. Ir sad if that means you missed it. But I am super exited to be able to host this thing, and many more like it down the line.

@Patch

Is Ethereum becoming centralized? Unstaking ETA removed from roadmap and info This is something that has been able to fly under the radar. I reported back after the Merge that there was some difference of opinion on when Ethereum would be unstakable. And it looks like one side apparently has won out internally over at Ethereum. The background The Eth2.0 staking opened up with the launch of the Beacon Chain on December 1st, 2020. The price of eth back then was around $600. But if you had any foresight you would have bought your $ETH in the two months leading up to the launch of Beacon Chain. Then the price where much lower, sitting at around $350. In the lead-up to the Merge it was made clear, even if there where some misinformation out there at the time, that you would not be able to unstake your $ETH at the same time that Eth2.0 launched, aka the Merge happened. Ethereum moving away from a Proof of Work to a Proof of Stake network. It was stated that the unstaking would be unlocked approximately 6 months after. Coming with the Shanghai update.  And I reported as much in the wake of the Merge, to try and keep people up to date and kill off any misinformation. Meaning that if you staked Ethereum you should know what to expect. At the same time, I reported on the fact that there where also talk among the developers that there where no timeline for the unstaking. Despite the opposite information being stated in several places. The unstaking has since been a topic for discussion among the developers. The present When we now jump forward to the now and take a look, it appears that the developers that were pushing for the removal of the unstaking from the timeline have won out. As this has been now been removed from roadmaps and info sources. I find this to be very worrying for several reasons. The main being that when you ask people to commit financial resources to something it should be clear from the start the terms of the commitment. And this to me is looking like a very classic "moving the goalpost" type of scenario. *One of the many memes about the Merge or Eth2.0 being postponed time and time again. The picture shows a very very old Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum. Source: Unknown* The second is that it now will put doubt on other things the Ethereum developer says will be done. This harkens back to the old problem of postponing the Merge time and time again. That led many to believe it would be postponed yet again. But as we know that was not the case.  This also shines an unfavorable light on Ethereum in that it is starting to act more and more like centralized entities like Celsius, FTX, and the ilk. We can look at the whole issue with the SEC trying to take over Ethereum because they argue that the majority of transactions are done on US soil, and that makes it theirs to control and regulate. This is because of the few options available for hosting nodes on the Ethereum network. Not to mention the whole issue with censoring Ethereum addressed connected to Tornado Cash, the crypto mixer. The why The way I see it there are a few reasons for the removal of the unstaking, and perhaps having all staked Ethereum be locked in perpetuity. One of these reasons ties into the transformation from decentralized to centralized I mentioned above. That is the fact that having a ton of staked $ETH will make it look like the actual value of Ethereum is higher than it is. Simply because it is locked, it is acting like a guarantee the value will not fall under a certain level.  *Did you throw away the key after you locked up... I mean "staked" every once $ETH?* This is something that also is very appealing to institutionalized money. Aka the big money. Over the last year, we have seen a lot of this money flow into crypto, and out again with the winter. With the merge and a lot of $ETH locked in staking, Ethereum is putting it in the position of the premier crypto for big money. With them now being "environmentally" friendly.  Stopping a bank run. This is most likely one of the more important aspects of keeping the staked Ethereum locked. What I mean by this is if we look back at when the staking started. The believers in Ethereum have definitely put in a lot of $ETH from the stars as soon as staking became available with the Beacon Chain.  *Picture from the protest after the bank run in china earlier this year. Source Lan Nuo Nuo* And as I said these $ETH with probably have been bought at a sub $400 price. Meaning that even at the current low price of $ETH it is a 3x. And a lot of capital gains that people most likely are ready to unstake and put to work for them. And this would probably create a similar scenario to a bank run on Ethereum. Something they most definitely would not want to see happening. But the main reason why we probably won't see the unstaking become available to us any time soon I would argue is the very fact that Ethereum now is a Proof of Stake network. And that would mean if there were to be a bank run on Ethereum, or a lot of people simply felt like unstaking their $ETH. It could very well crash the whole chain and potentially kill it. And I think this is the main reason the developers have argued, and why the unstaking date has been removed. I have seen some speculating that it has merely been removed because it is taking longer than expected to implement. If it is removed simply means the timeline for it is 6-12 months away. I would argue that this is just wishful thinking. And we probably need to come to terms with the fact that there most likely will not be any unstaking of $ETH in the foreseeable future. *The people Vlad Tepis staked also would have liked an ETA on when the Unstaking was to occur. Source: Public Domain* This means that you should think twice and maybe thrice before staking any further $ETH. Not because it is bad to do so. But because you should be made aware of the fact that you might not be able to access these funds for a long time, perhaps never. Personally, I think this whole Ethereum transformation to a centralized entity is pretty worrying. And a trend I very much would like to see reversed. The things they are currently doing, removing the ETA, censoring wallets, and propping up $ETH´s value artificially. That is something I would previously have associated with a centralized entity like Celsius. In order to stop or even reverse this trend. I would argue a good step in the right direction would be a clear update from the developers behind Ethereum when or if unstacking will be back on the menu. It should also be good if they would clarify just exactly how much "power", for a lack of a better word, the developers have over Ethereum. I would argue that if Ethereum is a centralized entity, just come clean about it. Stop with the whole playing both sides thing.  What are your thoughts on the fact Ethereum has silently removed the unstaking timeline from the roadmap and the information? Do you think I am wrong with my assessment of the reasons why, or have I perhaps overlooked some arguments? If so please let me know in the comment section down below. I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on the topic. If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.   See you on the interwebs!     Picture provided by: https://pixabay.com/, *Public Domain, Lan Nuo Nuo*

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@Patch

What a difference a few days make. The right tree still got the same amount of leaves it had in my fall picture from a few days ago. We got about 10 cm of snow overnight.

@Patch

Super proud to present ZeroRequiem and my own Gods Unchained Tournament. If you would like more info about it or enter. Let me know and I will pass along the relevant info to you. =)

@Patch

God morning Noisers, I hope you will have a great Sunday. Here we are getting the first snow warnings all over Sweden. So not so sure how great this day will turn out. =/

@Patch

Finally, the weekend has arrived. I hope all you Noisers out there will have a great weekend. Take care of yourself! All the best!

@Patch

It is looking like Bitcoin might be on the move again, or at least it looks like it will be in the coming weeks. This is only a little teaser of the upcoming post, so be patient it we be here shortly. =)

@Patch

Bitcoin is on the move, again. New low incoming? A massive amount of Bitcoins is on the move again. This time it is looking like they are returning to exchanges? Are people just transferring back the Bitcoins a few days after withdrawing them? The FTX aftermath, my keys my crypto In the direct aftermath of the FTX crash, hardware wallet manufacturers like Trezor and Ledger had their sales figuratively shoot through the roof. While Trezor reported a 300% increase in sales on a week-to-week basis. Ledger reported would not be outdone and reported a record-breaking sales bot for an individual day as well as for a week. With these newly purchased hardware wallets, people's crypto was not far behind either. This ass faith in Centralized Exchanges was, for obvious reasons, at an all-time low. And I assume people suddenly remember that old saying "not your keys, not your crypto".  Reports of over $3 billion in crypto being withdrawn from exchanges in just a few days. And the biggest chunk of the $3 billion was a massive 134,000 $BTC. That alone accounted for around $2.2 billion at the current price of the move.  At the same time, the data also shows that the Long Term Holder, someone who holds crypto for at least 155 days, is almost at a record low. It is currently sitting very close to 2018´s crypto winters numbers. And now, the crypto is returning? So far these moves have been in no way, shape, or form strange. People don't want to risk the chance of losing control of their crypto. Not with so many companies basically scamming their clients, collapsing, and causing their customers to loos their crypto.  But what happens next is a bit strange. On November 18th Binance saw a total deposit of 138,000 Bitcoin. Of them, 59,000 was part of a depegg from the BNB smart chains $BTCB token. Basically bridged Bitcoin on the BNB chain. But I am not entirely sure about the 138,00 numbers accuracy. As other sources have reported it to be 127,351 Bitcoins in, and nearly 50,000 Bitcoins out during the day for Binance. But it looks like the 127,351 Bitcoins might have been Binance just moving Bitcoins internally. The 59,000 Bitcoins that was depegged however have had some "strange" discrepancies that have followed them along. But first of all, they seem to indicate that there is a large number of Bitcoins being sold. As I am inclined to agree with Ki Young Ju and his reasoning that no announcement from Binance. Especially in these times, would indicate it is just customers selling and not them making any moves. 127,351 BTC moved from BTCB wallet to Binance cold wallet and BTCB resserve received 68,200 BTC from the cold wallet after 44 minutes. In total, 59,151 BTC unpegged from BTCB and flowed into Binance. -Ki Young Ju *A small typo has snuck into ErgoBTC´s tweet, it should be 59,151 BTC, and the missing amount should be 7,151* This is a really good question, so far I have not seen anyone being able to pinpoint the 7,151 Bitcoin that appear to be on the loose. But presumably, they are still on Binance, somewhere? A look at history might tell us about the future As I said the depegging of $BTCB tokens seems to stem from sales. These inflows of bitcoin into Binance, and the other exchanges as well, is the largest inflow of Bitcoin that has been seen since November 30 back in 2018. And two weeks after that was when Bitcoin hit its bottom.  *Bitcoin price data from 2018* Without digging into who sold back then my guess is that it was the miners that capitulated finally being forced to sell off their last reserves. And according to some cryptoquant data, the Bitcoins being moved onto Binance appear to be 6-12 months old. My assumption again is that they are belonging to miners that are being forced to sell off even more of their reserves to stay afloat. *Tweet cut off due to long picture, 8:41 AM · Nov 18, 2022* This also ties into the recent reports of mining companies doing poorly and being forced to sell off their miners o be able to pay their business expenses. Along with the few mining companies that appeared to have had more successful long-term strategies buying these miners at bargain prices. Getting ready for the next bull run.  And that would indicate that, if true, we might see another drop in Bitcoins price in the next 2 ish weeks. My guess is that the drop most likely will fall to around $13,500 as Bitcoin historically has had some support at that level. And that would mean almost a 20% drop from the current price of around $16,500. Not fully as bad as the 40% drop that happened back in 2018. I hope that you found this look at the recent happening with Bitcoin to be interesting and useful, even if it is me speculating at the end. I do however would like to hear what you think about all of this, were you prepared to see the return of Bitcoins to the exchanges so shortly after the mass exodus? Do you have any idea where the 7,151 Bitcoins might have gone on Binance? Or maybe you have another idea of what is in store for Bitcoin in the coming weeks. If you did please consider following me, or reading my other posts or why not do both?     See you on the interwebs!       Picture provided by: https://unsplash.com/

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@Patch

Profound thought of the day. How come numbers are not capitalized like letters are? Or are they? That would mean we should shout every time we read a number. Any thoughts?

@Patch

IT is really hard trying to keep track of the happenings int he crypto space when everything is and has bee for the last few says FTX...

@Patch

Good morning Noisers, I hope you will have a great and productive day. Please let me know if you got any exiting stiff going on.

@Patch

Are crypto exchanges sharing funds? This is nothing that can be proven at this time. But the set of events that transpires sure leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Let us start asking them and see if you can make up your mind. Crypto.com "accidentally" sent 400 million to the "wrong" address This little snafu, or whatever it is you would like to call it happened on October 21st. 320,000 $ETH, around 400 million, was accidentally sent to the wrong address by Crypto.com. But all is well as the funds were returned just a few days later on October 29.  Crypto.com´s CEO confirmed that the crypto was supposed to be sent to their new cold storage. But was accidentally sent to the exchange Gate.io. This was in fact the second time this type of thing has happened for Crypto.com. And as with most things in crypto, the second time was way bigger than the first. The first time they accidentally send $10.5 million $AUD to a woman who was due for a $100 refund.  But, and I guess you sort of were expecting a but at this time. And I would argue there is a bug but, elephant size to be specific. If we take a look at the timeline for the transaction we see that the funds were sent on October 21st to Gate.io a rival crypto exchange. And the funds were returned on October 29th. But there was something else that needs to be added to that timeline. The thing that needs to be added was the Proof of Reserve report for $BTC and $ETH on Gate.io. This report was generated on October 28. One day before the funds were sent back from Gate.io to Crypto.com. This looks to be very reminiscent of how you could start businesses back in the 80ies. Borrowing money, showing it as capital, then sending it back. A similar thing apparently is taking place with foreign exchange students. They borrow funds to be able to prove they have the means to be able to live in Sweden. But then end up being forced to work low-paying jobs in order to make ends meet. Being used by unscrupulous employers, yes we got them in Sweden as well. The questions The biggest question for me now is are the exchanges closing ranks in the wake of the FTX crash. Making sure they do not loos anymore during the rest of the bear market?  In the wake of the FTX crash basically, all the exchanges have scrambled to show their Proof of Reserve. Seeing that as a way to be able to ensure their customers their crypto is safe with them. This means that if they would unable to do so it would basically mean the death of that exchange. The second question I have is just how Incompetent is Crypto.com. If this indeed was an error made on their part. This is the second time it has happened to them. This time they sent 82% of their $ETH. This transaction also means that whatever safties they put in place after the first one was far from adequate. And it either speaks to incompetence or them being extremely carefree with other people's crypto. Because if push comes to shove, there is no doubt in my mind who would have been fitting the 400 million bill for that mistake. The last remaining question is if you where able to get the answers you needed? Please let me know what you think about this in the comment section down below. If you did please consider following me, or reading my other posts or why not do both?   See you on the interwebs!     Picture provided by: https://unsplash.com/, https://pixabay.com/

@Patch

Why are NFT holders upset over Rug Pulls? I have been fascinated by the scamming side of the crypto market and NFT market. And I have tried to first and foremost educate myself. So I can try and minimize my risk and exposure to these types of projects. But I also find the human condition to be a fascinating thing. Where some people actually can do that to others, knowingly. And then even be able to justify it to themselves and others. But let us talk a little about Rug Pulls. First of I would like to say that if I am getting things wrong here, please enlighten me on how it actually works. And secondly, I am not trying to minimize the affected people. I am just trying to better understand things, and one way I do this is by putting forth an opinion. Sometimes not even my own. Just to get a response. And this can be in order for me to better understand and learn. But it can also be to get people thinking and then better understand their thoughts and reasons. Or it can simply be a way for me to have a discussion with someone. This, however, is the case where I try and learn and better understand how things work. What is a Rug Pull? To my understanding a Rug Pull, as far as I understand it. Is a version of an Exit Scam. That is where a company suddenly stops providing its services, shipping orders, or whatever it is they do. But they still continue to sell and take customers' money. And then as people start to notice that they are not getting what they paid for they exit leaving with all the money. *Sir, kindly step aside, I am about to pull this rug.* So I would consider a Rug Pull to be a crypto version of this. Or at least that is what I have understood it to be. The people who managed a project basically take all the liquidity or assets out of the project. Leaving it with no or very little value left.  Personally, I feel that the term is getting thrown about way too liberally. People are using it more as a synonym for a bad project rather than an actual scam. As soon as a project is starting to dip in price messageboards usually get several Rug Pull comments straight away. NFTs, how do they fit in this? NFTs have sort of transformed to some degree from what they at least were at the start. Originally they were a way for an artist to be able to sell their digital art, as unique digital art. They would then be able to make an artwork into a series of NFTs, just like if an artist would make a limited series of prints from one of their art pieces. Or they could sell the artwork as an original, where it was only one piece. While this still is the case. When people talk about NFTs now, I would bet they think of apes and similar series of NFTs. What I would say make these different is that they are automatically generated from a subset of premade variables. In a sense, it is algorithmic art instead of a human artist's artwork. Does this really matter, no not really a unique piece of art is still a unique piece of art. The only distinction I would make is that they are not unique in the way that a piece of art in a series of artwork is not nice. They belong as part of a collection. Sure they are all unique pieces of art, but they also belong to a collection.  The part I do not understand I have read about several NFT projects that were so-called "Rug Pulls". Just to name, some there was the one that a famous pornstar made, where she then decided that just taking the money and leaving was a thing when wanted to do. Then there was the dick NFT project made by arguably one of the biggest dicks on the internet. In a similar way, he decided he no longer wanted any part of it, took the money, and went home. And this is the part I do not get. If an NFT is valuable because it is a unique piece of art. Why are people getting upset when the artist or creator leaves with the money they made?  I do not see anyone getting angry over Beeple for spending the $69 million he made from selling his *Everydays: The First 5000 Days* NFT. What makes that NFT different from any other? How can people be angry that the creator takes the money and leaves? They still have their NFT or whatever it was they bought. If the creator takes their money and leaves that should have no bearing on the NFT whatsoever. That's the difference between crypto and NFTs, if you look at crypto they are technically only worth the money tied up in liquidity. Because that is the only money you can get if you collected all the tokens and wanted to trade them in at the same time.  *What would you be willing to pay to own this part of history?* But an NFT, gets its value from what people want to pay for it if you want to sell it. Just like with any type of artwork. And there is a famous example of how this bit an investor in the bum. The person who bought the NFT of the first-ever tweet for 2,9M recently tried to flip it to cash out. But the NFT ended up selling for only 0.09 ETH, or about $277.  I do not see him complaining that they got rugged and now his NFT is worthless. So why is Rugging a thing that happens to NFT projects and why do the NFTs become worthless after the rug pull, they should still be worth whatever people are willing to pay for them, right? Or am I missing something? Sure if a project gets bad headlines people would probably be inclined to pay less for an NFT from that collection. But the same could be argued would be true if an artist gets negative headlines, their work would most likely sell for less than before. It is looking more and more to me that what people actually are paying for is the "cool" factor, or being able to sit at the cool kids' table at lunch. And what they are upset about is when the "cool by association" part goes away.  Please tell me the part I think I might be missing, or am I not missing anything? Or share your other thoughts on the whole Rug Pull usage in the crypto community, has the phrase started to change its meaning? Please comment in the comment section down below. I hope that you have found this post to be interesting and thought-provoking. =) If you did please consider following me, or reading my other posts or why not do both?     See you on the interwebs!       Picture provided by: https://pixabay.com/, https://unsplash.com/  Resources https://news.artnet.com/market/attempt-to-flip-nft-first-tweet-flops-2099625

@Patch

Just heard a new saying today, but it is sure to become a classic. Relationships are just like farts. If you have to force it, it is probably shit.

@Patch

FTX the latest info on the evolving story If you either want to catch up or just want to know the latest events this post is for you. publish0x.com/things-of-note-and-other-interesting-stuff/ftx-the-latest-info-on-the-evolving-story-xjrypnz

@Patch

Ponzienomics here, there, everywhere One of the trends in the DeFi crypto space is projects that in some way shape or form involve Ponzinomics. And if you are unfamiliar with the word read on and it should all make more sense in a short minute or two. What is Ponzinomics? I would argue that Ponzinomics is nothing more than the latest incarnation of the Ponzi- or the Pyramid Scheme. If you are unfamiliar with them they are in fact different, despite most people using them as interchangeable words. Often meaning the same thing. The Ponzi is one person promising exuberant APY that is just crazy to expect. A recent example of this is Anchor Protocol. Promising a fixed APY, Annual Percentage Yield, of close to 20%. And just to show you how crazy high those numbers are. Bernie Madoff the man who famously ran the world’s largest Ponzi Scheme, reportedly worth about 64,8 billion dollars, promised an APY of 10–20%. So Anchor Protocols 20% is even putting old Bernie Madoff to shame. The way that they are able to sustain this high APY is by a constant influx of new money. In Bernie’s case he would give the money he got from new investors to the old ones. But how does the Pyramid Scheme differ from a Ponzi Scheme? The key is in the name, Pyramid. One person recruits two or more people, in turn, they also recruit two or more people each, and so on. Everyone is then selling something, usually. The person who recruited you earn a % of your sale and so on. In a sense, it is the reverse of a trickle-down economy. Here the money trickles up instead. Often these types of schemes also have a high entry fee you have to pay to the person above who recruited you. While a Ponzi relies on a new influx of cash, the pyramid instead relies on an infinite amount of people. And as you probably have realized both premises are equally faulty. *Charles Ponzi, the originator, and namesake of the Ponzi Scheme* And now we finally come to what Ponzinomics is. It is, I would argue, just the latest term used in order to describe these types of schemes. In order for people to keep getting “tricked” the fraudulent industry has to keep reinventing itself. Because if they keep running the same scheme over and over people would wise up and stop falling for it. And one way to do this is to keep changing its name. Historically some of the names used are Multi-level marketing (MLM), network marketing, or pyramid selling. I would like to add Ponzinomics ass the most recent entry to that list. What can we do about it? Well, the most important thing I would argue is to keep yourself informed. That way you will be able to stay clear of DeFi Ponzinomic project in the future. But many people would argue that Anchor was open about the high APY being unsustainable in the long run. And that it was only used as a “sales promotion” of sort. And most people were aware of this as well. How come so many got stuck in the aftermath and the collapse then if everyone knew the foundation was made of quicksand? Well, all I can say to that is it is hard to not get crap on you when it hits the fan. It does not really matter if you were able to smell it before it hit. When it hits the fan it goes everywhere, and it happens fast. Giving you little to no time to react or jump behind the cover. What I mean by educating yourself is you need to do it in order to stay clear of these types of projects. You do not educate yourself in order to be aware of the risk and try and stay safe. That will in 99/100 cases never work. If these were my options, knew I was making a very risky investment that was likely to fail or know nothing. Personally, I would choose the ignorance is bliss road. But we can surely game the system, right? Yes, yes you can. But in order for you to be able to do so. You would need to get in early. I am talking about starting day, or pre-sale. And even then it will be hard to gauge a project’s adaption rate. You could be able to jump on board a project, on the very first day as it is about to set sail. Just for it do like the Swedish Regal Ship Vasa. Sinking after roughly 1,300 meters on its maiden voyage. *A 1:10 model of the ship Vasa, one of the most lavished ships ever constructed at its time. Sank due to faulty construction.* In short, you really have to be on the up and up in order for you to try and make any gains from these things. But sure, if you are, then you will be able to make crazy amounts of money. Just look at Jesse Eckel, a famous crypto youtube. He was able to get in early, more from a fluke and a chance he was willing to take than any nefarious dealings. I know there are some accusations being flung about him regarding some of these Ponzinomic projects. But as far as I can tell he has always been open about what he does, not trying to game the system. But he is still a good example of how and what needs to happen in order for you to be able to make money from a project like this. What about me, do I have a horse in the race? I have invested around $300 into both Titano and Libero, with $200 in Titano and $100 in Libero. Who are two of the more famous “crazy” APY projects with inflation tokenomics. Meaning you earn an ever-increasing amount of tokens over time. Both of them compound your earnings automatically every 30 minutes. Did I expect to make a ton of money from them, no. Did I hope I would, yes. It was all money I was willing to gamble with. Meaning I was ok with losing it. I did not need that money in order to survive or make a payment on a house or such important things. I view it more as buying a lottery ticket. I also have invested $100 into Sphere. A similar project by looks alone. But their goal is different. If they are able to succeed with what they have set out to try. I think it will be a very nice project to be a part of. But it is looking like another dead project. But after these initial forays, I have been able to get my internal greed devil under control. At least for now... So as you can see even I have dabbled in this space. And I actually have all my tokens still, from all three projects. Not having sold any of it. The future, what is in store for us? There have been some alarming trends in the crypto space, And that is I see a lot of these, mostly, short-lived Ponzinomics projects plopping up, just like mushrooms out of the ground. They are almost everywhere you look. They are a huge part of the current Play-to-Earn market. Most of the node projects, if not all of them are heavily steeped in Ponzinomics, crazy lending protocols like Anchor, and of course, there are the inflation token projects promising insane APY. And I have probably missed a few different types of Ponzinomics projects. And I think, sadly that we will keep seeing them. Why you ask. It is fairly simple. They are a very fast and easy way for people to make a lot of money. I am talking about the people running the project now. Not any of the investors, even if that sometimes can apply to them as well. Until something is done about this in the crypto space, I sadly think we have to get used to this being the new normal. *Russia having a majority of Ponzi, and Pyramid Schemes for Q1 were crypto-based* And if you take a look at Russia, there was recently a report saying that a majority of Ponzi, and Pyramid Schemes for Q1 were crypto-based. Sure Russia has a pretty unique situation right now. But I would argue it is still part of the larger crypto trend. And the criminal elements in Russia long have adopted the use of crypto. Just look at all the ransomware attacks originating from Russia. There might also be some projects that have an honest approach and believe that they will succeed with what their goals are. But I find the odds of them succeeding to be very slim at best. And if for no other reason than investors will use them as any normal Ponzinomic project. Is there anything we as a community can do about it? Well, sadly it comes down to the “classic” vote with your dollars. That or we need some sort of regulations in the crypto space. And I know that is a word many do not want to touch even with a 10-foot pole. And sadly, I think that regulations could be used to at least better the current situation. I do not feel that any regulatory body will be able to implement them in a good way. One way to get to these projects would be through the DEX- and CEXes. Simply by having them delist these types of projects. But as they often can be quite popular, resulting in larger amounts of transactions. I do not see that happening in the foreseeable future. And there is basically little to no way of safeguarding from when the big actors like Celsius and FTX are revealed to be very close to being a ponzie. At at least relying heavily on unsavory business practices. But if we look at the crypto space as a whole. I think it is clear that something has to change. Ponzinomic projects growing like mushrooms everywhere, celebrities used for Pump and Dump schemes, and the list go on. Sadly I do not have any solution to percent. =( But maybe you do? If so please share them with me in the comments down below. What are your opinions on these types of projects? If you have found this post informative or entertaining. Please consider following me, and reading some of my other posts or why not do both?     See you on the interwebs!       Picture provided by: https://www.pexels.com/, Picture of Charles Ponzi provided by Public Domain, Picture of Vasa provided by Peter Isotalo under CC BY 3.0, https://pixabay.com/ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Peter_Isotalo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

@Patch

Is Crypto.com the next exchange to fall? They are currently sitting with 20% of their assets in one meme coin...

@Patch

Hope everyone is doing ok as the FTX turmoil is looking to slow down a little.

@Patch

Justin Sun offers help to FTX users, but why? As soon as I see Justin Suns’ name in the headlines it eminently pops up warning sounds and red flags in my head. But let us look at this, maybe this time it will be different. Maybe this is not simply his latest “get rich scheme” but truly something that is done to help the community. Some brief Looks at Justin Sun and his latest venture During the Merge, Sun announced that he would back the Ethereum PoW form, and was ready to put billions of his $ETH to support the development of a new ecosystem. The $ETHPoW fork then came. But just like magic, there was a third fork of Ethereum as well. Sun had gotten second thoughts. And instead of supporting the Ethereum PoW fork, he for some reason instead made his own fork. Most likely leaving both fork words for wear. This is the latest time Sun was involved in a project, to my knowledge at least. Helping hand to FTS users Sun was reportedly devastated by the recent events. And he and his team went to work to try and help “their users”, meaning holders of $TRX, $BTT, $JST, $SUN, and $HT coins and tokens. The deal that emerged was Sun would help facilitate a 1:1 exchange. This meant that if you held a $SUN token on FTX. Now you would be able to swap that token for a token that was not on FTK. Meaning you now would get your crypto back. This was truly an awesome thing. Something that truly only could be done by someone who possesses a good heart, right? Right? Disregarding the very valiant, and possibly self-serving, “protect our users” part. Let us look at the deal and its effects. The first thing that happened was that all the affected crypto spiked in price FTX. How bad you ask, well $TRX momentarily traded for $2.5, compared to the outside price of $0.05–6. This could hardly come as a shock to anyone. If you open a door to a room full of people, people who think they are left to die in that room. Of course, they will scratch and claw their way to try and get to the exit. It is basic survival instinct. Ok, you might say. But how is that anything that would matter? People now can get their crypto out of the platform, and that ultimately is a good thing, right? Yes, if we look at it from an individual perspective. A person had crypto on FTX, these cryptos were now locked away, presumably lost forever. Now that person is able to get some of that crypto back, at a premium. But logically the premium does not matter, because having some crypto, even if it is only a small amount. Would logically be better than having no crypto. It all is very reminiscent of a psychological experiment called The Dictator Game. In this experiment one person, the Dictator gets a sum of money. They get to decide how much, or how little, of the money to share with a stranger. The caveat is the stranger gets to decide if they accept the deal, then they both get the allotted money. Or they can refuse the deal. Then both get nothing. Looking at it from a completely logical perspective, the stranger should always accept any deal where they get more than $0. This is because any amount of money would mean they now have more money than before. However, humans are very rarely purely logical. If we were where they would be no reasons for Volcans to exist in Star Trek, now would it? Instead, everyone would be Volcans, minus the other alien races, and every Volcan would be what we are now. The result of the experiment is that very few people accept a deal where they get “less” money. People rather chose the option of no one getting anything. Back to FTX. Currently, $TRX is trading at 600% higher on FTX than outside of FTX. And I assume the others are traded at a similar ark up. This means that if you want to get your crypto out of FTX you have to take a 6:1 loss. Meaning for every $1 you can get out of FTX means you spend $6 in FTX. The $5 loss in value is what is called an Arbitrage. But this $5 just does not disappear, it has to go somewhere. “BING, BONG. NEXT STOP SPECULATION STATION” Why speculation station, well this is simply because non of this has been confirmed. And possibly never will be. But with that crazy high arbitrage one would either assume that FTX is looking to get themselves out of their billion-dollar hole off the back of their customers. Or Justin Sun has struck a deal with FTX where they share the arbitrage to some degree or another. *All hail our lord and savior* My money is on the latter. This is simply because FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried are in a very dire situation. Their previous only way out, the deal with Binance, fell through. No other deal has been found. This is despite reports of SBF courting everything and everyone. And with the very real future of legal actions against FTX and SBF. The only deal that was left was seeming to deal with the devil. this now, if we harken back to the dictator game again. This means that not only does Justin Sun have the money, but he will also be able to dictate the division or the deal. He also has what is equivalent to a gun to the head of SBF. On the last day, reports have emerged that some other funds, is certain regions like the Bahamas, have been able to be withdrawn. This might be because SBF is using its arbitrage portion to try and make as many whole again as possible. But it might very well also be that SBF is trying to mitigate the legal fallout by simply paying out everyone in certain regions. Rather than having to face legal actions there as well. But he might also be trying to buy back some lost goodwill for the legal trouble he will be facing. While the jury very much still is out of the room on SBF, personally I am having a very hard time seeing Sun doing this without raking in a ton of money as well. I would like to hear your opinion on this Sun FTX deal. Do you think I am way too cynical, or perhaps not enough cynical? Please sound off in the comments down below. If you have found this post informative or entertaining. Please consider following me, and reading some of my other posts or why not do both? See you on the interwebs! Picture provided by: Screenshot from **https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUhBTrqrXro&t****,** **https://coinmarketcap.com/** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUhBTrqrXro&t,

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