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Comment by headsoup | Hacker News Reader

What I don't get (well I do, lobbying and inside deals), is why these guys have run so long (especially Tether). Just because crypto is a 'decentralised' wild west opposed to government shouldn't mean they sit outside of the laws around fraud, laundering and deception, especially if they're registered companies.

The lack of legal focus, given the obvious illegitimacy of it all is disgraceful and I can't even imagine the size of the wealth transfer happening through all this.

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FTX was able to fleece Wall Street investors specifically because of their deep Wall Street connections. This is a corrupt Wall Street story. The only reason they were exposed is because they left evidence on-chain, and people started asking questions. There are very few people who have been in the cryptocurrency space for more than 5 years that had any sort of trust in FTX.

https://twitter.com/concodanomics/status/1591232063906217984

> Just because crypto is a 'decentralised' wild west opposed to government shouldn't mean they sit outside of the laws around fraud, laundering and deception, especially if they're registered companies.

Entirely speculation, but something fun I've heard repeated occasionally:

If this was "just tech", it could find itself regulated easily. (Though this isn't necessarily the case.)

If it's a geopolitical weapon or spy tool of any consequence, then there may be other stakeholders pushing back against weakening it.

Plausible, borderline conspiratorial, but fun to think about.

'Testbed for CBDCs' and 'black budget money laundering' seem like compelling explanations for the stunning regulatory forbearance (so far) to me. I've also seen speculation that FTX/SBF were intentionally allowed to create Ponzi bubbles of epic proportions in order to discredit decentralized digital currency and make it radioactive in most of the public's mind.

Alternatively, governments knew FTX was a fraud and let it happen to weaken peoples’ faith in crypto.

Or just the usual story of near senile legislators being decades behind actual developments and just not getting it, and therefore not moving quickly enough.

Scientology, herbalife, and other obvious scams have persisted. I think crypto people love getting defrauded, and as long as they enjoy it there won't be much pressure to prosecute.

I Dunn if it is fair to include Scientology in that.

Other than the amounts of money involved, it clearly is a religion.

And in general religions are in business of extracting money from people and using it for their own means. Scientology is not any different from any other. Including the mainstream Christian cults...

Wait is the government a religion?

You may want to check the validity of the syllogism.

The US government is made up of 4 religions: Democrat, Republican, MAGA and Bernie Sanders.

And their means both as determined by their doctrine and expressed by their history vary greatly. In the US religions have been legally defined (a subject of much debate historically) as they are given tax and regulatory exemptions and often public funding. Here’s a good read on the topic from 1969:

https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3...

I’m curious, are there specific ones your referring to, or do you consider all mainstream denominations of Christianity cults?

I don't understand the modding down. Does someone want to explain why Scientology is different than, say, the major Christian religions? Or Islam?

Here’s my understanding:

In Christianity, god extorts adherence through the revelation that there’s eternal life after death and the threat of eternal damnation as punishment for insubordination. The requirements to enter Heaven are acknowledgment and acceptance of Jesus’ crucifixion as atonement for your transgressions (and possibly repentance).

In Islam, god extorts adherence through the revelation that there’s eternal life after death and the threat of eternal damnation as punishment for insubordination. The requirements to enter Paradise are not explicitly defined (aside possibly through dying in a Jihad) so strict adherence is arguable more crucial than in Christianity.

In Scientology, god extorts adherence by eliciting confessions of past transgressions on videotaped counseling sessions and threatening public exposure for insubordination, among other tactics.

At least Islam and Christianity funded art, architecture and to some extent science and literacy.

Disclosure: I'm agnostic asymptotically approaching atheist

Popular appeal?

All sorts of scams, from dietary supplements to homeopathy pyramid schemes are permitted to carry on because fighting them is too unpopular.

Edit: take a look at Twitter. Crypto folks are busy worried that the Us gov will overreact and regulate crypto over this.

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