> The only exception I might take to what you're saying is that one of the main reasons for crypto is resistance to central authority, so the emergence of a situation where something like this can happen should be edifying.
Explain.
> It's not the first time this has happened; people seem to forget about Mt Gox.
False equivalence, MTGOX wasn't a Publically traded company with tons of VC money and lots of institutional funds (Ark et al) backing them; Mark embezzled funds and had horrible OPSEC that led to a massive hack. He tried covering this up, Coinbase reporting a massive loss is definitely not the same thing.
> These exchanges need to be part of the crypto schema. Crypto theory is so focused on the chain and not the infrastructure that builds up around it.
Coinbase has been the bane of the Bitcoin ecosystem since MTGOX folded. They are not a representation of what the 'Crypto' schema needs, in fact I'd argue CASH is a superior product in very conceivable way.
And what exactly is Crypto theory, exactly?
The Infrastructure was meant to be P2P, as noted in the White paper by Satoshi: exchanges are merely a response from the growing Market to cater to the increase in demand, and the truth is they still exist. Kraken, Binance, Gemini etc... still exist and will for some time. The number of exchanges isn't the issue in 'Cryoto land,' it's the scams and I'm glad Coinbase being a pusher of these worthless alts deserves to suffer. My worry is what happens to their BTC if they decided to unload to cover losses.
I wouldn't read into that comment (of mine) too much. I meant what I said in an abstract sense.
> False equivalence, MTGOX wasn't a Publically traded company with tons of VC money and lots of institutional funds (Ark et al) backing them; Mark embezzled funds and had horrible OPSEC that led to a massive hack. He tried covering this up, Coinbase reporting a massive loss is definitely not the same thing.
Fair enough; good point. They are different. But I do think these intermediary, exchange entities, whatever you want to call them, tend to emerge repeatedly, with their own vulnerabilities, in a way that isn't always fully recognized in a lot of the discussion of cryptocurrency. My sense (which could certainly be wrong) is there's a bit of a gap between blockchain-level issues and macroeconomic theory as it comes up in discussions of cryptocurrency.
> And what exactly is Crypto theory, exactly?
I just meant academic computer science - economic theory about cryptocurrency, like you might have in conference proceedings, academic journal articles, or technical papers openly distributed for critique and discussion. Maybe the sort of thing that might get discussed in formal policy reports by various public and private profit and nonprofit institutions.
> The Infrastructure was meant to be P2P, as noted in the White paper by Satoshi: exchanges are merely a response from the growing Market to cater to the increase in demand,
I think that's part of what I'm getting at. From the very beginning it's been clear to me people generally don't actually want pure cryptocurrency P2P in the sense they don't actually want to store the entire blockchain on their laptop. So these kinds of intermediary structures will emerge.
> and the truth is they still exist. Kraken, Binance, Gemini etc... still exist and will for some time. The number of exchanges isn't the issue in 'Cryoto land,' it's the scams
I don't mean to imply I have a problem with exchanges per se, it's that it would be nice if there was some kind of robustness built in surrounding them. Maybe fraud is inherent to all economic systems (people lose money all the time on traditional stock exchanges and in investment schemes), but it would be nice if there was something like, just say hypothetically, a higher-order layer akin to the FDIC etc (in the absence of the FDIC etc), but distributed or something? I just think these things aren't really well-worked out -- the idea that someone could exchange USD into crypto and then have it disappear because a central entity collapses is going against the grain of what crypto is supposed to prevent.
Explain.
> It's not the first time this has happened; people seem to forget about Mt Gox.
False equivalence, MTGOX wasn't a Publically traded company with tons of VC money and lots of institutional funds (Ark et al) backing them; Mark embezzled funds and had horrible OPSEC that led to a massive hack. He tried covering this up, Coinbase reporting a massive loss is definitely not the same thing.
> These exchanges need to be part of the crypto schema. Crypto theory is so focused on the chain and not the infrastructure that builds up around it.
Coinbase has been the bane of the Bitcoin ecosystem since MTGOX folded. They are not a representation of what the 'Crypto' schema needs, in fact I'd argue CASH is a superior product in very conceivable way.
And what exactly is Crypto theory, exactly?
The Infrastructure was meant to be P2P, as noted in the White paper by Satoshi: exchanges are merely a response from the growing Market to cater to the increase in demand, and the truth is they still exist. Kraken, Binance, Gemini etc... still exist and will for some time. The number of exchanges isn't the issue in 'Cryoto land,' it's the scams and I'm glad Coinbase being a pusher of these worthless alts deserves to suffer. My worry is what happens to their BTC if they decided to unload to cover losses.