BlockFi paused withdrawals. WTF is happening with crypto?

21 points by ExecutiveDre ↗ HN
My thoughts are, anything that is not an on/off ramp to Bitcoin is probably a waste of your time, effort and money. Stay smart.

13 comments

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> anything that is crypto is probably a waste of your time, effort and money

yesyes, i'll take the downvotes :D

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Lmao!!! Downvotes are a-comin! Lol .. in all seriousness. I respect your skepticism.
Worse of all, it's a waste of Earth resources.
This has been one of the most popular opinions of HN crowd since ever. This crowd was calling for the death of crypto during Covid crash and they are doing the same now.
Right now is the worst time in history to be using crypto, the entire concept is starting to destabilize and unravel in ways that make everybody wonder how long they're supposed to ignore the obvious contradictions in use cases

The second worst time in history will be in 5 years when your parent asks "why didn't you buy back in, things were so cheap, anyway here's your rent money, pay it back when you can"

> the entire concept is starting to destabilize

Nothing other than the price, which is just random people gambling like they are on Robinhood, has destabilized. Quite the opposite actually. All entities that are in trouble have been completely centralized entities, just like Google, Apple or AMZ are. They don't use the blockchain for their service. It's all centralized and they are largely gambling venues.

Meanwhile, anything that's on-chain like Uniswap, Aave, Compound, etc has been quietly humming along without outages or drama. You just don't hear about it because well, nothing happened there and it has been working just as it should. Same when the market crashed a few months ago, it worked flawlessly.

The fact that these centralized entities can do shady stuff with customer deposits without anyone noticing is actually the biggest argument for crypto, which is fully transparent and auditable by anyone. Not your keys not your coins has been true forever. The problem is that the vast majority of people doesn't understand this concept and thinks that Binance/FTX/Coinbase/etc has anything to do with blockchain stuff. They don't. They're just your normal centralized middleman. It's like saying "The internet is going down because AOL failed"

nice statement, LOL at the AOL analogy XD
It’s early still; this will get worse. People who are ‘buying the dip’ now are going to lose money.
You can still get just a few bucks. Either you loose 5 usd or hodl and... who knows... XD
Remember the whole reason Bitcoin and blockchain was made was to remove the need to trust a centralized counterparty who could succumb to greed, like a bank. Crypto banks are no different than regular banks, but with less regulations and insurance.

Learn to self-custody your coins, "not your keys not your coins." DeFi platforms like Aave and Compound are still working fine and will not just pause your withdrawals.

It means this 'industry' is showing itself for what it really is:

A complete scam.

Regular economy takes out the trash every 10-14 years, the crypto economy takes out the trash every 4 years.