Tag: Bitcoin

Sunday Reads – Links I Found Interesting 2021-05-16

https://tether.to/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TetherWhitePaper.pdf Tether Releases Asset Breakdown I wrote up my thoughts on it here. https://bennettftomlin.com/2021/05/13/for-every-1-of-tether-there-are-0-03-in-cash/ Cas Piancey and I also did a podcast episode on it: https://bennettftomlin.com/2021/05/15/new-episode-of-tether-a-stable-discussion-with-cas-piancey-tethers-pie-charts/ David Gerard wrote up his and seems to have trouble determining what a 'reverse repo note' might be: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/05/13/tether-publishes-two-pie-charts-of-its-reserves/ http://web.archive.org/web/20210513214721/https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/05/13/tether-publishes-two-pie-charts-of-its-reserves/ Amy Castor (archive) also wrote up her thoughts on … Continue reading Sunday Reads – Links I Found Interesting 2021-05-16 →

The 2015 Bitstamp, 2015 Bitfinex, and 2017 Tether Hacks are Connected

Note: An earlier version of this article contained a version of this diagram with a minor typo. Acknowledgements: I would not have been able to complete this as thoroughly as I did without building off existing work. It needs to be pointed out that years ago u/SpeedflyChris (archive) pointed out these same connections. I also … Continue reading The 2015 Bitstamp, 2015 Bitfinex, and 2017 Tether Hacks are Connected →

Tether’s New Attestation: Thanks For Nothing

Tether has released a brand new attestation (archive) (my copy) showing that they are fully backed! Well, it shows that for at least one entire minute Tether was fully backed. Moore Cayman, an auditing firm in the Cayman Islands, has provided an assurance opinion on the current reserves of Tether. I am going to highlight … Continue reading Tether’s New Attestation: Thanks For Nothing →

A List of Funds/Companies who Fundraised Through Havelock Investments

NOTE: THIS MAY BE UPDATED OR CHANGED AS I DEVELOP A BETTER PICTURE OF OWNERSHIP OF THESE COMPANIES, UPDATES WILL BE LABELED AS SUCH. Havelock Investments was an early platform in the cryptocurrency space that allowed for a variety of companies to fundraise. Havelock Investments was purchased by the Panama Fund, S.A. in 2013. The … Continue reading A List of Funds/Companies who Fundraised Through Havelock Investments →

Key Excerpts and Commentary from NYAG/Tether Court Transcript

First of all link to the transcript: https://www.docdroid.net/Wk3pePO/transcript-may-16-2019.pdf  (my copy). Second of all congrats to @lawmaster and The Block for a great scoop.  https://t.co/22w3xY8mc8 Now let’s get down to business. Bitfinex is still being hesitant to hand over documents to the NYAG.  They have struggled to get access to documents relating to the transfer from … Continue reading Key Excerpts and Commentary from NYAG/Tether Court Transcript →

A Guide to a Hypothetical Internationally Coordinated State Level Attack On Bitcoin

There was a recent comment by Joseph Stiglitz in which he expressed his desire to “shut down the cryptocurrencies”.  This prompted me to seriously consider how one would go about shutting down or seriously damaging Bitcoin. This is not an easy problem because Bitcoin is designed to be a remarkably resilient system, however, I do … Continue reading A Guide to a Hypothetical Internationally Coordinated State Level Attack On Bitcoin →

On the Social Scalability of Bitcoin and the 21 Million Cap

Many Bitcoin proponents, chief among them Nick Szabo, laud Bitcoin for its social scalability.  In order to discuss this issue fairly we must first define social scalability. In the famous blogpost where it was first used, Szabo defines it as: “Social scalability is the ability of an institution –- a relationship or shared endeavor, in … Continue reading On the Social Scalability of Bitcoin and the 21 Million Cap →

Billion Grains of Bullshit: Calling out an Exploitive Cryptocurrency Scam

Sometimes life has a weird way of working out for me, like I was bored on Twitter looking for something to write about and then suddenly a scam decided to start spamming my mentions. I love when the scammers come to me! Saves me a step in my research process. This is a pretty blatant … Continue reading Billion Grains of Bullshit: Calling out an Exploitive Cryptocurrency Scam →

A Response to “Bitcoin’s Existential Crisis”

Nic Carter, one of the General Partners at Castle Island Ventures (a previous edition misidentified the fund), the VC fund infamous for investing in Flipside Crypto who sold baskets of shitcoins, recently wrote an article describing what he called the existential crisis of Bitcoin. If you don’t have 12 minutes to read it, it can … Continue reading A Response to “Bitcoin’s Existential Crisis” →