George Soros, Rockefeller Take Their Marks Before Diving Into the Cryptocurrency Pool (businessinsider.com) 100
john of sparta shares a report from Business Insider (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source): Reports of a crackdown on cryptocurrency advertisements by tech giants such as Google and Facebook as well as regulatory uncertainty in Asia and the U.S. have weighed on the coin for much of March and April. The coin is down 50% since the beginning of the year. But investors appeared to be more bullish during Sunday's trade following reports that two Wall Street icons were looking to get into the market for cryptos. More notably, the investment fund founded by billionaire George Soros is preparing to dive into cryptocurrency trading, even though Soros himself previously described them as a "bubble." Adam Fisher, who oversees global macroeconomic investing for Soros Fund Management, has gained internal approval to invest in and trade cryptocurrencies, according to a Bloomberg News report. Also, Venrock -- a venture capital firm founded by descendants of famed capitalist John D. Rockefeller -- announced it was partnering with a cryptocurrency investment firm based in Brooklyn. Fortune first reported on the partnership.
Re:What? When naysayers finally eat crow? (Score:5, Interesting)
All this announcement means is: They think they can game the system.
(Possibly by buying a load of cryptocoins then going around spreading rumors that they're "getting into crypto"...)
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They've probably already quietly bought shitloads of it, and now it's time to talk up the price.
Re:What? When naysayers finally eat crow? (Score:4, Insightful)
REPORTS that two Wall Street icons were looking to (Score:1)
1. Soros and Rockefeller leak "reports" that they are about to get into cryptocurrencies
2. Wait for the market to spike and short cryptocurrencies
3. Soros and Rockefeller issue official statements that cryptocurrencies are a terrible investment
4. Cryptocurrencies nose-dive and they sell their short
Soros got rich shorting a currency...
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All this announcement means is: They think they can game the system.
I can promise you that is what it means. People like Soros don't see it as something that can benefit everyone. Right now all they see is a way to increase their own personal money and power. It is just another tool they can use to accomplish this.
Personally, I think bitcoin and its like is nothing more than a ponzi scheme and will collapse sooner or later. But with Soros and his like getting involved, that will lend it a air of legitimacy. Which will only make the collapse so much bigger when it do
Re:What? When naysayers finally eat crow? (Score:5, Interesting)
What's hard to understand?
A handful of Chinese own most of the cryptocurrency and are busy manipulating the markets* so they can take all the round-eyes life savings and college funds.
(*) By buying and selling between themselves at artificial prices
Here they are, all sitting in a row:
http://cointimes.tech/2017/01/... [cointimes.tech]
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Sorry, I forgot the apostrophe:
It should be "...take all the round-eyes' life savings and college funds."
Yes please (Score:3)
But introducing yet another kind of money, let alone one that is without substance insofar as its value isn't backed by a profitable industry which is the only thing that can induce real value into a currency, and even one that is devoid of every safety that conventional banks are bound to offer by law, would not really be the way to go.
And to get rid of money, we'd need to get rid of capitalism in the first place.
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let alone one that is without substance insofar as its value isn't backed by a profitable industry which is the only thing that can induce real value into a currency
Not true, the USD is backed by debt and the threat of violence, for instance.
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Re: Yes please (Score:2)
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Re: Yes please (Score:1)
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Without even reading the article, I guarantee that they immediately convert that to dollars, and the exchange rate changes pretty regularly.
Arizona is not sitting around holding Bitcoin. They're allowing people to pay off their dollar-denominated debts by use of an exchange as an intermediary.
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That is not what 'backed' means.
And I pay my taxes in EUR, you insensitive clod!
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let alone one that is without substance insofar as its value isn't backed by a profitable industry which is the only thing that can induce real value into a currency
Not true, the USD is backed by debt and the threat of violence, for instance.
Which does not give it it's value, its purchasing power. If there was not at least a halfway functional industry that successfully transforms goods and raw material into more expensive goods, so that money invested in the currency area has a plausible chance of coming back as more money, it wouldn't have the purchasing power.
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Only a profitable industry? False. Only the gub'mnt tax-collecting gunbarrel can validate a "monies" [...]
If there wasn't a profitable industry that would charge the currency with value, your money wouldn't buy your bread, regardless of what the goverment does or doesn't do. After all, both the value of a currency and the amount of money floating around depend on how good the chances are for someone who invests money in the currency area to get more money back. (There are more aspects and details to it, but at its core, it's as simple as that.)
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Bitcoin's value is in the kostenlos nature of the services and transaction network; it has far lower transaction cost, carry cost, etc... than does the USD.
That's not 'value' in the economic sense of being a reliable exchange equivalent for goods. A currency gets real and reliable purchasing power only if there's an underlying industry that successfully fulfills its only purpose, transforming money in more money through investing labor in commodities and base products, producing end-products which are worth more than the sum of what was needed to produce it.
Bitcoin itself can only exist because 1. there are such real currencies with real value it can technical
Re:Can we get rid of money yet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly this seems the way of the future, it is sweeping the globe. It works better than money, and it has none of the down sides of the bickerings of the international community.
"Works better than money?" LOL!
No bickerings? LOL!
You're blowing off the "international community" and putting your money in the hands of a bunch of Chinese who've already shown that they'll manipulate the price all day long:
https://hackernoon.com/the-gre... [hackernoon.com]
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The only thing crypto currency is good for is generating hype stories and bubble inflation...
...and buying contraband. As long as it's good for this, it's not going to disappear entirely. Cryptocurrency is still the primary trading medium for the dark web.
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The only thing crypto currency is good for is generating hype stories and bubble inflation...
...and buying contraband. As long as it's good for this, it's not going to disappear entirely. Cryptocurrency is still the primary trading medium for the dark web.
I'm guessing that one or more state actors can trace it. Unless it's based on the only secure software on the planet.
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That's not affecting its popularity.
Re: Can we get rid of money yet? (Score:2)
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It works better than money, and it has none of the down sides of the bickerings of the international community.
I agree. Digital currency only has upsides. Stealing Bitcoins online is way easier than robbing a bank.
Re: Can we get rid of money yet? (Score:2)
Bubble (Score:3, Informative)
though Soros himself previously described them as a "bubble."
Getting involved with it does not necessarily prove it otherwise, he may just want to get his fair share of that bubble before it bursts for good.
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Getting involved with it does not necessarily prove it otherwise
Hedge funds are a bet that the market will move, you can bet on it moving either up or down. It's likely Soros was waiting until he could short the funds and profit from other people's losses.
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Hedges aka options aka derivatives.
Hedge funds are mutual funds for the rich and connected. High fees, high minimum deposit, but usually they've got returns to (sort of) justify the fees. Insider traders that will take the hit for their investors, what Madoff was pretending to be.
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Soros isn't getting involved, a Fund he set up a long time ago is. I doubt he has $0.10 in that fund today.
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You. Will. Be. The. Bagholder.
Again.
Fools and their money (Score:5, Insightful)
"John Burbank, who shuttered his main fund last year, plans to raise $150 million for two funds investing in digital currencie"
Please be clear. Burbank is taking US Dollars for a 'Fund'. Funds take money (real actual $$$ money) and buy something with it, and take a fee for managing that something. He is not investing in crypto, you are, he is taking fees as $$ for your investment in it. He is not the idiot making the bad pseudo investment, you are.
"Soros has already been indirectly betting on crypto. The firm amassed a stake in Overstock.com in the fourth quarter, making it the third-biggest shareholder of the discount e-commerce company. In August 2017 it became the first major retailer to accept digital currencies. The company had also planned to start an exchange for cryptocurrencies as well as offer digital coins that could trade on the platform."
Again, he is not investing his money in crypto, he bought Overstock.com who in turn were planning to setup an exchange TAKING MONEY FROM IDIOTS BUYING CRYPTO. A different thing.
Don't be fooled.
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As someone who is bearish on Bitcoin but bullish on blockchains, I would really like to know what portion of the transactions are really being used for the useful economic activities that can positively benefit from kind of system, e.g. sending money back to my parents in the old country.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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What is a little harder to determine is whether or not we've always had serial entrepreneurs of this magnitude and perhaps didn't really see earlier examples of people being ultra-suc
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Can you cite any sources?
Re: on the nature of capitalist champions. (Score:2)
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" products of their respective dynastic wealth"
In Soros's case, that would be pretty much none.
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Enjoyable rant, just one small question though - has anybody who has billions in wealth actually earned it. No? I thought not.
Comment removed (Score:3)
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No JEW SOROS with APKoin (Score:1)
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P.S.=> The Soros and ROTHSCHILD backed jew bankers want to destroy CRYPTO COIN because it can derail th
Cryptoscams (Score:1)
Are (any) fiat-currency and (any) cryptocurrency really equivalent, as cryptocurrency fans claim?
For example, US Dollar and Bitcoin are really equals?
Value/validity/authorization of US dollar is provided/guaranteed by US Government (and in-turn whole US Public)!
Also, not to mention, US Dollars in any US Bank is insured by US Government!
What authorization/guarantee/insurance is behind Bitcoin? Nothing!
Sorry but that is the end of discussion then!
Why do you think Satoshi Nakamoto is really hiding his identity
Mark (Score:2)
Getting Into the Crypto Market... (Score:1)
When people like this "get into the market," it does not mean what most retail investors think it means. They may be long, short, selling derivatives, buying derivatives, or, most likely, all of the above. They are also looking at being middle-men, making a few (more) cents on every transaction, being money changers.
Having people think it just means they are going long helps them by bringing in dumb money. Their job is to help that dumb money find its way home to where the smart money lives. "Price disc
Another Big Drop (Score:2)
About five hours ago (9 April 2018 10:14 UTC), bitcoin fell off a cliff. It dropped $268.36 in 18 minutes. How can anything be a currency for use in financial transactions if it is so volatile? How can you price goods and services with such volatility?
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Because............blockchain!
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Actually, almost half my living expenses are paid from dividends, interest, and capital gains on my investment portfolio. The other half of my living expenses are paid from a small pension and Social Security. I manage my wife's and my own portfolios as well as the portfolio in which I invested my grandson's inheritance from his deceased father.
Rumors and speculation and name dropping (Score:3)
Here's what I'm read from the article. The fund founded (not run by George Soros but his son) has approved trading in cryptocurrency.
The Soros Fund Management venture internally approved the trading of virtual coins in the past few months. So far, no actual “big trades” have has been made, but that situation will come to change very soon.
As for Rockefeller, this was the relevant passage:
Also, Venrock — a venture capital firm founded by descendants of famed capitalist John D. Rockefeller — announced it was partnering with a cryptocurrency investment firm based in Brooklyn.
The article makes clear that the fund not run by Soros himself has only approved trading not that it has traded in cryptocurrency. It doesn't necessarily say that the fund will invest in cryptocurrency as an asset; the fund could be shorting them. As for Venrock, there are no details on what and how much investment is being made. It could be a small amount.
if you are stinking rich... (Score:2)
How to make lots more money
1) Buy up a lot of Bitcoin very quietly
2) Announce that you are thinking about buying Bitcoin
3) Sell all your Bitcoin
4) Tell everyone Bitcoinis just a bubble
5) Go back to step #1
Bitcoin (Score:2)