[astoor]

Looking for a cryptographic solution to this is certainly missing the point - it presupposes cryptocurrency coins and tokens are assets in the traditional sense, which they are not. At best they are like casino tokens - they have no intrinsic value, no legal entitlement to anything, and their use is entirely at the discretion of the issuing casino. That works fine for casinos because everything operates within the casino. The problem is that cryptocurrency wants to go outside the cryptocurrency sphere and into the real world, which is something that it is simply not designed to do. As we have seen, this leads to endless exploits, e.g. VCs and exchanges printing up billions of dollars worth of tokens, claiming they are actual assets (imagine a real casino printing chips with a total face value of $1.6 billion and claiming they had $1.6 billion in assets), convincing retail "investors" to exchange real money for those "assets", and then using that real money to gamble in different casinos.

[DennisP]

It's solving a simple and well-defined problem: making sure that whatever tokens you put in the exchange, you can get back out. You may think this is beside the point, but it's exactly what FTX miserably failed to do.

[BlueTemplar]

Yes, because it acted more like a bank than an exchange :

https://jorgevelez.substack.com/p/ftx

One that seemingly failed to be properly regulated despite doing business in the USA, and where supposedly sophisticated investors seemingly failed to do due diligence.

"Crypto" is being blamed a lot for FTX, but it's starts to feel more like it's a scapegoat at this point.

(And/or an excuse for everyone to just look away from how the sausage is being made while the numbers were going up : see also : the complicated math behind the subprime morgages in the 2008 crisis.)

Surely if those US regulators and those huge investor companies felt incompetent about "crypto", they could just have hired specialists ??

(And it's starting to look that not even this was needed, simply sending your average accountant might have uncovered FTX' lack of... accountability ?!)

[hef19898]

You are aware that casinos, and their "tokens", are pretty well regulated? Not the least becasue they are great way to launder money?

[astoor]

Yes, casinos are pretty well regulated in most countries, which is why I wrote "At best they [cryptocurrency coins and tokens] are like casino tokens". Although casinos don't have a spotless record, e.g. US$63 million from the 2016 Bangladesh Bank cyber heist is suspected to have been laundered via casinos in Manilla.

[naasking]

> they have no intrinsic value

There is no such thing beyond food, water and shelter.

[syzarian]

Intrinsic is not the right word to use but the overall point that was made is correct. A $1 U.S. bill has “intrinsic” value that comes from the backing of the United States government and an accompanying set of laws regarding usage.