Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mudrockbestgirl 1288 days ago
> Traditional banks, for the most part, have DNA built around protecting customer interests and customer money.

I don't think we're living in the same world :) Traditional financial institutions are just as bad, if not worse, than most crypto companies. You just have look at all the financial system crashes and exchange frauds. A key difference is that the government is there to bail them out because they are tightly linked, and that traditional institutions know they'll be punished because of strict regulations. It's not about the actors, or some kind of fuzzy DNA/culture, but about government and regulation.

I think it's also important to note the discrepancy in transparency. Yes, FTX was just a centralized exchange that had little to do with the blockchain, but you were still be able to see some of FTXs balance movements on-chain, simply because they are forced to use ETH/BTC/FTT/etc. If we hadn't, FTX may have gotten away with what they're doing a lot longer. Nobody may have found out.

With traditional financial institutions you have almost no transparency. You have absolutely no idea what they're doing behind your back. All you can do is trust the government to eventually bail them out if they mess up. Or trust that they're scared enough of going to prison that they don't try shady things.

2 comments

You clearly aren't aware of all the cryptocurrency exchanges that have gone bust. Exchanges are not banks, they are not supposed to act or even fail like banks. Exchanges only take a fee on every transaction. That is all they do. It is literally impossible to bankrupt an exchange if it is run honestly.

Banking meanwhile can fail even with honesty because of the nature of borrowing short and lending long.

> I think it's also important to note the discrepancy in transparency. Yes, FTX was just a centralized exchange that had little to do with the blockchain, but you were still be able to see some of FTXs balance movements on-chain, simply because they are forced to use ETH/BTC/FTT/etc. If we hadn't, FTX may have gotten away with what they're doing a lot longer. Nobody may have found out.

I think people might have noticed that customers could not withdraw funds, and the exchange declaring bankruptcy in any case.