Hacker News: bendtheblock

New comment by bendtheblock in "The $6.3B Binance hack was pulled off in just 20 minutes"

bendtheblock — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 18:30:01 +0000

Funny that for all the hype around decentralisation and the libertarian ideals that surround crypto Binance, Circle etc were able to unilaterally freeze funds when it came down to their own self interest... I thought the code was the rules etc seems like the best player won here.

Crazy that most of this gets put into North Korean weapons programs.

New comment by bendtheblock in "Hail, Orchestrator"

bendtheblock — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 18:39:02 +0000

I am the author... long time HN reader (2009).... Eager to get other founder's feedback and thoughts experiences building an AI-first company today.

Hail, Orchestrator

bendtheblock — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 18:33:23 +0000

Article URL: https://webtwoboomer.com/hail-orchestrator-655001b91bc2

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49601424

Points: 12

# Comments: 3

Developers could owe fiduciary duty to Bitcoin owners

bendtheblock — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 18:00:24 +0000

Article URL: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/arguable-case-that-developers-owe-fiduciary-duty-to-bitcoin-owners-gfr3rwgxt

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34914028

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by bendtheblock in "FTX was registered with and licensed by the CFTC, which failed to regulate FTX"

bendtheblock — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 21:16:59 +0000

Molly White, David Gerard and a few other academics and researchers did a 'correction' of a recent NY Times fluff piece from March 2022 here.

https://www.mollywhite.net/annotations/latecomers-guide-to-c...

It seems as if NYT have a couple of relatively pro-crypto (or just naive) writers.

Software Is No Longer Eating the World

bendtheblock — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 17:11:40 +0000

Article URL: https://webtwoboomer.com/software-is-no-longer-eating-the-world-109785eb9d4f

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32321474

Points: 7

# Comments: 2

New comment by bendtheblock in "The Blockchain in a Historical Perspective"

bendtheblock — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 13:30:54 +0000

That was price fixing - nothing to do with the bank's ledger. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/libor-scandal.asp

New comment by bendtheblock in "The Blockchain in a Historical Perspective"

bendtheblock — Sat, 16 Jul 2022 17:17:10 +0000

That wasn't a change in the ledger - it was the misselling and fraudulent opening of accounts. And it was remediated, there was a change in the leadership and settlements to the victims. You're proving my point, as a system we do a decent job of enforcing good behaviour.

New comment by bendtheblock in "The Blockchain in a Historical Perspective"

bendtheblock — Sat, 16 Jul 2022 16:41:16 +0000

A better title would be Ledgers in historical perspective. The hypothetical he ends with (what if ledgers could be decentralised) is a classic example of blockchains looking for a problem. In recent history have there been examples of banks changing their own ledgers? As a civilisation we have already solved the problem of trust in a much more efficient way.

New comment by bendtheblock in "The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money"

bendtheblock — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 21:05:26 +0000

what's wrong with this comment?! that it's anti-crypto? currency needs to be a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. Given its volatility, Bitcoin could only ever realistically be useful for the latter, and only then as a risky speculation.

New comment by bendtheblock in "The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money"

bendtheblock — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 16:46:02 +0000

but what's the benefit of these?

- decentralised: why is this good?

- trustless: I trust the companies I use, it works

- censure resistance: OK, fringe case for most

- pseudonymous: why do I want anyone to be able to see my transaction history?

New comment by bendtheblock in "The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money"

bendtheblock — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 16:20:50 +0000

Due to blockchain's architectural shortcomings, you need to do the transactions off chain. Fine...

But crypto-"currencies" are actually highly speculative assets (as South Africa declared today [1]). No bro will spend them - the ideology is to HODL for 100k remember [2]? Earnest patron saints like Laszlo Hanyecz bought two papa john’s pizzas in 2010 for what would be worth today roughly $200,000,000 [3]. They wanted a new currency, but today the purpose is speculation. The whole point is not to be the greater fool.

Bitcoin was never meant to be gold, it was meant to be spent. But that hasn't happened.

[1] https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-not-a-currency-south-...

[2] https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/laser-eyes-crypt...

[3] https://www.the-sun.com/news/2935660/bitcoin-pizza-laszlo-ha...

New comment by bendtheblock in "Coinbase is reportedly selling geolocation data to ICE"

bendtheblock — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 19:20:39 +0000

The centralized nature of these oligopolies is a property of capitalism, i.e. capital consolidates power. You are saying that search, storage etc are centralised because of the tech? Why are they any more centralised than the other (pre-internet) examples I mentioned?

New comment by bendtheblock in "Why I’m Cryptophobic"

bendtheblock — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 19:18:02 +0000

I think you're right about online fraud being much reduced with public private key tech, but if it's such a good idea why has no one been able to do it?

New comment by bendtheblock in "Why I’m Cryptophobic"

bendtheblock — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 19:04:27 +0000

it does imply that the value doesn't stick - in fact that's exactly what I'm saying. there is no value beyond the expectation that another greater fool will buy it from you in future.

New comment by bendtheblock in "Why I’m Cryptophobic"

bendtheblock — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 18:55:17 +0000

all money is political. good starting point: https://washingtonspectator.org/paranoia-on-parade/

New comment by bendtheblock in "Coinbase is reportedly selling geolocation data to ICE"

bendtheblock — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 18:38:56 +0000

What about JP Morgan and the Railroad Trusts? The big 4 accounting firms? Big pharma? The Magic Circle of Law Firms? I could keep going.

New comment by bendtheblock in "Why I’m Cryptophobic"

bendtheblock — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 18:37:26 +0000

My question to you is: what's the problem? On the few times I've lost money to online fraud, the bank returned it to me.

Why does having a huge public web of transactions on the slowest ledger ever created help? What happens to your "sovereignty" when everyone can see your purchases patterns? What happens when grandma loses her wallet key?

re: Greece, worth hearing Yanis Varoufakis on crypto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS0W-Whl0T0

New comment by bendtheblock in "Why I’m Cryptophobic"

bendtheblock — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 18:32:05 +0000

Flowers are used for decoration, dies, teas, scents. Sometimes they may be overvalued.

Crypto doesn't have any underlying value. It's just greater fool investing, there is no underlying cashflow, asset or company. Future cash flow comes from greater fools buying in.

When you say "the internet" I think you mean the wave of web1 companies? Same as flowers above, there are real uses and value creation, which can be priced in many ways.

New comment by bendtheblock in "Coinbase is reportedly selling geolocation data to ICE"

bendtheblock — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 18:25:25 +0000

not cryptographically no (and would be nice to see, but crypto is not the answer). But as a consumer when I shop online I never worry - if I am defrauded the (centralised) bank will give me the money back, that's the solution and it works for everyone