<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Giovanni Santostasi via extropy-chat<br><b>…</b><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] lotta splainin to do<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Spike, <br>>…No exchanges are not needed, they are just convenient. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>>…1) If we just …<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>{…did something that we haven’t done…}<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>>…2) In the meanwhile …<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>{…do this other thing we also haven’t done…}<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br>>…Giovanni <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>OK thx Giovanni. I agree completely with your observations on decentralization and I agree. We are not there yet, but that is where we need to be.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>As is often the case (well, OK always the case) I am late to the party as I have not followed cryptocurrency, other than cheering for friends who made it big in BtC, such as Jeff Davis.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>It occurred to me that the perspective of an outsider or tyro (me) is of value too, because I ask the obvious questions that the proletariat will ask the day after I do, and may come to similar conclusions that I did. So… reading my naïve commentary enables you to know what the proletariat will likely do, which enables hipsters to make money investing shrewdly. Shrewd investment is really about correctly predicting the future movement of the masses, or more specifically the mass of money. Get ahead of that wave, surf on it, and some of that money splashes into your pockets.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>The obvious observation regarding that cryptocurrency exchange FTX: it demonstrated that the usual rules don’t apply if one follows the simple expediency of buying the loyalty of the politicians in power. That is what happened here, ja? If so, if my cynical outlook is correct (always bet on human greed (you seldom lose that way)) then the other cryptocurrency exchanges most likely did and are doing the same thing this Sam Bankan-Fried character perpetrated, for all the same reasons. This will lead eventually to the same outcome FTX demonstrated last week, for all the same reasons.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Hey cool, we can make money short-selling all the remaining cryptocurrency exchanges. It’s all good, just so long as I personally make a buttload of money on it. Otherwise not. If I personally lose money then it’s unacceptable! It’s unethical, immoral, I tells ya! Aughta be illegal! I’ll call my congressman. Oh wait, retract, she’s on the payroll.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Giovanni, I hope there is a flaw in my reasoning, and the FTX effect doesn’t apply to all existing cryptocurrency exchanges, for if it does, they will go down in a chain reaction like a row of dominoes, and we will be back to where cryptocurrency has no convenient safe secure way to trade back and forth between fiat and digital currency. I get the feeling those two currency systems really just need to find a way to work together, to coexist peacefully, in parallel. One big bridge between the two just collapsed and now we are questioning the structural soundness of the rest of them.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></blockquote></div></div></body></html>