logoalt Hacker News

rwmj • yesterday at 9:50 PM • 13 replies • view on HN

I thought the point of crypto was no takesies-backsies?


Replies

michaelt • yesterday at 10:33 PM

That hasn't been true for years.

Back in 2016 a then-huge Ethereum smart contract called "The DAO" [1] had a loophole that let an attacker extract a third of all the funds.

But a lot of the developers and miners had either lost money themselves, or had friends who'd lost money, or felt the embarrassing incident was devaluing their own Ethereum holdings. So they decided to allow takesies-backsies.

There's probably a philosophical lesson there about power and who the rules really apply to.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_DAO

➕ show 4 replies
toyg • yesterday at 9:53 PM

Those who cannot understand the monetary system are doomed to reimplement it.

➕ show 4 replies
Jhsto • yesterday at 10:03 PM

Doesn't apply for USDT and USDC which can freeze funds with a court order.

And like the DAO hack on Ethereum showed, if most people who run blockchain software decide that something never happened, they can revert transactions that way.

➕ show 1 reply
xaksnTMu2 • yesterday at 9:59 PM

That was already proven false after ETH fork on 2016-07-20, that rolled back funds stolen in DAO hack.

➕ show 1 reply
jml7c5 • yesterday at 10:14 PM

The value in USDT and USDC comes from the fact that they can (theoretically) be redeemed for real US dollars. One thing the issuers can do is announce "we will never accept redemption requests for these particular stolen coins", making them more or less worthless.

➕ show 3 replies
eagerpace • yesterday at 9:59 PM

Centralized decentralization

hgoel • yesterday at 10:39 PM

Turns out that even crypto's rules only apply if you're poor.

basch • yesterday at 10:35 PM

It’s always been that the voters determine reality.

stackghost • yesterday at 10:06 PM

The idiots that wanted no takebacks are the same ones who lacked the critical thinking ability to foresee this exact situation.

➕ show 1 reply
qwbar • yesterday at 10:01 PM

Well, Tether was started by an Epstein friend and first handled by the CIA Deltec bank in the Caribbean. Now it is handled by Lutnick's Cantor & Fitzgerald and is in Bukele's El Salvador.

Don't mess with Tether, it is practically state owned.

➕ show 2 replies
aidenn0 • yesterday at 10:40 PM

Most crypto is "majority rules" where the majority is either "majority of the currency" (proof of stake) or "majority of the mining power" (proof of work).

In this case, iFinex has the explicit ability to freeze funds in Tether.