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Comment by fartcannon | Hacker News Reader

Bitcoins inception was on the heels of the 2008 financial crisis. The genesis block mentions it. What bitcoin enthusiasts don't trust are objectively untrustworthy institutions. That's it. It's real straight forward.

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Bitcoin institutions are objectively untrustworthy and most people involved in Bitcoin have no real choice but to rely on them. I trust, say, Citibank more than Bitfinex.

You dont need bitcoin exchanges.

Given the huge number of people who only transact using exchanges, and the usability improvements of doing so, that may technically be true, but probably isn't too helpful. For most people they are inseparable in practice. Worrying about the trustworthiness of the major bitcoin players is practical.

Absolutely! Dont trust institutions is the message.

I suppose that was an original message for Bitcoin, but the current state with various institutions serving in trust-based roles for so many users, Bitcoin doesn't seem to have met that goal.

The users who out of practical concern are considering between trusting Citibank and Bitfinex, will benefit from chosing the one that's regulated.

At this point, I too would not recommend anyone put their life savings into crypto. Especially given the clearly powerful astroturfing campaign against it. But where can you put it? The banks are not trust worthy, they caused the financial crisis. Real estate, I guess. No wait, real estate being corrupt is what got bitcoin started in the first place.

Only if you want to lose all your assets when the taxman turns up for their cut.

They don’t take Bitcoin and in any sensible sovereign nation never will.

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