Comment by rvz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rvz | Hacker News Reader

That's it? I was expecting hundreds of billions; quite far significantly smaller than expected out of the $13+ trillions in transaction volume in crypto [0].

Nothing but a microscopic amount, when compared to the tens of trillions of illicit funds being processed by banks in dollars and left unchecked. [1] [2]

Looks like this newsletter is another plain old side grift by Molly with the rest of the high profile extreme skeptics who are just as bad as the maximalists selling 'quality' rushed books riddled with typos and spelling errors pointed out by readers and crypto bros on Twitter [3] [4] [5].

Oh dear.

[0] https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2022-crypto-crime-repor...

[1] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-fil...

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/business/fincen-banks-sus...

[3] https://twitter.com/AlgoArcade/status/1554662257790943232

[4] https://twitter.com/NeddyPott/status/1547413083034947585

[5] https://twitter.com/Gazoche1/status/1555757395259031552

"A huge trove of secret government documents reveals for the first time how the giants of Western banking move trillions of dollars in suspicious transactions, enriching themselves and their shareholders while facilitating the work of terrorists, kleptocrats, and drug kingpins."

Wow. This is the first I've heard of that, but I've heard of crypto shenanigans endlessly. It's a distraction in comparison.

Probably because e.g. SWIFT, a small portion of the traditional western financial system, moves $5 trillion per day.

But also yeah, the crypto stuff is a distraction. Think of how much media, regulatory, financial, and technical mindshare has been consumed by this (as of now) hobbyist technology. It's pretty obscene.

You don't hear about it because it is only shades of illegal and/or hard to investigate, and most importantly, benefits powerful people (it is no coincidence that financial laws do not prevent this kind of rich people crime). It's been an open secret forever that London is dependent on laundering especially Russian oligarch's money.

Yeah I expected higher too. Even things like phone scams are doing 10x as much damage[1]. Maybe it has something to do with the bear market.

[1]: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/05/30/spam-phone-scams-...

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