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Comment by tw1984 | Hacker News Reader

tw1984

After all these recent shit regarding crypto currencies in the US, you don't need a full brain to figure out that there is a huge hole in the system.

It is also amazing to see that CZ managed to walk away free of any jail time, kept most of his assets gathered by his con job.

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FWIW, CZ is (and was viewed as) a good actor in the industry. He did a lot of good not only for crypto adoption but for access to better fiat currencies for people in countries with hyper-inflating collapsing system. comparing him to SBF (like many do) is absolutely not fair. he fcked up on AML front for sure and he is going to be punished rightfully but he did just so much good for people that he will stay remembered is positive persona. hero for many.

So there is good con and bad con?

Who did he con? Binance wasn't found to be a rug and don't think it will be. He let people move money around freely and didn't obey anti money laundering laws. So maybe his service benefited "bad guys" as deemed by the state.

So yes there is a difference between gambling away deposits and allowing someone to use your service without taking their name and social security number and reporting it to government authorities

He is not a con. At least there is no indication yet.

Not adhering to AML isn't exactly a con

It is if you expect to profit from it

Why would you say it’s a con job? The settlement is for not enforcing money loundering restrictions, not conning or scamming people. Binance seems to be reputable and hasn’t done any shady things with customer funds, as far as I know.

Did you every track their tokens? The price of movement of the short and long coins was very dubious. Binance at points allowed up to transfer and 1 BTC without registration, therefore enabling a lot of shady characters to trade on their platform. A lot of scammers and fraudsters were using binance as their preferred platform.

> A lot of scammers and fraudsters were using binance as their preferred platform.

they are the exact targeted audience of CZ's business.

His sentencing is in February. According to the plea deal, he waives his right to appeal any sentence not more than 18 months, so he might still be in jail for a short period.

Should all gambling companies be jailed?

Yes

> most of his assets gathered by his con job.

How did he con you?

Did someone force you to use Binance?

Do you have evidence that he conned someone?

That's obviously not what is meant by 'con', though. It's just composed of first gaining the trust of someone and then defrauding them. Forcing has nothing to do with it and would likely rule out the application of the term, since trust is an integral part of all cons. There has been no fraud yet proven, so it can't conclusively be called a con. On the other hand FTX can be called a con, as there was fraud. This is just running an overly unregulated exchange, which is still a crime but isn't fraud. This doesn't end the investigations though, there is an SEC probe into fraud by Binance still going on so while it currently can't be called a con, really, it's also the case that it could be in the future. Also, it can technically be said that Binance has taken commission and largely made its money from cons of other people that they simply enabled and took fees on, which wouldn't necessarily be incorrect. Whether that's illegal depends on whether there was conspiracy – you wouldn't indict BoA for wire fraud just because someone else used them to do wire fraud.

I am not aware of evidence that he conned someone, but as a side quibble:

>Did someone force you to use Binance?

Do you understand what a con is? People are usually 'conned' because they are tricked into trusting someone that they shouldn't, when people are forced we typically refer to it as robbery or similar.

He didn't con me as I knew from the beginning that crypto currency itself is a con. CZ profited from his con job when he sell people stuff at stupidly high price knowing it actual worth nothing.

In case this is too hard for you to understand, try this - if I walk alone the street selling people paper with your name signed on it promising that such "magic sheet" is going to bring them unconditional happiness and I manage to sell millions of such sheets with a profit of billions, is that a con job?

This is exact what CZ did. He was/is/will always be remembered as a con man.

I saw a friend being added to a Binance WhatsApp group with tens of actual Binance users, clearly violating GDPR, where bots (you could tell by the phrasing and the account name) and Binance moderators were chatting about how to invest and much money they made.

This was ~2 months ago.

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