News IRS and FTC Warn of 'Mountains of Fraud' Involving Cryptocurrencies, NFTs

[Admin]

The IRS and FTC have warned about the pervasive frauds involving cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens.

IRS and FTC Warn of 'Mountains of Fraud' Involving Cryptocurrencies, NFTs : Read more

 

[peachpuff]

 

[helper800]

I don't think anything could have ever been so obvious.

 

[Co BIY]

.... but Blockchain

 

[helper800]

We should create a betting pool for how many years it will take for the US government to try and regulate the cryptocurrency market successfully. We will bet, of course, with some ETH.

 

[TJ Hooker]

As other have said, not exactly surprising news. But I have to say, regarding NFTs (of which "artwork" NFTs seem to be the most popular right now) being easily manipulated in price and used for money laundering, that doesn't seem that different from the traditional art scene.

 

[Jim90]

"It turns out the cryptocurrency market is rife with fraud "

In other news, water is wet.

 

[InvalidError]

Many of us here think crypto-mining and NFTs are scams in and of themselves. It is only a matter of time before the whole thing blows up either from environmentally progressive countries banning the whole thing, countries banning crypto due to tax and fraud enforcement difficulty, countries needing to rein in power consumption that is threatening their power grid and consumer energy costs, etc.

 

[ThatMouse]

The FBI is scared they might have to actually get off their asses and charge people with actual crimes rather than just wire fraud!

 

[Bob.B]

The IRS and FTC have warned about the pervasive frauds involving cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens.

IRS and FTC Warn of 'Mountains of Fraud' Involving Cryptocurrencies, NFTs : Read more

I suspect the IRS is more concerned with getting their cut of the action.

Notice that box on your tax form that asked if you even thought about crypto last year?

 

[drivinfast247]

The FBI is scared they might have to actually get off their asses and charge people with actual crimes rather than just wire fraud!

When they're not busy arresting parents at school board meetings.

 

[A Stoner]

Gold, silver, grain even have intrinsic value.

Even the fiat currencies have value based upon the assets and work of the country that issues them.

But what value exactly do crypto currencies have? Any? Any at all?

But they say you mine it, like gold! Not really. But the number is limited! So too are the number of grains of sand.

But here is the thing, without someone running the computers to make the transactions, the currency is worthless regardless how much anyone is willing to argue it is worth. Kind of like having a hundred thousand dollars worth of gold that sank to the bottom of the ocean in a 100 square mile area that is 4 miles deep. Then stolen wallets, lost wallets, forgotten passwords for wallets. I have 0.000287 (or something close to that) bitcoin in a wallet somewhere on a hard disk that no longer works. Someone cannot even find that lost $10 bill on the street ever. It is just gone.

 

[InvalidError]

But what value exactly do crypto currencies have? Any? Any at all?

For PoW-based currencies, the hypothetical value is the network compute that went into solving an otherwise pointless mathematical puzzle through brute force. Even Ethereum after the PoS merge will still be rooted in the PoW blocks used to for staking.