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> If a critical letter created by supposedly credible experts in a field can’t spare a paragraph to delineate between DeFi, NFTs, L1’s, smart contracts, stablecoins, and whatever else is bothering them then I think it’s fair to assume they don’t know the difference.

DeFi is a scam to let crypto gamblers avoid taxes on their gains by taking profits as a "loan". The space is filled with unrealistic interest rates, and in general is a scam. See stablegains as a good example of this fraud.

NFTs are essentially a way to do money laundering with "art". The market, as a whole, is predatory, and is dominated by artwork stolen from legitimate artists who didn't mint the NFTs. It's mostly already collapsed, and essentially no one is making money on secondary sales. The space is filled with wash trading, often by the trading platforms or their employees directly.

I don't see what L1s have to do with the conversation. No matter the layer, the same criticisms apply, because ultimately, they roll back to the L1.

Smart contracts don't actually fulfill their basic premise. They don't replace normal legal contracts, and they can't stay in sync with real world assets. Nearly every day one of these contracts is owned and everyone loses their money. They're also incredibly inefficient and expensive.

Stablecoins have proven to need very strict regulation, and in reality a bank charter should be required to run one. Tether alone shows that they're a very serious problem, though the recent issues with Terra/Luna also show their general problem.

The entire stack, from top to bottom, is built on unfulfilled promises, and their very existence introduces new, horrible problems for us to deal with. For example, ransomware is simply not possible at its current scale without cryptocurrency.




> defi is a scam [for] avoiding taxes

using defi to minimize tax burden is neither a scam nor unethical. plenty of people borrow against their houses or stocks.

> nfts are dominated by stolen pieces

most nft volume is made of bored ape yacht club, moonbirds, doodles, and similar properly licensed pieces.

> smart contracts don't replace legal contracts

right, they allow you to transact trustlessly for defi and nfts.

> stablecoins [should require] bank charter

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-13/circle-ba...




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