Istanbull not Coinstantinople
April 18, 2024 11:44 AM Subscribe
Being early investors in tech wasn’t something that had historically been available to the average person in Turkey. The instant millionaires and billionaires and unicorns pretty much lived elsewhere. Now, Faruk Özer saw a possibility. People in Turkey could shelter their money in what was clearly going to be the next big tech boom. But the biggest opportunity wasn’t in trading coins—it was in running a cryptocurrency exchange. Exchanges collect people’s money and, for a commission, invest it; that gives people who don’t have the time or skills to invest directly into the blockchain a pathway to crypto. from He Emptied an Entire Crypto Exchange Onto a Thumb Drive. Then He Disappeared [Wired; ungated]
Turkish lira was at typical Canada $ parity in 2006 but is now 3c of a greenback. Brutal.
posted by torokunai at 12:00 PM on April 18 [4 favorites]
posted by torokunai at 12:00 PM on April 18 [4 favorites]
Nice work on the post title chavenet!
posted by MiraK at 12:03 PM on April 18 [15 favorites]
posted by MiraK at 12:03 PM on April 18 [15 favorites]
A Turkish rug pull.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:13 PM on April 18 [14 favorites]
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:13 PM on April 18 [14 favorites]
I feel like the article is missing some important details about the fraud. Specifically, what happened to all the bitcoin? Some people were allegedly paid back from the cold wallet, so why not look at the address and run down every transaction associated with it?
posted by justkevin at 12:25 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
posted by justkevin at 12:25 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
Turkish lira was at typical Canada $ parity in 2006 but is now 3c of a greenback.
Confirm. In 1999, I taught a short course in a University near Istanbul. Going home I had just enough Lira to buy a bottle of plonk in duty free. But it seemed more trouble than it was worth . . . and I might be asked to go back in the future. 10 years later I took all my foreign notes to the bank to clear my decks. I think my single Turkey banknote was worth €0.18 - defo less than a Mars bar.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:06 PM on April 18 [3 favorites]
Confirm. In 1999, I taught a short course in a University near Istanbul. Going home I had just enough Lira to buy a bottle of plonk in duty free. But it seemed more trouble than it was worth . . . and I might be asked to go back in the future. 10 years later I took all my foreign notes to the bank to clear my decks. I think my single Turkey banknote was worth €0.18 - defo less than a Mars bar.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:06 PM on April 18 [3 favorites]
It just struck me that cryptocoins are homeopathic currency.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:38 PM on April 18 [24 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:38 PM on April 18 [24 favorites]
Well, there's a bathhouse in Williamsburg that heats its pools with bitcoin mining hardware, so you can take a dip to get on the homeopathic blockchain.
you see, the more you dilute your blockchain, the more effective it becomes. buy the dip
posted by phooky at 2:44 PM on April 18 [8 favorites]
you see, the more you dilute your blockchain, the more effective it becomes. buy the dip
posted by phooky at 2:44 PM on April 18 [8 favorites]
Well, there's a bathhouse in Williamsburg that heats its pools with bitcoin mining hardware, so you can take a dip to get on the homeopathic blockchain.
At least they're offering a product/service.
posted by East14thTaco at 3:22 PM on April 18 [7 favorites]
At least they're offering a product/service.
posted by East14thTaco at 3:22 PM on April 18 [7 favorites]
Maybe they could rebrand the Bitcoin "halving" as the "dilution" instead
posted by chavenet at 3:22 PM on April 18
posted by chavenet at 3:22 PM on April 18
It just struck me that cryptocoins are homeopathic currency.
OK, that's def the funniest thing I've heard in a while.
And true as well.
posted by Ayn Marx at 3:39 PM on April 18 [5 favorites]
OK, that's def the funniest thing I've heard in a while.
And true as well.
posted by Ayn Marx at 3:39 PM on April 18 [5 favorites]
It might be lies to cover for a plan to take the money and run, but I gotta say that Özer's explanation for why he left the country and stayed in hiding is much more plausible than anything I've ever heard before from one of these crypto-bros caught with their hands in the cookie jar. I'm sure he's still guilty of the shady arbitrage that's pervasive in cryptocurrency (he basically admits it), but I can believe trying to sell the company, the news causing the deal (which might have already been wishful thinking on his part) to fall through, and then feeling like he had a $2 billion-dollar bounty on his head.
The detail that the actual damages he was charged with ended up being a couple orders of magnitude smaller than what he'd been publicly accused of made him more sympathetic too.
posted by straight at 10:44 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
The detail that the actual damages he was charged with ended up being a couple orders of magnitude smaller than what he'd been publicly accused of made him more sympathetic too.
posted by straight at 10:44 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
A Turkish rug pull
Closing down sale! Everything must go!
posted by flabdablet at 11:33 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
Closing down sale! Everything must go!
posted by flabdablet at 11:33 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
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posted by tommasz at 11:45 AM on April 18 [7 favorites]