“That Sam-I-am!That Sam-I-am!I do not likethat Sam-I-am!Do you like green eggs and ham?I do not like them, Sam-I-am.I do not likegreen eggs and ham.” – Dr. Seuss Let’s do a thought experiment, shall we? Imagine that a pharmaceutical company – call it Seuss Pharma – invents a drug derived from the extract of green eggs. While the drug has unique and beneficial impact for people suffering from extreme migraines, the real and unofficial use case for it is found among young party-goers. You see, when you take the green eggs drug, all your stress dissolves. Parties are more fun. Life is more fun.
FTX does have KYC/AML for anyone wanting to play with any meaningful amount of money. If I recall, their daily withdrawal limit for NON-KYC account is $900 per day which is negligible in the grand scheme of crypto things.
I suppose you can create 10,000 accounts and get a collective $9 million per day withdrawal limit but I don't think that's how crooks do it. What the crooks do is buy an already KYC/AML passed account from the dark web, and launder funds effortlessly because an KYC/AML passed account has an unlimited withdrawal limit.
To add some more color - Today, a KYC passed account is on sale for basically every crypto exchange in existence for $50-$200, so it's not anything FTX specific. You just need someone in the 3rd world country to share his ID and his selfie, and voila - you have a KYC passed account in that name.
These companies have no way to verify if the person actually logging into the account or moving money into/out of the account is the actual person whose name and picture appear in the ID/selfie.
This is similar to how straw signers open merchant accounts and bank accounts in US/CA/UK using a 3rd party identity, when in fact the account title is in a totally different name than the ultimate beneficiary.
I'm here from the future in November 2022. Let's just say where you had smelled smoke in July 2021, there was fire.
Should repost this article with an update.
FTX does have KYC/AML for anyone wanting to play with any meaningful amount of money. If I recall, their daily withdrawal limit for NON-KYC account is $900 per day which is negligible in the grand scheme of crypto things.
I suppose you can create 10,000 accounts and get a collective $9 million per day withdrawal limit but I don't think that's how crooks do it. What the crooks do is buy an already KYC/AML passed account from the dark web, and launder funds effortlessly because an KYC/AML passed account has an unlimited withdrawal limit.
To add some more color - Today, a KYC passed account is on sale for basically every crypto exchange in existence for $50-$200, so it's not anything FTX specific. You just need someone in the 3rd world country to share his ID and his selfie, and voila - you have a KYC passed account in that name.
These companies have no way to verify if the person actually logging into the account or moving money into/out of the account is the actual person whose name and picture appear in the ID/selfie.
This is similar to how straw signers open merchant accounts and bank accounts in US/CA/UK using a 3rd party identity, when in fact the account title is in a totally different name than the ultimate beneficiary.
Yeah but I’m sure Dan drives a Tesla so he’s all good!
isn't this what capitalism allows? i'm failing to see the larger point? you're describing... life.
That's what journalism is about: describing and documenting... life.
Do you fail to see the point of journalism?
nope. still fun to read.
I totally agree. Forget everything I wrote.
still a fun read. keep writing. do it for the lulz.