Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX suffered a “complete failure of corporate controls” under founder Sam Bankman-Fried, the company’s new chief executive said on Nov. 17, 2022, calling the situation “unprecedented.” The scathing condemnation came in a filing in US bankruptcy court from John J. Ray – an executive with 40 years of experience in corporate restructurings including the infamous implosion of Enron in 2001. (Stefani Reynolds/Getty-AFP)
The recent piece by the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board (”Cryptocurrency stars can flame out. But they can’t take their customers with them,” Nov. 18) on the FTX saga is right on the law, but wrong on what the failure of the cryptocurrency exchange means for the cryptocurrency industry. Financial regulators in the U.S. already have the tools they need to deal with the overnight cratering of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX as well as associated hedge fund Alameda Research. The Editorial Board is right that new rules may not be needed. What is problematic in assessing the way forward for this new industry is in differentiating between what cryptocurrency is and what businesses like FTX do. It’s here where the board’s conflation of cryptocurrency and FTX is problematic.
Cryptocurrencies are not merely “digital files that can be used as money and traded via blockchain.” Instead, cryptocurrencies can be thought of as exclusive claims on assets that exist on a shared ledger, maintained by a community of participants that may or may not know each other, that allows for peer-to-peer value transfer. The way these networks are designed allows for unique digital property to be exchanged in a peer-to-peer manner without the need for a central counterparty. That is the innovation that was introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto with the publishing of the Bitcoin white paper in 2008.
Bankman-Fried created a company that allowed individuals to come together to buy and sell cryptocurrencies and related financial products based on cryptocurrencies. In this way, FTX was much closer to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange than anything else, and it is apropos that CME Group CEO Terry Duffy called out the way that Bankman-Fried and FTX did business in recent weeks. The failure of FTX was a failure of centralized entities that function as middlemen to facilitate transactions for customers not a failure of cryptocurrency writ large.
Where the industry goes from here in the wake of the failure of FTX is an open question, but the value proposition of peer-to-peer value transfer of digital assets without relying on a central counterparty is still extremely promising.
— Nelson M. Rosario, Chicago
Every Democrat in Congress except one voted to grant paid sick leave to the nation’s essential railroad workers. Only nine Republicans voted to allow sick time, three in the House and six in the Senate.
Sadly, it wasn’t enough. But let us not forget.
— Michael Glass, Glen Ellyn
I am showing my age here, but I recall the public outcry and outrage when back in the 1960′s John Lennon suggested that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. He quickly retracted such a ridiculous notion. There should be similar outrage at Donald Trump’s latest absurd suggestion that the Constitution be suspended so that he can be reinstated as president. The usual upstanding Republicans with a spine and sense of loyalty to our country have denounced such a treasonous statement, but where are the Republican leaders? Mitch? Kevin? Elise? Anybody?
— Dan Harvey, Chicago
Watching the PBS special titled “The Broadway Musical: A Jewish Legacy,” I was reminded that many of our most famous Broadway musicals were written by Jews.
What I hadn’t remembered was what happened to one of the most famous of these composers, Irving Berlin, who wrote the American classic, “God Bless America.” Berlin was five years old when his family’s village in Russia was burned to the ground by Cossacks. They emigrated to America, where Berlin later found great success as a songwriter.
He wrote “God Bless America” to express his deep gratitude to the country that took his family in. Furthermore, he donated every cent of his royalties from the song to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
And yet, this was somehow not good enough for some of the Christian ministers of the time. According to the PBS special, the ministers asked, “What does a Jew have to do with asking God to bless America?”
This exemplifies the narrow-minded “us versus them” thinking that continues to pervade our society, often stoked by unscrupulous politicians, like Donald Trump, and hateful others, like Ye, formerly Kanye West and Nick Fuentes. I have come to expect such behavior from these folks. But from Christian ministers, people who are supposed to be about love and acceptance?
Since these “Christians” like to quote the Bible, here is a quote that is more than relevant:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean, ” Matthew 23:27.
— Bob Chimis, Elmwood Park
Regarding their op-ed, “Lies about abortion have dictated health policy” in the Dec. 5 Chicago Tribune, Tamara Kay and Susan Ostermann are, of course, free to express their opinions on our campus or in any public forum. Because they chose to identify themselves as Notre Dame faculty members, I write to state unequivocally that their essay does not reflect the views and values of the University of Notre Dame in its tone, arguments or assertions.
— The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C, president of the University of Notre Dame
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