Coinbase is being sued for alleged insider trading with the introduction of Bitcoin Cash according to Coindesk.
The complaint itself is targeted toward Coinbase's launch of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) with plantiffs accusing the company of tipping of insiders ahead of the formal launch. And as the result of these tips, certain individuals were able to profit highly over others who didn't have the information instead.
Coinbase in many ways used to represented what outstanding citizens people within the crypto world are. Brian Armstrong, a regular at CBNC gave discussions to the Financial community and in many ways earned the respect of top Financial institutions and in many ways captivated new hedge fund companies to potentially join the cryptocurrency revolution.
People like you and I who started our cryptocurrency journey from the app or clean interface where the Coinbase app or website delivered. We safely purchased our Bitcoin for the first time and although we pay a premium on fees we were owners of Bitcoin all attributed to Coinbase in many ways. What went wrong from that period to now these scandals within Coinbase and now this class action lawsuit?
Some of the crypto-community calls it the evil that results from centralization. Others within the community calls it greed. People outside of the community calls it just chaos ensuing as a result of a deregulated environment. What is the exact cause and what should we as the cryptocommunity do about it?
Personally, I think it has a little bit to do with all of the arguments above. Money is most likely being transferred from individual whale or groups of whales to employees inside Coinbase. Whether it is from the top down or just several individuals, to me that's irrelevant. It is the fact that they covered it which is the most alarming with no punishments given to the culprit. The dirty little secret inside Coinbase while they think in a unregulated environment it is still all covered under wraps.
Deregulated or not, every business, individuals still have to abide by the laws of the country. Not only Coinbase, every single one of us within the crypto-community must realize that we are not "outlaws". We need to display ourselves to people outside of this community who often see us as people who just hang around silk road and wants to buy and sell illegal stuff all day long. Without it, how is this community better then any other rotten communities as we so often criticize? In another words, if there is no policing from within, uncle Sam or daddy will eventually barrel the door down and police it in a way no one likes. That is a fact I can be sure of. Now a self policing blockchain is a REAL blockchain project for someone to look into, not another 10000000th currency that copies every other project.
The argument of centralization or decentralization is sadly useless in my opinion. The best decentralized projects all started in being centralized including Bitcoin. That's what gives the project order, framework, direction, function, vision. While the ultimate goal is to move toward decentralization, without proper allocation of effort; everything goes to waste as seen with decentralized projects who fall apart. Humans are corrupt and that's the truth whether we like it or not. Without proper governance, a sect of people is no different from kids inside the famous book that I read growing up called Lord of the Flies. It all started with confusion and then chaos, fighting among one another in the name of justice, and then the end self destruction.
Your Fellow Crypto-Knight,
- mastaz -