That list is a good example of a typical FUD hit piece: Some truth and half truths spun in negative way, complete omission of any important positive facts and outright lie or two thrown in for good measure. Lets break it down:
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On the three hacks: First one no mention that all losses absorbed by Bitfinex, second Multisig/Bitgo hack no mention that the 36% haircut debt instrument was paid back in full 7 months later, an exceptional response given the alternative which many critics appeared to prefer: Bitfinex shutdown and a Mt Gox style resolution with users left mostly empty handed. The third tether hack was hard forked out (which drew even more criticism from critics, but hey).
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On all the many entries relating to bank blockades, bank account shutdowns and general finance industry malfeasance - this is endemic to the sector and not Bitfinex specific there are literally hundreds of examples from all over the world, more come in weekly. The incumbent finance industry (and industry captured regulators) are fighting a war against the crypto currency sector. Rather than reflecting badly on Bitfinex or the many other crypto currency companies and startups affected by this blatant abuse of state and cartel power, it is a strong reminder of why decentralisation is so important for true financial inclusion (see more on this important point by Andreas Antonopoulos, below).
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The list failed to mention that the CFTC has also sent supoenas to Bitstamp, Coinbase, Itbit, and Kraken. So? Nothing has come of it, and no charges. All part of the previously mentioned war on the crypto currency sector.
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Outright lie: Bitfinex did hire Ledger labs. “Ledger Labs’s role was limited to security and investigative services related to the security breach”. The actual complaint levelled at Bitfinex is that ledger labs, a blockchain security auditing company cannot perform financial audits as was first announced by Bitfinex before the contract and terms were settled. The case is still open so no surprise there has been no wrap up as yet.
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Failure to find industry auditor partner: Also not specific to Bitfinex: this kind of audit is “better than nothing”. You get this one a lot, and trying to single out Bitfinex is outright misleading. No account auditing firm and especially not the big four will currently go near crypto-currency startups or companies that disrupt their bread and butter finance industry contracts. Until the sector matures we have to make do with limited evidence.
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(5.1) The top 10 exchanges are raking in billions, so claiming Bitfinex does not have the money to cover approx 2 billion tether issued is just not credible.
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It was known before the paradise papers that Bitfinex was in a very close relationship with Tether. Again no surprise to learn it is the same management team, and the paradise papers contain no evidence of malfeasance.
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Point 7 leads on to another thing not mentioned on that version of the list: The months on end of news stories about Tether being used to manipulate BTC prices. Of course no retraction or mention that, oops, that was all a fabricated lie. Tether issuance and destruction does not manipulate the market after all.
All up, a poorly structured FUD hit piece without solid in depth arguments, aimed more for the “nocoiner” crowd that are not sympathetic to wider problems faced by most companies in the cryptocurrency sector.
I guess you mean here that I pointed out the hard fact that TrueUSD is partly funded by Palantir Technologies, a known shadowy private military deep state contractor with a publicly stated mission to track absolutely everything. That means is all your wallet transactions on and off exchange tied back to an identity, not just a once off exchange KYC check we are used to. I have no doubt that this would reflect very poorly on Maidsafe if MaidSafeCoin is listed on Bittrex paired against TrueUSD.
Please refrain from ad-hominem and I reject the charge that I am being manipulative or misleading - quite the opposite: To make this clear one of the leading thought leaders in this space, Andreas Antonopoulos, lays out quite clearly why this Bittrex/TrueUSD privacy issue really is a big deal and at odds with the SAFENetwork project and is destructive to the crypto currency sector in general. It really is worth your time to watch and especially @nicklambert @dugcampbell if they are currently negotiating with Bittrex on why it is important to avoid MAID/TUSD pairing:
Worse Than Useless: Financial Surveillance
If you want to continue this discussion I suggest you start with attacking the extremely well argued points that Andreas Antonopoulos raises, but I hope he can convince you to reconsider your position. Also be sure to check the related videos section in his info comment. “Money as a System-of-Control” as it is closely related and helps explain why Tether is so hated and targeted by the finance industry/US regulators. Well worth the time.
I am open to serious well thought out criticism of Bitfinex and would change my mind about them if there was a credible problem. They are just another exchange to me where I happen to buy some coins from time to time. I also enjoy their open source projects and Ethfinex is a breath of fresh air for a top ten exchange to launch. I fear MaidSafe is going to face similar troll armies of bad press once it starts making inroads into the big business cloud market, Safecoin targeted for its enhanced privacy features and superior transferability.