nateabele

How many arrests does it take to chill free speech?

Push it!

I can happily pick up the torch on everything except the PCB design.

I wonder how many different federal and state bureaucracies govern the manufacture & operation of commercial aircraft.

All it would take is for one of them to require senior leadership to take a certain number of flights (per year, let's say) on each new model of aircraft they ship. This would be solved immediately.

Two nodes, and either two edges with one arrow each, or one edge with two arrows.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Indeed. Never mind the fact that all transactions take place on an immutable public ledger that’s available forever…

> The drop in price has a great deal to do with improving technology not simply competition driving down prices

And this improved technology was an inevitable, foregone conclusion?

People make arguments like this as if it was some passive thing, as opposed to thousands if not millions of conscious decisions to improve turbines, airframes, and myriad other technologies, then actually implement them in real aircraft, then acquire and deploy a commercial fleet.

People made these decisions because they were incentivized to trade time and money today for material improvements tomorrow. Why do you think that might have been?

Hint: think about industries where there isn't much competition. Do we see similar improvements there, usually?

For whatever it's worth to you, I don't think of myself as easily impressed. I saw Ted give that demo at a small conference around 10 years ago. I was impressed.

Whatever part you played in that, well done, and thank you.

I got to speak with him briefly afterwards, and to say that he had a chip on his shoulder would be putting it too strongly, but there was definitely some kind of an 'edge' there.

> I've worked at a number of financial institutions including two banks.

I spent 5 years in fintech and touched over a dozen financial institutions. You're not thinking creatively enough. Plus everyone has to do KYC/AML, including two-bit money transmitter startups.

> And compliance issues by HSBC et al is a direct result of a lack of proper AML/KYC systems and processes.

Hah, okay. Even if that were true, just keep walking down the menu: JPM knew Jeffrey Epstein was their customer, too.

Things this article fails to address:

1) That AML creates a massive honeypot of data for hackers, housed at institutions which historically have structural challenges with technology investment

2) The real, material downsides felt by non-criminals, as expressed by many others in this thread

3) That the sum total financial activity of criminals who would benefit from the lack of AML is likely a rounding error compared to money laundering carried out by banks like HSBC

4) The philosophical position that governments are entitled to dragnet surveil law-abiding citizens in order to combat crime

This is Hacker News. Please keep your religion out of the comments.

This is the blog post I want to read. What’s your setup for that?

It’s germane in the sense that what you’re arguing against is a rounding error by comparison, consequently, not a material argument against cash-based money laundering in any meaningful sense.

The real cop-out is that HSBC and friends launder more money for terrorists and human traffickers on a bad day than your typical local racket does in a year, and they only ever receive a token fine and slap on the wrist.