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- Hacker News
- foreign aid is used for both legitimate purposes and all kind's of nefarious purposes.
eg say a foreign rich gvt wants to stoke up civil unrest via NGO / civic organizations - they bring in foreign cash (pallets loads) - then that money goes into the black market destabilizing exchange rages, some of it into crypto as being said, some to bad actors.
such is life.
by dzonga - Does the movement of money increase when foreign aid is distributed? If you were to assume the proposition of the proponents of cryptocurrency that it works in a manner similar to money, wouldn't the evidence provided here also support the conclusion that it is working as intended?
If you can imagine a valid world in which a measure is an indicator of a property and also imagine a valid world in which the same measure is an indicator of its inverse, all you have done is proven that the measure cannot be used to determine the truth of the property.
by Lerc - From this exact blurb:
> We estimate an implied leakage ...
So the estimation became almost a fact in the title? What's the equivalent of clickbait in papers?
The rest of that sentence:
> ... of 2 to 6 cents per aid dollar, which amounts to roughly 1.7 to 4.4 billion dollars of aid diversion across the tranche arrivals we study.
by netsharc - It must be noted that not all of the crypto funds are a form of stealing the aid.
Crypto is really handy and useful for actual money management. It's heavily used in Ukraine in the army and shadows the official monetary system.
For example it's close to impossible to use fiat funds to purchase X for the combat units: you'll need a separate department of lawyers just to manage that one procurement documentation. In a war you'd rather not do that.
Crypto? No problem. Payment sent, X received.
Lots of cases like that.
by egorfine - I know nothing about crypto, but wasn't one if its selling points that its "digital gold" for people without stable fiat currencies?
You send aid to a drought-stricken farmer to some sub-saharan region with ample cheap data but no (stable) banks, how...are they supposed to store the money?
by pj_mukh - This is relevant:
https://theleahfiles.substack.com/p/the-currency-killer-part...
Did you know Tether (cryptocurrency company) is in the top 20 USD treasury holders, more than most countries?
And Lutnick is the manager of those funds, or his sons are (silly mistake!) because he divested completely.
by xrd - It is common to hear phrases such as "Mr 10 percent" as a reference to powerful leaders in various countries. For instance, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is called "Mr 10 percent". 10 percent cut from every contract. This is not unique to Pakistan. In India, many regional party leaders (basically, they and their family own the political party) want 20 percent cut.
When one hears 2-6%, it is just the floor.
by raincom