<story><title>Binance is taking a $200M stake in Forbes</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/10/forbes-spac-binance-led-by-the-worlds-richest-crypto-billionaire-is-taking-a-200-million-stake-in-forbes-.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bko</author><text>I think you&amp;#x27;re overstating the relative importance and influence of Forbes.&lt;p&gt;As a side note, I like Binance Smart Chain. It&amp;#x27;s an EVM compliant alternative to Ethereum except with proof of stake and much lower fees. It costs about $0.12 to call a smart contract. To someone like me who is interested in the technology of smart contracts and doesn&amp;#x27;t want to pay $40 to interact with a contract, this is a dream come true.</text></item><item><author>arcticbull</author><text>This has big &amp;quot;Bernie Madoff when he was chairman of the NASDAQ&amp;quot; vibes. [1]&lt;p&gt;[edit] For those following along at home, Binance was kicked out of - or saw significant regulatory pressure in - the UK, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Germany, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Thailand, Ontario, Uganda, Malta ... and I think a few others?&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;re also under investigation by the &lt;i&gt;Cayman Islands Monetary Authority&lt;/i&gt;. [2, 3] I am legitimately impressed, it&amp;#x27;s not easy to get the attention of regulators in the Caymans.&lt;p&gt;It seems Forbes was hot on their tail a while back when they wanted to create strategic bait-and-switch entities in various jurisdictions including the US (&amp;quot;Tai Chi Document&amp;quot;). [4] Binance then sued them for defamation - then voluntarily dropped the suit.&lt;p&gt;I suspect such investigations will no longer be welcome.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Bernie_Madoff&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Bernie_Madoff&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cima.ky&amp;#x2F;binance-not-regulated-by-cima&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cima.ky&amp;#x2F;binance-not-regulated-by-cima&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theblockcrypto.com&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;110358&amp;#x2F;cayman-islands-investigate-crypto-exchange-binance&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theblockcrypto.com&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;110358&amp;#x2F;cayman-islands-in...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[4] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;michaeldelcastillo&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;29&amp;#x2F;leaked-tai-chi-document-reveals-binances-elaborate-scheme-to-evade-bitcoin-regulators&amp;#x2F;?sh=7a8ce81f2a92&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;michaeldelcastillo&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;29&amp;#x2F;l...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>arcticbull</author><text>&amp;gt; As a side note, I like Binance Smart Chain. It&amp;#x27;s an EVM compliant alternative to Ethereum except with proof of stake and much lower fees. It costs about $0.12 to call a smart contract. To someone like me who is interested in the technology of smart contracts and doesn&amp;#x27;t want to pay $40 to interact with a contract, this is a dream come true.&lt;p&gt;Right, it&amp;#x27;s a centralized clone of ethereum operated by Binance. If you&amp;#x27;re ok with centralization just fire up an EC2 instance. The free tier includes 750 hours per month.</text></comment>
<story><title>Binance is taking a $200M stake in Forbes</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/10/forbes-spac-binance-led-by-the-worlds-richest-crypto-billionaire-is-taking-a-200-million-stake-in-forbes-.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bko</author><text>I think you&amp;#x27;re overstating the relative importance and influence of Forbes.&lt;p&gt;As a side note, I like Binance Smart Chain. It&amp;#x27;s an EVM compliant alternative to Ethereum except with proof of stake and much lower fees. It costs about $0.12 to call a smart contract. To someone like me who is interested in the technology of smart contracts and doesn&amp;#x27;t want to pay $40 to interact with a contract, this is a dream come true.</text></item><item><author>arcticbull</author><text>This has big &amp;quot;Bernie Madoff when he was chairman of the NASDAQ&amp;quot; vibes. [1]&lt;p&gt;[edit] For those following along at home, Binance was kicked out of - or saw significant regulatory pressure in - the UK, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Germany, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Thailand, Ontario, Uganda, Malta ... and I think a few others?&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;re also under investigation by the &lt;i&gt;Cayman Islands Monetary Authority&lt;/i&gt;. [2, 3] I am legitimately impressed, it&amp;#x27;s not easy to get the attention of regulators in the Caymans.&lt;p&gt;It seems Forbes was hot on their tail a while back when they wanted to create strategic bait-and-switch entities in various jurisdictions including the US (&amp;quot;Tai Chi Document&amp;quot;). [4] Binance then sued them for defamation - then voluntarily dropped the suit.&lt;p&gt;I suspect such investigations will no longer be welcome.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Bernie_Madoff&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Bernie_Madoff&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cima.ky&amp;#x2F;binance-not-regulated-by-cima&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cima.ky&amp;#x2F;binance-not-regulated-by-cima&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theblockcrypto.com&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;110358&amp;#x2F;cayman-islands-investigate-crypto-exchange-binance&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theblockcrypto.com&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;110358&amp;#x2F;cayman-islands-in...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[4] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;michaeldelcastillo&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;29&amp;#x2F;leaked-tai-chi-document-reveals-binances-elaborate-scheme-to-evade-bitcoin-regulators&amp;#x2F;?sh=7a8ce81f2a92&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;michaeldelcastillo&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;29&amp;#x2F;l...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>magicjosh</author><text>I was curious about the importance of Forbes. It&amp;#x27;s been linked over 1,000 times on Hacker News: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hn.algolia.com&amp;#x2F;?q=Forbes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hn.algolia.com&amp;#x2F;?q=Forbes&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>