<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>pavlov</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; (probably is now)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This kind of argumentation makes cryptocurrency proponents so insufferable. There’s no evidence Tether is backed, but somehow we can just assume in a parenthesis that they probably are, and then go on a tangential rant about banks or fiat or digital gold or something.</text><parent_chain><item><author>lettergram</author><text>It appears from the link in the settlement agreement:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ag.ny.gov&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;default&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2021.02.17_-_settlement_agreement_-_execution_version.b-t_signed-c2_oag_signed.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ag.ny.gov&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;default&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2021.02.17_-_settlemen...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tether wasn’t backed at all times. The argument was that this happened due to asset seizures in Poland and Portugal in 2017-2018.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theblockcrypto.com&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;95207&amp;#x2F;bitfinex-tether-new-york-ag-settlement-lawsuit&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theblockcrypto.com&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;95207&amp;#x2F;bitfinex-tether-ne...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Seems to me they couldn’t prove malicious intent, so they suggested they stop trading. Frankly this seems a bit of a click-bait title with the whole “illegal activities”.&lt;p&gt;Sure, tether wasn’t backed at all times (probably is now), due to governments seizing their funds. Also banks do this all the time, every time they issue a loan for instance. The bank only keeps 10-30% collateral on your home.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Bitfinex and Tether required to end all trading activity with New Yorkers</title><url>https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/attorney-general-james-ends-virtual-currency-trading-platform-bitfinexs-illegal?ref</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>&amp;gt; Sure, tether wasn’t backed at all times (probably is now),&lt;p&gt;Even Tether admitted that they weren’t backed by funds, and that was before they printed most of their current supply: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.coindesk.com&amp;#x2F;tether-lawyer-confirms-stablecoin-74-percent-backed-by-cash-and-equivalents&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.coindesk.com&amp;#x2F;tether-lawyer-confirms-stablecoin-7...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I don’t understand why anyone would be in a rush to take them at their word when every new piece of evidence demonstrates that Tether’s operators are not interested in behaving honestly.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Also banks do this all the time, every time they issue a loan for instance. The bank only keeps 10-30% collateral on your home.&lt;p&gt;Fractional reserve banking doesn’t mean banks can simply print more money than they have on the books.&lt;p&gt;Regardless, if a bank loses funds due to fraud or government intervention or whatever, they can’t simply continue pretending they had the money all along.&lt;p&gt;I don’t understand the desire to pretend that what Tether is doing is normal or good for the crypto community. It’s not.</text><parent_chain><item><author>lettergram</author><text>It appears from the link in the settlement agreement:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ag.ny.gov&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;default&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2021.02.17_-_settlement_agreement_-_execution_version.b-t_signed-c2_oag_signed.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ag.ny.gov&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;default&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2021.02.17_-_settlemen...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tether wasn’t backed at all times. The argument was that this happened due to asset seizures in Poland and Portugal in 2017-2018.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theblockcrypto.com&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;95207&amp;#x2F;bitfinex-tether-new-york-ag-settlement-lawsuit&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theblockcrypto.com&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;95207&amp;#x2F;bitfinex-tether-ne...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Seems to me they couldn’t prove malicious intent, so they suggested they stop trading. Frankly this seems a bit of a click-bait title with the whole “illegal activities”.&lt;p&gt;Sure, tether wasn’t backed at all times (probably is now), due to governments seizing their funds. Also banks do this all the time, every time they issue a loan for instance. The bank only keeps 10-30% collateral on your home.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Bitfinex and Tether required to end all trading activity with New Yorkers</title><url>https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/attorney-general-james-ends-virtual-currency-trading-platform-bitfinexs-illegal?ref</url></story>