bespoke analytical framework — Kovacocy

overlay of historical bubble comparison — Kovacocy

opaque pricing mechanism — Kovacocy

Ponzi capability — Kovacocy

game theory — Kovacocy

Enough said!

https://www.bitsonline.com/japanese-korean-ripple-pilot/

This is what convinced me. — Michael

I thought this was funny.

ECB on their own TIPS system

Particularly:

TIPS is 10 seconds, 0.2 cents. DLT transactions are at best 30 euros and take at least one hour — Mersch

Uhmmm... Ripple is 4 seconds, 0.16415 eurocents (including fees).

I finally got a wallet and I'm setting up with BitStamp (3 week wait) for 2 specific cryptocurrencies for the blockchain process they're trying to implement. I'll probably buy a few different ones for testing purposes as well. I'll get some XRP and ETH but no BTC.

Western Union is testing Ripple as a payment method. Ripple shares rose almost 4% post market yesterday.

They've got a big lawsuit with R3. It's not clear to me what the effect is if R3 is allowed to exercise its options on buying XRP against the option price. I'm withholding predictions on what XRP will do in the short term but do believe RippleNet is here to stay.

I finally got a wallet and I'm setting up with BitStamp (3 week wait) for 2 specific cryptocurrencies for the blockchain process they're trying to implement. I'll probably buy a few different ones for testing purposes as well. I'll get some XRP and ETH but no BTC. — Benkei

I waited with BitStamp 2 months >:O - in fact, even after contacting support 2 times, they still haven't approved me, so I just closed the damn account.

We'll see. I'm not interested in going through other exchanges at this point. BitStamp is a one stop shop for me with low transaction costs for the cryptos I want.

We'll see. I'm not interested in going through other exchanges at this point. BitStamp is a one stop shop for me with low transaction costs for the cryptos I want. — Benkei

Yeah, I thought the same. Also, gives a lot of options for trading. Bitstamp was also one of the few reputable ones that accepted people from non-Western countries. But it's obvious that they will discriminate and approve Western accounts before looking at others, since mine wasn't approved for close to 2 months, even after sending them all documents and contacting support twice.

I've tried Coinbase, Bitstamp, Krakken, CEX, Gemini. Only Bitstamp and Krakken worked for my country, and Krakken was laggy, so I quit it. Bitstamp - worst approval process ever. I regret wasting time sending my documents to them.

I had a reply within 48 hours that my copy of my driver's license wasn't good enough. Just uploaded it again. Seems ok. Must be a discriminatory thing.

I had a reply within 48 hours that my copy of my driver's license wasn't good enough. Just uploaded it again. Seems ok. Must be a discriminatory thing. — Benkei

Yeah, most likely. I also uploaded driver's license, but I made sure I scanned it at 600dpi. That they run a discriminatory practice isn't a problem to me, just that they ought to be upfront about it - we only accept customers from these countries.

It's probably just that it's harder for them to verify the identities of people from some countries. What other reason could there be? They're in it to make money after all, and discrimination hurts profits.

They're in it to make money after all, and discrimination hurts profits. — Michael

Here's the thing. They don't have enough employees to check everyone, they don't want to hire more, and thus they have limited resources. They focus resources on most valuable customers (statistically). Probably, statistics indicate that customers from certain countries spend more than others - they will get those approved first.

Now I got a reaction in 2 hours. Quality was too low at 300dpi which they asked for. Just updated again. Grrr.

My dad decided to join me with the experiment. We'll have 200 EUR to burn, which is enough to test the system, trade costs, liquidity, settlement times etc. etc.

Still not set up.

Also, anybody else read about the Tether token and probable swindle involved?

Hey, if you start up something, I'd love to invest in whatever you are able to create.

I haven't been approved by Gemini for some reason. Taking a long time.

Also, anybody else read about the Tether token and probable swindle involved? — Benkei

I asked about Tether and the response was it is just another Token regardless of what they say about the conversion time.

Just give it some time......

Hey, if you start up something, I'd love to invest in whatever you are able to create.

I haven't been approved by Gemini for some reason. Taking a long time. — Posty McPostface

I meant I'm still not set up with Bitstamp unfortunately. The thing I'm trying to set up myself might utilise blockchain technology (but not necessarily) and you can buy shares if it ever comes that far. In fact, I can't wait until I can finally discuss the idea openly as it's pretty awesome in its simplicity (but very difficult technical implementation).

And we hit a hiccup!
It seems as though there is a shortage of gaming cards on the market necessary to do other things than mine for crypto currency! My son in college is setting up a Computer Lab for VR and they are waiting on Dell to build their VR systems but are waiting on.....wait for it.... gaming cards.
Go figure

So, nearly one year later since the last time this thread was active... people still interested in cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin less than half what it was a year ago. I think the craze time (17000$ or so) was a canary in the coal mine moment, even if the crash hasn't been abrupt in the general economy.

My dad decided to join me with the experiment. We'll have 200 EUR to burn, which is enough to test the system, trade costs, liquidity, settlement times etc. etc. — Benkei

How did it go, Benkei?

Never got round to doing it. Too busy with a second child, my job and attempts for a startup. I always thought entrepreneurship was something flashy and quick but it's slower than a snail's turd.

Too busy with a second child, my job and attempts for a startup — Benkei

That sounds like you haven't much time to play the piano either (if I remember correctly, you had a piano).

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/05/tech/quadriga-gerald-cotten-cryptocurrency/index.html

That suffers too. But Archie's smile makes up for it!

It seems like not many places accept Bitcoin as payment yet, which doesn't help make the whole thing any less ridiculous.

Supposedly a local (to me) pizza place accepts bitcoin as payment . . . As long as you're willing to pay almost $12 for a slice.

It seems like not many places accept Bitcoin as payment yet, which doesn't help make the whole thing any less ridiculous. — Terrapin Station

Or that scams, kidnappings or other illegal activities use cryptocurrencies. It's just like with the 500 euro note: seldom accepted anywhere and hugely popular with criminals. Luckily inflation hasn't made this note to be common for ordinary payments.

Anyway, it starts to difficult to use cash nowdays for anything other than minor transactions.

Milton Friedman predicted a peer to peer payment system.
Cryptocurrency is going (imo) to change the world.
Big business, big banks and money manipulating governments are going to fall.

Cryptocurrency will empower the individual like never before. It will change mankind like electricity, internet or agriculture.
https://youtu.be/l1si5ZWLgy0

Still in its infant stage, but you wait and see.
Soon banks will be like newsagents. Still around but nobody cares.

Bitcoin has been making moves lately and cryptocurrencies in general have been proving their utility. With talk of the digital dollar and digital euro in the air, I thought it would be a good time to resurrect this thread. (Also, I'm a convert.)

Who's in and where do you think it's going?

I'm in, money wise, and almost an ideological convert, I think.

After reading about reserve currency cycles (& with corresponding concern about the sheer amount of US currency being printed since 2008, but especially in the past year) converted a sizable percentage of my modest savings to bitcoin at the end of last month. Crypto's notoriously volatile and I know not to make too much of a sharp valuation-shift in a short time-window but the rapid appreciation of the investment was still dizzying enough for someone who has never made money on anything to lead me, effervescent, to try to talk some old friends into getting some. Basically I just wanted to share the excitement. One friend I talked to said he was interested, but had never heard it explained in a way that he was satisfied he understood it enough to invest it in. And I realized I couldn't explain it well enough, because I don't understand it well enough either. I've spent the past couple weeks trying to learn about it and make sense of (1) its structure and, just as importantly, (2) why that structure is meaningful. I logged on tonight hoping there would be a thread open to talk about this stuff.

Here's a challenge: if you had a 15 minute pitch to explain what bitcoin is and why that makes it valuable, what would you say? (If pressed, I will give my scribbly sketch first, but I am curious to hear someone else's take and build off of - & with - it)