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Winklevoss Twins’ Bitcoin Exchange

gemini.com

51–60 of 93 posts

Re: Winklevoss Twins’ Bitcoin Exchange

#51
post #47

What a beautiful, fast website.

Honestly when banks have crappy websites it makes me really feel like the engineers doing the backend work are terrible. I know this is a horrible bias but still if you can't spend the time to make a good website who says they didn't cut corners on security?

Re: Winklevoss Twins’ Bitcoin Exchange

#54
post #34

They have a reassuring security page[0]. It's nice to see they're enforcing good practices, I especially appreciate their "no-link email policy" where they will never send you links in emails, which seems like a great way to head off phishing attempts. I hope they actually present this to users in some way during sign-up though, or it won't be of much help unless a user manually navigates to the security page and rea…

I don't understand Amazon's cloud HSM product. Amazon says they don't have access to your HSM but presumably they do if they wanted to. Also, how does HSM protect the hot wallet if an attacker is able to get access to a machine that is using the HSM for signing? Your only hope is that you can obscure the credentials for the HSM from the attacker.

HSM for the hot wallet probably provides greater security than no HSM for the hot wallet but I don't think it gives you that much extra security.

Re: Winklevoss Twins’ Bitcoin Exchange

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, another to way to put it is they aim for legitimacy so they can be the bitcoin counterparty of choice for Fortune 500s and wall street. And generally run things like any sane financial institution dealing with volatile securities. Not running a bitcoin cafe out of customer funds...

> Yeah, another to way to put it is they aim for legitimacy so they can be the bitcoin counterparty of choice for Fortune 500s and wall street. According to Coinbase, the total value of all Bitcoin is currently about $3.5 billion. This is a tiny, tiny market for "Fortune 500s and Wall Street" and is equivalent to the value of a single (smaller) mid-cap company. Even at its peak, the total value of all Bitcoin was onl…

I'm not a real trader... but i can see the value in trading something that goes up and down 30% in a quarter..

EDIT: those currencies you mention are under prolonged inflation and are tied to the economic output of some small countries... bitcoin isn't either of those

Re: Winklevoss Twins’ Bitcoin Exchange

#56
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah, another to way to put it is they aim for legitimacy so they can be the bitcoin counterparty of choice for Fortune 500s and wall street. According to Coinbase, the total value of all Bitcoin is currently about $3.5 billion. This is a tiny, tiny market for "Fortune 500s and Wall Street" and is equivalent to the value of a single (smaller) mid-cap company. Even at its peak, the total value of all Bitcoin was onl…

I'm not a real trader... but i can see the value in trading something that goes up and down 30% in a quarter.. EDIT: those currencies you mention are under prolonged inflation and are tied to the economic output of some small countries... bitcoin isn't either of those

There is such a thing as trading on volatility but like the other person said, the volume is so low that it's not significant.

Re: Winklevoss Twins’ Bitcoin Exchange

#58
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah, another to way to put it is they aim for legitimacy so they can be the bitcoin counterparty of choice for Fortune 500s and wall street. According to Coinbase, the total value of all Bitcoin is currently about $3.5 billion. This is a tiny, tiny market for "Fortune 500s and Wall Street" and is equivalent to the value of a single (smaller) mid-cap company. Even at its peak, the total value of all Bitcoin was onl…

I'm not a real trader... but i can see the value in trading something that goes up and down 30% in a quarter.. EDIT: those currencies you mention are under prolonged inflation and are tied to the economic output of some small countries... bitcoin isn't either of those

You can trade equity options and gain or lose far more than 30% in well under 90 days.

The problem with Bitcoin is liquidity and market depth. Even if you're a small-time trader, there are better trading markets to focus your time and energy on.

Regarding the random currencies I mentioned in jest: I was making the point that any obscure currency or security is just about as interesting as Bitcoin.

Re: Winklevoss Twins’ Bitcoin Exchange

#59
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, some people want exposure to bitcoins without necessarily understanding the block chain, recourse or anything really. That's the whole pitch behind everything the Winklevosses do in this domain. That's why they opened a bitcoin exchange traded fund and that's probably their rationale behind this exchange. Saying that "your dollars are eligible for FDIC insurance and never leave the country" makes someone think…

> Well, some people want exposure to bitcoins without necessarily understanding the block chain, recourse or anything really. That's the whole pitch behind everything the Winklevosses do in this domain. Yes and no. They initially wanted to open up the bitcoin market to institutional investors who want exposure without having to change anything in the trading software they use, the accounting structures etc. This mean…

Isn't Gemini their first step towards the ETF?

Also, FDIC insurance isn't for "if" your assets are lost, it's for "when". You can trust security and safety all you want, it's when things go wrong that you need insurance.

I really hope they get private insurance, because just like making sure there are enough lifeboats on the Titanic, hindsight is always 20/20.

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