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Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

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Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#341

Post by PeterisP »

Frogolocalypse wrote: post #337
PeterisP wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could very well be the thing, and there's certain value in that, however IMHO that value is limited because: 1) the market value of a settlement system handling is much, much lower than that of a retail payment system with a comparable value (not number) of transactions. If the "payment of the future" is a side-chain that uses bitcoin as the settlement layer, then that side-chain will be the value creator and ge…

There are lot of people that can't understand the use-case of bitcoin, and can't understand why it has value if it doesn't meet theirs, yes.

Which is the use-case of bitcoin in your opinion?

This was addressing the parent poster's proposal of a single, quite particular (and IMHO not in popular opinion) use-case of it purely as the settlement layer for other payment network(s); but there seems to be no consensus about the main use case, at the very least I see camps of 'value store', 'decentralized payments for the masses' and 'payments that can't be restricted' which already each have some conflicting requirements.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#342

Post by JBlue42 »

tome wrote: post #316
JBlue42 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty good summary of a casual conversation I had with someone that works in investing about Bitcoin and Ethereum. He said blockchain is here to stay and that knowing what companies are going to try and do with it is useful but these currencies, or at the very least, their value, could go away very quickly.

This is what my uneducated hunch is, so I'm glad to hear you say it, but I'm enjoying reading all the countervailing opinions too, to educate myself further!

I'm glad to have finally pushed myself to read and learn more about all this sense it does seem to be hitting the mainstream.

Here's a shit ton of reading if you're interested:

https://github.com/xel/blockchain-stuff

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#343

Post by jpindar »

IamNotAtWork wrote: post #286

So can you actually withdraw money from coinbase, if you say had 100 coins (I don't). Everyone said back then that Mt. Gox was safe because it was the biggest. It being based in Japan was a huge red flag, but nobody cared until all of its money disappeared. Coinbase being based in the US probably won't happen because there could be consequences for them if they disappear with the coins, but having been burned by Mt.…

It was some time ago, and a much smaller amount, but when I withdrew money from them it was no problem, and reasonably prompt. (Same with Fanduel, BTW - another industry some people are skeptical about).

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#344

Post by wmf »

droidist2 wrote: post #123
joering2 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not unless they either have physical check from you, OR are enrolled into MSP (merchant service provider). But MSPs will monitor fraudulent activity just like providing CC in any online store gives them access to empty your CC doesnt mean they will get away with it :)

But isn't the same the info you provide to companies like Coinbase (account and routing number) on the bottom of all of your checks? Oh, but if they're a merchant they have different abilities?

Yeah, normal people cannot initiate ACHes but merchants can.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#345

Post by Frogolocalypse »

PeterisP wrote: post #341
Frogolocalypse wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lot of people that can't understand the use-case of bitcoin, and can't understand why it has value if it doesn't meet theirs, yes.

Which is the use-case of bitcoin in your opinion? This was addressing the parent poster's proposal of a single, quite particular (and IMHO not in popular opinion) use-case of it purely as the settlement layer for other payment network(s); but there seems to be no consensus about the main use case, at the very least I see camps of 'value store', 'decentralized payments for the masses' and 'payments that can't be restr…

> Which is the use-case of bitcoin in your opinion?

Decentralized censorship and inflation resistant savings account.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#346

Post by remotedreamer »

thisisit wrote: post #212
remotedreamer wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever been sued by the government? Want to know how not to be?

It seems that you are quite hostile to the highlight in the post. I have never been sued by the government. I don't plan to be sued so that knowledge is useless for me.

What I was trying to say is, Block.one(like every blockchain project/currency) has to be very careful in how they market themselves and their blockchain, legally. It's still the wild west in crypto, which makes it prime for government market regulators to target any projects they want to take down. Safest way to play this is to essentially not own up to or promise anything within company legal documents. This is why Block.one does not allow anyone from the USA or China(I believe) to buy into its ICO at this moment. Look into the history of E-gold. That was like a bitcoin network that worked, but was shut down because the government knew who the top 3 people that ran it were.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#347

Post by beefield »

njarboe wrote: post #325
beefield wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have yet to see "safe" defined in some probabilistic way https://www.moodys.com/sites/products/DefaultResearch/200710... Of course, when you start defining "safe" in a probabilistic way, you end up very quickly estimating the degree of safety instead of binary safe/not safe.

Correct. I'm sure its has been done, but the general public does not think about it that way. Nice subtle joke(?) with that link to a Moody's March 2008 report on rating bonds given that rating agencies were probably the closest single thing you could point to as the fraud that caused the mortgage bubble and 2008 collapse. Yes, sometimes a feeling can be closer to the truth than a lot of complicated math done with wr…

> general public does not think about it that way.

I agree that general public is utterly incapable of understanding basic concepts of probability. (See: Clinto had probability 52% of winning. Trump won -> Forecast was wrong. How stupid is that?) I just commented when you told you have not seen safe even defined in a probabilistic way.

> Yes, sometimes a feeling can be closer to the truth than a lot of complicated math done with wrong assumptions.

To me that is like a stopped clock is correct twice a day compared to a working clock that is just having wrong time all the time.

At least with the complicated math you are forced to spell out the assumptions and there is a chance you are able to recognize them before it is too late.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#348

Post by sobani »

MichaelGG wrote: post #271
sobani wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the market could move against you. If you're ok with buying for 100, but someone else is selling for 99, you've effectively done a market order and have to pay the fees. However if the lowest sell is 101 and then the price moves up to 105, you've just screwed yourself for 4 in order to save 0.25

Huh? Just set your limit to 105 or 200 or 10500. There's no reason to ever use a market order unless there's some other severe limitation on limit orders in a particular implementation.

You can't set your 'limit' to 105, when the current price is 101. That's a market order.

Even if you could, why would you want to buy at 105, when the current price is 101? Just to don't have to pay 0.25 in fees!? That sounds like "The Firm" from John Grisham where rich people would rather pay $2 to lawyers than $1 in taxes.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#349

Post by kbody »

travisjungroth wrote: post #216
kbody wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Btw, do you have any engineers capable of working to upgrade the platform to use SegWit? I find it weird that Brian advertises open positions like there's nobody there capable of doing it.

I wouldn't take any job ad copy as disparaging to the current team.

Neither am I, just in this case I know some context that lead me to this question.

SegWit being pretty much the most important update to Bitcoin so far with a lot of advantages, I would expect that CB would give top priority on supporting it. But Brian when asked about it, he replied with a job ad about new positions, while I would expect they would put their most experienced engineers on it, instead of depend on new recruits for such crucial and maybe challenging project.

Re: Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy

#350

Post by latchkey »

lallysingh wrote: post #246
latchkey wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, selling the miner hardware is more like selling the shovels. Coinbase is more like the laundry service. I'm sure someone else can poke holes in this as well. =)

Let's be careful when taking about any kind of laundering when discussing Bitcoin :-)

The number one currency for evil purposes is and will be USD, for a very very very long time.
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