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Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

bloomberg.com

311–320 of 487 posts

Re: Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

#311

There's a cryptocurrency called RaiBlocks that is working to be the best at transfer of value. The protocol uses new cryptocurrency concepts evolved over the years and I believe it can be quite revolutionary. In my opinion, bitcoin is one of the worst cryptocurrencies at the moment, and to be honest I hope to see it die soon. Create a wallet using this site https://raiwallet.com/ , paste your address here and I'll se…

+1 will use

xrb_3ohqzxnrttgkfkehr6da91mf9ia5o8y9h4g9et5psfrmbmqo45z3enqospkk

Re: Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There seems to be a ton of excitement about Bitcoin now, not because of what it can do, but almost entirely because of speculation. Almost none of the general public interest in Bitcoin stems from an interest in what Bitcoin is; the vast majority of people simply see it as a get rich quick asset. And the reason why people are only interested in it for speculative reasons is because it doesn't seem to have any particu…

I'm tired of this perspective. Just because you "feel" people are in bitcoin for "the wrong reason" doesn't make it bad. Similarly if people start buying electric vehicles because they are faster than gas cars it doesn't make them "worse" than people who buy them for environment change. A lot of millenials have learned a lot about the existing financial system due to Bitcoin, even if it was initially to make a quick…

> A lot of millenials have learned a lot about the existing financial system due to Bitcoin, even if it was initially to make a quick buck, and I suspect there's no way back to fiat for a lot of them.

This is exactly the kind of one-sided perspective that makes me very sceptical. No, they didn't 'leave fiat' in any way, and they never will. At best they can hedge against it a little. But while that might be personally profitable, it is not clear at all whether it is a net benefit; the main problem of western economies nowadays seems to be too tight monetary policy, and crypto is tighter than fiat.

Re: Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

#313

There's a cryptocurrency called RaiBlocks that is working to be the best at transfer of value. The protocol uses new cryptocurrency concepts evolved over the years and I believe it can be quite revolutionary. In my opinion, bitcoin is one of the worst cryptocurrencies at the moment, and to be honest I hope to see it die soon. Create a wallet using this site https://raiwallet.com/ , paste your address here and I'll se…

Am I too late xrb_3p3i4rnwsnsoceu94hcicut74d8smdbznadytwsj69pmwteua3opt5b6m433

Re: Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

#314
post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'I can't do anything with Bitcoin that I can't do more easily with my credit card.' That's false as your credit card issuer controls who you can and cannot transact with. With BTC you control whom you transact with.

In other words: Bitcoin is mostly good for illegal transactions.

No, that’s a commonly held misconception likely tied to the fact that it was being used by people in conjunction with Silk Road. The public ledger system ties history to the transactions so you can trace the flow back in time. Law enforcement officials probably love that aspect.

Good old fashioned cash is much better for criminal activity.

A crypto like Zcash (another fairly large crypto) that utilizes zk snarks to encrypt transactions and then decouple coins from their history would be much better suited for illegal transactions.

Re: Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

#315
post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words: Bitcoin is mostly good for illegal transactions.

Illegal transactions? On a public ledger system? BTC was always about reducing control from a few centralized parties. I don't want my bank or paypal account being arbitrarily frozen. Nowadays BTC is not very good at transactions due to exorbitant fees + very slow confirmation times, but things like ethereum, bitcoin cash, and altcoins offer options. ETH is very quick.

How does ETH compare to LTC in terms of T/s?

Re: Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

#316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well actually that's not what we advise but we're not GS either. >Best performing asset class over the last few years. Previous performance is not a predictor. >Even if it is a bubble, you might as well allocate a few %'s of your portfolio to it if you're wealthy If it's a bubble it's a terrible idea to allocate a few percentage points to it.

"If it's a bubble it's a terrible idea to allocate a few percentage points to it." Why? The word 'bubble' has negative connotations, but the flip side is the only opportunity of a great multiplier on your investment in a short time is during a bubble. Caveat of course, you can lose a lot of money, but that's why you allocate 1% of your portfolio so you can still survive.

Exactly. Soros has said that bubbles are when the biggest trading gains are possible.

Re: Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

#317
post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But there is also a chance that we genuinely are at the beginning of the transition from Fiat currencies to crypto (beginning of the S-curve mass adoption) I can only speak for myself but I see this chance as practically being 0. As far as I can tell the only people who would need something like Bitcoin are those who participate in illegal/immoral activity. Seeing as there is no regulation, I don't think it's far f…

The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies is .6 trillion USD. There's dozens of coins with teams and communities trying to make them succeed and provide value. There's a lot of work and creativity involved in providing new technological solutions to overcome the limitations of older cryptocurrencies. I think you should give the cryptoscene another chance and do some research on what's going on. Saying that all thi…

Market cap is irrelevant when significant percentage of the coins aren't being exchanged or used for anything, and are just sitting in cold wallets.

Re: Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Saying that all this work, money and effort is something that will only benefits scammers is a bit unfair It's entirely fair. Bitcoin is a solution in search of a problem. The only "solution" it's solved so far is lining the pockets of the folks at the top of its pyramid. Bitcoin has been around for, what, 9 years now? If it was going to see mainstream adoption, it would have happened a long time ago.

9 years is a very short time for a foundational technology to go mainstream. The internet took ~25 years.

Which is a good thing. A "foundational technology" is foundational because it lets the new one builds on top of it faster. It reduces marginal time for new ones to become mainstream.

Re: Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

#319

There's a cryptocurrency called RaiBlocks that is working to be the best at transfer of value. The protocol uses new cryptocurrency concepts evolved over the years and I believe it can be quite revolutionary. In my opinion, bitcoin is one of the worst cryptocurrencies at the moment, and to be honest I hope to see it die soon. Create a wallet using this site https://raiwallet.com/ , paste your address here and I'll se…

Thanks, I'll give it a go as well if you don't mind. :) xrb_1sy8ewzsee7zxu4bz1ka7pqjt7uwdmd5ng5xu33ghzxts5fxyt3hzcgjqryu

> Raiblocks could be a good alternative to cash, or at least help some of the most technically savvy people.

Do you see any downsides? The only technical one I'm seeing is that the protocol isn't battle tested (e.g. can it cope with being spammed like crazy given it has zero fees?).

Re: Goldman Sachs Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

#320

There's a cryptocurrency called RaiBlocks that is working to be the best at transfer of value. The protocol uses new cryptocurrency concepts evolved over the years and I believe it can be quite revolutionary. In my opinion, bitcoin is one of the worst cryptocurrencies at the moment, and to be honest I hope to see it die soon. Create a wallet using this site https://raiwallet.com/ , paste your address here and I'll se…

I'm interested.

My wallet. xrb_1o85pzjf9nqkk76ku5qfzqkw6u6a3qt18o53ugh9dnaypotykzzqc7rcff4m

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