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A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

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Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#321

Post by arcticbull »

stale2002 wrote: post #318
arcticbull wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not extremely high, they're the cost of doing business.

And the world would be a much better place if it was harder to impose higher costs of doing business on controversial, but legal businesses. Which is why I support solutions that undermine attempts by a couple monopolies to impose larger costs on legal, but controversial businesses.

Fair, though this isn't the technology that'll solve that. You've just centralized the decision making to the PRC which controls more than 51% of hash power. All it takes is a strongly-worded memo from Beijing and they can censor payments and rewrite the blockchain.

That said, with $1.26 transaction fees + 1-2% to buy BTC vs. even 20% for a credit card in this high-risk MCC, the breakeven is ~$7, and while I'm not sure what adult content costs on a monthly basis, I'd imagine the fee difference isn't a whole lot.

It's also not an imposition, nobody is required to use credit cards. Adult content is largely and lucratively ad-supported. Some businesses choose to offer content on a subscription model like the NYT paywall, and some choose not to. I don't see anything inherently wrong with the status quo. The cost of doing business is being passed down. They accept credit cards because even at a 20% fee, it's in their interests to do so. If it wasn't they'd stop. Either way, they're recovering their fees from customers.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#322

Post by thinkmassive »

thinkmassive wrote: post #319
arcticbull wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing about the twitter account refutes what I'm saying about Venezuela. There's a certain quantity of BTC there already, and it's not nearly enough to replace all the money down there. They can't mine any because any big clusters of compute get nationalized [1], [2] and rewards are going down. That means they can either trade with outsiders, and in that case, doing so for USD they'd be 5X better off over the last…

You claimed "Nobody in Venezuela has bitcoin." I provided evidence of a group making a difference in Venezuela using Bitcoin, so it does refute your previous statement. I pity someone who is so offended by a simple technology.

You're using Venezuela as an example of the success of "real currencies" hahaha

Look at Bitcoin's yearly lows, and tell me more people aren't finding it useful every year. Again, YOU mentioned the Venezuela example, and IT IS BEING USED THERE. I never claimed it would save that country, nor have I heard anyone else make that claim. Clearly some people there find it more useful than other alternatives to their hyperinflationary fiat currency.

Bitcoin doesn't care about Venezuela nor any other specific use case. It keeps existing because people keep running the software. You can deny this, but there's no point being exasperated over it. Just let it go and concentrate on whatever you do care about.

But don't go around claiming fiat currencies are the final solution when situations like Venezuela are happening right before our eyes.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#323

Post by arcticbull »

thinkmassive wrote: post #322
thinkmassive wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You claimed "Nobody in Venezuela has bitcoin." I provided evidence of a group making a difference in Venezuela using Bitcoin, so it does refute your previous statement. I pity someone who is so offended by a simple technology.

You're using Venezuela as an example of the success of "real currencies" hahaha Look at Bitcoin's yearly lows, and tell me more people aren't finding it useful every year. Again, YOU mentioned the Venezuela example, and IT IS BEING USED THERE. I never claimed it would save that country, nor have I heard anyone else make that claim. Clearly some people there find it more useful than other alternatives to their hyperin…

I don't claim Venezuela's currency is an example of success. I'm saying that their currency's failure is a result of the failure of their government, and even waving a wand and switching everyone over to BTC (which again, the initial distribution problem) won't magically make their government work. They can't control BTC but they sure can control the populace. They'd make it illegal and beat everyone with BTC until they handed it in to the central government, and smash everyone's computers. Bitcoin's weakness there is still a rubber hose. I'm saying that trading existing BTC between themselves is a zero-sum problem since the total quantity of BTC and the total quantity of Bolivars (hence the total value) remains exactly the same within Venezuela, and mining isn't an option due to nationalization and low yields.

Trading with other countries opens up many different options for storing value like fiat currencies backed by 'stable' governments like AUD, CAD, NZD, USD, EUR -- or assets like gold, equities, real estate, etc. Each of which would have stored value 5X better than BTC over the last 2 years. However, the real issue remains, you have to trade to obtain either these assets or BTC and nobody wants to trade anything for Venezuelan Bolivars because they in turn don't believe they'll get anything for them. That won't be solved until the government is replaced.

Until the government is replaced any BTC "solutions" for the Venezuelans are efforts to legitimize BTC and increase the value of the holdings of the "helpers," not to really solve the problems on the ground there. If they were trying to help, they'd just raise money for NGOs.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#324

Post by dzhiurgis »

raverbashing wrote: post #165
Semaphor wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transferring money from one continent to another.

Calculate the full chain of costs then come back here with how it compares to Transferwise or other methods

Interactive Brokers easily beats Transferwise

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#325

Post by dzhiurgis »

arisAlexis wrote: post #242
dzhiurgis wrote: post #134

Of everyone I follow it seems it’s only a16z still believes in crypto.

care to share your list? because everyone I follow (jack, woz, YC, winkl bros, naval, draper VC,sergey and others) are pretty much allin block/coins

Quite hard to do. Just followed pg, some other vc's and then Twitter started suggesting others (Tech VC's, Stock traders) in mobile explore tab.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#326

Post by turkeysandwich »

slg wrote: post #245
dd36 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What free speech is he referring to? The only speech I know of that has been censored is terrorist groups. It makes me uncomfortable when I see people here complaining about that.

Since you brought it up, I would generally agree with you and am not too concerned about free speech on the internet. More than just terrorist groups are being censored, but all of the speech that I have seen disenfranchised has been speech that is in my opinion objectionable in one way or another. A lot of people in the US don't seem to realize how extreme we are as a country when it comes to free speech. We fetishi…

Western democracies with hate speech laws are less democratic because the range of legally permissible opinions is smaller.

If mere functioning is your goal for the country, then certainly countries without strong free speech protections can function. They can even function without democracy at all.

But most people want more for their country.

Western democracies with weaker free speech protections do function, but they also have a substantial pressure outlet in the form of websites hosted in other countries that don't kowtow to oppressive governments.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#327

Post by chx »

xtracto wrote: post #210
raverbashing wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calculate the full chain of costs then come back here with how it compares to Transferwise or other methods

MXN to GBP : I can't do it. BTC to BTC :I can do it. Non of the fancy services allow me to send money from Mexico to the UK. It is crypto or paying for SWIFT, Western Union or similar. With very high costs.

> MXN to GBP : I can't do it.

Both https://www.currenciesdirect.com/ and https://www.smartcurrencyexchange.com can do it.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#328

Post by stale2002 »

arcticbull wrote: post #321
stale2002 wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the world would be a much better place if it was harder to impose higher costs of doing business on controversial, but legal businesses. Which is why I support solutions that undermine attempts by a couple monopolies to impose larger costs on legal, but controversial businesses.

Fair, though this isn't the technology that'll solve that. You've just centralized the decision making to the PRC which controls more than 51% of hash power. All it takes is a strongly-worded memo from Beijing and they can censor payments and rewrite the blockchain. That said, with $1.26 transaction fees + 1-2% to buy BTC vs. even 20% for a credit card in this high-risk MCC, the breakeven is ~$7, and while I'm not su…

I mean, buying a bunch of miners in order to 51% attack a network is significantly more difficult than making a phone call to a Visa or MasterCard executive.

It is also not enough to censor a singular Blockchain. You'd have to get the hardware to attack all the chains, because then people would just move to the other ones.

This is still not impossible. That's why I used the words "censorship resistant". But it is certainly much more difficult than a phone call to 2 or 3 executives who control the major financial companies.

This is proven by the fact that censorship just isn't happening on most Blockchains. The actual state of the network proves that it is difficult, because it isn't happening.

You can talk all you want about theoretical attacks, but those attacks aren't happening, so it works. Whereas there are many examples of the "phone call to Visa" that are happening right now.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#329

Post by slg »

turkeysandwich wrote: post #326
slg wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you brought it up, I would generally agree with you and am not too concerned about free speech on the internet. More than just terrorist groups are being censored, but all of the speech that I have seen disenfranchised has been speech that is in my opinion objectionable in one way or another. A lot of people in the US don't seem to realize how extreme we are as a country when it comes to free speech. We fetishi…

Western democracies with hate speech laws are less democratic because the range of legally permissible opinions is smaller. If mere functioning is your goal for the country, then certainly countries without strong free speech protections can function. They can even function without democracy at all. But most people want more for their country. Western democracies with weaker free speech protections do function, but t…

Cross reference this list[1] with this one[2]. I just don't see any evidence for a claims like "Western democracies with hate speech laws are less democratic".

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#330

Post by xtracto »

arcticbull wrote: post #305
xtracto wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Totally can, FairFX and TorFX (both UK-regulated money transmitters) will safely and securely make an MXN to GBP transfer for right around 2.5% and believe it or not Western Union is usually quite competitive. Next time check out cuex.com which compares options for you. I tried both of them and I can't (I am living in Mexico). I don't understand why you think BTC is a nightmare. For me, living in Mexico, and dealin…

I'm not sure what you mean by it not working. I haven't tried but they're a regulated system, are you sure it's not on your end? Have you been reporting your capital gains and losses over the course of the transaction on both sides? If not the tax authority may have some serious questions for you. And why wouldn't I make negative assumptions of crypto [1], [2], [3], [4]. There's a scammer at every single level and be…

> I'm not sure what you mean by it not working. I haven't tried but they're a regulated system, are you sure it's not on your end? Have you been reporting your capital gains and losses over the course of the transaction on both sides? If not the tax authority may have some serious questions for you.

It is actually very simple: A lot of these services do not provide services in Mexico. Really, the passive aggressive comment is not necessary.

I assume that you live in the UK or the USA. Usually what happens is that people that live there live in a "technological bubble" where all of those first-world services are available. But most of them do not have service in most of other countries.

I work in a B2B payment company and have had the opportunity to deal with these kind of issues. Believe me that cross-country payments is nowhere a solved problem. The blockchain technology definitely has something on it if used correctly.

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