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Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

btctimes.com

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Re: Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

#361

Post by dankerr »

iijj wrote: post #122

Maybe I don't understand it correctly, but after having recently done my taxes, it seems to me you'd generate a capital gain or loss that has to be captured on IRS Form 8949 every time such a thing triggered bitcoin to be converted to USD, goods or services. Or is it some nudge-nudge-wink-wink situation where everyone, including the IRS, ignores such a thing unless the sums involved are large.

My CPA added up all my yearly Bitcoin transactions and only filled in one line on that form.. he wrote the dates as "various".

Re: Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

#362

Post by paulmd »

throw0101a wrote: post #224
waheoo wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're the one messing with reality here. Bitcoin needs to be stable before it can be used widespread for transactions. Visa doing this increases its adoption, increased adoption, even if used in this way will stabilise the currency. That is huge. It's just a required stepping stone.

I ran across the following observation a little while ago: the volatility of one's currency should be less than the volatility of the goods purchased by that currency .

which is more volatile, bitcoin or GPU hardware? ;)

Re: Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

#363

Post by Aunche »

epa wrote: post #359
Aunche wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you actually wanted to store value you would buy gold. You can't store value in Bitcoin because it has no inherent value. It's a distributed ledger on the internet. If I hoard 100% of the world's gold bullion, there's a good chance that people would want to buy it from me at a price similar to today's spot. If I hoard 100% of bitcoins, it loses all of its value. Moreover, if hyperinflation does occur, there's a go…

What is a tech stock's inherent value? They typically lose money and have a ton of employees. How is bitcoin different? You are investing in a technology with a group of people who are supporting it. As more people agree it is useful, the price goes up. Same thing as a stock.

Tech stocks aren't stores of value either. They're investments. No matter how speculative they are, the company is expected to return its profits back to the shareholders.

Re: Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

#364

Post by graeme »

intotheabyss wrote: post #356
qeternity wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a crowd that constantly parrot “DYOR”...you should really DYOR. No stablecoin has even been audited. Zero. None. Most perform attestations, which doesn’t even come close to an audit. Tether does neither.

I take it you've never heard of Maker? You can audit the supply of DAI and the ETH backing it in real time.

From context I’m assuming OP was talking about USD backed stablecoins.

That said, DAI is an interesting case in that it is now mostly backed by centralized assets rather than ETH.

I do not believe it is within the capacity of the average user to audit such a system. It would be simple for an average person to examine a USD account balance and say “yes the money is there”. But how can anyone figure all the possible tail events that could occur from DAI’s structure?

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Cb0cMy...

https://medium.com/@adamscochran/3-reasons-why-dai-is-defis-...

Re: Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

#365

Post by joreto »

67868018 wrote: post #179

The number of people commenting who completely misunderstand Bitcoin and crypto is astounding. Bitcoin will never be used directly for payments, it's a value store. Immutable deflationary digital gold. I wrote it off for years too because it was too slow and the fees were too expensive. That was the dream they had, but they couldn't realize it at the base layer. I was still walking around last year believing that's t…

hide assets with a publicly traceable and immutable ledger? you'd have to be a complete idiot to try that. Bitcoin is useless as a store of value if everyone can see how much you hold, where you acquired it, and how you've spent it..

but yes, there are other (actual) cryptocurrencies* that don't broadcast every detail about your transactions, which can be used for that.

*crypto- comes from the Greek kryptós, meaning “hidden.”

Re: Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

#366

Post by sfblah »

gruez wrote: post #333
graeme wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those aren’t audits, those are attestations. The Gemini page says “audit”. But that isn’t what the pdfs say. Read the accountant’s writing very carefully and you’ll see it means they merely examined management’s report and their assertion that at a specific time at 3:44 pm feb 26th they had the money. https://assets.ctfassets.net/jg6lo9a2ukvr/1Qg69anSKlBi3FbFA4...

Practically speaking, what's the difference between an attestations and an audit?

My understanding is an attestation is the company promising something is true (not sure if there are consequences if they lie). An audit is a third party promising something is true, with definite legal consequences if they lie.

Re: Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

#367

Post by centimeter »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #235
centimeter wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't sound like you're familiar with how lightning works. It doesn't have to be "synced with the chain" except during channel opening and closing, which occur infrequently (like on the scale of weeks or months). > ethereum and bitcoin cash already have more transactions than bitcoin The eth blockchain is untenably huge (good luck running an ethereum full node), and ethereum fees are often higher than Bitcoin fe…

> The eth blockchain is untenably huge (good luck running an ethereum full node) No blockchains are anywhere close to "untenably huge". The ethereum chain is 639.43 GB. https://bitinfocharts.com/ A $10 USD VPS could sync with that in under two hours. That is about $12 USD of hard drive space after 5 years. This is about the same as downloading the five to eight largest games on steam. > and ethereum fees are often hi…

> The ethereum chain is 639.43 GB.

False. This is for some sort of pruned SPV node or something. A full node takes multiple terabytes. Even the fastest implementations take days to sync, if you're lucky.

https://tjayrush.medium.com/building-your-own-ethereum-archi...

> Which means that no one can use that balance for weeks or months

You clearly have no idea how lightning works, so why do you keep commenting as if you do? Nothing about this claim is true.

Re: Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

#368

Post by xvector »

Priem19 wrote: post #199
67868018 wrote: post #179

The number of people commenting who completely misunderstand Bitcoin and crypto is astounding. Bitcoin will never be used directly for payments, it's a value store. Immutable deflationary digital gold. I wrote it off for years too because it was too slow and the fees were too expensive. That was the dream they had, but they couldn't realize it at the base layer. I was still walking around last year believing that's t…

>Also expect a ton of movement to crypto when wealth taxes get implemented to fix economies. They'll use it to hide assets, guaranteed. Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely. Disregarding all of bitcoin's shortcomings, a financial instrument that brings out the worst in people—greed—won't change the world for the better. https://www.cynicusrex.com/file/cryptocultscience.html . I used time-travel to uncover thre…

The stateless, subversive nature of Bitcoin and especially Monero is a feature, not a bug.

Re: Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

#369

Post by seibelj »

FridgeSeal wrote: post #294
Priem19 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By which I mean to say: the greedy rich wanting to preserve or increase their wealth at all costs is what got us into this mess. Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency pyramid scheme is going to do bugger all to improve that. No amount of wealth or technology will turn vice into virtue because: “If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.” —George Carlin Prosperity boils down to g…

To add to this, crypto communities _appear_ (I’d be pleased to be wrong here if anyone has examples) to be filled with people who are absolutely opposed to any kind of economic governance, if it’s not “let the magic hand of the market decide” they’re seemingly not interested.

You have an entire world full of governments and fiat currencies. If they are so superior then there should be no problem with competition from Bitcoin.

Re: Visa Plans to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 70M Merchants

#370

Post by vicvvv »

Isn’t the whole idea of decentralized digital currency systems to eliminate intermediaries, maximize privacy and reduce transaction costs? The visa network stands to lose the most, get seriously disrupted, more they are scrambling to stay relevant and frame this as a value added service.
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