Live data from Hacker News

China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

bloomberg.com

131–140 of 148 posts

Re: China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

#131
post #73

According to someone on Bitcointalk.org, it might not be as bad as it seems ( https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=358341.msg3832549#ms... ): No. You Western guys completely misunderstood the news. To me, this is actually BULLISH! TL;DR, the document says: 1. Bitcoin is a virtual commodity, not a real currency 2. People have the freedom to trade bitcoin, but they need to take their own risk 3. At this stage, finan…

Similar what (some?) countries in EMU were saying. It's not a currency, you can use it at your own risk. Also you can't print/create physical representation IIRC, i.e. money.

A physical representation of bitcoins (e.g. paper) would be terribly cumbersome.

Re: China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

#132

Well, this was predictable. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6818821 Edit: Having read the (Google translation of the) PBOC's Notice, it looks like concern over money laundering contributed to the decision to issue this notice. There's a fairly comprehensive ban on financial institutions doing any kind of Bitcoin-denominated business. It also appears that Bitcoin exchanges must register with the telecommunication…

Predictable?

> the price would plunge.

9 hours later... the prices have stabilized after dropping $100. We can add that to the hundredth time people have predicted the death of Bitcoin.

Re: China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

#133
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar what (some?) countries in EMU were saying. It's not a currency, you can use it at your own risk. Also you can't print/create physical representation IIRC, i.e. money.

A physical representation of bitcoins (e.g. paper) would be terribly cumbersome.

To be clear, this already exists :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_protocol#Paper_wallets...

Re: China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

#134
post #113
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you consider those things to bestow "intrinsic value" (a fallacious concept), the Bitcoin has "intrinsic value" because it is portable, divisible, fungible, scarce, and has all the other properties we want from a scarcity-based currency while having all the great benefits (and more) of digital fiat money.

Bitcoin isn't portable (you can't carry it, try using it without the internet). All regular currencies are fungible and its super-questionable that BTC is divisible (the network can't handle more then what, a million transactions per second? What's the use of a currency that splits into microscopic sizes if you can't make lots of micropayments with it).

This must be red herring day on HN.

USD may be the most ubiquitous currency on the planet. However, go visit a country like Japan. Once you're out of reach of any currency exchange, you won't have much luck using your USD. Ironically, you'll have better luck using a Visa/Mastercard (which, btw, are not used anywhere other than perhaps ATMs). Those credit cards require a network to be used.

I've been to Internet cafes in Japan. But I never bought a single thing with USD. I don't see Bitcoin having any issues here. Internet is more widely available than places that take whatever your paper currency is.

You can easily take Bitcoin with you. You take your credit card with you. Both require electronic communication to work. There is no difference here.

Re: China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

#135

According to someone on Bitcointalk.org, it might not be as bad as it seems ( https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=358341.msg3832549#ms... ): No. You Western guys completely misunderstood the news. To me, this is actually BULLISH! TL;DR, the document says: 1. Bitcoin is a virtual commodity, not a real currency 2. People have the freedom to trade bitcoin, but they need to take their own risk 3. At this stage, finan…

It also means that in the interest of experimentation, the US will likely do the opposite of China.

Re: China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like when the dotcom bubble burst, and the so-called experts were saying "No, this is a GOOD thing! All your favorite stocks are on sale!" The thing that propelled BTC from 200 to 1200 was the news that BTC was gaining popularity in China. If this news turns negative, then what is keeping the price high? Then again, given BTC has been so strongly bought up, if it gets bought up here, then it just means it…

Time to sell Bitcoin. Merill Lynch just said buy Bitcoin, setting a target of 1300 (I hate the way Wall Street pulls these numbers out of thin air, but they are on the sell-side). This is the same Merill Lynch who collapsed their own company with dodgy investments and had to be passed off to Bank of America, another company laden full of dodgy assets and dodgy accounting. If these guys say "buy", isn't it time to run…

I worked in Treasury for a Fortune 500 with operations in 80 countries, responsible for FX hedging, and I can say that ALL banks are absolutely terrible currency forecasters. I can't blame them for being inaccurate, since there are so many variables that can impact an exchange rate between currencies, but it's important to note that forecasted currency rates have no merit.

Re: China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

#137
post #44

From the Google translation of the original source: "However, Bitcoin transaction as a commodity trading behavior on the Internet, ordinary people have the freedom to participate in the premise own risk." The new bitcoin policy here isn't that much more conservative than the USA's bitcoin policy, and Beijing just legalized bitcoin for ordinary citizen gamblers, speculators, savers, and options traders! This is a good…

[deleted]

Re: China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

#139
I personally think this is bad news for Bitcoin as it limits it to a speculator tool. With price growing constantly, it's not a good tool for e-commerce either - price in BTC needs to have 20-30%, plus, who'd spend their BTC and not their fiat if fiat stays the same and BTC keeps growing? I think BTC will drop under $1,000 and will stay there for a bit until some "real" positive news come in. Currently at the moment there's a pump-and-dump process going on as not everybody was able to sell yesterday. I'd say, ether buy below $900 or above $1,300 as for days BTC was trying to break $1,200 without success. I don't think there's positive enough news for it to break it today or tomorrow. Volumes of trading dropped significantly above the $1,100 levels, so, that's a good sign of Bitcoin running out of steam.

Re: China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

#140
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CCP pervasively makes decisions that can harm its people. I didn't realize people were seriously considering the idea that the PRC was going to offer a national trade in bitcoin.

Bingo. And there's no way in hell that the CCP would let equity slip out of the country in any large amount.

Wouldn't keeping equity in the country be in the interests of the people anyway? It's the wealthy who want to ship their wealth overseas.
Post reply on HN