61–70 of 104 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coinbase has an account on bitstamp where they hedge their net position. In times of high demand for btc, it sometimes happens that they run out of fiat on bitstamp and cannot process orders instantly.
What happens if bitstamp follows mtgox?
When I first read this I thought, why would they start with hotels? may be because the big profit they make out of reservations? Then I remembered what an accountant friend once said to me: "Hotels are big portals between the black and white worlds". So you may have black money in bitcoins (and a Hotel which is your "legal business"), and want to "wash" it? now you can do it through Expedia (they having a bite in the…
This does nothing to disperse bitcoin into many little places. In other words, accepting bitcoin by online merchants everywhere doesn't make many people want to go trade fiat for a volatile currency with all the inconveniences inherent. You need a frictionless means and stimulus for many swathes of people and organizations to accept and hold BC instead of wanting fiat conversions immediately.
"We take Discover/American Express etc." only really got so far to help with consumer adoption of those networks. This keeps coming around to a currency without a country is a PITA.
What are return policies around goods bought with BC? Do you get BC back or fiat? Do you get spot prices at time of return request, etc?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coinbase has an account on bitstamp where they hedge their net position. In times of high demand for btc, it sometimes happens that they run out of fiat on bitstamp and cannot process orders instantly.
What happens if bitstamp follows mtgox?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coinbase has an account on bitstamp where they hedge their net position. In times of high demand for btc, it sometimes happens that they run out of fiat on bitstamp and cannot process orders instantly.
What happens if bitstamp follows mtgox?
Coinbase could abandon Bitstamp if they wanted to, since they have their own customers selling and buying coins (therefore providing a supply of coins, and a way to liquidate them). And Coinbase also trade coins on multiple other exchanges (according to their claims). This makes their overall Bitcoin trading activity decentralized with no single point of failure.
This seems good. But at the heart of it I fear it defeats the whole point of Bitcoin the payment system. Why? I thought the whole point of Bitcoin was to create a decentralized payment system. And here is Coinbase (or Bitpay) becoming centralized payment systems...
The real service Coinbase is providing is the conversion of bitcoins into government currency. I can't think of an immediate way to decentralize that, because moving government currency between people requires centralization (short of mailing physical cash, which obviously has its own issues). It's fairly trivial to simply accept bitcoins in a decentralized fashion. That's just what normal Bitcoin transactions are.
When I first read this I thought, why would they start with hotels? may be because the big profit they make out of reservations? Then I remembered what an accountant friend once said to me: "Hotels are big portals between the black and white worlds". So you may have black money in bitcoins (and a Hotel which is your "legal business"), and want to "wash" it? now you can do it through Expedia (they having a bite in the…
When I read that, I thought of people making trips that they would prefer no one finding out about. Affairs, etc. I guess that's also a legitimate use case for adopting BTC.
When I first read this I thought, why would they start with hotels? may be because the big profit they make out of reservations? Then I remembered what an accountant friend once said to me: "Hotels are big portals between the black and white worlds". So you may have black money in bitcoins (and a Hotel which is your "legal business"), and want to "wash" it? now you can do it through Expedia (they having a bite in the…
Makes sense, but I'd love to here more on this. What features of hotels makes them particularly good portals between the black and white worlds.
This seems good. But at the heart of it I fear it defeats the whole point of Bitcoin the payment system. Why? I thought the whole point of Bitcoin was to create a decentralized payment system. And here is Coinbase (or Bitpay) becoming centralized payment systems...
The real problem is trustworthy BTC -> USD. Expedia can't pay their employees with BTC, and the executives don't want their bonuses in BTC either.
Coinbase is a solution to this problem. And it's better to have one trustworthy, rather than a bunch of mtgoxes. Yes, it makes it 'centralized' but it's the best solution in this case. Without it, BTC is just internet points.
How does this deal with damage deposits? Why would I pay with bitcoin when many rewards cards pay out extra when you use them for travel-related use? Honestly, the cynic in me says the use case for spending bitcoin is a quick way for speculators to "cash out" in a way that makes it easier to hide earnings from the tax-man.
Damage deposits - not something Expedia does with credit cards or PayPal, hotels have to ask their clients for a credit card at check in.
Rewards - it's just a matter of time for Bitcoin rewards schemes to appear.