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Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

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121–130 of 194 posts

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Average fees are hovering around 30 dollars. That's an average. No, they're not. Exaggerating your numbers makes your entire argument less strong. I made a transaction yesterday and the price was only ~$19 if I wanted it confirmed fast (in <2 blocks). The price was about the same last week when I did the same thing. You also have the option of paying a much lower fee if you don't care how fast it transfers. If you'…

> If you're trying to buy a coffee, don't use BTC. Isn't this sorta what we were hoping to do one day? A proper digital cash replacement? This Bitcoin scalability problem seems like a much bigger deal than most seem to realize. And it's only getting worse.

to pay coffee, you can use any other altcoins, monero, dash, ether has low transcation fees etc. We're past the idea of one crypto rules them all and going to a world where each coin rules in one area. Bitcoin as a store of value, ether for dapps, monero for secure/private transactions, ripple or stellar for international banking etc.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Average fees are hovering around 30 dollars. That's an average. No, they're not. Exaggerating your numbers makes your entire argument less strong. I made a transaction yesterday and the price was only ~$19 if I wanted it confirmed fast (in <2 blocks). The price was about the same last week when I did the same thing. You also have the option of paying a much lower fee if you don't care how fast it transfers. If you'…

> If you're trying to buy a coffee, don't use BTC. Isn't this sorta what we were hoping to do one day? A proper digital cash replacement? This Bitcoin scalability problem seems like a much bigger deal than most seem to realize. And it's only getting worse.

Oh, don't worry, Lightning is coming Real Soon Now (TM), if you call a couple of years real soon, that is...

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wire transfer fraud. I am an insider in the Bitcoin industry, and within 1 day of opening a new bank account we started seeing fraudulent wires flooding in. When we dug deeper, it was shocking to see how many Americans' bank credentials have been hacked. It takes almost no effort for a EEU/RUS hacker to send a wire from a hacked bank account. Once the fraudulent wire is sent, rest of the wire transfer system is tedio…

Regarding CB ACH, They had/have a huge exploitable hole in their ACH system that a friend discovered by accident. Long story short, they credited them for a large sum that they never took from his/her account. I won't put the exact detail of how to trigger the error but suffice it to say it was shocking to learn how a system that deals with large sums of real money could fail in such a way (and likely in a repeatable…

man, gender-neutral pronouns are confusing.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#124

Also, FWIW none of us make any money on offering these debit card products. We actually do it to give people that have digital currency a quick off ramp. Here is how the programs technically work: 1. Infrastructure company pre funds an account with an issuing bank. 2. User sends digital currency to infrastructure company to add to their card. 3. Infrastructure company receives that currency, and alerts bank to debit…

> Infrastructure company has to find an exchange to trade OTC as often as possible to protect against as much volatility as possible, while keeping in mind the minimum OTC trade size is generally $250k USD One can loosely think of an appreciating cryptocurrency as a short-term loan. You're out cash up front. Later, and only later, you get it back plus a little more. The infrastructure company in your example is thus,…

The "appreciating cryptocurrency" part is tricky though, right?

Speculating on currency prices is a business; it is *not however the business that digital currency infrastructure companies are in.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding CB ACH, They had/have a huge exploitable hole in their ACH system that a friend discovered by accident. Long story short, they credited them for a large sum that they never took from his/her account. I won't put the exact detail of how to trigger the error but suffice it to say it was shocking to learn how a system that deals with large sums of real money could fail in such a way (and likely in a repeatable…

man, gender-neutral pronouns are confusing.

No, they're not.

The Discorientating Use of the Word "They": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_xVAqJ-NY0

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#126
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely the high transaction fees are an issue though?

Unrelated. You pay the card issuer with bitcoin and they sell it for eur. As far as they're concerned they only have to pay a one-time fee for transferring the received bitcoin to an exchange and selling it there. Whenever the cardholder makes a payment, that payment is processed against the fiat-equivalent that they have with the card issuer; the card is funded by bitcoin you send in yes but it's backed by the curre…

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Infrastructure company has to find an exchange to trade OTC as often as possible to protect against as much volatility as possible, while keeping in mind the minimum OTC trade size is generally $250k USD One can loosely think of an appreciating cryptocurrency as a short-term loan. You're out cash up front. Later, and only later, you get it back plus a little more. The infrastructure company in your example is thus,…

The "appreciating cryptocurrency" part is tricky though, right? Speculating on currency prices is a business; it is *not however the business that digital currency infrastructure companies are in.

> Speculating on currency prices is a business; it is not however the business that digital currency infrastructure companies are in

Yes it is. It may not be how they market themselves. But it's the principal risk they take and, directly and indirectly, the principal determinant of their profitability.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wire transfer fraud. I am an insider in the Bitcoin industry, and within 1 day of opening a new bank account we started seeing fraudulent wires flooding in. When we dug deeper, it was shocking to see how many Americans' bank credentials have been hacked. It takes almost no effort for a EEU/RUS hacker to send a wire from a hacked bank account. Once the fraudulent wire is sent, rest of the wire transfer system is tedio…

As far as I understand it, Coinbase does not allow a user to fund using ACH unless they first prove control of the bank account by: 1) Providing the username and password for online access to the bank account; or 2) Allowing Coinbase to make two micro-deposits to the bank account, and then providing the correct amounts of the deposits when they are received.

If some nefarious actor has the users credentials (e.g. username / password) won't they then be able to circumvent both of those checks?

Maybe it's possible that so many people are signing up for Coinbase right now that it's flooding out the fraud?

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#129
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The SEC has said they consider crytpos securities. That would mean the fraudulent price manipulation in the crytpo space (Bitfinex treating tether as USD and pushing up the bid) is securities fraud. This is probably why Wells Fargo stopped clearing Dollar transactions for Bitfinex.

The SEC has said they consider some cryptos securities. They've been pretty reasonable about it so far.

Yes. For example, they've said that you could use a blockchain to keep track of book borrowing in a book club, where people expect to use the blockchain to get books and not to get rich.

I do think this is pretty reasonable, but it sounds like you meant something else.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wire transfer fraud. I am an insider in the Bitcoin industry, and within 1 day of opening a new bank account we started seeing fraudulent wires flooding in. When we dug deeper, it was shocking to see how many Americans' bank credentials have been hacked. It takes almost no effort for a EEU/RUS hacker to send a wire from a hacked bank account. Once the fraudulent wire is sent, rest of the wire transfer system is tedio…

Regarding CB ACH, They had/have a huge exploitable hole in their ACH system that a friend discovered by accident. Long story short, they credited them for a large sum that they never took from his/her account. I won't put the exact detail of how to trigger the error but suffice it to say it was shocking to learn how a system that deals with large sums of real money could fail in such a way (and likely in a repeatable…

You should tell Coinbase and get a bug bounty.
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