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Stripe Crypto

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Re: Stripe Crypto

#121
post #39

Slight tangent: Maybe it’s just me, but I’m somewhat uncomfortable with the label “crypto” being co-opted as official shorthand for cryptocurrencies. I see how it’s a natural truncation of a long term, but to many of us the word crypto can mean many other things. When I saw the headline, I wondered if they had released their own cryptographic library or something else to that effect.

Here's how I rationalize it:

* "Crypto" means "cryptography"

* "Cryptocurrency" is a subset of "cryptography"

* Using "crypto" to mean "cryptocurrency" is valid as a synecdoche

So basically I use it both ways. That also makes more sense to me because "currency" feels like an overly narrow description of the current crypto ecosystem.

Re: Stripe Crypto

#123

The main point of crypto these days appears to be to replace the current middlemen with different middlemen who can make more profit while offering the consumer much less legal protection. It's a bit concerning.

> The main point of crypto these days appears to be... Maybe you can ask people who get their funds randomly blocked and restricted by PayPal and seized for months/years while an "investigation" takes place if there's any use-case for crypto. Maybe you can ask ordinary Russian citizens what their legal protections are worth once they've been un-personed by the world. Or perhaps you can ask Canadian mandate protesters…

Crypto has not helped any of these people.

Re: Stripe Crypto

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The main point of crypto these days appears to be... Maybe you can ask people who get their funds randomly blocked and restricted by PayPal and seized for months/years while an "investigation" takes place if there's any use-case for crypto. Maybe you can ask ordinary Russian citizens what their legal protections are worth once they've been un-personed by the world. Or perhaps you can ask Canadian mandate protesters…

Crypto has not helped any of these people.

Is it not possible to hypothesize how cryptocurrencies afford them options that other financial tools do not?

Re: Stripe Crypto

#125

I find the sheer volume of anger and hatred surrounding this and other related announcements completely unhinged. Why are so many people threatened by services that give their users options?

I feel like I am engaging with a bad faith critique for the purposes of good faith discussion, which is a mistake, but OK, here goes: Some businesses in the UK have banks that say they will close their accounts if they accept cryptocurrency payments. Mine does! I would without hesitation lose my business bank account if I did, because I am a trifling small customer. Stripe was safe and reputable, but now it is a plac…

> Because cryptocurrency is consistently crime-adjacent and fraud-adjacent.

So are banks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering#Notable_cases

Re: Stripe Crypto

#126
They forgot to update their terms of service.

> Prohibited Businesses

> You must not use Stripe’s services for the following activities:

> * Pyramid schemes

> * ‘Get rich quick’ schemes

> * No value added services

> * Predatory investment opportunities

Re: Stripe Crypto

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can be exchanged for goods and services.

So crypto qualifies.

Why isn’t this new Stripe thing then about being able to use Bitcoin when buying things?

Or how do I use Coinbase for buying things? Try go to the coinbase website and look for how to buy things with your Bitcoin. What I read from the site is that it’s all about investing in the value going up, not about making payments to other people or businesses for services or purchases.

Re: Stripe Crypto

#128

The main point of crypto these days appears to be to replace the current middlemen with different middlemen who can make more profit while offering the consumer much less legal protection. It's a bit concerning.

The capability of self-custody is the thing to pay attention to.

Nothing else has this capability to the same extent.

Today we store most of our wealth in assets (market index funds, stocks, real estate, etc.) and some (typically very little, and rarely outside of a bank account) in cash.

Most of this is not actually controlled by you.

With BTC (and cryptocurrency more generally) you have the capability of having your private key in a hardware wallet under your control and retain the capability to transact independently of other institutions.

If you keep some percentage of your wealth here you retain certain advantages that you can't get elsewhere. The closest alternative would be having cash (in cash form), but it's hard to have that much, hard to travel with it (you can memorize your wallet seed words and recreate your wallet on the other side of a border), and cash is vulnerable to government stupidity (see: Russia).

I'm not sympathetic to the Canadian truck protests, but whether or not you care about what they're protesting - it's the capability wielded by the Canadian government over their private finances that's alarming.

All this is to say the focus on middleman and paying with crypto in the general case is kind of missing the forest for the trees.

The capability of a global self-custody capable store of value that can be trivially moved anywhere is a big deal and puts power back in the hands of individuals.

Re: Stripe Crypto

#129

The main point of crypto these days appears to be to replace the current middlemen with different middlemen who can make more profit while offering the consumer much less legal protection. It's a bit concerning.

[deleted]

Re: Stripe Crypto

#130
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how this applies to their crypto offering, but: > Stripe currently does not support users located in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. While users with direct or indirect activities involving Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine are not broadly considered prohibited by Stripe at this time, all major credit card networks have announced that they are ceasing services to Russian financial institutions. Additionally, Str…

Why the fsck would they block Ukrainians? Makes no sense.

I figure they are betting that Ukraine will be sooner or later part of Russia.
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