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Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

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Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#131

Post by fabian2k »

wil421 wrote: post #127
fabian2k wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't get anywhere with a $100 bill in many developed countries, outside of some very tourist-y areas maybe. At least not in regular shops, of course you can exchange it at a bank. But if you try to order a coffee with US dollars, you won't get one.

If I’m visiting a country it’s usually as a tourist. Even on my business trips I spent half the time being a tourist.

Handling a foreign currency is a lot of overhead, you will only find this accepted in locations where it is quite common for people to not have the local currency. If you're in the middle of Europe you'll have a hard time finding a place that will just accept US dollars outside of some very tourist focused destinations. And even there I'm not sure if it'll work.

The places where I've seen this mostly work was near borders, and it makes sense that you'd accept the neighbour currency there even if it is some overhead. If you can quickly hop over the border you're much less likely to exchange currency before than if you plan a full trip in a different country.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#132

Post by gus_massa »

drexlspivey wrote: post #110
wil421 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except a $100 bill is likely accepted. I’ve been to developing countries that will accept local currency, dollars, and euros. I doubt they would accept any pounds, tethers, or other fake electronic currency.

This is hilarious. Do you really think you can pay with USD in any random country?

At least in big cities in Argentina, you can pay with dollars in many places. Some shops like big supermarkets even have a sign that shows their exchange rate. (Note that the official exchange rate is AR$200, but the unofficial one is AR$400. You may get a bad exchange rate in some shops.) For buying clothes it may be more difficult because you must negotiate the exchange rate, and they may only accept only US$100 bills, and only if they look nice and is the new model that has a big face. It may be more difficult to pay the electricity bill in dollars.

(In small towns it may be more difficult, but not impossible, specially if you are nice.)

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#133

Post by WeylandYutani »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #5
kersplody wrote: post #4

USDC is managed the Centre consortium, which was founded by Circle and includes Coinbase as a member. Circle held around $3.3 billion in Silicon Valley Bank, leading to a run on USDC which resulted in it trading for as little as $0.95 on some exchanges today (Mar 10, 2023). This represents around 30% of USDC's cash reserves and 7% of its total reserves. The balance of reserves are held in T-Bills, which are liquid an…

Can't help but revel in the fact that these crypto ponzi schemes are so dependent on the very banks all the cryptobros denounce, as evil holdovers from the past that will be obsoleted by their scam tokens (that no one outside their bubble even knows how to use). It's so ridiculous I just have to kind of admire it. It's like a cathedral of human hypocrisy.

Crypto never became a currency. Fundamentally whatever Satoshi preached never materialised.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#134

Post by jefftk »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #50
rippercushions wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something deeply ironic about a flight to safety in the form of Tether , which has famously been described as being "quilted out of red flags". But if you can't redeem it and it's not backed by anything remotely approaching normal assets, I guess you can't have a bank run on it either... until the music stops and the insiders propping it up run out of chairs.

There's something to be said for everyone knowing the risks of doing business with you, and behaving consistently (consistently badly) so that those risks don't change. That's the regime of Tether. Nobody will even be mad when the rug gets pulled. The federal reserve could stand to learn a thing or two, honestly.

> Nobody will even be mad when the rug gets pulled.

Happy to bet on that ;)

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#135

Post by capableweb »

bombolo wrote: post #84
pclmulqdq wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something to be said for everyone knowing the risks of doing business with you, and behaving consistently (consistently badly) so that those risks don't change. That's the regime of Tether. Nobody will even be mad when the rug gets pulled. The federal reserve could stand to learn a thing or two, honestly.

USD is backed up by USA army. If a country refuses to accept USD they will have a democracy problem and get attacked.

Isn't it the same for USDC? USDC is not a traditional cryptocurrency, its issued by a US organization, so I guess this organization would in the same way be protected by USA army, and indirectly USDC as well?

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#136

Post by capableweb »

pHollda wrote: post #47
loveparade wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, in many countries you cannot buy USD directly. You also cannot store USD in a local bank account. And in various places it's explicitly forbidden to hold USD as savings because it would devalue local currency if everyone started transacting in USD instead. So, the "C" makes USD exposure available to anyone worldwide, assuming you have e.g. an Ethereum wallet.

If anyone doubts that this is just a theory, I can confirm it. I live in third-world countries and use USDC exactly for this.

I have family in third-world countries, and usually have them buy me flight tickets when I want to visit them. Cheapest way and easiest for them to withdraw, is me sending them USDC. Some of them use USDC directly to exchange with friends for goods and services, others manage to sell them P2P in their country for USD, which they can then trade for local currency.

Messy, inefficient and UX could be way better, but it works and is cheapest for everyone involved.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#137

Post by capableweb »

kaladin_1 wrote: post #108
FabHK wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have lived and travelled extensively in second and third world countries, and almost never had a problem buying or selling USD. Well, in some places there were indeed capital controls (Argentina, China), but that's rare, and I doubt use of USDC is legal then for the circumvention of regulation (which is basically the only use case of crypto).

If only you know the long queue you have to join now if you want to buy dollars from a Nigerian bank. Not just that you have to fill a form saying what the money is for which had better be one of the things in their list, you have to wait for months to get credited.

Many people visiting countries saying "I have been able to use USD wherever I go, I could even pay for dinners" miss the fact that it's often different for the people who live there, who are gonna have to integrate with the local legal/financial process in order to get their local currency. The tourist hardly have to care about it, and then they tell the internet that there is no problems.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#138

Post by andrepd »

rippercushions wrote: post #48
kersplody wrote: post #4

USDC is managed the Centre consortium, which was founded by Circle and includes Coinbase as a member. Circle held around $3.3 billion in Silicon Valley Bank, leading to a run on USDC which resulted in it trading for as little as $0.95 on some exchanges today (Mar 10, 2023). This represents around 30% of USDC's cash reserves and 7% of its total reserves. The balance of reserves are held in T-Bills, which are liquid an…

There's something deeply ironic about a flight to safety in the form of Tether , which has famously been described as being "quilted out of red flags". But if you can't redeem it and it's not backed by anything remotely approaching normal assets, I guess you can't have a bank run on it either... until the music stops and the insiders propping it up run out of chairs.

Nobody has quite explained to me how that is different from deposits at a bank (modulo government guarantees).

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#139

Post by andrepd »

xref wrote: post #91
bombolo wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USD is backed up by USA army. If a country refuses to accept USD they will have a democracy problem and get attacked.

Unlucky for the UK coffee shop that wouldn’t take my USD this morning I guess? Not quite sure what you’re trying to say, if a country doesn’t want to accept usd…they don’t have to

We're talking about international trade, not an espresso at the corner shop.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#140

Post by dan-robertson »

modeless wrote: post #24

Coinbase recently "unified" USD and USDC on Coinbase Exchange, trying to pretend they are the same thing. Absolutely boneheaded move. I expected it to cause problems for them eventually, but I'm surprised it was so soon...

If coinbase had kept 7% of their customers’ dollars in an account at SVB, those would be in the same situation though coinbase might have been able to dig into equity to make customers whole.
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