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Stripe Crypto

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Re: Stripe Crypto

#141

Post by quaunaut »

infamouscow wrote: post #68
atlantas wrote: post #34

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?

Because if Bitcoin specifically takes off it will force governments to balanced budgets, exposing a lot of hidden corruption. Detractors cherry-pick concerns about energy usage, but never show the energy usage of the existing system for comparison.

Are you for real?

Crypto right now, while being used by under 1% of population use, uses 40% of the energy of the global banking system[1].

In other words, if it were to increase to even 10% of the population using it, it would use over 4x the energy of the global banking system. If that increased to 50%, it would be 20x.

This would be somewhat mitigated in the case of Proof of Stake, but would simultaneously give major players in the market complete control of said market. Y'know, like a government.

1. Research report from Galaxy Digital, a decidedly pro-crypto source, page 8: https://docsend.com/view/adwmdeeyfvqwecj2

Re: Stripe Crypto

#143

Post by gonehome »

pphysch wrote: post #133
gonehome wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 you…

It's funny because some Bitcoin evangelists point to the US govt's 1933 confiscation of a gold as a reason to use Bitcoin instead. ... How is nabbing a gold ingot and different than nabbing a storage device? If anything, the threat surface of a digital wallet is much greater (you could steal it remotely if the user doesn't have good cybersecurity practices, unlike a gold ingot).

The storage device doesn't matter - it's the seed words that generate the wallet that matter. If you memorize them you're good (short of someone beating it out of you or legally compelling you - even then they'd have to be able to prove it existed in the first place).

You can trivially prove your gold ingot exists because you can just find it. It's also way harder to move your gold ingot out of your war-torn country, harder to transact with it, etc. The storage device does not hold the actual coins, just a private key that lets you update the public ledger that determines ownership (thinking the storage device holds the coins is a common misunderstanding).

I'm an open-minded skeptic, but there are real technology advantages to blockchain and cryptocurrency, there are a lot of scams too for sure - but that's not the interesting part. The HN median opinion on this is wrong as it often is (it was wrong about EVs and Tesla too).

Re: Stripe Crypto

#144

Post by leifg »

TAKEMYMONEY wrote: post #142
leifg wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usain Bolt and I can run. Magnitude matters.

And ransomware was making a LOT of money before crypto, so we can't blame crypto for it. Magnitude matters.

Estimated 5 billion in 2021.

How much was it before crypto?

Re: Stripe Crypto

#145

Post by ordinaryradical »

samhw wrote: post #97
JaimeThompson wrote: post #60

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.

It's just bizarre. You end up paying your cut twice: once to convert it into crypto (paying the exact same card fees you'd pay for a direct card payment), and then once again to pay someone like Stripe for this. For either a business owner or a customer, that's a loss - increased infrastructure fees just to do business. It's the opposite of the crypto dream. But that's not Stripe's fault; it's Bitcoin's, for not crea…

I think this is exactly right. The implementation of the technology has necessitated all of these different layers, each of which create new opportunities to take a cut.

Many of the crypto businesses in the ecosystem talk about removing financial friction and control, but it seems they are only interested in introducing their own versions of them, and building their own little Wall Street while they can still get in on the ground floor.

Here's a great example: how are you going to "reach the unbanked" in the third world if you have transaction fees, paid by the user, inherent in your architecture? That's just nonsense. It's a step down from cash in every way. Cryptos which aren't feeless but talk about the "unbanked" are full of hot air. And this pattern of false promises is all over this space.

Re: Stripe Crypto

#146

Post by elefanten »

StewardMcOy wrote: post #131

It's very strange seeing the option near the bottom of the page to donate a fraction of your revenue from Stripe Crypto to carbon recapture efforts. I agree with Stripe that, at this point, the solution to our climate problems must include carbon recapture, but it's not an ideal situation to be in. Businesses entering the crypto space always seem to tout carbon offsets and sidechains that use less energy, but offsets…

The “ecological damage” is a rounding error and being mitigated in several ways. This is not a serious concern for cryptocurrency, despite how often and blindly its repeated.

Re: Stripe Crypto

#147

Post by pphysch »

gonehome wrote: post #143
pphysch wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny because some Bitcoin evangelists point to the US govt's 1933 confiscation of a gold as a reason to use Bitcoin instead. ... How is nabbing a gold ingot and different than nabbing a storage device? If anything, the threat surface of a digital wallet is much greater (you could steal it remotely if the user doesn't have good cybersecurity practices, unlike a gold ingot).

The storage device doesn't matter - it's the seed words that generate the wallet that matter. If you memorize them you're good (short of someone beating it out of you or legally compelling you - even then they'd have to be able to prove it existed in the first place). You can trivially prove your gold ingot exists because you can just find it. It's also way harder to move your gold ingot out of your war-torn country,…

You can also bury your ingots/drives deep in the wilderness and only memorize where they are at

Re: Stripe Crypto

#148

Post by candiddevmike »

ttoinou wrote: post #112
candiddevmike wrote: post #5

Just recently moved from Stripe to Paddle after realizing their new tax collection stuff locked out a bunch of my customers--it only supports credit card transactions, not Apple Pay or Google or any of the EU payment options, and Stripe has no ETA on fixing this. With the tax bits, I still have to file and worry about thresholds too, so I switched to Paddle. On top of completely eliminating the tax remittance crap, I…

> their new tax collection stuff Couldn't you turn that off ?

Well, yeah, but I need it so I'm not sure what you're getting at? I didn't just turn it on for funsies, tax remittance sucks. There are APIs you can use, but they're more expensive/complicated than stripe's tax solution that they acquired. Paddle (or some other merchant of record) makes it even easier.

Re: Stripe Crypto

#149

Post by the_gastropod »

logicalmonster wrote: post #124
rrdharan wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Do you know the reasons traditional financial services do not afford such options?
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