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Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

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Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#151

Post by ThrustVectoring »

xorcist wrote: post #112
Kazamai wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The liquidity to sell to fiat is drying up after many are realizing the valuations for crypto are completely fraudulent. There is an astronomical amount of centralized crypto printing going on that has corrupted the entire crypto ecosystem. Tether just wrote in their legal terms that as a of January 1st tether can't be redeemed or used by Americans even though it backs USD. Corrupt exchanges inflated the prices and i…

This is not true. Liquidity in these markets is steadily increasing. It is easier now to sell large amounts of Bitcoin than it was two years ago, and it was easier then than two years prior.

It's easier than ever to sell for other cryptocurrencies, including Tethers. In a fire, though, it's not the size of the trading floor that matters, but the size of the exits.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#152

Post by throwaway5752 »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #96
throwaway5752 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like it was a very bad business idea in the first place, and I'm surprised it wasn't cancelled sooner. Before you downvote me consider the business model of credit card processors, and how volatility and rapidly deflating currency would effect their cash flow.

> Before you downvote me It's sad you have to say this because HNers abuse their downvote privileges. You have an opinion and you express why. Voicing it allows us to see what other HNers are thinking, and as a result, it contributes to discussion.

Well, I really was hoping to get some good faith feedback - even though I had a definite position - in a topic that can lapse into a more adversarial stances. To be fair, I was really happy at those who took the time to reply, and ... paraphrasing Taylor, downvoters gonna downvote. I did get at least 4 downvotes, for the record. I'll say no more of it. It's an interesting meta discussion for me, but this is off topic/being a bad guest in posting guideline adherence enough already.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#153

Post by jcomis »

wmeredith wrote: post #69
tobiaswk wrote: post #48

Bitcoin is currently not what Bitcoin was when it was created. Slow peer-to-peer transactions and high processing fees. Average fees are hovering around 30 dollars. That's an average. Unconfirmed transactions has been at over 100k for months. The mempool is also hovering around an ATH. The Bitcoin is crippled. Sentences like "store of value" are now the term used to describe Bitcoin. Very far from what the Bitcoin us…

"death spiral of the blockchain" or death spiral of Bitcoin? There's an army of alt coins waiting to take its place. A lot of them are garbage, most are OK, but a handful of them are brilliant. Bitcoin was the proof of concept and it was very successful in that light, but as a consumer product it is quite flawed. The survivors of the current bubble will be the ones that change the world. I'm not sure Bitcoin will be…

which do you consider brilliant?

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#154

Post by oelmekki »

Nursie wrote: post #140
oelmekki wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard mentions about the lightning network quite a lot in previous years, but never got what the implementation was. I get it it's "offchain transactions", but how does it relate to bitcoin, exactly? Is it "sidechains", like lisk (each third party managing its own blockchain), or is it simply "outsourcing" money and transactions and waiting for a general report from the trusted party to engrave it in the blockch…

It seems to work by setting up channels of funds between entities. To create a channel and fund it requires a bitcoin transaction. Payments from the fund to the recipient can then proceed off-chain to a maximum of the fund amount, then another on-chain transaction settles it. This sounds somewhat cumbersome, but AFAICT the gains apparently come from routing between channels, so if A wants to pay B, and channels exist…

I see, thanks for the explanation. As is, it kind of seems to defeat the idea of the blockchain, dropping it to do a meaningful amount of transactions. But it's well over my head, I'll wait and see how it plays out.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#155

Post by hfourm »

marcell wrote: post #147
kennyasare wrote: post #114

A few thoughts from a CEO in this space: 1. There are very few issuing banks for crypto fiat debit cards. Internationally there has been 1 WaveCrest; which as of a few months ago decided to discontinue support. 2. Even when a bank will sponsor a crypto fiat debit card into one of the payment networks, the company offering the card will face constant pressure from their own bankers. 3. This happening is from my perspe…

> 3. This happening is from my perspective just a quick look behind the curtain of the Digital Currency infrastructure problem as it exists today. There is no good way in, or out of digital currency at the moment, and the ones that exist are tenuous at best. What country do you live in? This has not been true in US or EU for years as Coinbase and Kraken are two excellent options to get in and out. Bitcoin debit cards…

To add on to the other poster, Coinbase has some terrible workflows.

Inconsistent card verification, ID verification is pretty much broken (intentionally or not).

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#156

Post by Nursie »

jpindar wrote: post #52
dagw wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For online payments bitcoin works quite well Many people who tried to buy stuff on Steam with bitcoin seem to disagree. In fact Steam recently stopped accepting bitcoin since they apparently couldn't make it work.

I assume you mean recently. I used bitcoin on Steam a few years ago and it worked fine.

It's quite recent and I presume because of fees, delays and volatility.

Dell stopped accepting it too. Ironically the rocketing speculative value is killing the prospects for longer term use and stability.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#157

Post by theptip »

mannykannot wrote: post #90
jstanley wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that is wrong. 1.) Wavecrest assumes absolutely no exchange rate risk as they don't deal with the BTC, a company like Xapo does 2.) Xapo make a very big margin on the bitcoin sale 3.) The companies that perform the sale at topup time rather than purchase time work out how many GBPs you get after they've sold your BTC, so they assume no risk at all, and the companies like Xapo that perform the sale at purchase tim…

Is Wavecrest not exposed to the risk that Xapo will not be able to fulfill its obligations, for example if an orderly market in bitcoin-USD conversions breaks down?

No, Wavecrest has a stored value account which their payors must top up ahead of time in order to be able to fund payments.

This is identical to Paypal, or any other payment rail in the industry. Payment companies don't in general make loans to their customers (though anything is negotiable in principle).

Source: have integrated with Wavecrest.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#158

Post by tony101 »

benjaminjackman wrote: post #128
tony101 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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

They would. However, typical ACH fraud entails pulling money using only the routing and account numbers, which can be found on all paper checks; this mechanism prevents that.

Re: Bitcoin Visa debit cards are cancelled

#159

Post by theptip »

jstanley wrote: post #83
altern8tif wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is Wavecrest's business model as a card issuer then? [Genuine question]

My guess is they take a transaction fee in the same way Visa do.

They get a cut of the ~2% processing fee that Visa charges the vendor, and they charge some additional fees to the payor as well.

The details are very dependent on commercial negotiations (i.e. how much volume the payor is bringing, etc).

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