Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 282 posts

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#181

Post by roflyear »

baremetal wrote: post #161
drexlspivey wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I am under the impression that pretty much anywhere in the developing world USD will spend. Maybe not in the west, but places that have a weak currency like africa, the middle east, and south america. Here are a few cherry picked examples https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/half-payments-caracas... https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293974-i368-k4798488-... https://www.voanews.com/a/lebanon-leans-on-us-dollar-…

And if there is a bank there you'll be able to convert your currency.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#182

Post by pclmulqdq »

espadrine wrote: post #75
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.

What could the Federal Reserve learn? The structure of risk is similar for both Tether and Circle, AFAICT. While USD risk is heavily distributed across many regulated banks and there are measures in place to mitigate bankruptcy, USDC/T is fairly centralized and the fall of a single bank can put the entire currency at risk, cause sudden and extreme inflation (as is the case now), and potentially stop being accepted by…

Perhaps they could learn that doing consecutive 50-75 bps rate hikes for an entire year will bring with it a lot of adverse effects in a world where they are expected to hike 25 bps at a time?

Nobody pricing interest rate risk would have priced what happened last year correctly - it would have been considered a one-in-a-million event, not a routine response to high inflation.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#183

Post by dageshi »

wil421 wrote: post #102
xref wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

Entirely depends on country and business in the country.

I've seen Americans try to pay for taxi's in Thailand with USD, the drivers aren't interested, it's a hassle more than anything. In cambodia on the other hand, yes, they'll take it.

Depends entirely on how stable the local currency is, if it's reasonably stable and well managed then probably they won't be interested.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#184

Post by justinclift »

justinclift wrote: post #126
wil421 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope I said developing world like Central and South America. Lots of tourists places will accept Euros and dollars as long as the bills are not damaged. Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Belize, and Colombia are places where I’ve done this personally and lots of Europeans were doing the same. Friends and family in Costa Rica even advised that local currency wasn’t necessary and suggested bringing crisp bills fro…

Errr, you said "accepted everywhere". But now that you point out "developing countries", that does seem more likely. :)

Ahhh, you've removed the "everywhere" term now. That should be clearer for people.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#185

Post by lordfrito »

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.

Bitcoin fixes this.

Few understand.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#186

Post by bombolo »

tarunupaday wrote: post #162
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.

India is a developing country. Are you somehow under the impression that the US army will attack a coffee shop in New Delhi if they stop taking US dollars? Even in those parts of Mexico and Caribbean countries where the economy is heavily dependent on US tourism - and the US dollar will be accepted at retail shops; the price difference between paying in dollars and paying in local currency is going to be against the…

I said "a country"… are you under the impression that "a coffee shop" is "a country"?

How could you mistake a coffee shop for a country?

Seems like you want to misread me on purpose?

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#187

Post by bombolo »

baremetal wrote: post #154
xref wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I think he means that the US military has a habit of invading countries who sell oil in currencies other than the US$. _Libya_ 2008 https://www.cfr.org/blog/libya-shunning-dollar (Libya Shunning the Dollar?) 2011 Invaded _Iraq_ 2000 https://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/10/30/iraq.un.euro.reut... (U.N. to let Iraq sell oil for euros, not dollars) 2003 invaded

Thanks… at least someone here understands that "a country" and "some guy with a tiny shop" aren't exactly the same thing!

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#188

Post by bombolo »

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?

In most tourists locations yes (at a price, of course). But this is not at all what I was talking about.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#189

Post by justinclift »

roflyear wrote: post #173
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.

Doubt. Everyone knows what USD is.

Nah. The "term" USD is common, but that's very different from presenting physical US currency to people and trying to get them to accept it.

At least in Australia, I'd be surprised if more than a single digit percentage of the population would be able to tell if the (US) currency someone presents is real vs pretend/monopoly money.

They'd most likely think the person is trying to scam them.

Re: Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend

#190

Post by [deleted] »

gus_massa wrote: post #148
sour-taste wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that only holds up while people still have faith in the coin. Once that faith is gone Coinbase can buy as much as they want the coin is worthless.

If it's fully backed by liquid stuff, they can just buy everything at $.90 and pocket the remainder 10% and get and early retirement. If it's fully backed by illiquid stuff, the problem is how much the crash sale will eat from their 10% retirement plan. If it's very illiquid and they can only sell it at 80%, the price of the coin will drop even more. If it's only illiquid for the weekend as they claim, it may go back…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN