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Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

blog.coinbase.com

191–200 of 388 posts

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This right here, literally how it’s supposed to work. “Money becomes worth less over time, what should I do?” “Invest in productive assets” “OHHHHHHHHH” There, we just saved you from having to go to an Econ class :P

So if I have a $2000 how much of that do lose in fees when I buy shares? Sure it makes sense if I am saving $1000 or more a month but it doesn't work when I'm saving $50 to $100 a month for my kids college education, fees eat that up the same way that inflation does, but both make hardly any difference to the person saving $1000 or more a month.

Robinhood charges $0 in fees, so nothing. The trend in ETFs is reducing fees, there’s now zero fee ETFs too. Even if you use a discount brokerage that charges 3-4$ per trade the break even point is quite low, so store it as cash until you’re happy with the fee ratio.

How much do you lose in fees when you buy crypto? 1-2%? Plus insane volatility. If you’re low income that volatility is crippling.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#192
post #182
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least according to this document, when your USDC account is blacklisted you may no longer send or receive tokens from it. With Bitcoin, even if Coinbase blacklists you, you can still send your Bitcoin to other accounts and exchange it for things. I'm sure it's a huge pain but your Bitcoin will not just be lost forever.

> With Bitcoin, even if Coinbase blacklists you, you can still send your Bitcoin to other accounts and exchange it for things This is not so. Coinbase and Gemini (I haven't checked others but I'm sure they're the same) will freeze your assets entirely if required by law or if you violate the user agreements in some flagrant way [0] [1]. [0] https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/190... [1] https://g…

I think they mean if you are using your own wallet to store your bitcoin, then coinbase and gemini have no control over what you do with it, except not using their own services

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#193
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same drawback applies to Bitcoin. Send BTC from Coinbase to a blacklisted entity and see how quickly CB, Gemini, etc. shut down your accounts. Then you’re left with your local client but you can’t trade anywhere... and speculation is crypto’s only use case today.

You can avoid gemini and coinbase if you use bitcoin. You cannot avoid them if you use USDC/GUSD.

When you say "use bitcoin", what do you mean?

edit: Perhaps the lesson here is the more useful something is, the less freedom you have in using it. After all, why would regulators care if you can "use bitcoin" when "use" means "play with my private keys".

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#194
post #7

I understand why stablecoin's are useful to the end user. I also understand how Bitfinex is cashing in on Tether. However how is Coinbase making money with USDC? They clearly will have considerable expenses (keeping reserve, legal team, development etc. etc.). But if I give them 1USD and get back 1USDC, which later can be exchanged back to 1 USD, where are they making money?

> which later can be exchanged back to 1 USD

Probably this part will change on the fly, same as with Tether scam.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#195
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With Bitcoin, even if Coinbase blacklists you, you can still send your Bitcoin to other accounts and exchange it for things This is not so. Coinbase and Gemini (I haven't checked others but I'm sure they're the same) will freeze your assets entirely if required by law or if you violate the user agreements in some flagrant way [0] [1]. [0] https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/190... [1] https://g…

I think they mean if you are using your own wallet to store your bitcoin, then coinbase and gemini have no control over what you do with it, except not using their own services

Then back to my original point: If no exchanges allow you to deposit BTC, what are you doing with it?

Once you've shamir-secret-split your multi-sig cold-storage private keys, laminated them, placed them in fireproof envelopes and dug them deep in the ground in 5 different continents... what exactly do you DO with your BTC?

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#196

Something that's missing from this article: Since USDC is an ERC20 token based on Ethereum, you'll still need to hold ETH so that you can pay for gas to move the USDC stablecoin token around. A fiat-world analogy to this would be to imagine if spending Euros required you to hold US Dollars to pay the transaction fees.

Another fiat-world analogy is paying to have the checkbook to be able to send money.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#197

Hi, I'm Anders Brownworth, Chief Evangelist at Circle. I'm happy to answer any questions on USD Coin, CENTRE or Circle. We're also hiring! See https://circle.careers/

Does Circle keep enough dollars on hand to buy back every USDC? Or do you run a fractional reserve? How much money is that total? What do you do if you have as many USDCs in circulation as you have dollars? Stop issuing them?

Circle holds one dollar for every dollar minted, we do not run a fractional reserve. The CENTRE Consortium holds minters (of which Circle is one) to strict auditing requirements. While this information is regularly published, you can see all minting and burning operations (as well as all transfers and other token operations) in realtime on the Ethereum blockchain. See etherscan: https://etherscan.io/address/0xa0b86991c6218b36c1d19d4a2e9eb... There are always as many USDCs in circulation as there are fiat dollars backing them up in traditional bank accounts. The only way minters produce more in a 1 to 1 manner is if someone wires traditional dollars in. Likewise, Circle will burn USDCs in a 1 to 1 manner as requests for traditional fiat dollar withdrawals are processed.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#198

"Stablecoin" in general generates a ton of legal risk for the operators. If you can make peer-to-peer transactions with it, then the coin operators are definitely not complying with Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering laws. This will pretty reliably get the US Feds to raid your offices, seize your website and servers, arrest the principles responsible, and prosecute them. See also: Liberty Reserve. On the ot…

I'm pretty sure a company like Coinbase which is worth $1.6 Billion did their due diligence on the legalities.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#199
post #188
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but you can’t trade anywhere Just trade on all the other less regulated exchanges. Or localbitcoin. Or, you know, buy stuff. > and speculation is crypto’s only use case today. Or you buy stuff... For example: * Webhallen (huge Swedish online shop) * scan.co.uk (uk based computer online shop) * purse.io (buy stuff from amazon) * fastmail (emails) * VPN/VPS/domains from various providers * darknetmarkets

Why the hell would I buy Bitcoin to buy stuff on Amazon through a proxy site that sells my BTC for me instead of just... buying on Amazon like a normal person? BTC will be way slower and more expensive than just using my credit card... Plus Visa will refund me in the case of fraud. Like I side, speculation is the only thing you buy BTC for (moon!!!111), and the exchanges will prevent you from doing this if you are re…

> Why the hell would I buy Bitcoin to buy stuff on Amazon through a proxy site

Because they give discounts up to 15%.

I'm sorry it doesn't fit your narrative but there are reasons to prefer cryptocurrencies.

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