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Western Union May Offer Digital Currency Services Similar to Bitcoin

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Re: Western Union May Offer Digital Currency Services Similar to Bitcoin

#21

Post by betterunix »

javert wrote: post #20
kzrdude wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

Because it's sort of like an old-time telegraph company saying, "Telephones? Hey, let's get in on this by offering a service where we transcribe telephone conversations and send them out to the other party as a telegraph." In other words, totally missing the point.

Do you actually think there is no need for money services with Bitcoin? I think you need to stop for a moment and think about this: what would Bitcoin be worth if there were no Bitcoin exchanges?

Western Union can provide a lot of relevant services: escrow, conversion to obscure currencies (or just general exchange), fraud mitigation, etc.

Re: Western Union May Offer Digital Currency Services Similar to Bitcoin

#22

Post by makomk »

edgesrazor wrote: post #9

With the coverage the Bitcoin exchange rate has been getting, this was just a matter of time.

If you read the article, it doesn't actually say that Western Union are looking at working with Bitcoin, just "digital currencies like Bitcoin". For all we know the Bitcoin name drop is completely gratuitous and they've never even heard of it.

Re: Western Union May Offer Digital Currency Services Similar to Bitcoin

#23

Post by kgo »

ryusage wrote: post #15
BrokenPipe wrote: post #13

If bitcoin is going to be here in 2 years then I think it's undervalued. In some exchange it has reached past $111

Where about do you think it ought to be valued? Personally, as a completely casual observer, the current valuation seems incredibly high and unsustainable, but I'll admit that's an uninformed gut reaction.

Current Market Cap is at $1 billion.

Let's say all bitcoin becomes is a paypal killer.

Paypal had a total payment volume of $145 billion in 2012. Now you can't just say a fair value for bitcoin's market cap is $145 billion because that doesn't take money velocity into account. Some of that volume could be the same dollars floating around. You don't need $145 billion in cash all at once to cover that activity. But paypal's revenue was $5.6 billion. So the amount bitcoin needs to be worth to handle the same amount of business as paypal is somewhere between those two numbers, and even a low $10 billion prices bitcoins at $1000 each.

Visa Inc had a total payment volume of $6.4 Trillion in 2012. Of course in addition to figuring out the actual money velocity you need to remove the credit component since bitcoin doesn't do that. But some sketchy back-of-the-envelope math can demonstrate that a $100 billion dollar market wouldn't be unheard of, with $10,000 bitcoins.

Of course I'm talking like 10-20 years out for anything like that, not today.

Re: Western Union May Offer Digital Currency Services Similar to Bitcoin

#24

Post by swang »

Where is the appeal in a WU created digital currency?

1. This will probably mean WU wants a cut of all transactions in any digital currency they create... for life. 2. No benefit over fiat currency? 3. Not anonymous. 4. All the "coins" are controlled by WU.

Re: Western Union May Offer Digital Currency Services Similar to Bitcoin

#25

Post by olefoo »

betterunix wrote: post #21
javert wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's sort of like an old-time telegraph company saying, "Telephones? Hey, let's get in on this by offering a service where we transcribe telephone conversations and send them out to the other party as a telegraph." In other words, totally missing the point.

Do you actually think there is no need for money services with Bitcoin? I think you need to stop for a moment and think about this: what would Bitcoin be worth if there were no Bitcoin exchanges? Western Union can provide a lot of relevant services: escrow, conversion to obscure currencies (or just general exchange), fraud mitigation, etc.

> fraud mitigation

Ah yes. The fraudsters favorite service for irreversible cash transfers will certainly have an advantage there.

Re: Western Union May Offer Digital Currency Services Similar to Bitcoin

#26

Post by olefoo »

swang wrote: post #24

Where is the appeal in a WU created digital currency? 1. This will probably mean WU wants a cut of all transactions in any digital currency they create... for life. 2. No benefit over fiat currency? 3. Not anonymous. 4. All the "coins" are controlled by WU.

Perhaps they are counting on their 'brand equity' to serve as a competitive advantage?

I'm similarly dubious as to their chances of success with the initial population ( the part of the market for digital currencies that overlaps with bitcoin traders ), however they do have a global retail presence and a brand that is recognizable even if it's trustworthiness is suspect.

Re: Western Union May Offer Digital Currency Services Similar to Bitcoin

#28

Post by drcode »

th0ma5 wrote: post #27

What is stopping someone from looking at Bitcoin, changing something simple, and competing immediately?

You might be interested in namecoin or litecoin. Unfortunately, those aren't worth much, because of the network effects driving bitcoin.

Re: Western Union May Offer Digital Currency Services Similar to Bitcoin

#30

Post by aianus »

th0ma5 wrote: post #27

What is stopping someone from looking at Bitcoin, changing something simple, and competing immediately?

The same thing that's preventing someone from looking at Facebook, changing something simple, and competing immediately: nothing but network effects.
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