Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin • Hacker News Board

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#201

Post by hudon » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 7:13 PM UTC

lawn wrote: post #199

hudon wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

15% sounds about right to offset the fraud risk, volatility risk, exchange fees, network fees, network congestion, transfer delays, fork risk, catastrophic bugs, and theft risk :)

We all have narratives, buddy. Mine just doesn't hinge on gambling and crypto-anarchic utopia.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#202

Post by tomputer » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 7:15 PM UTC

gwbas1c wrote: post #77

Permit wrote: post #11

Stablecoins seem like they would achieve most of the goals of the original cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin: - Decentralized transactions - 24/7 access - Low fees - Store of value I suppose the only drawback here is that they're issued from a centralized authority. That said, for practical purposes the vast majority of Bitcoin holders didn't mine their own coins either. Despite this, no one on Twitter[1] seemed excit…

> Despite this, no one on Twitter[1] seemed excited Because most people think that in order to solve the problem of a cryptocurrency, they have to also solve the problem of who gets money when you print it. Far too many people conflate the need for electronic cash versus the need to improve upon how systems like the Federal Reserve and their International equivalents work. Honestly, as a software engineer who underst…

If there is a need for electronic cash backed by USD and controlled by a central party, why use crypto/blockchain at all? To solve that problem a central database on a controlled network could do just fine?

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#203

Post by MrEfficiency » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 7:15 PM UTC

scabarott wrote: post #143

I think stablecoins is where the cryptocurrency experiment is headed for the near & forseeable future. It's interesting to watch the experiment slowly give way to the reality of operating in the world at large. At least we still get some form of digital money. On another note, I think it's really concerning how much of a monopoly Coinbase is becoming in this space. They're probably the only corporate entity making an…

I would agree for non bitcoin cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin has already established itself as a worldwide currency/store of value.

Outside of bitcoin, smart coins failed due to their inability to scale. Bitcoin copy pastes or centralized currency coins are useless, day traders were obsessed and let these gain popularity. I do not expect these to last. Privacy coins have a chance to survive, but they will likely need to fix scaling issues.

>Coinbase monopoly

Give it less than 1 year, this board knows that development takes time. Feburary this year we were told by the US government that crypto was not going to be banned. This was huge news for everyone that had crypto for the last few years.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#204

Post by sgondala2 » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 7:16 PM UTC

How can stable coin ever maintain the price? People can still speculate and sell it for more than a $, and buyers can buy it for more than a $.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#205

Post by MrEfficiency » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 7:16 PM UTC

anders94 wrote: post #155

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/

Is this Circle Pay?

Ever going to give us Bitcoin Cash? Would love to sell mine before it hits 0.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#206

Post by arcticbull » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

radicaldreamer wrote: post #144

arcticbull wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think it through, that’s true only if you already have the USDC, you still have to buy them somewhere and sell them somewhere, with the same limits. Also I just picked US services, Canada has Interac e-Transfer and other countries have similar products too. The whole EU has SEPA. There are competitors in the African market even like mpesa. And if you want to move money to another country international remittances are…

"Most people" don't but a large number of companies do... and remittances between people are a $500 billion/year market?

Apple isn’t rolling up to the Wells Fargo and accepting a 5% spread. If you personally want to exchange a ton of money open an interactive brokers account and you’ll pay 0.08 basis points (0.0008%) minimum $1. If you don’t want to trade that much, check out compareremit.com and see what people are paying retail, it’s actually very competitive. In the popular USD-INR corridor you could pay close to mid market rates plus zero commission. This is a solved problem.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#207

Post by loeg » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 7:21 PM UTC

sgondala2 wrote: post #204

How can stable coin ever maintain the price? People can still speculate and sell it for more than a $, and buyers can buy it for more than a $.

Traders, including HFT, are incentivized by the underlying value to keep the bid/ask spread very tight.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#208

Post by plankers » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 7:22 PM UTC

hudon wrote: post #195

mitchdoogle wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Your original point was that _Coinbase and Gemeni_ had prevented you from exchanging your BTC for fiat currency. There's nothing preventing you from taking your BTC to some other exchange, or just some guy that accepts BTC for goods or services. That's the beauty of this whole decentralized thing.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#209

Post by arcticbull » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 7:22 PM UTC

IncRnd wrote: post #117

beaner wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you can't send between the two. Isn't that so silly? You can send USDC to/from any wallet that implements it. This is a benefit of the blockchain, a protocol for money.

You say that Venmo and Square are inferior to USDC, because the first two cannot communicate with each other. Then, you say that USDC is superior, because it cannot communicate with the other two.

Sorry for the confusion, I’m using your bank account as your wallet analog, and saying both services can interact via your bank account if necessary. Whereas not all wallets will support USDC.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#210

Post by Youden » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 7:26 PM UTC

stickfigure wrote: post #172

arcticbull wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you sending US Dollars between yourselves as Canadians? You can’t spend them in Canada, why not use a free and instant Interac e-Transfer? If you want to hold USD (as a hedge against CAD) open a US Dollar denominated account at any major Canadian bank but that’s an investment not a store of value. Or open an interactive brokers account if you want to trade currencies. And if you want to move money to another…

I don't have an informed opinion on this whole stablecoin thing, but... There isn't a single country in the world today where you can't spend a US dollar. Canadians will happily take them, especially at a 1:1 exchange rate.

> There isn't a single country in the world today where you can't spend a US dollar.

The strongest argument I think I can construe from your statement is that every country has at least one place where you can spend a US dollar but I don't think that's very useful.

If you bring a 20 USD bill to Europe, head to the center of a major city and try to spend it, I think you'll have a pretty hard time handing it to a shopkeeper. You'll have trouble spending it at all save for exchanging it for the local currency and handing that to a shopkeeper.