41–50 of 194 posts
First bitcoin was insignificant. Then people made fun of it. Now current institutions will have to choose between embracing it and fighting it. Some of them do one thing, apparently VISA chose another.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
HSBC/RBS/Citi were fine with it; and given the amount of the fines, it was plenty profitable and they’re likely still doing it.
> HSBC/RBS/Citi were fine with it They’re also not payment networks. In any case, that lawbreaking occurs is not sufficient evidence that the banks don’t care about AML. By and large, AML procedure is generally well enforced. (The penalties are draconian.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, another classic "This is good for Bitcoin"
I didn't see it that way, more like advocating the development of some kind of open, permissionless payment network. Bitcoin could be it but it has ridiculous network fees, which opens the possibilities for challengers. If everything works very fluently with the traditional payment infrastructure, there is no big demand for that kind of payment network, and no incentives to develop it.
Sure looks like someone pressed a panic button.
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 used to be.
I think there is a real possibility of a "death spiral of the blockchain". Fees will increase and it will become impossible to move coins on the blockchain besides the upper 10% of bitcoin holders. For traders on exchanges bitcoin seems fast; because no transactions are taking place. When you actually decide to move your bitcoins to a wallet you own you'll pay high fees... if not your transaction could take months to clear or never actually clear.
No wonder Visa cards are being cancelled.
The fork that occurred on 1st August created Bitcoin Cash. This fork is much closer to what the Bitcoin was. Bitcoin Cash is this today. Removal of the segwit code (which hasn't solved anything), disabling of RBF (replace-by-fee) enabling 0-confirmation transactions again. A new DAA (difficulty adjustment algorithm). Finally increase the block size to 8MiB.
The Bitcoin has been crippled on purpose by Blockstream deep in the pockets of bankers and insurance companies. Blockstream is the main contributor to the Bitcoin development. Look at the sponsors; https://www.blockstream.com/about/#investors
Before the bankers, and their followers, got indirectly involved in Bitcoin development there never was any discussion about limiting the block size to 1MiB; in fact the opposite was discussed. See; https://twitter.com/adam3us/status/636410827969421312?lang=e.... https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1314.msg15143#msg151.... https://np.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/71h884/pieter_wuille_im....
Now all of this has led to a complete divide and clusterfuck of the community. It is an very ugly and toxic environment and is sad to look at. On top of that we now have thousands of alternative coins and blockchains.
Oh dear. I hope that was said with tongue firmly in cheek, because anyone who truly believes that their Bitcoin Visa card being cancelled is a form of "oppression" needs a reality check.