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The number of banks willing to do business with the crypto industry is shrinking

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Re: The number of banks willing to do business with the crypto industry is shrinking

#61

Post by Octokiddie »

> The problem, in a nutshell, is that for Bitcoin and other digital assets to have any chance of becoming mainstream, banks—with their access to deep sources of liquidity and experience in facilitating payments—will have to be on board. For the time being, they’re running in the opposite direction.

What does Bitcoin "becoming mainstream" look like specifically? The article doesn't offer anything - not even a link.

Let's say it's 1974 and you're writing an article about the desktop computer "becoming mainstream". What does that look like exactly to you? I'm guessing it doesn't look anything like the last 30 years. Not even close.

So how can the author be so confident in asserting that banks must be "on board" for this mainstreaming to happen?

The desktop computer was an attack from below, in the Christenson Innovator's Dilemma sense. It looked and acted exactly like a toy for the first decade of its existence. Most incumbents who saw through that surface illusion were powerless to do anything about it. The one that did (IBM) tried, briefly succeeded, then lost the entire thing.

Banks with their highly touted "experience in facilitating payments" are the very thing Bitcoin has in the crosshairs. Banks losing interest now that the Bitcoin FOMO is gone? Good riddance to them and their AML/KYC bootlicking.

Re: The number of banks willing to do business with the crypto industry is shrinking

#62

Post by defrost »

epolanski wrote: post #45
gfodor wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can own both gold and Bitcoin. At a minimum unless you think those who think bitcoin is ultimately worthless are right, it’s a way to diversify a gold-like asset class along the axis they are similar.

Let's compare a highly valuable and needed metal with 6000+ years of history as a solid investment, with...cryptocurrencies and their proven record of having no real life utility but lots of speculation. Makes sense.

> Let's compare a highly valuable and needed metal with 6000+ years of history as a solid investment

Hi, I've worked in the global mineral exploration industry for decades, both as a mine worker, an exploration geophysicist, and as a compiler of a global DB that now backends the S&P mineral intelligence division.

Let's clear up some things about gold.

1) It's valuable because it's valued ..

That's pretty much it, it's kind of rare, its shiny, it "stands alone" as a noble metal that doesn't easily react.

2) Much needed - it's used in jewellry, it's essential in high end long life zero maintaince space electronics ... a great deal of other uses (Gold Speaker Cables!!) are just pure performative BD (ie. it's not "essential") - other metals are in the same ballpark for conductivity, etc.

3) The greatest single application for gold, once mined at great expense, is to be formed into ingots and sit about as bullion as "proof" of work (digging a super pit and spending > billion to recover it per annum) and proof of wealth.

It's more or less solid crypto that persists after the power goes out, can be worn as shiny jewellery, and has some neat niche applications that it is essential for.

I'm not a huge cyrpto fan, although I did hang on the cypher punk boards where the bitcoin paper was first announced (as I have a math background) - I'm no fan of the vast amount of energy wasted (IMHO) on both gold extraction and bitcoin mining.

Re: The number of banks willing to do business with the crypto industry is shrinking

#63

Post by Sparkyte »

There is no reason to be invested in crypto. It is no more valuable than a trading card and the volatile nature of trading cards are equal part. Noone also needs to invest in something that has an unsure future. While people would argue that it is like investing in stocks that crypto is the new Apple stocks of 80s. It simply isn't that stocks come with volatility but you own a share of the company as in you own that percentage.

Re: The number of banks willing to do business with the crypto industry is shrinking

#64

Post by Animats »

Octokiddie wrote: post #61

> The problem, in a nutshell, is that for Bitcoin and other digital assets to have any chance of becoming mainstream, banks—with their access to deep sources of liquidity and experience in facilitating payments—will have to be on board. For the time being, they’re running in the opposite direction. What does Bitcoin "becoming mainstream" look like specifically? The article doesn't offer anything - not even a link. Le…

> Let's say it's 1974 and you're writing an article about the desktop computer "becoming mainstream". What does that look like exactly to you? I'm guessing it doesn't look anything like the last 30 years. Not even close.

Sure it does. Read Alan Kay's "Personal Dynamic Media". His vision of the ultimate personal computer was what today we'd consider a very bulky laptop.

Re: The number of banks willing to do business with the crypto industry is shrinking

#65

Post by britneybitch »

dijit wrote: post #15
givemeethekeys wrote: post #9

If I were a bank, I'd stay far away from any non-bitcoin cryptos that I'm not an issuer of. Why would I want to own a coin that someone else is able to freely devalue, in addition to conventional currencies? On the other hand, if I were a bank, bitcoin presents a compelling argument. The supply is finite. Disclaimer: I don't own any crypto or bitcoin.

>if I were a bank, bitcoin presents a compelling argument. The supply is finite. Do you think that the most important thing about the value of something is the finite supply of it? Fiat currency is theoretically infinite since we abolished the gold standard, but seems to be compelling. Why would bitcoin be more compelling than gold (a finite store of wealth) or fiat currency (a fluctuating/volatile/infinite store of…

I think he means the compelling aspect is its fixed monetary policy. Gold deposits can be discovered (Uganda) or asteroids mined. Governments actively change their monetary policy. But bitcoin, for the first time in history, sets monetary policy in stone and gives all participants perfect information (in the game theoretic sense). I'm not saying that's overall good or bad, but it certainly makes predicting the future easier!

Re: The number of banks willing to do business with the crypto industry is shrinking

#66

Post by ww520 »

givemeethekeys wrote: post #9

If I were a bank, I'd stay far away from any non-bitcoin cryptos that I'm not an issuer of. Why would I want to own a coin that someone else is able to freely devalue, in addition to conventional currencies? On the other hand, if I were a bank, bitcoin presents a compelling argument. The supply is finite. Disclaimer: I don't own any crypto or bitcoin.

> if I were a bank, bitcoin presents a compelling argument.

Banks don't make money by owning assets. That's not their business model.

Re: The number of banks willing to do business with the crypto industry is shrinking

#67

Post by Gigachad »

chpatrick wrote: post #11
tnel77 wrote: post #6

[flagged]

Or it's just an environmental disaster and the biggest vehicle for fraud in the last 10 years.

Anyone who enjoys living on a habitable planet has a vested interest in the fail of crypto.

Re: The number of banks willing to do business with the crypto industry is shrinking

#68

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

Octokiddie wrote: post #61

> The problem, in a nutshell, is that for Bitcoin and other digital assets to have any chance of becoming mainstream, banks—with their access to deep sources of liquidity and experience in facilitating payments—will have to be on board. For the time being, they’re running in the opposite direction. What does Bitcoin "becoming mainstream" look like specifically? The article doesn't offer anything - not even a link. Le…

> What does Bitcoin "becoming mainstream" look like specifically?

Just like your desktop computer analogy, it looks like Grandma using Bitcoin in an everyday, mundane way like paying the electric bill.

Re: The number of banks willing to do business with the crypto industry is shrinking

#70

Post by epolanski »

wayeq wrote: post #49
epolanski wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How being the supply finite is relevant? This idea that being scarce implies value makes no sense. You realize we can go on github and setup a bitcoin network too, we call it BitcoinYC, our coins have the same properties of bitcoins, why would that have a value? Please repeat with me: - currencies (wheter fiat or crypto) have no value. You can't do anything with them, maybe watch dead national heroes printed or them.…

> - currencies (wheter fiat or crypto) have no value. You can't do anything with them You can pay taxes to stay out of jail with fiat, which seems desirable.

The example you've chosen reiterates that currencies have a price (letting you out), not a value.

If you had only Deutsche Marks to pay would that help you avoid prison?

No. Because they have no value, same as USD, on top of that, they have no price either because there's no demand for Deutsche Marks.

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