81–90 of 194 posts
> We're being oppressed! 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.
The guy calls someone saying it's not oppression a snowflake.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The properties of bitcoin are completely irrelevant to the mechanics of the card. On what planet? If the price fluctuates the way bitcoin has been, Wavecrest could literally be bankrupt before Visa even knew about it to pause any further transactions. At which point VISA is responsible, you think they're going to risk billions of dollars on a currency that is clearly a bubble at this point?
No, that is wrong. 1.) Wavecrest assumes absolutely no exchange rate risk as they don't deal with the BTC, a company like Xapo does 2.) Xapo make a very big margin on the bitcoin sale 3.) The companies that perform the sale at topup time rather than purchase time work out how many GBPs you get after they've sold your BTC, so they assume no risk at all, and the companies like Xapo that perform the sale at purchase tim…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, that is wrong. 1.) Wavecrest assumes absolutely no exchange rate risk as they don't deal with the BTC, a company like Xapo does 2.) Xapo make a very big margin on the bitcoin sale 3.) The companies that perform the sale at topup time rather than purchase time work out how many GBPs you get after they've sold your BTC, so they assume no risk at all, and the companies like Xapo that perform the sale at purchase tim…
What is Wavecrest's business model as a card issuer then? [Genuine question]
If I'm not missing anything, I believe this must have happened because of unusually high levels of fraud on Bitcoin visa cards. Certain acquirers might've complained about abnormal amounts of "shady" volume from WaveCrest BINs.
Alternatively, Visa might have seen a settlement risk on WaveCrest's end. I.e. Visa might be worried that fluctuations in BTCs price would put WaveCrest in a position that they wouldn't be able to settle funds with Visa (and consequently the acquirers + merchants).
Any other ideas on what could've prompted this? I think if this was anti-BTC regulatory action, the prompt to turn off these cards would've come from WaveCrest's banking partners and not Visa.
Most interesting thing here is that this came without any prior notice to any parties in the process, effective immediately. Sure looks like someone pressed a panic button.
Seems like it was a very bad business idea in the first place, and I'm surprised it wasn't cancelled sooner. Before you downvote me consider the business model of credit card processors, and how volatility and rapidly deflating currency would effect their cash flow.
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> how volatility and rapidly deflating currency would effect their cash flow. Not at all? You obviously don't understand what a bitcoin debit card is. It's just like a normal debit card, but you fund it with bitcoin. The company you get the card from sells your bitcoin for fiat currency at the time you make a purchase (or at the time you top up the card, depending on how they do it). The properties of bitcoin are com…
The liquidity to sell to fiat is drying up after many are realizing the valuations for crypto are completely fraudulent. There is an astronomical amount of centralized crypto printing going on that has corrupted the entire crypto ecosystem. Tether just wrote in their legal terms that as a of January 1st tether can't be redeemed or used by Americans even though it backs USD. Corrupt exchanges inflated the prices and i…
And they say crypto isn't decentralized!
I wonder why this happened. Visa is primarily a technology company - not a financial institution. It's incentivesed to keep fraud on visa cards low (so that merchants continue to accept it) and keep its ecosystem of issuers + acquirers happy. If I'm not missing anything, I believe this must have happened because of unusually high levels of fraud on Bitcoin visa cards. Certain acquirers might've complained about abnor…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The liquidity to sell to fiat is drying up after many are realizing the valuations for crypto are completely fraudulent. There is an astronomical amount of centralized crypto printing going on that has corrupted the entire crypto ecosystem. Tether just wrote in their legal terms that as a of January 1st tether can't be redeemed or used by Americans even though it backs USD. Corrupt exchanges inflated the prices and i…
> Bernie Madoff x 10,000 And they say crypto isn't decentralized!
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Indeed, didn't think about it, but fees are a problem as well. Also, if bitcoin had to manage the throughput of VISA (or even a fraction of it, at this point), capacity issues would probably worsen dramatically. It's probably best to stop hoping it will be a currency altogether (unless some radical changes occur). Best shot would be to see it as saving/investment accounts, with smart tricks like prepaid visa cards as…
Lightning Network exceeds the throughput of VISA. The scaling problem is being addressed -- just not in the naive "let's throw away decentralization and increase the blocksize" way.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The properties of bitcoin are completely irrelevant to the mechanics of the card. On what planet? If the price fluctuates the way bitcoin has been, Wavecrest could literally be bankrupt before Visa even knew about it to pause any further transactions. At which point VISA is responsible, you think they're going to risk billions of dollars on a currency that is clearly a bubble at this point?
No, that is wrong. 1.) Wavecrest assumes absolutely no exchange rate risk as they don't deal with the BTC, a company like Xapo does 2.) Xapo make a very big margin on the bitcoin sale 3.) The companies that perform the sale at topup time rather than purchase time work out how many GBPs you get after they've sold your BTC, so they assume no risk at all, and the companies like Xapo that perform the sale at purchase tim…