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[Wattie]

That's the whole point - the banks cannot kill crypto because it is decentralised and nobody owns it. India has tried to ban crypto recently but failed. Indeed all of the large investment banks have recently launched Bitcoin trusts. Even the US is about to launch its first BTC ETF.

The crypto market is a strange mixture of different types of coins. Bitcoin is solely a store of value - like gold. Then there are real utility coins like Cardano, which recently gave identity (via mobile crypto wallet) to 5 millions kids in Ethiopia. It will allow micropayments at virtually no cost and will effectively become a world-computer hosting decentralised applications catering for digital payments, investing, digital identity, supply chain tracking, gaming and just about anything else you can think of. Then there is the world of decentralised finance - coins such as AAAVE and Compound, which have $42BN locked in (doubled since Jan this year) and give typical returns of 8-30% pa. Banks have been ripping us off for years but crypto allows us to benefit from the real investment profits.

Personally, I don't get the whole digital art concept, but there is no doubt that NFTs will be huge, with musicians being payed reliably and computer games able to swap and sell inventory that they have won, in the real world. IBM is now turning its patents into NFTs to be stored securely on the blockchain.

Coins like 'Synthetix' allow digital representations of real world assets such as oil or gold, and tie the coin to the real world value of the asset. The only issue I see with this is that, if you can then stake the coin to earn 8% interest, why would you invest in the real world asset? So investment in the real asset will reduce, the asset value will go down, which will then be reflected in the synthetic coin value = downward spiral.

Stablecoins mimic the value of currencies - typically the USD, but can be staked to provide liquidity and will earn better interest than anything from the establishment.

And finally, there are the joke coins that have no utility whatsoever, but can be pumped by the public in the short term.

Overall, the crypto world has huge merit and will eventually become mainstream, but is currently very immature and is absolutely riddled with scams, so whatever you do, be careful.

Q. What’s to stop the exchanges being shut down and use of crypto made illegal if governments/ central banks so desire......particularly when they launch their own digit cash?

Trouble in Turkey as crypto falls foul of local laws, investors take big hits

Throughout Turkey, investors are distraught. Estimates vary for how much they have lost.

fortune.com

 

[stindig]

A lot of the exchanges are decentralised as well. You can't shut them down. Nobody owns them, they are just smart contracts (computer code) running on a network.

 

[Wattie]

A lot of the exchanges are decentralised as well. You can't shut them down. Nobody owns them, they are just smart contracts (computer code) running on a network.

Ok, but the prices are set by the market and if use is made illegal and you can’t buy/sell use......what’s the way around that?

Look at HSBC......It follows recent announcements from HSBC that it won't allow transfers from digital wallets and won't enable customers to buy shares in companies associated with cryptocurrencies, such as Coinbase or MicroStrategy.23 Apr 2021

What if all banks do this?

 

[stindig]

Ok, but the prices are set by the market and if use is made illegal and you can’t buy/sell use......what’s the way around that?

Look at HSBC......It follows recent announcements from HSBC that it won't allow transfers from digital wallets and won't enable customers to buy shares in companies associated with cryptocurrencies, such as Coinbase or MicroStrategy.23 Apr 2021

What if all banks do this?

Yes, I have experienced that. Neither Transferwise nor HSBC will let me transfer to certain Crypto wallets/exchanges, but there are always others that they haven't cottoned on to yet. I transfer into Swissborg and then do inter-wallet transfers from there. Also, HSBC still allows transfers into Crypto.com's new bank.

On DOT and some other networks, there are only decentralised exchanges at the moment, with no bank connections, which means that any FIAT currency has to be moved in or out via centralised exchanges on Ethereum - with MASSIVE gas fees. You just have to make enough new money to cover the fees

 

[Froddy]

Bond yields are looking poised to go higher here ...

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And I don't like the TRIN reading - flat and below 0.6:


I'm not buying this dip!

 

[Froddy]

That's the whole point - the banks cannot kill crypto because it is decentralised and nobody owns it. India has tried to ban crypto recently but failed. Indeed all of the large investment banks have recently launched Bitcoin trusts. Even the US is about to launch its first BTC ETF.

The crypto market is a strange mixture of different types of coins. Bitcoin is solely a store of value - like gold. Then there are real utility coins like Cardano, which recently gave identity (via mobile crypto wallet) to 5 millions kids in Ethiopia. It will allow micropayments at virtually no cost and will effectively become a world-computer hosting decentralised applications catering for digital payments, investing, digital identity, supply chain tracking, gaming and just about anything else you can think of. Then there is the world of decentralised finance - coins such as AAAVE and Compound, which have $42BN locked in (doubled since Jan this year) and give typical returns of 8-30% pa. Banks have been ripping us off for years but crypto allows us to benefit from the real investment profits.

Personally, I don't get the whole digital art concept, but there is no doubt that NFTs will be huge, with musicians being payed reliably and computer games able to swap and sell inventory that they have won, in the real world. IBM is now turning its patents into NFTs to be stored securely on the blockchain.

Coins like 'Synthetix' allow digital representations of real world assets such as oil or gold, and tie the coin to the real world value of the asset. The only issue I see with this is that, if you can then stake the coin to earn 8% interest, why would you invest in the real world asset? So investment in the real asset will reduce, the asset value will go down, which will then be reflected in the synthetic coin value = downward spiral.

Stablecoins mimic the value of currencies - typically the USD, but can be staked to provide liquidity and will earn better interest than anything from the establishment.

And finally, there are the joke coins that have no utility whatsoever, but can be pumped by the public in the short term.

Overall, the crypto world has huge merit and will eventually become mainstream, but is currently very immature and is absolutely riddled with scams, so whatever you do, be careful.

Wow, you really know your onions - thanks for sharing ...

 

[Wattie]

Yes, I have experienced that. Neither Transferwise nor HSBC will let me transfer to certain Crypto wallets/exchanges, but there are always others that they haven't cottoned on to yet. I transfer into Swissborg and then do inter-wallet transfers from there. Also, HSBC still allows transfers into Crypto.com's new bank.

On DOT and some other networks, there are only decentralised exchanges at the moment, with no bank connections, which means that any FIAT currency has to be moved in or out via centralised exchanges on Ethereum - with MASSIVE gas fees. You just have to make enough new money to cover the fees

It’s certainly an interesting sector. Time will tell on the winners and losers and whether any centralised coordinated action modifies or curtails it’s progress.
Keep us updated on any tips etc.

 

[rockits]

What many people miss, overlook or don't understand is that nothing running over the Internet is truly decentralised.

There will always be intermeditaries that have the potential to block or control network traffic at a low network level if the desire was there.

There is also huge huge potential for stuff to be hacked due to lagging security processes and levels by many. The Internet has ran before it can walk. It is being asked to sprint now which is a concern. As soon as there is any outage there will be massive issues.

In my opinion the Internet needs a whole ground up redesign as it was never designed for current use/demands let alone future ones. It has outgrown it and all the new DeFi with Crypto concepts may well struggle and have issues potentially.

What is the BTC blockchain size? About 200gb? Relocated many many times all over the place. Not so efficient or light really.

The Internet potentially could end up being the bottleneck and issue preventing massive changes with things like DeFi becoming more prevalent.

Just some food for thought.

 

[philw696]

Will i have to go back to buying magazine's in the future to look at boobies ?

 

[CatmanV2]

Will i have to go back to buying magazine's in the future to look at boobies ?

Nope

C

 

[stindig]

Keep us updated on any tips etc.

It’s not too late to register for the Centrifuge IDO on CoinList. Centrifuge will be the first DeFi dapp on a Polkadot parachain, and I think has great potential. Initial registration on CoinList is a pain, but you only have to do it once to be able to apply for all future launches. There are no guarantees of getting access - it’s done on a lottery system, but if you get in, then $$$$$$$$!!!

 

[Nayf]

What if all banks do this?

Not all will. It’s the same principle as to why the government is unwilling to tax huge corpo tax evaders - the evaders will simply move their operations to a willing other country.

You can already see it in the USA - individual states are more open to crypto than others, which is bringing demographic change away from other states. Miami for example. Huge property boom among the tech savvy.

Any bank that rejects will be ignored in future, while those who are open will see a big upswing in users.

 

[Wattie]

Not all will. It’s the same principle as to why the government is unwilling to tax huge corpo tax evaders - the evaders will simply move their operations to a willing other country.

You can already see it in the USA - individual states are more open to crypto than others, which is bringing demographic change away from other states. Miami for example. Huge property boom among the tech savvy.

Any bank that rejects will be ignored in future, while those who are open will see a big upswing in users.

I appreciate that however if Uk banks were to reject crypto (NatWest I think can be added to the list) then you have an issue bringing profits home...or indeed opening up accounts in other jurisdictions......you wouldn’t qualify.

If it’s deemed illegal in your jurisdiction.....you’re basically screwed.

 

[Hawk13]

You don't have to make crypto currency illegal to cripple it / make it difficult to be accepted as a mainstream option ...just introduce regulation.

Part of crypto currency that is problematic for banks is the inherent lack of transparency and this already has a number of banks running scared.

Yes you can identify where the currency was minted and yes you can validate the current holder but you have no way of verifying where the money came from or what it was used for.

If you consider the issues banks face around sanctions, preventing terrorist financing and good old fashioned money laundering and the size of the fines (were are talking billions of dollars) you can see why they are somewhat cautious.

 

[stindig]

Yes you can identify where the currency was minted and yes you can validate the current holder but you have no way of verifying where the money came from or what it was used for.

Using Block Explorer, you can see exactly where the money came from and what is was used for - it's totally transparent, unless you use a privacy coin like Monero.. This is actually currently a problem, in that certain sectors don't want people to be able to track their transactions. Investment houses would be able to see exactly what the competition is doing. Hence the requirement for more sophisticated blockchains than ETH. They are coming.

 

[Wattie]

You don't have to make crypto currency illegal to cripple it / make it difficult to be accepted as a mainstream option ...just introduce regulation.

Part of crypto currency that is problematic for banks is the inherent lack of transparency and this already has a number of banks running scared.

Yes you can identify where the currency was minted and yes you can validate the current holder but you have no way of verifying where the money came from or what it was used for.

If you consider the issues banks face around sanctions, preventing terrorist financing and good old fashioned money laundering and the size of the fines (were are talking billions of dollars) you can see why they are somewhat cautious.

I kinda disagree with this view Hawk.
Most exchanges ask for a transfer to a crypto account from money that is already in the banking system.....or via a debit card.
By definition therefore, it’s passed the banks AML -to be sitting in the bank account!!!!!
And it’s transferred to a bank who is also following aml rules.

I also disagree with the central bank “don’t invest you could lose all your money mantra”.
That’s a choice each individual is entitled to make.

Enron, greenshill, Madoff......most economies- Ponzi schemes
Goldman Sachs, JPM would all be bankrupt if they hadn’t been bailed out.......So they know feck all.

Banks are worried cos no-one trusts them.

HSBC complaining about money laundering - https://www.bbc.com/news/business-20673466
Really?

243 Billion in fines to 2018 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/b...billion-since-the-financial-crisis-2018-02-20

JPM- https://www.straitstimes.com/busine...-manipulating-precious-metals-treasury-market


What the banks are showing IMO is the desire or intent to do harm to the crypto market....to protect their BS status

That’s worrying as they’re frankly criminal organisations looking to protect their monopoly from this non centralised alternative.

 

[stindig]

Also, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, JP Morgan etc have all recently either invested directly in Bitcoin or are making Bitcoin available to their customers. It's already going mainstream. HSBC & Nat West are just buying their heads in the sand. Bitcoin is now the 3rd largest currency in the world.

 

[Hawk13]

Also, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, JP Morgan etc have all recently either invested directly in Bitcoin or are making Bitcoin available to their customers.

That because they can make money from it and they are worried about being left behind - it's not an endorsement!

 

[Wattie]

Buy some Gold.
The only market that matter is the US- it’s a Ponzi scheme on a scale you cannot imagine.

4.2%!!!!!!
Cnbc....unexpected......only if you’re a fecking idiot or a Banker!!!!,




These people will destroy your lifestyle if you believe them.

 

[Froddy]

Or sell AUD/USD!

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