The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from WS Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.
"U.S. users of Strike can now use Send Globally to send instant, cheap remittances to loved ones in the Philippines"
Honestly, there are easier ways to transfer money between countries; For example, you could run a business with offices in the Philippines and the US, the US business could accept cash in US dollars and payout in Peso's in the Philippines, in fact you could set up phone account apps tied to accounts in each country and make the conversion instantly without Bitcoin Lightning. Whether the transactions are completed with Bitcoin or anything else, there'll still be charges associated with currency conversions and a service charge,
There are already companies doing money transfers for "free", obviously they aren't really free since there'll be a hidden service charge incorporated into the currency conversion charge. Any company involved in Financial transfers will have be registered and conforming to whatever money laundering legislation is in place where they do business, even if they use Crypto to make the transfer.
The current narrative that Crypto will make transfers easier and cheaper is fake, the only way it'd be cheaper is if the conversions are done using stable coins locked to the currency and backed by institutions like Central Banks, but even then there'd be conversion charges for Fiat to Crypto and vice versa.
The only reason Banks don't get involved in fast cheap money transfers, is because it isn't worth it for them because of regulatory risk and low margins.
In Africa they've been using Phone apps, for money transfers, for years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQqL_edeBRI
Personally, if I was someone regularly transferring money across borders, like in the case of US to Philippines, I'd have multiple apps and accounts and use the one that's offering the cheapest overall service/conversion charge, irrespective of the method they use to make the transfer, after all I'm only interested in getting the best deal.
"What a complete bunch of nutters"
What I would say is that Flat Earthers don't do any harm, they may waste time trying to prove the Earth isn't spherical, because they believe some nonsensical conspiracy theory, but Crypto can seriously damage the wealth of believers. Whereas I can't see any motivation, for the powers that be, to fool everyone about the shape of the planet, I can see the motivation for vested interests to pump the price of Bitcoin and then transfer believers wealth into their own pocket's as the price climbs, eventually leaving the true believers holding a worthless "asset".
"The earth is flat, stationary and geocentric", and Bitcoin has intrinsic value in this psychedelic phantasmagoric Cryptoverse too lol
Just a P155 take video that one, lol, I assume you don't really believe the Earth is flat then?
Seeing is believing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1qQZbTF8iQ
The Flat Earth theory is super easy to disprove, all you need is a clear day, a hot air balloon and a really good set of binoculars. If you look out to the horizon, at sea level, you can view approximately 4.8km; As you climb up up and away in your beautiful balloon, you'll notice the distance to the horizon will increase in proportion to your height above sea level and if you go high enough you'll eventually be able to see the curvature of the Earth. If the Earth was flat you'd be able to see the North America coastline, with a really powerful telescope, from the top of Ben Nevis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVhX-Sh2110&t=8s
Aircraft trace out a Geodesic line, which is the shortest path between two points on a sphere. The same thing applies to gravity and the orbit of the planets around the Sun. The Earth follows a Geodesic line around the sun, due to the mass of Sun curving spacetime, the Earth is actually going in a straight line but the curvature of spacetime locks us into a circular orbit. Scientists now believe gravity is a curving of spacetime and all objects are just following geodesic worldlines travelling along spacetime curves. You should read up on Worldlines, spacetime, and geodesic lines. I find it mind blowing, but it makes sense and experiments have proved that gravity and speed do affect the flow of time.
I struggle to understand things like the twin paradox, where a twin travelling to a distant planet, at close to the speed of light, ages much more slowly than their sibling on Earth, I think the phenomenon is related to the speed of light being constant relative to the observers inertial frame of reference. If I'm understanding it correctly, time must slow for the twin travelling at close to the speed of light, since they wouldn't observe time dilation with everything appearing normal to them, even the speed of light which has an upper speed limit of 3x10^8 m/s in a vacuum.
"In special relativity, the speed of light is constant when measured in any inertial frame. In general relativity, the appropriate generalisation is that the speed of light is constant in any freely falling reference frame (in a region small enough that tidal effects can be neglected). In this passage, Einstein is not talking about a freely falling frame, but rather about a frame at rest relative to a source of gravity. In such a frame, the speed of light can differ from c, basically because of the effect of gravity (spacetime curvature) on clocks and rulers.
If general relativity is correct, then the constancy of the speed of light in inertial frames is a tautology from the geometry of spacetime. The causal structure of the universe is determined by the geometry of "null vectors". Travelling at the speed c means following world-lines tangent to these null vectors. The use of c as a conversion between units of metres and seconds, as in the SI definition of the metre, is fully justified on theoretical grounds as well as practical terms, because c is not merely the speed of light, it is a fundamental feature of the geometry of spacetime."
https://www.desy.de/user/projects/Physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/speed_of_light.html
If the Earth is flat, I'm sure scientists would have proved it by now and would have no reason to hide it.
Lol I like to think I have an open mind, but I'm not a Flat Earth believer. If planets are flat, how do you account for rotation, observations from space, and observation of our near astronomical neighbour's who are clearly spherical and rotating?
"I don't think it's difficult to see how this helps power expansions and optimization of power generated."
I can think of much better uses for off-peak green electricity, like producing green hydrogen, etc, I don't see Crypto Mining as a good use.
"Fleccy looks like Wyckoff playing out"
I've never heard of Wyckoff, but had a quick look. If I'm understanding it correctly, the method groups Volume and sentiment into phases within a Bell Distribution curve. I can see how something like that might be useful in currency trading and by extension Crypto, although I'm not sure how it factors in things like FX Derivatives, and like any predictive strategy there'll always be anomalies to catch you out. I only invest in equities and don't believe in charting, as On- Exchange trades only show you part of the picture with much going on behind the scenes, like Off Exchange trades and derivative trading.
If you're interested in looking at Bitcoin charts, to get a long term view of what might be happening, these look interesting:
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/charts/trade-volume
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/charts/difficulty
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/charts/n-transactions-total
I suppose different people have a different perspective, dependent on their belief in Bitcoin. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that it can make some people rich and many people poor.
"I see Bitcoin mining as a solution rather than a problem. BTC miners can use what would otherwise be wasted electricity anywhere in the world at any time."
I understand the narrative and I can see why it appeals to the oil producers, as a source of revenue, but I believe any electricity used in Bitcoin mining is a waste of energy anyway. If they're powering computers to number crunch issues to help humanity, I'd take a different view, but Crypto doesn't add anything productive in my opinion; I'm not an ECO fanatic, I just hate waste and I see Bitcoin as a waste of resources.
Watching the BMC video now and it's all just Snake Oil sales spiel to me. If you believe Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, as I do, then every Watt directed at Bitcoin Mining is a waste of Energy. Instead of using all that energy and processing power directed at something with no real world use, they could use it for useful research around products that do have real world use. Nothing I've seen has persuaded me there's any value in Bitcoin, unless you're a vested interest looking to profit from price inflation of the token. Michael Saylor is heavily invested in Bitcoin, and the amount of airtime he directs at pumping the coin suggests he's desperate to persuade others. If Bitcoin was truly beneficial to humanity, it wouldn't need to be pumped by a gigantic marketing hype machine.
I can see the personal business case for them to use gas emissions for electricity generation, and making money by taking advantage of the belief in the value of Bitcoin, but personally I view Bitcoin as worthless, so I'd rather the oil industry find other uses for waste Gas emissions from oil production.
I read through it and I was already of the opinion that international currency transfers might eventually utilise Central Bank stable coins, but not specifically in FX trading terms. I suspect FX traders wouldn't use a public blockchain for large amounts, due to security concerns, not that I know how FX works.
You can already transfer small amounts internationally for "free", whether you get a good exchange rate is the real question. In the case of small transfers, utilising Blockchain, I'd be really surprised if there isn't going to be conversion fee's at both ends of the transaction, if they can't get you one way, they'll get you another.
Truth be told Blockchain isn't required to transfer money efficiently, you just need connectivity and enough competition to reduce fee's charged. Granted Blockchain (Stable coins) might speed up International currency transfers, but it's a single use case and I'm not sure if it should come under the heading of "DeFi". Even back in 2014, you could do Cross Border money transfers in Rwanda using a mobile app, check out the Video linked below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs-WZsMO_L0
DS, DeFi and Crypto would probably do a poor job of replacing what's already available. I think people are being sold a dream, I wont buy into it.
"Like the internet took off when there where sceptics, the next generations will all trade, earn, save and pay with crypto imo"
Usually things do well when they improve something, or make life easier, but I don't see any of that with Bitcoin.
The question you need to ask yourself, is how do you value Bitcoin?
When currencies were based on the Gold standard, the value of the currency was determined by the amount of Gold reserves a country held in storage.
The Crypto fans argue that Fiat Money is fictional and based on nothing, but that isn't true, the value of Sterling is based on the strength of the UK Economy, the Euro for the EU economy and the Dollar for the US economy, so Fiat is backed by something tangible. The argument is that Bitcoin has value due to scarcity, with only 21 Million coins possible, but that's incorrect as they can subdivide Bitcoin as many times as they want, as demonstrated in the case of the Satoshi with 2.1 Quadrillion possible.
As above, Bitcoin scarcity isn't a valid argument, therefore the only value in Bitcoin is the amount someone is willing to pay for it, so the value is determined by nothing more than sentiment. The whole Crypto narrative is smoke and mirrors, with vested interest players profiting from the hype in my opinion. If I'm right and it truly is just hype, it'll all end in tears.
All that said, I do see uses for Blockchain, just not in Crypto currency.
Thanks for that. I admit to having an issue with Crypto currency and especially Bitcoin. I don't see the need for Bitcoin and take issue with amount of investment directed at the industry, as well as the amount of energy wasted mining Crypto; There are much more worthwhile uses for energy, like vertical farming and other uses. As you say time will tell, but I just see the whole industry as a waste of time, effort and energy.
"Folks this getting worse than a kindergarten can we please cease all the trading insults and focus on trading shares!"
I think you posted on the wrong forum, did you mean to post on QBT?
If you listen to everything they say about Bitcoin, it defies belief that anyone actually believes the narratives. At best Bitcoin could be described as a Pyramid scheme and at worst a Ponzi scheme.
Bitcoin has all the makings of an illusory sleight of hand, designed to fool idiots. They say Bitcoin will always have value, due to the scarcity of the "asset", with only 21 Million possible, but they fail to mention that for every Bitcoin mined you get One Hundred Million Satoshi's; So there are currently 1.9 Quadrillion Satoshi's possible, with the maximum being 2.1 Quadrillion. If Bitcoin became more expensive again, they'd come up with a subdivision even lower maybe a 100 Billion per Bitcoin. Obviously the more expensive a Bitcoin becomes the more out of reach for the less wealthy, so demand would drop and subsequently the price, but break it down enough and even the poor can afford to get in on the hype raising the price of the token at all levels.
How people don't see the con is beyond me, it works like this:
Produce a bunch of Bitcoin, and tell everyone it'll take over the World
Sell the Bitcoin you produce and encourage the buyers to persuade their friends to buy in also
Build a huge marketing machine to push the product
Trash the Naysayers, whatever their long established credibility is
As the price goes up, don't worry, you can get in by purchasing Satoshi's
Don't worry about the price going down, it moves in 4 year cycles
SBF, FTX, and others were bad actors, once they're flushed out all will be sweet
Don't worry about the hacks, frauds, lost coins, etc, these things happen in all new industries, after all we've only been going for 13 years.
Once the "right sort of regulation" is in place, Bitcoin will soar, right?
Anyone with a vested interest will disagree with what I've just said, but all I've done is given examples of some of the rhetoric used to diminish fraudulent and other negative Crypto related events.
As for anyone who thinks spot ETF's and other light touch regulated products will be allowed, I very much doubt it. The regulatory authorities are still feeling the effects of being burned, by pre-2008 products like CDO's and other specialised derivatives; They wouldn't risk anything that might lead to contagion in the vanilla financial system.
2023/24 will test Bitcoin to the limit. Will it survive the next Halving if the price drops? Maybe, maybe not.
I'll watch it, but I don't trust anything Saylor says, he/MicroStrategy are the biggest holder of Bitcoin.