Bitcoin Forum

I have it on good authority that Circle has been granted a BitLicense and will be formally announcing this week.  Furthermore, an all USD wallet app is in the works, where there will be no BTC volatility associated with your account, but where you can still pay in BTC.   

I haven't used Circle myself, but it looks like they're going the way of banks. They seem to be OK with the regulation and somebody's got to do it.

honestly, I'm not so surprised..Circle is getting big. they have killer mobile app (at least for android), cool, modern and fast website and lot of strong investors firms behind.

https://www.circle.com/en/investors

I think, that we will hear a lot about Circle and they will become one of the leaders within upcoming 2 years.

i cant even see my bitcoin address in my circle wallet (i dont mean the app). where is the problem with that service?!  ???

Of course they are going the way of banks when the US government makes them go this way. This is the only way to get all of the licenses, BitLicense included and to comply with all of the KYC crap.

American Bitcoin companies and American bitcoiners don't have much of the choice in my opinion. I mean, if I got charged and fined like I killed someone for simple trading on localbitcoins, I would have complied with everything as well.

It's nice to see that Circle is ok with being regulated, and that they have been approved. Interesting times ahead

I think they are just going the FinTech way instead of the bank path. A pure USD wallet would be interesting, it might use bitcoin as a backbone to transfer the USD like abra

Me likes

That's an interesting possibility. I wonder whether their direction would gradually change to putting BTC deep in the background and just market themselves as a super efficient payment system. It slightly defeats what that pointy-headed baldie has been talking about but there's probably a load more money in it.

I don't like this, we're giving Circle too much control, espeically with how close they're tied with government regulations now.

Just shop elsewhere. They only operate in one country and there's no shortage of other options.

I mean really, it's the only option we have, especially if you live in the US like I do... but hopefully another site will come out and challenge circle, idk how they would do against government... probably not too good I'm assuming lol.

For context, I am in no way affiliated with Circle, just had a chance encounter that tipped me off.  My use of circle amounted to needing to prove I had a pathway to get mining profits from a pool into my checking account without paying fees.  For that use, circle has been great.  I'm curious what the fear is?  If anything I saw this news as a good thing.  It seems to me that what bitcoin really needs is adoption, and that means we need merchants.  Merchants need stability.  If we can't give them a stable exchange rate, then giving them an app that isolates them from the volatility should help adoption.  So what's the danger here?

That's actually pretty true, it will help mainstream adoption.. but at the same time, it's not good if one site has all control in the say so of price rates to buy bitcoin... especially if the government is affiliated with them.

If their prices veer away from any other market player then people will take their business elsewhere.

How big is Circle at present? I don't see them discussed all that much on here.

Well it's pretty hard to do that if you live in the US and don't live in any major US city.  Hardly none of the US cities have bitcoin ATM's and localbitcoins usually only work for people in large cities that have atleast some people that use bitcoins.  Also, Xapo is another way to go about getting them, but they charge a pretty high fee if I'm not mistaken.

Circle I think is a pretty big player in this field right now, especially since they are backed up now by big time investors.

Not just US government affiliation; they're also heavily affiliated with the same incumbent banking corporations who are arguably most to blame for the worsening state of the legacy financial system that bitcoin is supposed to provide an escape from:



Investors Goldman Sachs and Accel:

http://blog.circle.com/2015/04/29/new-circle-investors-new-us-dollar-account-features-china-horizons/

Employing a formerly JPMorgan/Deutsche Bank executive as CFO:

http://blog.circle.com/2014/12/11/circle-team-leadership-expansion/

Employing former SWIFT CEO ( + previous investment from Accel):

http://blog.circle.com/2014/03/26/circle-closes-17-million-series-b-rolls-consumer-product-invite-limited-release/

Employing former Bank of Ireland/Goldman Sachs financier as their MD:

http://blog.circle.com/2014/07/02/circle-appoints-fintech-leader-former-bank-ireland-director-garrett-cassidy-head-european-operations/

Employing former Special Advisor to US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner as a Director:

http://blog.circle.com/2013/11/14/circle-names-former-banking-industry-exec-head-u-s-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-raj-date-board-directors/

Employing former board member at Wal Mart/Cisco/Goldman Sachs as "global finance executive" (at the same time that Mike Hearn becomes an advisor):

http://blog.circle.com/2014/01/16/circle-adds-new-board-member-announces-key-advisors/

Launch announcement of Accel investment:

http://blog.circle.com/2013/10/30/introducing-circle/



You will eventually get what you deserve if you use a company like Circle (and let me give you a hint: remember how it feels to be a customer of the banking behemoths right now? Well.....)

Then I advise you not to use them. There are several other options out there to receive and send bitcoins. You as a user always have a choice and the options to express your dissatisfaction.

Circle and Coinbase will evolve to the new existing crypto banks in the next several years. Future banking will change. Some of the old ones will die and the rest will adopt and develop new blockchain systems and crypto vehicles. Circle and Coinbase will be part of them.

Last time i checked it i cant use them because they didnt accept european credit cards, if they want to be evolve to the new existing crypto banks in the next several years they should improved that a lot.

btw as you said, Circle and Coinbase seems to be working faster on all those things before others, maybe they just want to be "ready" to rumble for the next years ;)

Yes, this is real BS. I cannot believe that they don't still accept EU credit cards, at least the ones from the most secure countries like France, Germany, UK would make sense to me. I mean, they would be well protected in this case, at least that's my guess.

There must be some other catch that doesn't let them accept these European credit cards. If someone knows something more about this, thanks for sharing.

If you happy with the traditional banking system, you would be happy to use Circle, it’s as simple as that. They dance to the government’s tunes and adhere to all the KYC and AML regulations. If you want to pay some premium fee’s on top of normal Bitcoin use for some reason, feel free to use them. <Tax>

They are the vanilla Fiat banking system, with a Blockchain skirt.   

Ok i thought i missed something over here. Our intention is to promote use of bitcoin but in order to avoid the volatility issue we are actually maintaining the fund holdings in dollar and convert per se to bitcoin to pay when is needed.

This reminds me of changetip finding out after a poll that BTC made people less likely to use them, so they featured USD tipping despite the hardship regulations could bring. This isn't directly beneficial for bitcoin but even for the few people that are going to find out about it's existence though an service they use I'm confident that it's worth it. If people trust circle for non bitcoin uses, finding out about bitcoin through a trusted app is going to be a good introduction.

I read somewhere where circle locked someone account for 90 days and didn't allow them access to their bitcoins. That person had to file complaints up in Boston in order to get access to his account.

Probably they are interested in hiding all the things that are too complicated for a non-tech users  ;D. Just as windows did with MS-DOS, and then later windows 8 hiding more and more things (folders, configuration options etc.).

Possible that this happened more often. Coinbase and Circle have to follow regulations, KYC/AML etc.
It can happen that they close your account and ask you where your coins are coming from. Or you spend your coins in shops they will have problems with because of existing laws in different states, for instance you live in Colorado and buy some weed with bitcoin via using circle's app. There can be several other cases which might create problems and your account will get closed. Don't use them.

So what is the general consensus of buying bitcoins? I still use circle and am worried about this... I would prefer to use exchange sites like local bitcoins, but they don't have any users in the town I'm in currently :(

I use coinbase in the US, I don't trust circle yet, they haven't been in business long enough.

Coinbase has to follow the same rules under KYC/AML guidelines. So there's no big difference. Both will close your accounts and freeze transactions immdiately if they think something is suspicious. Just have read at r/Bitcoin of how many people complained about coinbase and their service.

I suppose I haven't thought about that, and I try to stay away from /r/bitcoin, because well, reddit.

Circle Gets First ‘BitLicense,’ Releases CirclePay, New Service

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/09/22/circle-gets-first-bitlicense-releases-circlepay-new-service/

That's great news to know. Whenever I hear of new services or I calculate how it would impact on bitcoin price raise. Hopefully circlepay will provide some positive boost into bitcoin prices. Because we need more and more services and applications needed to take bitcoin price to moon.

Well let's see how things will develop.Their idea to push Bitcoin into the background is not new and Abra I think is doing the same.So what both are doing is converting dollars into bitcoin, sending the transaction through the network and at the other end convert it back to dollars.

I would be real wary of circle.com . IMHO coinbase is much better. For what im gathering some seems to think circle = paypal

The only reason why we have these payment processors are to make Bitcoin user friendly for the general public, because they are used to 3rd parties handling their money for them and to make it "government

friendly" .... Those people who are allowed to apply their own mind, can use Bitcoin without these services. Why do you need 3 tools to do the job that you could have done with one tool? Most of these services

are operating from areas, where regulations are in place to stop them from using any other payment option, if they do not adhere to it... if that makes sense. You pay them to adhere to these regulations.  ::)

Exactly this. The way they are going is to get more users. And of course all these guys will have no clue that Bitcoin is running in the background.Therefore for them it feels like a kind of paypal.Fully regulated with KYC/AML guidelines etc...
We as true Bitcoiners know how Bitcoin works and don't need their services.

Honestly I don't think many people will adopt circle as a payment program just because they don't really have a reason to.

It seems like Circle is aiming to be the first Bitcoin Bank. Many companies don't agree with BitLicence for a reason. Circle should be following them.

Yup. There's already a Paypal and it works fine for most. I don't really get what they're trying to achieve by sticking a USD layer on top. There's a thousand options for that already.

Don't know about that, there's been a bank of Bitcoin at my place for a while now  :D

Cryptocurrency company Circle has announced a partnership with a startup Maps.me, behind the offline navigation service. As part of the agreement, the platform will add support for the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin. Users Maps.me they will be able to use stablecoins for instant payments in more than 35 countries. The service will allow you to buy and store USDC, as well as the native MAPS token in your wallet Maps.me  https://www.circle.com/blog/maps.me-and-circle-partnership-brings-stablecoins-to-millions-of-new-users?utm_content=169594280&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-2151686839

Circle announced the launch of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin created by the Center consortium on the Tron blockchain. Tron became the fifth blockchain in the USDC family of stablecoins. The asset also works in the Ethereum, Algorithand, Stellar and Solana networks. https://www.circle.com/blog/tron-network-announcement-usdc-circle-account-circle-apis?utm_campaign=TRON%20Announcement&utm_content=171498669&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-2151686839

[quote author=https://www.circle.com/blog (https://www.circle.com/blog/tron-network-announcement-usdc-circle-account-circle-apis?utm_campaign=TRON%20Announcement&utm_content=171498669&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-2151686839)]

https://i.ibb.co/GM5rPQp/2021-07-02-112257.jpg (https://www.circle.com/blog/tron-network-announcement-usdc-circle-account-circle-apis?utm_campaign=TRON%20Announcement&utm_content=171498669&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-2151686839)

According to the statement of CEO Jeremy Allair, Circle will become a commercial cryptocurrency bank with full reservation, whose activities are regulated in accordance with the risk management requirements of the Federal Reserve, the US Treasury Department, the OCC and the FDIC. https://www.circle.com/blog/our-journey-to-become-a-national-digital-currency-bank