Bitcoin Forum

Goldman Sachs board member M. Michele Burns is joining the board of new bitcoin payment processor Circle Internet Financial, becoming the latest representative from the worlds of big finance and investing to show an interest in digital currency.

The move represents a possible greater acceptance of bitcoin in the US in the financial mainstream, at a time when other large countries are attempting to block or caution against its use.

source:
http://www.coindesk.com/goldman-sachs-director-board-bitcoin-startup-circle/

nice move indeed. circle does something right.

This is like putting Amon Goeth the president of the Jewish National Fund. I don't trust Michele Burns. A hard core Democrat and one of the patrons of the EMILY's List. The Bitcoin community will be much better without her.

I wouldn't trust anybody from Goldman ... they will knife you in the back as soon as look at you.

not sure if this is a positive thing.  So far the big business interest in Bitcoin has been roughly to remove it's p2p nature, regulate it, and capitalize on it.

it certainly seems like theyre putting one of their agents on the job who looks friendly.

not sure why CoinDesk is cheering this on.  I find their reporting to be biased and commercially influenced.  Seems to be going after a model something like TechCrunch, as in, look like the most credible source of information on a technology, and then companies pay them to feature their products/platforms in a favorable light.  It's possible that Goldman Sachs might have done just that to get the right PR they were looking for.

Michele Burns on THEY RULE: Link: http://theyrule.net/map_401131

Those that liked bitcoin because they are libertarian or anarcho-capitalists, now find themselves in an interesting predicament.

Bitcoin was going to stick it to the man, well now it seems that "the man" is going to be woven into the very fabric that bitcoin is weaving.

Some may not like it, but if bitcoin is going to be widely accepted, you are going to need Goldman Sachs and their sacks of money backing it.

Laws are made by politicians, the very same politicians that Goldman owns.


If Goldman Sachs is going to be throwing its weight behind bitcoin in some way, shape or form, then the odds of strict regulatory clamp downs is reduced, but at the same time, the financial institutions that Satoshi wanted to "stick it to" are now in the same bus as the rest of us.

That rhymed.

heheh, just you keep on thinking like that and we'll all be golden .... blinded by greed you cannot realise the game has fundamentally changed, it is no longer about paper or 'laws' made by the lawless, it is about the code and the tech. ... and if you are not submitting to github you are very likely at the back of the queue handing your wealth to someone else at the front ... whatever else world view you might like to hold ...

I've been arguing about this all night.  I don't believe Satoshi wanted to "stick it to" anyone.  I think he wanted to create a system that solved several problems with conventional currencies.  You said that they (GS) are now in the same bus as the rest of us.  I think this is a good thing because the bitcoin rules are transparent and just: the blockchain doesn't care if you're a Goldman elite or a Chinese factory worker.  

I supposed you may be right, Satoshi may not have intended for bitcoin to be a libertarians wet dream, but it sure picked up a lot of steam from that movement.

Having GS move into the arena is both good and bad.

Like I said, GS brings with it a lot of lobbying power, so if some lawmakers are chomping at the bit to throw down some regulatory actions, the GS lobbyists kick down the door to their office and make it rain with $1000 bills.

On the other hand, we all know the CDO and derivative disasters that Goldman brewed prior and during the financial crisis. Keep in mind that they did this is a highly regulated market. Who knows what kind of craziness Goldman can unleash on a completely unregulated market.

visaco thanks for sharing the big day of bitcoin with us. Soon many other big power like Goldman Sachs shall believe in the utmost power of bitcoins. Bitcoin prices are going to skyrocket further with these good news so guys keep your hands on bitcoins to earn huge wealth.

Right. No Circle for me, then.

I had noticed the biased nature of Coindesk many weeks ago and have posted here multiple times about it. Just check their coverage on the China issue.

It's ploy by Goldman Sachs to figure out away to control bitcoin or take it down. Just like JP Morgan is doing by filing patents for digital currency wallets, if their patent is accepted they could turn around and start suing everyone who has a wallet under the patent law.

When you see people who are associated to the banksters getting into bitcoin it's not a good thing! :)

A company that now has links with Accel, Cisco Systems, Wal-mart, and (slightly more tangentially) Facebook?

Is your data safe with this company (real identity, public keys, purchases)? I'm sure they'll promise to treat customer data with the greatest confidentiality and respect. I doubt that promise will be worth alot.

I will be taking care when using any merchant that uses Circle for payments. And that includes the option of deciding against using that merchant at all.

Bad move

I have met David from http://Spelunk.in and he is regular guy.  He's into the SCA (http://www.sca.org/).  Don't really follow Spelunk.in much though.