Bitcoin Forum

Just a note:  A top-level goldman-sachs exec is now part of the board of the Bitcoin startup circle.

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

That is good news and a great find!

Not sure if this is a good news (read the article) or a bad news (check comments to the original article)
Anyway,circle is supposed to be a very good service, well planned and with the necessary funds, not the same half baked crap.

This is excellent news. When the US gets really serious about bitcoin (2014?), we will see $2000 to $3000 per coin very easily.

Time to create subprimecoin ;)

Already happened...it's called Ripple :D

Yeah, when you think about it...XRP vs XPM, lol

How long until it needs a bailout?   :D

You think that this is a positive news? I don't think so. Goldman is trying to destroy Bitcoin, from the inside.  ???

More likely, they did their homework and realize that there's money to be made. Yes, there will be a lot of revenue to be had before all the old "bad" money is converted into "good" Bitcoin money. They're also hastening their own demise if they don't switch over as well.

Why would anybody want/need approval from Goldman Sachs ... haven't they overtly subverted the US legislative system and destroyed vast tracts of the economy in their wanton lust for power over others and insanely greedy, short-sighted financial rapings?

Yes, let's welcome the scourge of the planet to bitcoin .... wtf?

Ripple is all well and good (apart from their premined coins) until we have a systemic collapse. A systemic collapse would make default ripple through Ripple just like a malignant cancer spreads to every crevice of a body, you cannot finance development with anything except innovation.

Totally agree with this, if there is money to be made why stay behind and leave others do what they can do?
It was an obvious choice imho

Because Goldman is good, not morally good of course, but good at what they do. They saw the subprime crisis coming and was able to make billions by trading against the market. Many of us believe that a systematic crisis will eventually befall on the old system, but if anyone is able to time it and trade to profit from it, it's probably GS.

Ripple is thankfully ... dead in the water.

Yep, they've gotta wake up sometime, just like everyone else. We're not unique in our ability to fathom the game-changing nature of the satoshi-model cryptocurrencies, even if the big firms see it only as a potential disruptive change right now. So moves like this can be interpreted as both acknowledgment of the potential as well as the unfurling of the infamous vampire squid tenticles.

I think it's important to recognise why this angle is being used. Likely the data mining aspect IMO. And so I'm unlikely to be using Circle services, except under circumstances where my identity is protected. Why jump from the intrusiveness of card processors straight into the arms of people with the same underlying connections (and the connections are probably not so indirect, Goldman Sachs probably has just as much representation of one kind or another at VISA and Mastercard as they do with NSA et al).

This is a very good point.  GS's are good at one thing - making money!  If they are getting involved, I suspect it's because they know exactly what they are doing, and have every intention of profiting.

Wouldn't it better to welcome the people that are morally good AND good at making money?

If anyone is able to corrupt Bitcoin to the core it is Goldman Sachs and their fellow travellers ... Silk Road will look tame by comparison ... these guys are bad news on so many levels.

Edit: it should be a good test of Bitcoin's trust no-one properties ... ;)

Exactly.  Wouldn't trust GS - they are the kiss of death.

Hey guys, this is not good or bad news, it is just a trivial bulletin...

A Goldman Sachs board member (director) joints the board of "Circle Internet Financial",
a startup company who offers simple payment services for businesses and consumers.

No big deal... Actually, I don't see this to be of great help to the bitcoin community,
She probably just want to learn more about bitcoins by being on the board,
rather than to help the new start-up  :-[

I am confident it can't kill Bitcoin, so if it's to do anything it will be for the positive, or futile.

And we can't stop anyone from getting involved either, so the best thing to do is to use GS as an indicator.

Exactly. She is there to learn on behalf of GS, so they don't get lost behind with this bitcoin thing.

If you believe GS can just destroy bitcoin at a whim, I really don't why you are invested in such a flimsy idea as bitcoin ;)

Precisely. GS cannot destroy Bitcoin, and I am sure they are going to be profiting wildly from it. However, GS has the power to influence the shape of government response/legislation, and the more they are invested, the more they have an incentive to do so.

In what way they will want to influence the legislation of Bitcoin remains to be seen. But we know that regulation cannot stop Bitcoin. However, legislation can be a tool to affect short-term price movements creating good buy/sell opportunities.

Just to be clear, I accept that all of the usual bad actors in the legacy financial world will be involved with Bitcoin at some point. This however doesn't mean that I'll be running to them to manage my Bitcoins in any way. Shouldn't be a problem for me personally, the only real tragedy will be the clueless newbies who see the legacy "bridge" as the only safe way to use Bitcoin.

I can't help those people, they were the same ones who no doubt yelled "ponzi" when they first read about Bitcoin in the first place, and in a way, they deserve to pay for their ignorance.

Well, GS will certainly be trying their best to have some say in BTC going forward now, because there is money to be made in it.  They have their hands in everything all the way up...

How much have they invested to date? One board member ....

Certainly interesting to see if they really invest in bitcoin in  a meaningful way.

IMO - we need retailers onboard before Wall St invests.  There needs to be a viable use for BTC, outside just investment banking.  These guys are used to trading shares for the biggest consumer driven companies in the world.  I think we need to see a deeper consumer base that uses BTC for online transactions before we'll get much investment depth from Wall St.

I read an article ages ago, saying that workers in Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have been trading bitcoins very early on in mid 2012. Are they trading privately or for the bank? I don't know... but both banks should have known about bitcoins from the very beginning. My guess is they are still trading bitcoins now with a minute fraction of their funds on hand, but already enough to dictate bitcoins prices to some degree.

Original article (news back in mid 2012):
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/01/traders-bitcoin-idUSL6E8ET5K620120401

"Workers at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in London and New York have been visiting online Bitcoin exchanges as often as 30 times a day, according to documents seen by Reuters"

Yes, I agree! For bitcoins to grow organically, we need to be able to buy a wider range of goods, from more online retailers to create a sustainable transactional demand for bitcoins.