Bitcoin Forum

I just find this very interesting that the banks are all of the sudden launching a service like this to "compete with paypal" right about the time BitCoin is just starting to get big.

I don't believe in coincidences - the big boys are afraid of our little p2p network. ;>

check it:

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2011/05/26/2011-05-26_cashin_in_on_transfers_banks_venture_lets_you_send__by_email_phone.html

Note that the P2P there refers to person-to-person. Basically yet another paypal/dwolla/...

How are they going to get around all the KYC BS they have set-up to stop competition?

Talk about transparent, this technology has been available for 15 years and they just decide to do it now?

I suppose it just funny money they are playing with so who cares what they do with it?  ;)

Edit: on the plus side it should make it easier for people to escape the other system into bitcoin ... just a click away.

Seems like Banks are trying to play catch-up to Paypal.  In future maybe catch-up to Bitcoin.

How is the system they are proposing anything at all like Bitcoin?

not the mining side of it, but they are trying to come up with a system where individuals can digitally with computer or cell phone - send money back and forth directly to each other using a set number like a phone number,

"You will soon be able to pay your friend back for dinner or give your kid $100 by simply logging in to your bank account and entering their name and phone number. No cash, check, PayPal or silly app required."


this does not sound familar at all to you?

Lol we've had this for years. 1) It's called setting up payees in your internet banking software. 2) Use the bank's mobile website when out and about. Why is this news?

Venmo.

That is all.

Enemy tactical capability still limited to copycat.

Silly app indeed. What do you call it when you use an interface to initiate some sort of action? If that's not an application what the hell is it? Nothing like the validation you get when the bastards copy your work.

Bring it on fellas. A few thousand hacks, poor customer service, delays in movement of money, and investigation of fraud should soften them up for transactions using Bitcoin instead.

Gentlemen, start your IDEs, rev up your compilers, contact friendly hosting services, and show these wannabes how it's done.

haha ... hell yeah! ;>

Fantastic!  Hopefully this makes it easier to send money that I put in the bank to MtGox so I can buy bitcoin with it.  

It doesnt kill bitcoin it kills paypal and western union (and maybe dwolla)

 :)

As with Google's phone payments, we must consider this as both a threat an an opportunity.

With a web-of-trust system, it will now be easy for Americans to exchange USD for BTC.

What if the banks take a hostile position to the vendor of Bitcoins?

That is NOTHING close to bitcoin..

I don't see how this is anything like bitcoin.
The 'official' currency/economic systems are broken at the core, just another way to transfer these funds in a broken system doesn't fix the system or compete with an actual good system.

it looks like they are borrowing concept from LiqPay service run by Ukranian Privat Bank. Liqpay has great concept but very poor execution.
Also a while ago I heard on the news that Visa is in the works allowing p2p easy transfers between Vasa's card holders

I don't think Bitcoin has anything to worry about just yet

It is not p2p if it goes through visa first.

You are correct, my bad on poorly chosen term. They won't do decentralized ever :)

No mention of fees... I guess it will be free, like Bitcoin!

I've heard banking in the USA is even more backwards than elsewhere; maybe it's news there?

That still requires a paper check unless it's the same bank.

Really? No - not in my country. It resolves electronically overnight for the same bank and 2-3 days for inter-bank transfers. The funds cleared as soon as they arrive. Paper cheques here still take 5 working days to clear unless they have either CASH or WAGES written on them.
Methinks the banks like to keep the money in transit to earn a sliver of interest on the way through. We get near instantaneous transfer when we pay via swipe bank-cards (not credit cards) at retailers.

FFS, why do they need to come up with more incompatible propitiatory crap?

why don't they just adopt interac so we can have a simple sane system across most of the continent?

Bitcoin is a currency on its own. This is yet another layer on top of fiat. Nothing to see here, move along.

the current American financial system can and will never be decentralized or capture the beauty of BitCoin

but it does seem to me to be somewhat of an attempt to deflect or distract if not compete with BitCoin


it is certainly not a threat to BitCoin and I never implied that but you cant doubt  the fact that it is an interesting thing to see come out as BitCoin is getting so popular...


You always hear BitCoin is competition to paypal

well they said the same thing clearXchange is competition to paypal

therefore clearXchange is competition to BitCoin ;>

and although we here all know and agree when you get down to it this clearXchange is nothing like BitCoin, but if you look through the eyes of Average Joe American citizen who just got the internet for the first time a year ago and thinks that google is the internet

to that person clearXchange looks a lot like BitCoin and its coming from a name they know and trust.

----

I am sorry but I love to play the devils advocate and fire up discussions
and I don't believe in coincidences

thanks for all your input!
cheers!

Yes.  It sounds like online banking.  It doesn't sound like Bitcoin.

oh stop being like that

you can refute this all you want, but the truth is if you pitch BitCoin to my parents (average middle class americans in their 50's)
and then you pitch clearXchange to them, they are going to think they are the same exact thing

we need to all realize that for BitCoin to REALLY CATCH ON as a viable currency that NORMAL EVERYDAY PEOPLE are going to use we need to come off our high geeky horses and get real. This BitCoin thing is an amazing opportunity for all of us to make money, it has been great to me I am not going to lie but for it to really go to the next step we have got to bring it to the masses and your attitude (which I see every single day on these forums) is not the attitude that is going to make this work.

It would have to be a pretty bad explanation. You can have a bitcoin. Can you have a ClearXchange?

Any complete, honest explanation of Bitcoin will mention the fact that a Bitcoin is not a dollar.

Aside from that you have yo log into your bank and the recipient has to be known to the bank (at least in some sense). At best normal banking gets a little easier.

ok, I guess I am just completely insane. Sorry about that.

let me just note that when I am comparing BitCoin to clearXchange I am only comparing it as a service to send and receive funds.

I don't know where you live, but I live in a tiny town in upstate new york, USA


You could explain BitCoin perfectly and explain clearXchange perfectly

and people are probably going to think not only do they sound like two brands of the same type of service they are going to go with clearXchange because it is connected to names they know and trust.

......................

BitCoin is a service is to send and receive funds digitally
clearXchange is a service to send and receive funds digitally
they are both "NEW" alternatives to paypal

how can you sit there and try and tell me they are nothing alike? The bankers see clearXchange as competition to bitcoin, I guarantee it.

please do not waste any more of your breath telling me that the two are not at all alike and act like I am nuts for starting this topic, the fact of the matter is what?

do we not want BitCoin to grow as a service to accept and send payments? is this not the future of BitCoin?

are these banks not launching this clearXchange as a service to accept and send payments?

Bitcoin does not need the US banking market ... in fact it needs to engage with US banking like it needs a hole in the head .... the US system is a dinosaur kludge built on top of a paper currency that was once backed by gold. It's dying, get out while you still can before its grasping hands drag you down with it.

Edit:Immune Bitcoin is currency that is growing in value ... is clearXchanged the same thing as that .... explain that to anyone old, young or otherwise ... it is a new money and they'll "get it".

hahah

see the funny thing is I agree with all of you

BitCoin does not need the US banking market
thats what is great about it


but you have to see the comparison I am drawing between what the corporate banking system is trying to do by launching this clearXchange system and what we are doing with BitCoin

no it cant compete of course but this is their version of it, this is their competitive product for our internet commerce model. This is their attempt to accommodate current customers who would be swayed away into the BitCoin system.

again I don't believe in coincidences
and this is all I am saying
this clearXchange is no accident


I am done arguing, I love you all.

Shut up, I agree with you!

No, you shut up, I agree with you!

;D

Guy's, he's just saying that at first glance, the average schmuck isn't going to see any benefit to bitcoin when the bank they've been doing business with offers clearXchange. They're completely wrong of course, we all know that those banks are fucking them over in any number of ways, but you can't cure stupid.

Banks move very slowly with any new development. What you see now in the news has no relation to the recent Bitcoin spike. I'd guess the service they're coming out now has been in talks and planning for at least a year - all their higher ups must agree on the protocol, make sure legal is in tact, adjust accounting processes, QA, marketing planning, infrastructure, HR, etc, etc. I remember at one [big] bank were I did web consulting few VPs took few weeks to decide which color for menu buttons to use on a new sub website of theirs, given they've had limited amount of official bank's colors :)

Online transactions is what they've missed and they want in. Paypal is their primary competitor atm.

That's fair.
For the straightforward transferal of funds, this Clearxchange might well be better than Bitcoin for many users.  It currently offers a higher degree of certainty.
It would be useful for your parents to get to used to e-banking in any form.

We should continue to market Bitcoin to those who profit from using it.  International trade and Internet trade are, imho, where Bitcoin shines.
This could be an excellent tool for a distributed Bitcoin exchange.

The possibility of making a profit is not why I participate.  There are other high risk investments that I might participate in that would likely be as lucrative.  Smuggling for example.  I participate because of what a successful Bitcoin would result in for the society that I live within.  It's a semi-passive revolutionary act to transact in this fashion, do you not realize that?  My parents would have.

It will make it easier to buy bitcoin if there's a clearexchange to bitcoin trader bypassing all the paypal crap and wire fees..

 :)

We can HACK any meme.

We will infiltrate any challenger :)

Here's a factor that we may not have considered.

Perhaps they'll all sue each other to death (http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2011/05/google-wallet-spurs-trade-secrets-lawsuit-from-paypal.ars), while Bitcoin climbs upon their bloody corpses.  ;D

Here's an example of what we can expect from ClearXChange:

http://consumerist.com/2011/05/chase-quickpay-decides-your-rent-payment-is-fraud-locks-down-accounts.html

Yes, the centralised control and surveillance of your wallet, account, money is the archilles heel of all these systems ... no matter how "convenient" they appear. Bitcoin does most of this already as beta AND it is largely under your control.

What really counts is "We got complaints for our service so we renamed it!".

Bitcoiners could add fluff protection features like, I'm going to China soon, I may log in from there, do not trigger fraud prevention.

People have no conception of what #HardToBreak means in cryptography or long block chains. They like protection features that still have some pointless physical principle attached. They are never going to accept the idea that physical barriers have no meaning and are irrelevant to bitcoin.

So humor them. And since the risk is nearly non-existent, you can promise all sorts of fancy features you'll never actually need to implement that banks can't compete with.

"Is my cat protected from asteroids?"

"Yes it is."

"Thank you."

necrothead, sorry, but this probably isn't worth of a new post.


ClearXChange has launched:

 - http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wells-fargo-launches-simplified-person-to-person-money-transfer-service-nationwide-2012-05-24
 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yc1XC98mbc

"Can Dwolla compete?"

 - http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/clearxchange-vs-dwolla-revisited

i have a chase bank account and wellsfargo bank account but i don't see any clearxchange services in my online banking menu

Great article and, IMHO, bodes well for Bitcoin.

~Bruno~

There has been a similar service in Canada since 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interac_e-Transfer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interac_e-Transfer) All this shows is how far behind the US banks are when compared to their counterparts in other countries. This has little to do with Bitcoin.

Its great that the banks do improve, still, no privacy.

clearXchange, where have I seen a name that looks familiar...
cryptoXchange.

I think the banks are afraid of bitcoin.  This only means better service and power for consumers.

simply put, its a wire transfer between banks... just alot faster

No, not really. This isn't the first attempt at alternative money transfer systems.  Paypal used to have competitors before eBay basically locked in their vertical monopoly.