Bitcoin will probably go sideways the next 24 hours, as people seem to be buying the fake bidwalls that have been put forward. I wonder what would happen if one whale gets out there with a 20-30k wall. We'll probably crash back to 330 in no time.

Yay back to centralization  

Watch their conference. They are basically say bitcoin will fail and the non-mining coins will be far superior. Also that the 10 minute block timer for bitcoin is too slow. Regulations will crush it.

http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/32nd-annual-monetary-conference-panel-1

RIPPLE/FIDOR INTEGRATION GOES AHEAD

13 NOVEMBER, 2014

Despite speculation to the contrary, Fidor Bank has finally begun actual Ripple integration.

The German bank has published information on its website detailing the method by which users can send money directly from their Fidor accounts across the world via Ripple. Fidor calls the service safe, cheap and instant.

SnapSwap named as primary Fidor gateway

At the moment users cannot send funds to other banks because Fidor is the only bank to have actually integrated Ripple. This means that Fidor funds must be sent via gateways which Fidor trusts. Currently the only gateway Fidor has decided to trust is SnapSwap. If a user wanted to send funds to a friend in the USA, then they would have to do so by sending those funds from their Fidor account as SnapSwap IOUs. The recipient could then trade those IOUs for another currency on the network, or cash out using their SnapSwap account. Holders of SnapSwap IOUs could theoretically send funds to a Fidor account, but in order to do so and cash out their own funds they would need to control the account, and that would mean being a German resident.

Fees and remittance

Fidor seems to be primarily marketing the service towards the remittance market. Remittance is currently a desirable area to move into because mass immigration to Western countries has created a huge surge in people wanting to send money home. Western Union has traditionally satisfied this demand but cryptocurrency companies with their low fees and rapid clearing abilities are looking to move in.

The only problem with trying to tap this customer base via Ripple and Fidor is that remittance normally travels from the developed world to the developing. However, Fidor is a German bank and SnapSwap caters to the US and Western Europe. None of these are remittance destinations, so we have to wonder how recipients in the developing world will get their funds at the other end without the relevant infrastructure in place. The service will only begin to make a real impact once there are Fidor equivalents at the other end.

Some would argue that Ripple Latam could cover a large proportion of remittance. However that only makes sense when concerning SnapSwap and Latin American immigrants with US residency. Germany does not have many Latin American immigrants, so where does that leave Fidor? Until the day that there are reliable gateways in Turkey, India and China the service will not live up to its full potential.

Fees for international transfers from Fidor to Ripple are 0.49 Euros no matter the amount of currency sent. Compared with Fidor’s traditional transfer fee of 5 euros this represents a good deal for the customer. But customers must take into account any further fees that may be levied for getting their money out of Ripple at the other end.

Using the service

A user must know the Ripple address of the recipient and enter it into the Fidor online form. They must also enter their account and IBAN number alongside an amount to be sent. Currently users can only send Euros but Fidor plans to change this in future. Until then, the recipient can convert the currency via Ripple. Once a transfer has been processed it cannot be revoked.

Ripple/Fidor integration represents an important step in the evolution of cryptocurrency since it is the first time that an actual bank has begun using cryptocurrency technology in a live context. If the service is a success it should spur other banks into adopting Ripple as a transfer method and open up the network.

Anyone else kind of happy that the price drop, just to buy some more coins to hold?

"Theory" is what I'd call it. Of course, every theory is -well- unfalsifiable, until it's proven otherwise; which in this case it isn't; at least as far as I can recall. The Soviet Union paradigm won't be able to justify an error, because it never really got to establish a decent interpretation whatsoever.

Of course, there are certain individuals among us, that say that economics is not a science at all... so in this case, you're right!

About TAS Group

TAS Group is based in Italy and listed on the Italian Stock Exchange. The company specializes in payments solutions and Electronic Resource Planning (ERS) systems, catering primarily to the southern European market, but with global operations. TAS Group helps businesses integrate with systems like SEPA and SWIFT in a cost effective manner.

They are also the biggest credit and debit card management company in Italy and operate subsidiaries in France, Switzerland, the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula. TAS Group manages around 60 million payments cards of various types across 6 countries including the US and Brazil. They currently support over 150 corporate clients and are the biggest payments carrier in Europe. Their clients include major European financial corporations, including central banks and Fortune 500 brokerage firms. The company also designs ERS for ministries of the Italian government.

TAS Group and Ripple

The company will begin using Ripple for real time cross-border funds settlement and marketing the service to its portfolio of financial service business and liquidity provider clients.

TAS Group has decided to go with Ripple due to its 5 second transaction settlements, zero reserve requirements, lack of failure risk and full compliance visibility. This compares with the two-day settlement speed, huge reserve requirements, multiple failure points, and lack of compliance visibility associated with traditional systems.

The overall aim is to reduce costs for financial service businesses while providing greater opportunities for risk assessment and fraud prevention. The company will be operating a TAS Network Gateway to make it ‘easy and immediate to access Ripple world’.

What does this mean for Ripple?

The news could be potentially huge for Ripple adoption. Since TAS Group already deals with multiple businesses and financial technology systems, having them push Ripple onto their client base will mean that Ripple Labs does not have to approach these companies individually and try to sell them on the concept. With TAS Group on board, a likely scenario is that payments companies, hedge funds and banks will be using Ripple without even having to know about it, they will simply continue using TAS Group services with Ripple operating under the hood.

A potentially massive amount of volume could enter the Ripple ecosystem as a result of TAS Group adoption. If every card and bank in Italy, and further afield, begins being processed through Ripple then the network effects should be enormous. If TAS Group can show that Ripple adoption leads to lower fees and better compliance then there is little doubt that other large fintech processors will soon follow in order to stay competitive.

Hopefully Ripple is able to cope under the network load, if so then Ripple supporters could see their vision of a financial world powered by the protocol coming into focus much quicker than they had imagined.

Keep dreaming!

We've been soaking up these dumps like they ain't shit.

Even if they put 1% in, still $30million. Pretty large amount

Yeah, they will have a total of 2 subscribers.. Walsoraj and Mah87.   

Occam's Razor: reconciliation with wife means abstinence from bct.

 

You're all f---ing dead and you don't even know it, yet. Calling it... we don't get higher than $395 on this rally and we may have already seen the top. Back down to the low, low 300s. The bears haven't even placed most of their reserved shorts on the market, yet. This is going to get ugly.