I mentioned this in an earlier post, but merchants aren't the issue. They aren't going to want to accept cryptos while there's so much volatility and all their expenses are in fiat.

In order to increase the ability for people to actually use cryptos, you either have to have payment processors be able to accept cryptos and convert them so that merchants receive fiat, or the conversion has to happen at the consumer level.

The latter is probably more likely since people who already own cryptos are willing to take the volatility risk and it can be more of a grassroots effort rather than trying to get an institution on board. Services like 10x or Centra are the solution since they allow you to pay for every day goods using crypto.

The signature code for Jr. Members is too long to fit within our character allowance. Can you please provide me with the proper code?

Are the different trading strategies expected to have their own caps?

For instance, if there is an algorithm that is working well, is it possible for a token holder to be locked out because the opportunity is fully invested?

I want to know what kind of returns they've specifically generated in the past. Listing operating partners is nice, but I need to know how successful their projects have been and what kind of strategies they specifically pursue.

There are a lot of different ways to invest in real estate, so I want to know what REAL will be focusing on. Are they taking development risk? Are they buying fully leased office properties in the CBD?

When you buy into this ICO, you're accessing their fund that invests in real estate. So questions about caps and such aren't as relevant. What you want to know about is the strategy and the teams track record investing with that same strategy.

If that checks out, you want to make sure there's good governance. This is very different than most other ICOs.

They are trying to raise money for a fund they will manage, so they should provide similar info to what would be expected if they were raising money through traditional channels. Otherwise, I have to assume they are trying to hide something.

Their LinkedIn profile doesn't tell me what I want to know. Do you have a link to their AMA?

It looks like all investments will be managed by your team. If that's correct, can you share some info on the teams performance track record?

Do you have more info on the type real estate projects you'll be targeting? What was provided seems kind of general. It would be helpful if you could provide something similar to what would be provided to potential investors if you were trying to raise money through traditional methods.

Assuming someone launches a real estate fund on your platform, token holders own a piece of the fund itself, not the underlying assets, correct?

Is it possible for someone to put an individual real estate property on your platform to be tokenized, or are you only allowing funds?

When you say you can immediately put excess cash into revenue generating partner funds, do you mean you would invest capital into a fund that someone launches on your platform?

Of your 16,000 current users, can you share any data on how they break out by industry? I would expect that manufacturers and retailers would need your services in very different ways, so it would be interesting to see who's currently using your software.

It seems like success is largely dependent on user adoption of the accounting software. Can you comment on your growth in that area to date and your plan going forward?

I just become a Junior Member so I thought it would be worth checking out some bounty programs. They usually offer different "stakes" based on activity criteria. I assume this just means the number of tokens you can receive, but I'm not really sure.

For instance, if a signature campaign offers 1 stake per week, is that just 1 token?

What would also help is the growth of services like 10x and Centra Tech. These allow people to use crypto currencies anywhere Visa and Mastercard are accepted.

Pricing has to be more stable before people will really start using it in their everyday lives. In order for it to become more stable, it needs wider adoption beyond speculators and traders.

So, it's really about educating people and sharing the real benefits of it as a currency. Right now people first hear about it due to its price movement, and while that's good for general awareness and can get people to make their first purchase, it does nothing to encourage real adoption. 

How am I mistaken? Someone has to take on the risk, so it's either Amazon or the 3rd party seller.

Amazon is willing to take on processing risk because they have security measures in place to minimize fraud and with millions of transactions per year, they can pretty accurately estimate what their loss percentage is and build it into their margins. You can't do that with exchange rate volatility.

It sounds like you're suggesting that Amazon would take on volatility so it's not an issue for merchants. If so, there's no way for Amazon to mitigate this like they can with risk of fraud. Even if Jeff Bezos personally thought Bitcoin is undervalued, it's not likely that all shareholders would agree.

The other option would be for Amazon to do conversions from BTC to fiat on the spot for each transaction. You eliminate volatility risk, but converting each transaction comes at an added cost.

What's more likely to happen first is for Visa/Mastercard to start allowing BTC at some point since that's how it works with other currencies. If someone wants to buy something on Amazon using a European credit card, the buyer pays with Euros and Amazon receives dollars. Visa/Mastercard takes on the currency risk, but they build in a favorable exchange rate to account for volatility. If you've ever bought something via credit card while traveling abroad, you can see this on your statement at the end of the month. If they were to do the same with BTC before it becomes a more stable currency, they'd have to provide a really poor exchange rate to account for the extreme volatility we see today.

Amazon acting as the middleman would be just as unlikely since they'd be taking on exchange rate risk.

There's very little upside for Amazon to do this and it comes with a lot of risk and complexity. If they were to start accepting, it would help Bitcoin more than it would help Amazon. Amazon is the largest retailer in the world, so they don't need to attract such a relatively small number of potential users.

The truth is, you've got to get lucky. Everyone can provide opinions on what they think are good long term holds, but in order to do well in the short term, you've got to have volatility work in your favor. Even if you're an experienced trader, it's impossible to do this with zero risk.

You could try doing arbitrage between exchanges, but it's getting tougher and you really need more than $100 to make it work.

Lol...I'm amazed the original article gained any traction at all. It had zero support for the claim and pretty clearly said it was pure speculation. Plus, anyone who really spends 5 minutes thinking about it should come to the conclusion that it just wouldn't make sense for Amazon to start accepting Bitcoin any time soon.

I agree about Auctus. Pension administration is a great use-case for the blockchain, but it's a market that'll be very difficult to enter. Not only are you dealing with corporate clients, but you have beneficiaries that are counting on their pensions and/or 401ks for their retirement. The optics of having a startup manage this process for you will make it a very tough sell.

I also know for a fact that one of the largest pension funds in the world is already exploring the blockchain for administration purposes. I don't know what their specific solution is, but I know that their risk/compliance department would have issue with utilizing a startup.

An important reason why Amazon won't be accepting Bitcoin anytime soon is because a lot of their sales come through 3rd party sellers.

So, even though Amazon is the sales platform, you're actually buying from an independent seller and Amazon is just handling the order processing (and sometimes fulfillment). This means that individual sellers would have to sign on to accept Bitcoin.

Just managing this process and dealing with all the complaints from sellers who aren't happy with the BTC/USD rate at the time of sale thinking that Amazon screwed them somehow would make this a nightmare for Amazon. Amazon only disburses money to sellers every two weeks, so you could have sellers who sold a product when BTC was at $4,500, but it's at $3,500 by the time it gets disbursed.

The technical implementation wouldn't be as easy as just adding another payment option, so I'd be willing to bet everything I have that they won't be accepting BTC anytime soon.

First, it's a sign that ICOs are raising too much money. Having celebrities like Mayweather promote your coin can't be cheap, so if companies are able to afford this, they've raised MUCH more than they need to actually launch their business.

It'll also catch the attention of regulators and put more pressure on them to regulate the market.