There are no Venezuelan exchanges worth bothering with. Venezuelan volumes on Localbitcoins are the easiest accessible metric. Volume last week was 1100 BTC. That's nothing.

Venezuela has zero effect on prices. It being transformed by the power of crypto is a story rolled out by Bitcoin fans to make themselves feel more special.

https://twitter.com/mweinbachxda/status/1088102644386881537?s=21

https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s10-will-hand-cryptocurrency-massive-boost-2019-3649742

Who knows whether this is the real deal or not but there've certainly been enough rumbles about this over time.

I presume there must be some sort of secure element in there. Going on their track record of rapidly getting bored of updating their products, have they truly thought this through? This isn't just another shitty app. There might be a lot of user money on the line.

Amazon is not 'Amazon' everywhere. It launched in Australia a year or so ago and so far it's been something of a damp squib. I believe in Japan they're within a few per cent market share of each other.

Many countries have an internet filled with brands that none of us would recognise in the slightest. Just because it dominates us does not mean that's the same everywhere.

https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/cboebzx/2019/34-84988.pdf

Official toast, baby. Van Eck have withdrawn their application.

Possibly the least surprising development in recent times. It's going to be a long, long, long time before there is a yes.

Obviously I don't mean strip mining in the literal sense. I do mean opening the door to operators who'll come in and milk things as intensely as possible and then bugger off having contributed nothing to the jurisdiction that lured them there other than exploiting the subsidies paid for by the little people.

I don't think some local governments are realising how hungry, fleeting and predatory mining operations are. It's not like building an ongoing business that's going to settle in and thrive. They're more like locusts who'll move on once everything's been consumed.

If they're OK with that from the off then cool. I'm not sure they are.

Other than tweeting 'I like whoeverpaysmecoin' can you point us to one actual piece of progress he has contributed to cryptocurrency? Has he solved a problem? Has he invented anything? Has he developed anything himself?

He's done a bit of mining, endorsed that hopeless wallet and talks a good game. That's rather far from indispensable.

I don't mind him. I can't believe anyone would base any of their life choices on any of his influence.

Fascinating stuff.

Fostering stuff like this must be very tempting to smaller and hungrier economies. I do wonder how willing they'd be to make their populations subsidise it as is hinted at the end of the article. There's a possibility of miners treating it rather like strip mining - turn up, drain the local economy of as many benefits they can squeeze out of it in the name of 'the future' and then leave behind a load of waste and layoffs when they get a better offer.

And it seems a bit batty of the locals to attempt to go up against Bitfury, let alone all the other biggies.

I believe a price of $0 for 18 months would mean we'd reached the point of no return.

Bitcoin doesn't care what price it is. It doesn't care what one of its users has paid for it. Just like mining, if it breaks someone there'll be someone along to take their place at a lower price level.

A BIS source is going to be as hopelessly fudtastic as Nouriel Roubini after his Yobit account's been hacked.

I remember Greg Maxwell celebrating the fact that a block's fees outweighed the block reward for the first time during the height of Bitmain's probable spamming. It certainly sucked for us but it did prove it was possible.

Luckily we'll be dead or in nappies before this becomes a major problem. I am curious to see how it's going to pan out. If I'd been designing BTC I would've kept an eternal tail emission but you're not allowed to say such things.

He should've established himself as some sort of crypto authority beyond whatever previous fame he had before becoming the travelling circus he is today. As far as I can tell he has created and contributed nothing tangible to this area. He has made a lot of noise and done a great deal of shilling that has achieved absolutely nothing beyond lining his pockets a bit.

He didn't even know Bitcoin has had two halvings.

I grew up in a barrel full of faeces chained to the stretches of Ganges river bank they burn corpses on.

Look at me now.

I wonder how it would play out if this was looking like a real possibility. The most vigilant people are becoming increasingly obscure.

The big willies swinging around must surely know the core value proposition evaporates the moment it's irrevocably hijacked. The mindless traders won't care as long as the dollars keep pouring in. We can clearly see that no one cares about this in altland. 51% attacks don't seem to phase anyone.

Is there enough collective greed and blindness to barely acknowledge it when it happens? Will it become yet another zombie market propped up by the unwillingness to admit what it is at heart? Is BTC separate enough for it not to be allowed to happen?

Let's hope we never find out.

I well and truly can't believe they'd leave that possibility open before going off on holiday.

And if by some bizarre circumstance it did pass by default, if I were that application team I wouldn't do anything until the adults had come home and confirmed it was allowed to exist. Hundreds of customers pouring in only to be told to go away again a few weeks later would not be a good look.

Why do you need to buy with Paypal? Can you not send it to a bank account? If you don't have a bank account can't you send it to someone who does have one? If you do that the world is your oyster with massively reduced premiums.

Paypal is certifiable cancer to any BTC seller who will price accordingly, if at all.

Sounds fun but it won't make much difference to anyone or anything. Bic Camera which is a big electronics retailer in Japan has accepted BTC payment for ages. You don't hear much about that. As ever merchant adoption is great for existing users. It does zero to attract new ones for assimilation.

Since you still have the key you'll be absolutely fine. If you can't get another phone use Winauth, which allows you to use multiple 2FA services, on your computer, feed in the key and your code will restore the 2FA through that instead.

We now have the luxury of not giving the slightest fuck about China. May it continue for ever and ever and ever.

Exchanges are now borderline impossible for Chinese folk to access. It's all P2P and OTC.

It's a lot easier to say no than some minion saying yes only for it to be rescinded the moment the heavyweights return. I presume they'll have left instructions while they go and do some bartending to keep the rent man away.

I wonder if the applicants have any legal basis to moan about this. They're effectively not getting the service they've spent a great deal of money pursuing. I'll guess not.

What I've found deeply pathetic about the 'code is law' crew is that they are completely at the mercy of other humans who decide whether something is law or not.

You can have all the wanky tech you like. It's 100% meaningless if lawmakers and legal profession choose to ignore it.

Hello, unpleasant bratty person.

Please point us towards these cheaper Ebay coins. Never in my life have I seen a Casascius cheaper on Ebay compared to here. This joint is always cheaper by a lengthy way.