What do you think about the subject? Can you share some enlightening information for me?
The "can bitcoin become a global reserve currency" discussion has been had many times. It has simply taken other forms. Some believe governments should regulate and control assets like global reserve currencies. Others throughout history have said it is a bad idea for politicians to control the money printing machine. They say mints and other critical aspects of monetary policy and the economy should be independently owned and operated to prevent political conflict of interest. Perhaps in the future global reserve currencies will follow a similar format. Where they do not fall under the direct control of politicians. I certainly would not mind it. I wonder how others would feel. |
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In the tug-of-war between the United States regulators over control of crypto assets, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair has tripled-down on his stance that Ether and stablecoins are commodities.Stablecoins and Ether are commodities that should come under the purview of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, its chairman has again asserted at a recent Senate hearing. At the March 8 Senate Agricultural hearing, CFTC chair Rostin Behnam was asked by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand about the differing views held by the regulator and the Securities and Exchange Commission following the CFTC’s 2021 settlement with stablecoin issuer Tether. Behnam replied: “Notwithstanding a regulatory framework around stablecoins, they’re going to be commodities in my view.”
“It was clear to our enforcement team and the commission that Tether, a stablecoin, was a commodity,” he added. In the past, the CFTC has asserted that certain digital assets such as Ether, Bitcoin and Tether were commodities — such as in its lawsuit against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in mid-December. Twitter content linked: https://twitter.com/lawtoshi/status/1633581298957824000Asked what evidence the CFTC would put forward to win regulatory influence over Ether during the Senate hearing, Behnam said it “would not have allowed” Ether futures products to be listed on CFTC exchanges if it “did not feel strongly that it was a commodity asset,” adding: “We have litigation risk, we have agency credibility risk if we do something like that without serious legal defenses to support our argument that [the] asset is a commodity.” The comment has seemingly cemented Behnam's sometimes wavering opinion on the classification of Ether. During an invite-only event at Princeton University in November last year he said Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency that could be viewed as a commodity, leaving out Ether. Only a month before that, he suggested Ether could be viewed as a commodity too. Behnam’s most recent comments oppose a view held by SEC chair, Gary Gensler, who claimed in a Feb. 23 New York Magazine interview that “everything other than Bitcoin” is a security, a claim that was rebuffed by multiple crypto lawyers. The differing viewpoints of the market regulators could set the stage for a conflict as each vies for regulatory control of the crypto industry. In mid-Febuary, the SEC flexed its authority against stablecoin issuer Paxos saying it may sue the firm for violating investor protection laws alleging its Binance USD stablecoin is an unregistered security. Around the same time, the regulator similarly targeted Terraform Labs and called its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD Classic (USTC) a security, a move Delphi Labs general counsel, Gabriel Shapiro, said could be a “roadmap” for how the SEC could structure future suits against other stablecoin issuers. The SEC’s crypto clampdowns have seen pushback from the industry. Circle founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said he doesn’t believe “the SEC is the regulator for stablecoins,” saying they should be overseen by a banking regulator. https://cointelegraph.com/news/stablecoins-and-ether-are-going-to-be-commodities-reaffirms-cftc-chair .... It seems that the CFTC (central federal trade commission) has commented a reclassification of crypto assets whereby stablecoins and ether will be considered commodities. This may mean that they would not be regulated under the SEC (securities and exchange commission) which I think mainly handles securities. This recent trend dates back to the CEO of circle saying banking regulators should regulate crypto stablecoins, on february 23rd, 2023: https://bitcoinist.com/sec-shouldnt-regulate-crypto-stablecoins/. Many large banks around the world use stablecoins and crypto to conduct cross border transactions. Which might make it easier to regulate them under the banking industry and CFTC considering banks are already integrated into the business and implementation end of things. |
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WWE betting has been around for a long time.
Wager limits for that category is low. I think I have seen around $100 to $200 betting limits for WWE.
Which could mean that those with inside information, who know the outcomes of the wrestling bouts, would not bother with it.
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- Thailand is offering companies raising funds through initial coin offerings exemptions from income and value-added tax.
- The country has shown promise, with a recent report pegging the country as the nation with the highest global level of crypto adoption.
- However, it needs to compete with a recent Web 3 accelerator program launched by the Hong Kong.
Thailand will not charge companies raising capital through Initial Coin Offerings income and value-added tax as it looks for a slice of the Asian-driven bull run predicted by billionaire Cameron Winklevoss. Members of Thailand’s cabinet ruled that companies raising funds through “investment tokens” can also raise funds through debentures, Executive Committee member Rachada Dhnadirek told the Bangkok Post. Thai Government Foregoes Over $1 Billion With Tax WaiverUnder the new ruling, the Thai government will lose about $1 billion in taxes from about $3.7 billion raised through initial coin offerings over the next two years. It has not indicated whether companies must perform disclosures to the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission before running ICOs. Thailand has proven growingly attractive for crypto firms, competing directly with Asian counterparts Hong Kong and Singapore. According to The Bangkok Post, a tax software company Recap report revealed Thailand had gained 57 crypto companies and had the second-highest crypto ownership rate. Ownership grew despite a government that had banned crypto payments citing financial stability risks. According to Recap CEO Daniel Howitt, tightening crypto regulations will determine whether Thailand can be an Asian crypto hub. “Like many countries, Thailand is tightening its rules on the trading of crypto and advertising of digital assets, too. With stricter rules in place, it’ll be interesting to see whether this helps or hinders Bangkok’s place as a crypto hub in the coming months,” he told the Bangkok Post. Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission vowed to introduce greater investor protections by limiting celebrity advertising in the wake of the FTX collapse. It has yet to announce a new leader after the board reportedly declined to renew the term for the agency’s secretary-general, whose contract will expire at the end of April 2023 The Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau recently warned Thai citizens of cryptocurrency scams perpetrated through overseas exchanges. Can Thailand Compete With Hong Kong?Meanwhile, Hong Kong is capitalizing on Singapore’s tightening regulation caused by several high-profile crypto fallouts. Last year, Singapore’s Monetary Authority released consultation papers to propose tighter regulation for customer funds held on crypto exchanges. These consultations will likely be consummated to a large degree during the first half of 2023. Additionally, the city-state wants to impose banks’ cyber risk frameworks on crypto platforms. Singaporean authorities are still searching for Do Kwon, the co-founder of Singapore-based Terraform Labs, the company behind collapsed stablecoin TerraUSD. Singapore crypto exchanges Zipmex and Vauld filed for creditor protection in July 2022 after being stung by the TerraUSD meltdown. Vauld received an extension to March 24, 2023, to finalize its restructuring plan. On the other hand, Hong Kong has embraced the asset class, mitigating investor risk through knowledge tests and reasonable limits on crypto exposure. It has also received support from crypto mogul Justin Sun and several Chinese officials. If Thailand is to compete with Hong Kong, it will likely need significant investment. The Hong Kong government has committed $6.4 million annually to Web 3 firms. https://beincrypto.com/thailand-challenges-asian-counterparts-for-crypto-waiving-taxes/.... What was the moment when you realized crypto may have broken through to becoming big business? Under the new ruling, the Thai government will lose about $1 billion in taxes from about $3.7 billion raised through initial coin offerings over the next two years. It has not indicated whether companies must perform disclosures to the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission before running ICOs. Given current economic conditions, where many nations of the world are in desperate need of funding to offset rising deficits. Do we have a potential scenario for cryptocurrencies emerging as one of the primary go to options for financing future state held debt? Legalizing and taxing marijuana, legalizing and taxing gambling, legalizing and taxing prostitution. These have been the typical go to options for many states to boost tax revenues. Although they may be associated with higher incidence of violence and crime. Requiring greater funding for police and law enforcement, as well as regulatory agencies. Crypto by contrast could be a cleaner and more moral industry. It may also be quicker to startup, requiring less overhead and support from subsidies. Anyway, long story short. How do people feel about this. How do they see it going? |
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Silvergate could seek investments from others in the crypto industry.Failing crypto bank Silvergate is exploring ways to make a recovery with U.S. regulators, according to a report from Bloomberg on March 7. Officials have visited Silvergate HQBloomberg reported that Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) officials visited Silvergate’s California headquarters last week with authorization from the Federal Reserve. Silvergate has not yet decided how to handle its financial issues, which began last week. However, the crypto-friendly bank could seek investments from elsewhere in the cryptocurrency industry in order to regain liquidity, according to the report. Bloomberg also said that, in spite of the FDIC’s involvement, the bank may be able to make a recovery without further engagement with regulators. Neither Silvergate nor the FDIC have publicly commented on the matter. Bloomberg instead cited a number of sources who are familiar with the company. Why Silvergate is at risk of failureOn March 1, Silvergate submitted a filing to the SEC to report a delayed 10-K filing. That filing additionally revealed that Silvergate faces inquiries from regulators including the Department of Justice (DOJ). Those inquiries are likely related to Silvergate’s role in the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research last year, as reported in February. Silvergate also said in its filing that it is evaluating of its capacity to “continue as a going concern,” leading many to become concerned about its stability. The value of Silvergate shares (SI) rapidly declined in the days following its SEC filing. As of March 7, the stock is worth $5.21, down more than 61% from $13.53 on March 1. Several crypto companies have withdrawn from Silvergate’s services while others have reported minimal exposure to the firm. On the weekend, Silvergate announced that it would shut down its Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) while keeping other services open. The White House said on March 6 that it is aware of Silvergate’s situation. It noted that the bank is one of many struggling crypto firms but declined to make a specific comment. https://cryptoslate.com/failing-bank-silvergate-and-fdic-are-discussing-recovery-plans/ .... "Don't call it a comeback." (?) Would be interested to know if there was a prospective road for silvergate quickly rebuilding client trust and positive brand name recognition. Binance appears to have similar issues. Everyone who did major business with FTX appears to be under scrutiny at the moment. Some say the internet never forgets. How should financial establishments like silverage and binance go about encouraging people to forget their affiliation with FTX? Could they perhaps shift industries and try to do business in other sectors where no one has heard of them? Guilt by association being what it is. Is it fair to say, past associations with name like Bernie Madoff or Enron in past history, could be compared to a death sentence for those offering financial services? Has the public's attention span and memory shortened over time. To a point, where people won't remember FTX happened within a few short years? How do people envision an attempt at a silvergate reboot panning out? |
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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has taken to Twitter to share his thoughts on the state of the crypto industry in the United States, stating that the industry needs to rebuild trust through both utility and transparency. In a tweet on March 7, Garlinghouse said that the industry needs to move forward together, adding that this can only happen through transparency and utility. He cited companies like FTX and Terra as examples of firms that shattered trust in crypto. However, Garlinghouse also pointed out that the industry is facing significant headwinds, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declaring war on crypto. He criticized SEC Chair Gary Gensler's call for firms to register, saying that there is no infrastructure in place for a "registered token" to trade and no clarity on what these tokens are. The Ripple boss also called on regulators to regulate the industry properly, saying that many other G20 countries are already building frameworks and setting guidance. He cited the EU's markets in crypto-assets (MiCA) regulations as an example of what the US could do. As reported by U Today, Garlinghouse recently stated in an interview with Bloomberg that he expects a decision on the XRP lawsuit with the SEC to be made this year. The Ripple CEO emphasized the importance of the lawsuit, which could have far-reaching impacts on the entire cryptocurrency industry, and criticized the SEC's approach to crypto regulation. He also stated that the case was not really about Ripple or XRP but rather how the SEC was attacking the entire industry. The outcome of the lawsuit will set the stage for how crypto will be regulated in the U.S. and will be pivotal for the entire industry. https://u.today/ripple-ceo-says-crypto-industry-has-to-rebuild-trust.... It would be interesting to know whether most blame the crypto industry for negative fallout in 2022. Or whether most would hold a small number of bad actors responsible for cryptos big downturn. Is it perceived as an industry wide systemic fault. Or the actions of a few rogue individuals working alone, who may have made a few questionable decisions along the way. Prior to the 2008 economic crisis and the US real estate market crash. It was unthinkable that such a financial crisis could occur on american soil. Everyone was taken by surprise and few were prepared. I think the last big american economic crisis had occurred during the 1970s and was close to 40 years removed. There has been a major shakeup of social norms and prior precedents, concerning US finance. Bucking decades of previous positive trends. Given current economic conditions, is it fair to say that the #1 priority for most is searching for a viable exit strategy. Which would allow them to escape negative fallout associated with rising costs of living. Given our current and likely future obstacles, our environment appears to be one where rebuilding trust would be a difficult venture. Is there a likely scenario where a blueprint for this can be created. If our goal is to rebuild the public's faith and confidence in crypto, what would be our 1st step? |
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The trend isn't exclusive to financial platforms being encouraged to identify and track potential money laundering. Platforms like pornhub are increasingly being encouraged screen, track and moderate user content. Internet discussion groups are also being encouraged to keep a closer eye on what type of content is being actively published. And assume a stronger role in active moderation. Even stock brokers are being encouraged to track the activities of employees as seen in the gamestop / wallstreetbets case. Whatever the trend, it would appear to be a widespread movement encompassing a number of industries.
I think this level of regulation is only made possible through the internet. It was impossible for industries to be as coordinated within a pre internet era. Previously we had radio and telephone. But it was impossible to move large quantities of data electronically using those methods. The next evolution of the internet could be mainstream satellite modems and communications such as Elon Musk's starlink.
As technology evolves, society changes and adapts with it. While it would be nice to have long and deep discussions on those topics and the future implications. I think many have lost faith in the concept of science and technology improving their quality of life. We do not feel as if we're getting ahead. It might be an issue.
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'Kick the can down the road,' says KrugmanFeb. 8, 2013 Kicking the can down the road is a much-maligned strategy in today's politics. It suggests laziness and an unwillingness to do the tough, necessary work. But when it comes to the looming sequester--$1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts set to occur in three weeks--economist Paul Krugman says it's the best plan we have.
"The reality is, we should do nothing," Krugman said on The Last Word Thursday. "The best thing to do right now is to kick the can down the road. We should not be having any spending cuts right now...The sequester is not serving any useful purpose that could be served better by something else."https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/kick-the-can-down-the-road-says-krugman-msna18692 Paul Krugman is a legend. I've followed Krugman for more than 10 years. He has many interesting things to say. (Although I don't know if many agree with him.) His stance and message has always been direct and consistent. Yet many appear not to know who he is. They don't know Krugman is one of the leading architects and founding fathers of modern monetary theory. As well as many modernist ideology concerning finance, economics and money. The contrast between Milton Friedman and Paul Krugman is also an interesting one. |
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And the reason why some of them choose Mexico was because of its quality and low cost. These medical tourists are aware that it is risky to do to some parts of Mexico, but they still go there because they want to cut costs.
Is there any other reason why Americans go to Mexico for medical?
Purely cosmetic procedures like butt lifts and breast augmentation are another known reason for americans seeking medical services abroad. Dentistry is another known example. There is a potential for cross border business opportunities as well. Texans have travelled to mexico to buy cars, trucks and other equipment at low cost. Which they would haul into the united states to resell with a prick markup in a practice resembling arbitrage trading. Is one common practice, I have heard of. While it may not make news headlines often. For those who live near to the border and have easy access, it could be a way of life. |
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Increasing twitter's overall efficiency appears to be a primary goal for Elon Musk. He initially brought in many independent and famous programmers to analyze twitter's software and hardware architectures. By now he must have a good idea of how much overall bandwidth and computational capacity twitter's servers and hardware are capable of. This can be compared to electronic financial systems at paypal and other payment and merchant services.
If Elon succeeds in significantly increasing twitter's resource efficiency. He will have leftover extra bandwidth and computational capacity. Which he can dedicate towards other tasks. With the cost of internet server space being cost effective and affordable at the moment, it could be easier than ever to use services like AWS (amazon web services) to setup a financial hub.
As many have already stated Elon being a former paypal founder gives him a background of having connections and a good idea of what is needed to establish a financial network like paypal. Having twitter gives him brand name credibility and an existing userbase which he can draw from to give his finance start up a head start on the competition.
It also gives him a platform to setup potential future cooperation with DOGE and other crypto developers who he is already known to have a relationship with.
There are also potential business advantages which Elon Musk might offer to tesla, spacex, solarcity and his own business ventures. If his financial corporation can offer lower rates and other perks.
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The biggest and most common financial regrets people will have.
1. "I should have started investing and making financial plans, earlier."
2. "I wish I had taken more risks and tried more things, when I was younger."
There are some who say its bad to have a tattoo. "The tattoo will look bad, when you're old." There are also many who wish they had tried more things when they were young. Before their window of opportunity closed. Before they had kids who rely on them, where they have less time. Before they were in a position where it became much more difficult to start a business or try different methods to tap other revenue streams.
For those who profit with stocks, crypto and other assets as other means of income. The most common regret is not having started earlier. Time spent idle could translate to opportunities missed.
There are some who believe the biggest danger is taking a chance. They play it safe. Not realizing not taking risks, could be the biggest risk of all.
Please share what you believe to be the biggest risks in finance.
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What? How is that even possible, without destroying full blockchain verification?
Redundant transactions do not need to be recorded or reverified. There would be a set of conditions for redundant transactions, which would allow the data to be culled after a period of time had elapsed. There are no chargebacks or reversals in the transaction system. Which are some of the main reasons for long and detailed transaction chains being important. Once something has been verified for a period of time. It can be considered etched in stone. Which makes the record of it less important, as it will never be amended or revised. The old data can be archived on a separate chain, which would be considerably larger. While the smaller chain would be the one in active use for a leaner and more streamlined architecture. Crypto miners might also be tasked with the culling process which would function similar to current BTC rewards. Say there are 1,000 transactions in the chain preceding the current transaction. Do we really need 100% of those 1,000 transactions? Why don't we cull 900 out of 1,000 and keep only the last 100. With the raw data being archived in a big file chain. If this is done on every transaction branch, it might shrink the size of the chain by a factor of 90%. If the current bitcoin blockchain is 250 gigabytes, this might shrink it down to a far more manageable 25 gigabytes. |
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Soleimani explained that the “critical flaw” with Tornado Cash is that users cannot prove that they’re not associated with a criminal enterprise stealing or laundering crypto funds.A former Tornado Cash developer claims to be building a new crypto mixing service that aims to solve a “critical flaw” of the sanctioned crypto mixer — which he hopes will convince United States regulators to reconsider its position on privacy mixers. The code of a new Ethereum-based mixer, “Privacy Pools,” was launched on GitHub on March 5 by its creator, Ameen Soleimani. In a 22-part Twitter thread, Soleimani explained that the “critical flaw” with Tornado Cash is that users cannot prove that they’re not associated with North Korea’s Lazarus Group or any criminal enterprise for that matter. Twitter content: https://twitter.com/ameensol/status/1632083054272430080With Privacy Pools, however, Soleimani says that depositors and withdrawers can opt out of an anonymity set that contains an address associated with stolen or laundered funds. This feature of Privacy Pools is executed with zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, meaning that the privacy of the user is preserved: “Now, users have the option to help regulators isolate illicit funds, without revealing their entire transaction history [...] With privacy pools, just because someone deposits into the same smart contract as you, it doesn't mean they can also force you into sharing an anonymity set with them. It's your choice.” Soleimani provided a demonstration of how Privacy Pools is used on twitter: Twitter content: https://twitter.com/ameensol/status/1632089283354845184The developer hopes the solution will empower “the community to defend against hackers abusing the anonymity sets of honest users without requiring blanket regulation or sacrificing on crypto ideals.” While Privacy Pools is already live on Optimism, Soleimani noted that the first version of the privacy protocol is still in its “experimental” stage because the code isn’t complete and has not been audited, but he is “pretty close to having this ready.” To see the protocol progress further, Soleimani wants on-chain forensics platforms like Chainlaysis and TRM Labs to conduct tracebacks on deposits so that users of the privacy tool don’t have to manually create their own subset exclusion lists. In making the case for on-chain privacy protocols, Soleimani cited what he described as an “excellent” report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in Missouri that examined the trade-offs between on-chain privacy and regulation: “Their report proposes to achieve effective regulation by having Tornado Cash users provide receipts to an intermediary, thus revealing their entire transaction history to the intermediary, but still being able to have privacy with respect to other public blockchain users.” The developer hopes this can help “start a conversation” with U.S. regulators on how on-chain privacy can be preserved whilst restricting criminal activity through the use of ZK proofs. Soleimani’s attempt to create a crypto-friendly on-chain privacy solution comes after the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctioned ETH and USDC addresses linked to Tornado Cash on Aug. 8 in response to several alleged thefts by North Korea’s Lazarus Group, who were claimed to have routinely used the privacy mixer to preserve its anonymity. Shortly after the sanction on Aug. 10, Alexey Pertsev, the creator of Tornado Cash, was arrested by authorities in the Netherlands and is currently facing a series of money laundering charges. He remains behind bars and his next hearing will take place in late April. https://cointelegraph.com/news/tornado-cash-dev-says-sequel-to-crypto-mixer-aims-to-be-regulator-friendly .... A redesign and update to tornado cash intended to comply with feedback and criticism from regulators. It seems to include greater transparency. Along with improved implementation and coordination of whitelist versus blacklist networking to better isolate legitimate transactions from illegitimate ones. Given the nature of the internet to offer anonymizing services through proxies, VPNs and TOR. Could an anonymizing service offer better proof of authentication through not allowing end users to conduct tornado cash transactions through anonymizing services like proxy/VPN/TOR? Rather than allow anonymizing services, the end user IP address and region could be confirmed as not being anonymized before being one way hashed or obfuscated in some way. In this way, it could be easier to separate legitimate funds from illegitimate ones. Although given the rise of botnets, there certainly might be no shortage of supply of IP addresses for criminals to utilize towards executing their nefarious plans. Even without resorting to network anonymization. Perhaps captchas could be used to cut down on potential botnet traffic? Or perhaps my ideas are not the best.  Still, doesn't it seem as if there could be a better way to do this. |
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Amid the several downturns in the crypto market, including the Silvergate fallout and regulatory crackdown, the U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has unveiled its plans to launch a banking institution. This was revealed by Marco Santori, Kraken’s Chief Legal Officer, in a podcast with The Block. This update comes when the crypto industry is experiencing a downtrend due to negative news from Silvergate and several backlashes from regulators. Kraken To Launch Its Own BankMarco on the Scoop Podcast says a plan to launch the first industry-focused bank is coming. The chief legal officer added: Kraken Bank is very much on track to launch, very soon, We’re going to have those pens with the little ball chains. We’re going to order thousands of them and attach them to the desks of Wall Street banks everywhere. With our logo. The upcoming bank to be launched by Kraken has raised speculation among the community on whether a bank originating from the crypto sector can be trusted even after the crash of the once-known largest crypto exchange FTX. Its collapse has negatively affected the confidence in the nascent sector. The mismanage customer funds from the founder and the CEO, also known as Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), led to the exchange’s downfall. In addition, the Silvergate exchange network in the crypto industry has been compromised, as this financial institution questioned its capacity to continue operating; Santori said Kraken’s relationship with banks has the exchange talking with diverse “groups of banks around the world.” Adding that an increasing caution on banking around the crypto sector could hinder innovation within the ecosystem. “We’re returning to an era where banks are very cautious about what accounts they open,” said Santori while adding: Wall Street is going to be fine. Kraken and Coinbase are going to be okay. But for the guy or gal who has a new idea about how to provide infrastructure to the crypto economy, it’s going to be a really tough road over the next few years for them. No question. Kraken’s Recent Saga With The SECNotably, this news comes after Kraken’s recent conclusion with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Earlier this year, the SEC charged the crypto exchange with violating security laws via its staking service. The US regulator charged the Kraken crypto exchange subsidiaries, Payward Ventures Inc and Payward Trading Ltd, over the failure to register the crypto exchange staking-as-a-service program. However, months later, Kraken agreed with the SEC to pay a fine of $30 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties to cease the crypto asset staking program. Regarding the staking program, which is now shut down, Santori noted that staking was a small percentage of Kraken’s revenue. “It does, of course, affect pretty dramatically our product mix in the U.S.,” said Santori. The executive claimed that the SEC’s accomplishment in making the exchange shutdown its staking program will only push American customers who want staking services offshore to riskier exchanges. Santori concluded: It’s really indicative of a pretty unfortunate situation here stateside. We’ve got a regulatory environment that is essentially forcing users off to use offshore exchanges that will gladly accept their business with so little as a VPN. Meanwhile, the crypto market hasn’t reacted significantly to Kraken’s announcement of the upcoming crypto bank. The global cryptocurrency market capitalization has continued in a downtrend, down by nearly 1% in the last 24 hours, with a value of $1.073 trillion. https://bitcoinist.com/kraken-crypto-exchange-unveils-plan-to-launch-bank/.... It appears kraken may be willing to fill whatever vacuum of banking services is left in the wake of silvergate's departure from the market. If they're able to follow through with their plans, they should be able to service many of silvergate's prior clients. Without a market disadvantage of having a big hole in their balance sheet from FTX fallout. Many are fond of saying "you can't beat the house, they have all of the advantages". Banks and banking services definitely qualify as "the house". Under normal circumstances they trend towards being very profitable and low risk ventures. Kraken probably stands to make good money, if they are able to fill whatever void is left behind by silvergate's departure. Following is an interesting excerpt: The executive claimed that the SEC’s accomplishment in making the exchange shutdown its staking program will only push American customers who want staking services offshore to riskier exchanges. Santori concluded:
It’s really indicative of a pretty unfortunate situation here stateside. We’ve got a regulatory environment that is essentially forcing users off to use offshore exchanges that will gladly accept their business with so little as a VPN. Meanwhile, the crypto market hasn’t reacted significantly to Kraken’s announcement of the upcoming crypto bank. The global cryptocurrency market capitalization has continued in a downtrend, down by nearly 1% in the last 24 hours, with a value of $1.073 trillion.[/size] If the crypto sector is worth $1.073 trillion. A bank which can potentially profit even 1% of cryptos total market cap could potentially profit $10 billion. Potential profits being large numbers, I'm surprised more financial institutions aren't beating down the door to acqure silvergate's pie slice of the crypto world. Silvergate itself being a multi billion dollar enterprise, there's no guesswork or reinventing the wheel. All someone would have to do is replicate their business and raise standards to avoid the type of catastrophe which occurred at FTX. Perhaps that's not as easy as I think it is? |
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UAE
While fallout from the FTX case along with asset contagion is negative trend for the crypto world. News of FTX once being responsible for managing $32 billion in assets has to be opening the eyes of the world as to the big cap potential cryptocurrencies can deliver. Naturally everyone would want to hop on the bandwagon and become involved in what could be the next big thing. And so we see some EU nations offering digital nomad visa programs to crypto whales in an effort to attract the opposite of capital flight. The UAE as well appears to be on board with their own version of the program. If it is true that a comfortable temperature of 80 degrees farenheit is maintained mere meters below the surface of the earth. Would the UAE consider pursuing subterranean real estate development to save on air conditioning costs? It might also serve a secondary function as a viable bomb shelter in case of emergency. Even a standard basement could potentially offer 10 degrees F cooler climate than ground level floors. |
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If you could design Bitcoin from scratch today, how would you design it? What changes would you make?
Store the operational on disc BTC blockchain in a compressed format to reduce its size by roughly 1/3rd. Essentially what .zip, .tar and .7z file formats do. Not 100% certain what the unzipping process would look like. Or what effect it might have on transaction overhead. Unzip on the fly is a possibility. It would make the download and storage process more feasible for entry level with lower capacity HDD. Blockchain culling. After a certain period of time, old redundant transactions would be archived and removed from the active blockchain to keep its size relatively manageable. As there are no chargebacks, there is no reason to list every transaction on chain. Uptime statistics for energy demographics. How many total transactions were powered by renewable energy, with basic breakdowns of who, what, where, when, etc. Total transparency for green power. No studies or research would need to be conducted by the EPA or other organizations. To an extent, energy demographics would be built into the chain and software by default. Different versions to cater to various roles and functions. One distribution could be dedicated towards remittances. Another could be dedicated HODL. No more big block versus small block debate. Each role would have a dedicated software intended to fulfill the task. Etc. |
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According to the latest report, Bitcoin adoption among merchants is expected to increase by 50% in the next three years. This result is from a survey conducted by Ripple and Faster Payment Council, which involved 300 payment leaders in 45 countries. A Growing Interest In Bitcoin Payments GloballyThe report indicated that blockchain technology has emerged as an alternative to costly payment systems in recent years. Transaction volumes have increased remarkably in the crypto industry, with more than 5.5 million crypto payment users in the U.S. alone in 2023. The top four use cases of crypto payments include remittances, cross-border B2B payments, card payments, and digital payments. Remittances take the lion’s share of this, with foreign workers taking to crypto to avoid high transaction fees when sending money home to their families. In addition, the growing adoption of Bitcoin payments by PayPal and Stripe has also boosted adoption significantly. Beyond Bitcoin, stablecoins like USDT and USDC have enjoyed significant adoption due to their low volatility. It is reported that using stablecoins for cross-border payments is 80% less expensive than traditional payment methods. Around 97% of the respondents in the survey believe that crypto payments will have a major role in faster payments within the next three years. Over half of the surveyed leaders expect most merchants to adopt crypto payments within this period. Middle East Leading The Adoption RaceAccording to data from Ripple and FPC, most payment companies believe that merchants globally will use more cryptocurrencies in the near term. As seen in the graph below, the survey results show that 64% of representatives of payment companies in the Middle East believe that more than 50% of merchants will start accepting cryptocurrency payments within the next three years.  Image link: https://i.ibb.co/XpGHsKC/mass-adoption-poll.jpgEurope follows this with 58%, North America 51%, and Africa 51%. In contrast, about 17% of the Latin American representatives believe adoption would occur within this period. This is despite the growing adoption rate in the LatAm region among formal and informal businesses. The regulatory issue was also discussed in the Ripple and FPC survey. For the majority of the payment companies consulted (89%), the lack of regulatory clarity in the crypto-asset sector is a “barrier” to using blockchain technology as a means of payment. However, it must be remembered that in recent months there have been advances in regulating the cryptocurrency sector in several countries. Countries like Venezuela and El Salvador have established a comprehensive legal framework for crypto assets. In addition, countries globally, like South Africa, Brazil, and Singapore, are advancing in their regulations. The survey determined that the “optimism” of companies for this market could respond to a “growing appetite” for “access and inclusion to broader financial services. It also highlighted that other payment methods based on blockchain technology, like central bank digital currencies (CBDC), would improve global payment systems. https://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-adoption-to-grow-50-by-2025-this-report-claims/.... The concept of bitcoin mass adoption growing 50% by the year 2025 is quite a staggering projection. According to poll data the middle east could be the region with the highest crypto mass adoption growth. I wonder if it could be related to prohibitions of islamic banking and finance?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking_and_financeThe poll claims europe the united states and other nations of the world are also expected to exhibit high rates of cryptocurrency mass adoption growth over the next few years. South america is an exceptions with major residents in those regions preferring to use gold or silver coins rather than electronic means of exchange. This trend helps to explain why el salvador has had difficulty achieving higher rates of bitcoin mass adoption. Unfortunately, I could not find a sample size for how many poll responders there were. I like that they acknowledge crypto's role as a cross border means of exchange, not only for consumers but in some cases with large institutions like banks: It is reported that using stablecoins for cross-border payments is 80% less expensive than traditional payment methods. How do people envision the future of crypto mass adoption, outside of this poll? |
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Been reading all the news reports and saw that the stock lost -60% today alone. Seems that more than half a dozen exchanges have stopped to do business with silvergate.
-60% is a smaller decline in contrast to many major banks during the 2008 economic crisis. There was a bank stock I remember seeing that went from $5.00 down to $0.03. Then after the bank bailout was announced within a few weeks that $0.03 went up to 3.00 for around 100x gains. I'm not certain what percentage of crypto banking services silvergate provided or what their exposure to the crypto market was in millions / billions. I think those could be the critical factors moving forward. Finance gurus typically use terms like "house of cards" and "fallling domino effect" to describe worst case scenarios associated with bubbles and big crashes. Hopefully the crypto industry is decentralized across enough nations and separately banking providers to be effectively insulated from FTX and silvergate asset contagion. Being a global industry is one thing crypto has in its favor. |
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A rapid acceleration in Bitcoin’s pace of global adoption could catapult the top cryptocurrency to staggering new heights, according to quantitative analyst PlanB. In a series of tweets, the pseudonymous strategist says the most powerful part of Bitcoin’s adoption s-curve is around the corner. The adoption s-curve is often used to track the cumulative rate at which people adopt breakthrough technologies. According to PlanB, BTC’s pace of adoption is about to witness an unprecedented level of acceleration that could bring its price to as high as $10 million by 2028. “If Bitcoin adoption is now 1-5%, then we will enter the vertical of the S-curve next couple of years. On log scale (left) this just means more exponential growth until 50% adoption. For the linear thinkers (right) everything will change. Bitcoin might be substantially undervalued… Although I enjoyed Bitcoin adoption the last 10+ years (especially the investment returns), I am really looking forward to the vertical part of the S-curve in the next halving period (2024-2028).”  Image link: https://i.ibb.co/XSjMwRy/stock-to-flow-btc.jpgPlan B is well-known for applying the stock-to-flow scarcity model to Bitcoin (BTC), which divides the total supply of an asset by the new supply entering the market to forecast future moves in price. Based on that model, PlanB predicts BTC’s next top will happen around 2025, with its price landing between $100,000 to $1,000,000. https://dailyhodl.com/2023/03/04/bitcoin-btc-targeting-10000000-amid-rapid-global-crypto-adoption-according-to-quant-analyst-planb/.... It has been awhile since we've heard about the "stock-to-flow" model of technical analysis being applied to bitcoin's current value. Here we have some commentary offered by quants at PlanB. I'm not certain if quants have good track records as independent traders. I think they tend to emphasize arbitrage trading in algorithmic models with dark pools. Which used to be very profitable in its inception and early history. These days I don't know if dark pools have become heavily saturated with many trading bots attempting to execute similar trading strategies. But it has been a long time since algorithmic arbitrage trading has claimed consistently large profits, that I know of. That said $10 million dollars for one BTC sounds good to me. Their prediction of $100,000 to $1 million for one BTC around 2025 also sounds fantastic. |
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I think everyone should try to make a financial plan for how they might someday become a millionaire. Learn more. Make a better plan. Repeat the process. Eventually they might succeed. If they do not achieve their goals, the learning experience could still be a big benefit to them. Is it fair to say, everyone starts out as a white belt when it comes to profits and earning capital. Over time they can grind and level up to become a black belt. Its a healthy growth process which does not require special skills, a phd, special qualifications or a 200 point IQ. The door is open to anyone and everyone. Its the same as playing pokemon where you start out the game with nothing and eventually you learn new skills and knowledge which allow you to mitigate risk and make better choices.
In terms of finances, efficiency can be a neglected component. We're so used to products we use daily being manufactured with a minimum amount of energy, resources and cost. Our supply chains have become so efficient that we tend to underestimate the amount of time and energy that goes into things. With globalism and reliance on low cost labor being on steep declines. Being able to produce basic living necessities efficiently could be a critical issue to resolve moving forward.
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