Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

[Fatman3001]

SEPA for EUR is still quite good.

True but I've been waiting for a Faster Payments exchange for what feel like forever (well, a couple of years).

So many announcements of UK exchanges and so much promise but not one yet has a UK banking partner.

If all this noise from The City is for real, you should have it soon. I think there is a larger idea behind placing the european branch of Coinbase in the UK.

[TakeTheSkyRoad]

Yes, sure. But I meant their project with or without XRP.

Ripple can't handle those kinds of transfers atm(not talking technically, but economically.... i think?). In BTC you have people buying and selling BTC on such a scale that you can buy it in one country and sell it in another country and get roughly the same sum back(unless we're talking many millions). So how will ripple/wu transfer the wealth?

Answering the bold bit I have to say I don't feel technical enough to answer with total confidence BUT if this was internal to Western Union then you could theoretically use the network to move IOUs between the different countries WU operate in, similar to the transferwise system I would imagine.  They would need to make a traditional transfer every now and then to balance the books but it could save them some money and another fraction of a % saved in costs is much money in the bank for them.

Either way Ripple is helping to prop up the old system so we should throw tomatoes at them and Boo loudly.

[gentlemand]

SEPA for EUR is still quite good.

True but I've been waiting for a Faster Payments exchange for what feel like forever (well, a couple of years).

So many announcements of UK exchanges and so much promise but not one yet has a UK banking partner.

If all this noise from The City is for real, you should have it soon. I think there is a larger idea behind placing the european branch of Coinbase in the UK.

Noise is free and makes you look cool in front of your friends.

Actually knuckling down and doing something with crypto is going to be too scary for any of them.

The UK government couldn't even get the banks to lend to small businesses in decent numbers despite actually owning some of the banks.

It would take a youthful upstart to kick things into action but they'll just be crushed by not being allowed to join in with the big boys. Fidor were looking into UK operations but shelved their plans.

Edit - no they didn't https://twitter.com/FidorUK/status/593323935711830016

Maybe things will roll soon.

[TakeTheSkyRoad]

We had a bit of a scare with Bitstamp this year, so another (BTC-E is a bit too shady) big player is needed in Europe.

I've used btc-e right from December 2013 and had no problems though I'm not entirely comfortable with the situation so I do now have my trading stash spread out across multiple exchanges.

There is also Kraken who have started to get a bit more volume these days and Coinfloor who I've only just registered with.

For small purchases I've tended to use https://bittylicious.com/ who do offer Faster Payments but between individuals accounts (which isn't ideal) and they are expensive.

Edit :  The current Bittylicious rate is £157 and the Coinfloor rate is £146 so for anything less than say 1 to 1.5 BTC Bittylicious is cheaper than a SEPA transfer to Coinfloor with the associated £10 to £15 SEPA fee plus exchange fees.

Edit2 : Worth noting using Faster Payments with Bittylicious the time taken from starting a payment to bitcoin showing against my mobile wallet is 10 to 15 minutes. A few confirmations later and I can spend it so if you need BTC in a rush maybe the extra cost is worth with quick turn-around.  My dream is this without the extra premium against the exchange rate

[empowering]

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/341306/Fintech_-_The_UK_s_unique_environment_for_growth.pdf

+

(EDIT Also:)  https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/413095/gs-15-3-fintech-futures.pdf

+

http://jackgavigan.com/2015/03/19/budget-2015/

There’s little doubt that here in the UK, lack of regulation has hampered the digital currencies sector. Banks, having been hit with punitive fines in the past for failing to do enough to prevent money-laundering, refuse to touch anything Bitcoin-related with a 10-foot bargepole, meaning that UK companies in this space are typically forced to bank overseas (e.g. Bitstamp, Coinfloor and CEX.IO bank in Slovenia, Poland and Latvia, respectively, despite being based in the UK). Applying AML regulation to exchanges should remove this barrier to banking services and help make the UK a more attractive regulatory regime.



Baby steps......

(but in what direction   , when I say baby steps I am referring to the path towards a true sterling based exchange with a UK banking partner(s)......but of course the banks are seemingly and at the moment at least throwing up barriers.)

[kehtolo]

Apparently Fidor are coming to the UK also!

This is the same bank that in Germany has dealt with bitcoin customers for about 2 years...



https://www.fidorbank.uk/

https://twitter.com/FidorUK

[Fatman3001]

Yes, sure. But I meant their project with or without XRP.

Ripple can't handle those kinds of transfers atm(not talking technically, but economically.... i think?). In BTC you have people buying and selling BTC on such a scale that you can buy it in one country and sell it in another country and get roughly the same sum back(unless we're talking many millions). So how will ripple/wu transfer the wealth?

Answering the bold bit I have to say I don't feel technical enough to answer with total confidence BUT if this was internal to Western Union then you could theoretically use the network to move IOUs between the different countries WU operate in, similar to the transferwise system I would imagine.  They would need to make a traditional transfer every now and then to balance the books but it could save them some money and another fraction of a % saved in costs is much money in the bank for them.

Either way Ripple is helping to prop up the old system so we should throw tomatoes at them and Boo loudly.

So in theory we could see their internal system running ripple-tech and their books being balanced by BTC transfers in the future?

[empowering]

Apparently Fidor are coming to the UK also!

This is the same bank that in Germany has dealt with bitcoin customers for about 2 years...



https://www.fidorbank.uk/

https://twitter.com/FidorUK

Indeed, although they too have been running an obstacle course for a while....it seems they have reached the finish line.... though I am not sure it will necessarily mean they will automatically process domestic sterling payments for a UK based BTC exchange... at least not right away, maybe later. But you never know, it would be a interesting surprise. (What if Coinbase 1st UK banking partner turns out to be Fidor, would be interesting timing of the announcements, Coinbase UK yesterday and Fidor today.. but.......still I would be really surprised if it equaled faster payments sterling transfers anytime soon, if they did I think I would sign up for that right away tbh.) 

[ChartBuddy]

Coin
Explanation

[pa]

http://www.bloomberg.com/research/markets/news/article.asp?docKey=600-201504290300HUGIN___EUPRX____HUG1916185-1

XBT Provider Launches World's First Bitcoin Exchange Traded Note on Nasdaq Stockholm

[empowering]

[sAt0sHiFanClub]

Apparently Fidor are coming to the UK also!

This is the same bank that in Germany has dealt with bitcoin customers for about 2 years...



https://www.fidorbank.uk/

https://twitter.com/FidorUK

Fidor have had the same issues with UK banks as mentioned above - they cant get a partner to handle payments. UK banking is closed shop.

Unless they have reached an agreement in the last few days?

EDIT: Reading the tweet, it would seem they have. I wonder who sponsored them in the end?

[empowering]

Apparently Fidor are coming to the UK also!

This is the same bank that in Germany has dealt with bitcoin customers for about 2 years...



https://www.fidorbank.uk/

https://twitter.com/FidorUK

Fidor have had the same issues with UK banks as mentioned above - they cant get a partner to handle payments. UK banking is closed shop.

Unless they have reached an agreement in the last few days?

EDIT: Reading the tweet, it would seem they have. I wonder who sponsored them in the end?

Relevant

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/11513405/UK-launch-of-digital-bank-Fidor-hamstrung-by-payments-providers.html

" A German digital bank is planning to launch in Britain, once it is granted access to the payment system.

Fidor Bank had planned to open in the UK last month, but it has been held up by the difficult payments infrastructure. "

+


https://www.fidorbank.uk/

[TakeTheSkyRoad]

So in theory we could see their internal system running ripple-tech and their books being balanced by BTC transfers in the future?

I'm speculating that they could use Ripple tech to move money around internally using a network just for Western Union using what I'll call WRP (not XRP) which may save them some money.  I don't know how they move money internationally at the moment but they will (I assume) have cut every corner to make it as cost effective as possible but this may allow an extra edge.  To rebalance the books if they end up with too much money in their Mexico account then they may move money back to the US but using traditional methods and denominated in fiat.

I would love to see them using BTC but I doubt it would happen since it would "legitimise" the competition.

For the same reason this is why I don't think they would use the existing ripple network (so XRP) but they could use the technology.

[TakeTheSkyRoad]

Awesome, best use of Hitler yet

[empowering]

Awesome, best use of Hitler yet

 

Zee Germans are coming   

[JorgeStolfi]

that is strong evidence that the Chinese exchanges were leading the Nov/2013 bubble, and quite probably also the Apr/2013 one. (Which, of course, has many unpleasant implications for the future price and the solidity of bitcoin funds.)

1) Plot based on meaningless volume from china based exchanges

No, those are PRICE ratios. Can't help if you can't understand them.  And the price of bitcoin may be vaguely on-topic here, I suppose.

Or this plot



that shows that the number of deposits per day into BitPay's receiving wallet was quite flat through most of 2014, and increased by a factor of ~3 since mid-2013; whereas this plot



shows that the bitcoin volume of those deposits has been constant at ~1000 BTC/day since Jan/2013.  (Explaining these numbers is not trivial, but they definitely contradict the claims of "booming adoption", and are consistent with may other indications that usage for e-payments is stagnant at best.)

2) Bitpay is the only company in the world dealing with bitcoin or did the inclusion of other data not yield the same output as desired by you?

Bitpay is still supposed to be the largest bitcoin payment processor, with over half of the total number of merchants that "accept bitcoin", including some of the biggest names like Dell.  If you know where I can get similar data for Coinbase, I (and other serious students of bitcoin out there) would like to know about it.  And, again, "increasing adoption" is claimed HERE all the time as one of the main reasons why the PRICE should start going up "any time now".

[empowering]

Fidor UK current status

"Send money = In development"

"Receive money = In development"

They just gave me a fiver though which is nice 

[dakota neat]

Jorge Stolfi, this is not how science works. You have to try to falsify your assumption that bitcoin will fail. So please focus on finding pro arguments why bitcoin is here to stay. Thanks.

[Fatman3001]

An amateurs glance at the chartists seems to indicate that this weekend will be exciting