How to keep safe from Bearwhales!

[Coinapult]

Our Locks Plugin is now available to Payment Processors across the globe

Protect your customers from price swings with our new Locks plugin.
Locks can now be integrated seamlessly into your wallet / payment platform, offering your customers a way to Lock and unlock Bitcoin to USD, GBP, EUR, Gold and Silver.
Protect them from Bearwhales today! Contact:  Rob@coinapult.com

See how Electrum have done it.

https://medium.com/@Coinapult/electrum-locks-plugin-beta-9d8f724af19a

[cryptworld]

so, with this you can lock the fiat value of your electrum bitcoin wallet,isn't it?

[allthingsluxury]

Will have to take a look. Thanks.

[LiteCoinGuy]

so, with this you can lock the fiat value of your electrum bitcoin wallet,isn't it?

i guess it is. circle and most other exchanges will adopt this.

[justusranvier]

This is an extremely strange service being offered.

A customer of this service provides an interest-free loan to some unknown counterparty, denominated in something other than Bitcoin, only using Bitcoin as the payment mechanism for issuing and repaying the loan.

That's fine if that really is a service that people want, but why is the marketing for Locks so incredibly vague and imprecise about what is actually going on?

[Connor936]

This is an extremely strange service being offered.

A customer of this service provides an interest-free loan to some unknown counterparty, denominated in something other than Bitcoin, only using Bitcoin as the payment mechanism for issuing and repaying the loan.

That's fine if that really is a service that people want, but why is the marketing for Locks so incredibly vague and imprecise about what is actually going on?

Silk Road did this in it's early days. They allowed people to lock in the US dollar price of a transaction when the funds were being held in escrow. When the buyer would release escrow the seller would receive more or less bitcoin depending on which direction bitcoin went.

This may have been how Ross was able to amass so much bitcoin as the price of bitcon was generally rising

[jmw74]

This is an extremely strange service being offered.

A customer of this service provides an interest-free loan to some unknown counterparty, denominated in something other than Bitcoin, only using Bitcoin as the payment mechanism for issuing and repaying the loan.

That's fine if that really is a service that people want, but why is the marketing for Locks so incredibly vague and imprecise about what is actually going on?

Because they don't want to call it "selling with no option to withdraw", which is what it really is.

Exchanges let you withdraw either fiat or bitcoin.  Locking services only let you withdraw bitcoin.  I am not sure why there would be demand for this kind of crippled service, when exchanges already exist and do more.

[sgk]

Something doesn't sound right.

I watched their demo video. Here's how they say the locking works "If you lock 1000 EUR worth of Bitcoins, you'll always have 1000 EUR worth of BTC, whether the price is 1000 EUR/BTC or 1 EUR/BTC."

BUT

What it doesn't tell is - what happens if 1 BTC is worth 2000 EUR in future. You will still have 1000 EUR worth of Bitcoins?

I THINK YES.

So if you believe in a bright future of BTC, you should NOT lock your BTC.

[seriouscoin]

LOL what a deceiving tactic.....

OP why didnt you include your "hidden" fee?

Yeah at 8% , fck NO!

[Coinapult]

Regarding fees: We apply a small spread, typically 1-2% on the exchange price quoted. When Locking you are taken to a confirmation page where you can choose to accept the exchange rate, or not. I am not sure where the idea of an 8% fee came from, which would be high indeed! When we say 1-2%, that is to cover all eventualities. The most you will pay is 2% but usually the rate quoted is lower.

Locks is useful anywhere a stable balance is needed for example, for savings, wages or rent payments. The service is useful where people don't have an exchange account and perhaps aren't into Bitcoin for speculative reasons.

Please do join our wallet demo on Thursday where you can put queries directly to the team: http://tinyurl.com/ljqjn77

[Coinapult]

so, with this you can lock the fiat value of your electrum bitcoin wallet,isn't it?

Hi Cryptworld, Yes, that is exactly right.

[Coinapult]

This is an extremely strange service being offered.

A customer of this service provides an interest-free loan to some unknown counterparty, denominated in something other than Bitcoin, only using Bitcoin as the payment mechanism for issuing and repaying the loan.

That's fine if that really is a service that people want, but why is the marketing for Locks so incredibly vague and imprecise about what is actually going on?

Hi Justusranvier, The following interview with CEO Ira Miller covers the service in depth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Y15iqQA9g

[MsCollec]

I will wait for users review before downloading.

[btckold24]

personally if you believe in bitcoin why would you want to have no upside to your bitcoin. If you lock in and it goes up your stuck at the old rate.... I can see how this would be smart if you were dealing in a lot of btc though protecting some money.

[Phrenico]

personally if you believe in bitcoin why would you want to have no upside to your bitcoin. If you lock in and it goes up your stuck at the old rate.... I can see how this would be smart if you were dealing in a lot of btc though protecting some money.

At or near bubble peak, I would give this a shot. I would just wonder what the tax consequences of this are; more options to trade while avoiding taxable events is always a good thing.

[inBitweTrust]

Regarding fees: We apply a small spread, typically 1-2% on the exchange price quoted. When Locking you are taken to a confirmation page where you can choose to accept the exchange rate, or not. I am not sure where the idea of an 8% fee came from, which would be high indeed! When we say 1-2%, that is to cover all eventualities. The most you will pay is 2% but usually the rate quoted is lower.

In coinapult's defense, I can verify the spread is indeed 2% as I just verified -

https://api.coinapult.com/api/ticker?filter=small

Granted this is a larger spread than bitstamp, circle or coinbase.  Coinbases is 0.3% , coinapult still fulfills a important role in countries outside the US .

[inBitweTrust]

Because they don't want to call it "selling with no option to withdraw", which is what it really is.

Exchanges let you withdraw either fiat or bitcoin.  Locking services only let you withdraw bitcoin.  I am not sure why there would be demand for this kind of crippled service, when exchanges already exist and do more.

As someone who is a longterm bitcoin bull, I see no use for this feature either, outside of a tool for day traders , but than again other exchanges have lower fees. If you don't want to ride on the volatility roller coaster than just cash out and hold the fiat yourself instead of with a third party.

This being said, coinapult is an important provider for interacting with banks outside the US.

 

[LiteCoinGuy]

Something doesn't sound right.

I watched their demo video. Here's how they say the locking works "If you lock 1000 EUR worth of Bitcoins, you'll always have 1000 EUR worth of BTC, whether the price is 1000 EUR/BTC or 1 EUR/BTC."

BUT

What it doesn't tell is - what happens if 1 BTC is worth 2000 EUR in future. You will still have 1000 EUR worth of Bitcoins?

I THINK YES.

So if you believe in a bright future of BTC, you should NOT lock your BTC.

these bastards  !


(by the way: nice tool coinapult)

[cbeast]

This is a hedging tool prototype. It's a good concept. I imagine many of these tools will become available through Bitcoin 2.0 apps where you can lock many assets with various triggers.

[Coinapult]

personally if you believe in bitcoin why would you want to have no upside to your bitcoin. If you lock in and it goes up your stuck at the old rate.... I can see how this would be smart if you were dealing in a lot of btc though protecting some money.

Hi btckold24, I'm sure you realize capital gains is only one aspect of Bitcoin's upside.  Instant, irreversible, global payments is of course another significant upside to the technology. 

Locks is designed to be an easy way for individuals interested realizing the value of the blockchain to do so, without the cumbersome process of learning to deal with exchanges.  Locks lowers the barrier to entry for new users because they can think in terms of assets they are used to and simultaneously spend where ever Bitcoin is accepted.

We anticipate by lowering the barrier to entry and making new users more comfortable, more people will experience how seamless Bitcoin transactions are and thus have greater insight to Bitcoin's upside and hold Bitcoin