Cryptocurrency

[Jarman]

So what, banks also embraced CDOs - how many cretins maxed out their credit card to “invest” into tulipcoin “market”? Banks will happily lend to fools to take their money

So let me get this straight - banks are adopting crypto - it's not a big deal....

but when you've shared the "bad news" from yesterday that some UK banks will ban crypto, it was a big deal? hmmmmmmmmmm no logical sense mate

[Whorty]

Happy to be corrected ... but aren't crypto currencies valued in USD, therefore they're only of 'value' whilst USD has a value. USD is based on the US market/economy, so in it's most simplistic term, crypto is tied to USD?

Also, those who support crypto bemoan central banks and their QE, but isn't 'mining' just a form of QE? Every new 'coin' mined is not to different from a central bank printing money.

[d000hg]

Happy to be corrected ... but aren't crypto currencies valued in USD, therefore they're only of 'value' whilst USD has a value. USD is based on the US market/economy, so in it's most simplistic term, crypto is tied to USD?

No*. Exchanges trade currency-pairs. e.g. USD-Bitcoin, EUR-Bitcoin, USD-EUR, Bitcoin-Dogecoin, etc. It's a many:many sort of deal. You can sometimes see that the graph of BTC-USD is not quite the same as BTC-GBP, if there have been a load of big trades in one pair. I assume proper traders are bouncing between this web to profit from FX as well as crypto.

*But I imagine USD is by far the most popular. For instance, many crypto currencies have pairings only with USD until they get more popular. So in practice the US economy does have a huge impact.

[AtW]

Any USD bank transfer goes via US banks, that’s where “wire fraud” comes in - expect a knock from 2 FBI agents at any time now

[d000hg]

Any USD bank transfer goes via US banks, that’s where “wire fraud” comes in - expect a knock from 2 FBI agents at any time now

Is that part actually true, I have no idea if it is or not?

However you don't have to deposit or withdraw in USD. I deposited GBP and traded it for USD for more flexibility, probably this is very common. The exchange has big liquidity pools of each currency so when I want to extract my millions, I suppose I'll do so in sterling.

Or maybe by then I won't need to withdraw as sterling, because everyone will accept BTC as payment. A nice cup of coffee for BTC0.0000498

[Whorty]

No*. Exchanges trade currency-pairs. e.g. USD-Bitcoin, EUR-Bitcoin, USD-EUR, Bitcoin-Dogecoin, etc. It's a many:many sort of deal. You can sometimes see that the graph of BTC-USD is not quite the same as BTC-GBP, if there have been a load of big trades in one pair. I assume proper traders are bouncing between this web to profit from FX as well as crypto.

*But I imagine USD is by far the most popular. For instance, many crypto currencies have pairings only with USD until they get more popular. So in practice the US economy does have a huge impact.

Ah, Ok, so I 'could' buy some coin using USD one day, and sell the same coin for GBP the next? So I'm not just trading in the coin, I'm also potentially playing with FX rates too?

Interesting - far too complex for me, but very interesting. Thanks <thumbs up>

[Jarman]

Happy to be corrected ... but aren't crypto currencies valued in USD, therefore they're only of 'value' whilst USD has a value. USD is based on the US market/economy, so in it's most simplistic term, crypto is tied to USD?

Also, those who support crypto bemoan central banks and their QE, but isn't 'mining' just a form of QE? Every new 'coin' mined is not to different from a central bank printing money.

As almost everything, yes - everything is tied to the USD: gold, silver, oil, corn, stock, bonds, BTC etc.

BTC's purpose is to shift away from USD and be independent from it. The supply of BTC will never exceed 21 million so the point regarding printing money as the central banks is wrong. There are around 18 mil in circulation hence why there is still mining to be done, but once the 20 mil is filled in (1 million is locked for "Satoshi") the demand will go high while the supply will stay the same, meaning the price..... will go higher! (taking AtW's frustration about inflation and banks along with it)

Now when it comes to other cryptocurrencies, they were initially mainly paired to BTC and the goal should be to gain as much value in BTC from these coins, trading them for BTC and not for fiat.

[AtW]

BTC's purpose is to shift away from USD and be independent from it.

BTC's purpose is to shift USD from pockets of fools into those who created that fraud, some willing supporters get some crumbs too.

[Jarman]

BTC's purpose is to shift USD from pockets of fools into those who created that fraud, some willing supporters get some crumbs too.

Absolute nonsense amigo. BTC was created after the financial fu&%up in 2008. The world needs a better financial system and BTC/crypto is the answer for it.

You keep cutting trees and printing money, we'll see who wins

[d000hg]

Ah, Ok, so I 'could' buy some coin using USD one day, and sell the same coin for GBP the next? So I'm not just trading in the coin, I'm also potentially playing with FX rates too?

I have no idea what the exchange rates are like compared to other places but yes. You can even trade between currencies though at least on the one I use, it's pretty low volume from the look of it: https://trade.kraken.com/charts/KRAK...USD?period=30m