Stefan Prodan posted:

You realize an investment where you can't actually give any reasons a thing should continue to be more likely to go up than down is what we call a "bad investment" right

exploded mummy posted:

gary oldmans diary posted:

*agrees with a buyer to make a cash exchange for the bitcoins*
*arrives at the agreed upon exchange location and the buyer changes his offer to a briefcase full of ham sandwiches*

David Heinrich posted:

Do you really want to put your investment knowledge and ability to manipulate financial markets against that of an entire financial institution?

evilweasel posted:

it is occasionally possible to cash out provided you give an unregulated exchange a complete identity theft kit, and are willing to have your bank account immediately closed for suspicious transactions

evilweasel posted:

yes, which requires giving an unregulated exchange a complete identity theft kit, and results in the bank closing your account because they know coinbase is a giant red flag

poorlifedecision posted:

He probably has nothing but a bunch of fiat currency he uses to "buy" things he "wants and needs."

poorlifedecision posted:

I don't know what you think I asked but I'm very sure this isn't the correct answer.

scott zoloft posted:

not to mention you can literally keep cash and coins in an account on gdax and just transfer the money back to your bank account with two mouse clicks. it's that easy.

univbee posted:

univbee posted:

I agree, TOS Violations costing individuals 5 figure sums is both cool and good.

univbee posted:

If people are circumventing laws you arrest them and seize their assets formally, you don't give some random company permission to pocket people's wallets in a citizen's arrest.

COMRADES posted:

They don't just shut it down though they freeze it and investigate and give you something other than the PayPal middle finger of old.


And then if you do that you take on the risk of loss on your end through drive failure or forgetting the password to the wallet or whatever. Don't say that never happens either.

univbee posted:

Yes and there's a process you can go through for dealing with that, not just a support email hole.

Also when a bank does it they explicitly tell you why, not just "we're closing your account down."

COMRADES posted:

And then if you do that you take on the risk of loss on your end through drive failure or forgetting the password to the wallet or whatever. Don't say that never happens either.

RottenK posted:

who the gently caress paid 172413 satoshis to pretend to be hs

evilweasel posted:

wait a minute i realized i forgot to respond to this

yes, it is "regulated" in the sense that it follows money-laundering laws. that does not mean it is a regulated exchange in the sense that anyone would think, such as keeping customer funds segregated, actual controls on front-running, painting the tape, fake trades, or any other number of other manipulative tactics, actual financial controls

quote:

yes, coinbase complies with money transmission regulations. it does not report its customer reserves to a regulator. if it wanted to mtgox its customers (or if it was doing it already), tough luck you idiots are unsecured creditors with claims against empty bank accounts and nobody cares, good job giving all your actual irl dollars to some random idiots

evilweasel posted:

ahh i forgot about the bitlicense

better than nothing; quarterly reporting is obviously not good because that leaves plenty of time for "oops where did all the money go" but you are right, that one particular exchange may be somewhat regulated

HerStuddMuffin posted:

I know you're being facetious, but ham's tried that argument (and you are making fun of that) and it was bullshit even then. If you need another currency to handle day-to-day transaction, then that coin would displace bitcoin and remove it from the marketplace. It would only be good for bitcoin in the sense that it would put it out of its misery. Doing business in cryptocoin, whatever specific one you use, is already a hassle because it's like doing business in a foreign currency inside your own country, which is simply insane to expect of the general public. Have you seen tourists handling foreign currencies, regardless of nationality and country visited? To affirm that people would voluntarily use not one, but two or more kinds of weirdollars in their daily life is moronic beyond words.

And evil weasel, thank you for the explanation, but it takes me back to my conundrum. Since Chinese miners want cash, and they have to sell abroad because they want USD, not yuan, and it's trivial to turn coins into cash through the exchanges, how aren't they crashing the US price to the production cost of bitcoins in China or thereabout?
I'm still left with three explanations: either the price is manipulated out the wazoo, or it's not so easy to cash out, or miners are a small fraction of the market.

evilweasel posted:

mining is a net loss, usually, once you factor in hardware costs and electricity. there is a specific amount generated per day, and you have to keep buying more and more hardware to keep your chances of winning some of them the same. if there's a gap between the "cost of production" and the "price" of a bitcoin that gets narrowed by people buying a ton more miners until the production cost is about the same as the price (because the amount generated is a constant, it can't crash to the price of production because the price of production doesn't dictate the amount of production)

univbee posted:

When he said "they want USD" he meant "they want their money outside of China", and usually when they want it outside of China this means "in the United States", which generally uses USD and not Yuan.

evilweasel posted:

why do you assume all chinese want the same thing

univbee posted:

(and yes, a country of a billion people does also have a substantial number of people who are content staying put)

iceaim posted:

You mean the Chinese exchanges that Beijing just banned because they're freaked out about capital outflows?

Prester Jane posted:

Apparently you have never even once observed how the Chinese state conducts business. China does not want its currency leaving its borders for a whole host of complicated reasons that the Chinese state views as essential to its ongoing existence. The Chinese state does not give the tiniest of fucks about "regulating" the exchanges because while the Chinese state may be corrupt and onerous it is not stupid and does not like its citizens subverting its will.

Your assertion of the intentions of the Chinese state is based purely on hope and makes sense only if you understand literally nothing at all about what makes the Chinese state tick.

Prester Jane posted:

Your point is that China's ban is temporary because you profited off the ban is uhh...pretty much just strait up wishful thinking dude.

quote:

Feel free to post a single piece of news or analysis from a mainstream source that gives any indication that the ban is temporary. If you are unable to do so it just means that all you have is wishful thinking.

Lime Tonics posted:

In the meantime, most Americans aren’t buying into bitcoin, but lots of mysterious foreigners — from far-away locations like Malaysia, Indonesia and other places where people go to disappear — are investing in it.

quote:

also, lol for money being backed by power bills to server farms.

Prester Jane posted:

Okay you are correct Uranium, your assertion that the Chinese ban is temporary is not based on wishful thinking, it is instead based on literally nothing at all.

Lime Tonics posted:

so how do i cash out my 2.13 bitcoins without having to buy drugs or let the app access my browsing history?

into real money? like even bolivars or worse.

Prester Jane posted:

The counter is easy here: just post a single bit of mainstream news or analysis that suggests the ban is temporary. Your entire defense here is based on being pedantic over the my usage of the phrase "wishful thinking" to indicate that your assertions are backed by no substance. All you gotta do to prove me wrong is demonstrate that your assertions are based in some sort of substance.

Lime Tonics posted:

i see, so in order to get money, i have to give them all my account details and creds.

seems on the up and up.

also, the bitcoins were a joke, the 2.13 were mined using a p2733 and a 4200ti geforce in the span of 6ish years?

Prester Jane posted:

Its really weird how all the pro-bitcoiners react the exact same way when you press them for specifics to back up their assertions......

Lime Tonics posted:

hmm yes it seems fine to give my bank account number, phone number, name and address to a company based in the Philippines. A bank under us sanctions even.

seems legit to me.

Prester Jane posted:

Not a word of that has anything to do with why you think the Chinese ban is temporary. Its just self fellatio.