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Citi: Bitcoin at a Tipping Point?
Citibank, via MSN ^ | 3/1/2021 | Citibank

Posted on 03/01/2021 6:38:35 AM PST by Vermont Lt

Bitcoin, that inexplicable cryptocurrency with mysterious origins, is gaining acceptance in Wall Street even as many other financial institutions remain skeptical.

Companies such as PayPal Holdings, Inc., Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. are now accepting the virtual currency, while Tesla Inc. is keeping some of its corporate treasuries in bitcoin. More than 12,000 bitcoins ATMs have popped up over the past year, while Toronto-based Purpose Investment launched the world’s first bitcoin ETF last month.....

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bitcoin; citibank
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To: SamAdams76

I forgot I was on the internet. For every generalization, there is an exception. Lol.

I agree with you. I have a dunkin app as well. I hate Starbucks.

Honestly, every week I take $100 in cash out for incidentals. At the end of the week what’s left goes into my “secret cash fund” that I use for Christmas gifts for my grandkids.

For the past year I don’t think I’ve put less than $80 at the end of the week.

No one uses cash any more.

I guess Inshould have written that using Bitcoin specifically for retail transactions is slow and expensive. It would be like using a gold eagle. The cashier wouldn’t know what to do with it.

For something like buying a car or a home, or a capital expense that does not require immediacy it is much cheaper than wiring money.


21 posted on 03/01/2021 7:41:01 AM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: Vermont Lt
It’s been working for 9years without a hiccup.

This is why I hate discussing this stuff with end-users.

"The web site has been working for 9 years".
"Yes, but at low volume. Wait till 50 million users try to hit it daily."
"Why does that matter, it is working? "
"Ugg... Eye roll..."

"This mass transit bus has been running reliably for 9 years".
"Yes, but it only transports 40 people, not the 10,000 needed for city wide deployment."
"Why does that matter, it is running? "
"Ugg... Eye roll..."

22 posted on 03/01/2021 7:42:41 AM PST by BiglyCommentary
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To: Vermont Lt
And the funniest thing is they always think in black and white; either or. Perhaps something could come along to augment a system. Something to make it better. Nope—it HAS to be the old way.

I know the mentality. Many people criticize what they do not understand. There's some older people in my family who utterly refuse to adopt modern technologies because they confuse and bewilder them. I still can't get my 85-year-old mother to work even the basic functions of a dumbed down computer. Not because she's stupid but because she refuses to learn something new.

23 posted on 03/01/2021 7:44:50 AM PST by SamAdams76 (By stealing Trump's second term, the Left gets Trump for 8 more years instead of just four.)
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To: Vermont Lt
They compete for the reward. BIG difference.

Now you are playing the Bill Clinton "It depends what is means" game. You can call it a fee, a reward, a cut, whatever, but NO PAY, NO PLAY.

24 posted on 03/01/2021 7:45:52 AM PST by BiglyCommentary
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To: Vermont Lt

The base-layer Bitcoin network is for vault transfers. The second-layer Lightning network will serve as a payment mechanism.

The Lightning network is designed to be 100% backed BTC actually extant on the Bitcoin network because any BTC deposited on the second-layer cannot be transacted on the base-layer. Unlike fiat money, it does not counterfeit its underlying hard money.

Thus, one’s first-layer BTC wallet is analogous to a bank vault where one would store one’s fortune. The Lightning wallet is analogous to a coin purse that in earlier days would contain a few precious metal coins for spending money.

BTC has no analogue with fiat currency because it is inherently rare whereas fiat currency can be created without limit. Even though it is still accepted in exchange for various goods and services, fiat currency is rapidly depreciating against Bitcoin. Fiat currency always returns to its intrinsic value because governments cannot resist the demands to print more of it.


25 posted on 03/01/2021 7:47:49 AM PST by Skepolitic ( )
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To: Vermont Lt
I have a similar idea about putting money aside. Out of habit, I take $60 out of the ATM when doing my weekend errands. My wife expects to see that transaction and has it in the budget. So I use that extra money to get things I don't want her to know I'm buying. Like that bottle of premium liquor or that high end Yeti tumbler for said coffee that she would yell and scream at me for if she knew how much I paid for it at that sporting goods store.

Occasionally I'll use some of that money to get something for her so I'm not all bad!

26 posted on 03/01/2021 7:54:45 AM PST by SamAdams76 (By stealing Trump's second term, the Left gets Trump for 8 more years instead of just four.)
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To: Vermont Lt

Some people just love their Federal Reserve and believe in the inherent beneficence and wisdom of its chairman and governors ... even when they create “money for nothing and government checks for free” and intentionally inflate its value into oblivion.


27 posted on 03/01/2021 8:00:07 AM PST by Skepolitic ( )
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To: Vermont Lt

Some people just love their Federal Reserve and believe in the inherent beneficence and wisdom of its chairman and governors ... even when they create “money for nothing and government checks for free” and intentionally inflate its value into oblivion.


28 posted on 03/01/2021 8:01:38 AM PST by Skepolitic ( )
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To: Vermont Lt

The move to cryptocurrency is a paradigm shift. Not everyone will be able to change their thinking on this.


29 posted on 03/01/2021 8:13:09 AM PST by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
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To: BiglyCommentary

Very informative article that shows how cryptocurrency is immune to hackers, investors and most importantly, governments.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3937207/posts

Bitcoin cannot go to “ZERO”.


30 posted on 03/01/2021 8:17:14 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Trump is a deposed Pres. in exile. America is truly a banana republic. Our govt. has been overthrown)
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To: Hostage; Vermont Lt
You don’t know what you’re talking about.

I've been following bitcoins threads for some time. I appreciate what Vermont Lt has to say. For someone who doesn't know what he's talking about, he sure has taken a lot of ignorance to the bank, so to speak.

Lt would you care to share how much your ignorance has netted you?

31 posted on 03/01/2021 8:23:57 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Trump is a deposed Pres. in exile. America is truly a banana republic. Our govt. has been overthrown)
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To: SamAdams76; Vermont Lt

The Tulip Mentality.

Almost every bitcoin thread will invariably have someone post about tulips.

Whatever.


32 posted on 03/01/2021 8:26:46 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Trump is a deposed Pres. in exile. America is truly a banana republic. Our govt. has been overthrown)
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To: Vermont Lt
Oh goody another Bitcoin thread.

Someday I might decide to find out if the 1000 bitcoins I bought back in 2010, then forgot all about, are worth anything or if as some here say they are worth zero.

33 posted on 03/01/2021 8:47:59 AM PST by ASA Vet (This post is total BS, don't believe anything I post.)
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To: BiglyCommentary
As many as 60 central banks looking to developing their own digital currencies, as pressure grows on governments to innovate in the space.

And this is why bitcoin will persevere - no one is going to relish the opportunity to pay bank fees, embrace Orwellian surveillance, and tolerate government manipulations (inflation). Bitcoin cannot be manipulated by governments or banks - too bad for them. So many so confused about the nature of bitcoin.

34 posted on 03/01/2021 8:55:14 AM PST by corkoman
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To: corkoman
"Less than 2% of the anonymous ownership accounts that can be tracked on Bitcoin’s blockchain control 95% of the digital asset, according to researcher Flipside Crypto."

Just like GME, a huge pump and dump being setup. So many bitcoin fanboys so clueless and confused about what goes on in the real world.

35 posted on 03/01/2021 9:03:06 AM PST by BiglyCommentary
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To: corkoman

What governments can do is to forbid the conversion of bitcoin “bit’s” to currency value in order to pay for good and services. They can order it delisted from the markets and they can forbid the use of electronic funds transfers to “buy into” bit coin.

People would find out real quick that they’ve thrown their money into a swirling black hole.Governments might not be able to manipulate bitcoin directly but they can make the use of their national currency illegal for use for buying into bitcoin or converting bitcoin digital share values into recognizable currencies for goods and services purchases. There are many ways bitcoin can be strangled.


36 posted on 03/01/2021 9:06:12 AM PST by mdmathis6
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To: mdmathis6
As people with Swiss bank accounts found out the hard way years ago.

"no one is going to relish the opportunity to pay bank fees, .embrace Orwellian surveillance, "

That is hysterical. Central banks and governments are giddy with fully traceable tech like bitcoin. Orwell on super steroids.

Read this if you want to get a feel for what is in the works.

President’s Working Group on Financial Markets Statement on Key Regulatory and Supervisory Issues Relevant to Certain Stable coins.

https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/PWG-Stablecoin-Statement-12-23-2020-CLEAN.pdf

37 posted on 03/01/2021 9:15:27 AM PST by BiglyCommentary
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To: Vermont Lt

HOLD ON A MINUTE PLEASE.
So i have been listening to the book by Scott Nations titled A History of the United States in Five Crashes.
One of the more memorable things he has said is that a free stock market crash was precipitated by some new financial instrument. Examples which I can remember were portfolio insurance, mortgage-backed securities, investment trusts (in the 1920s).
My point is that no matter how genius someone is in terms of inventing new financial products/instruments there is no perpetual motion machine.
AND ... what might happen when all these large corporations have bslance sheets carrying billions of dollars of Bitcoin and crypto?
Is crypto going to be the new financial instrument that hollows out the financial system in the next crash? Or the one after that.
I can’t eat gold.
I can’t eat crypto.
I can’t even use crypto all by itself. What do you need to use crypto? A few pieces of technology I guess...
Also, IRS is ramping up reporting requirements for crypto. I know some if you are scofflaws, but do you remember ... back in the 1980s and 90s how people would gave offshore accounts that they could access via debit (or credit?) cards?
Did the IRS get the customer information from those banks ...?
“This is different.”, some may say. My advice would that you be circumspect. Don’t be smug.


38 posted on 03/01/2021 9:31:44 AM PST by Honest Nigerian
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To: Responsibility2nd
Almost every bitcoin thread will invariably have someone post about tulips.

Just as every cruise ship thread will have a comment about a petri dish. And just as every thread about smartphones will invariably have somebody comment that their "good old flip phone" is all anybody ever needs.

Freepers are as predictable as the sun rising each morning.

39 posted on 03/01/2021 9:54:33 AM PST by SamAdams76 (By stealing Trump's second term, the Left gets Trump for 8 more years instead of just four.)
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To: SamAdams76

And then there are the dope threads.

lol

But I only post on them when I feel the need to be snarky and amusing.


40 posted on 03/01/2021 10:03:57 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Trump is a deposed Pres. in exile. America is truly a banana republic. Our govt. has been overthrown)
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