Quite what is "US official show green" meant to mean?
Quite what is "US official show green" meant to mean?http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr7654-17#PrRoWMBL
Today, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) and the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) self-certified [My emphasis] new contracts for bitcoin futures products, and the Cantor Exchange (Cantor) self-certified a new contract for bitcoin binary options.
As with all contracts offered through Commission-regulated exchanges and cleared through Commission-regulated clearinghouses, the completion of the processes described above is not a Commission approval [My emphasis]. It does not constitute a Commission endorsement of the use or value of virtual currency products or derivatives.
Quite what is "US official show green" meant to mean?http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr7654-17#PrRoWMBL
So you meant that US officials had given 'something' a 'green light'? Well they haven't. From where you pointed that URL:QuoteToday, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) and the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) self-certified [My emphasis] new contracts for bitcoin futures products, and the Cantor Exchange (Cantor) self-certified a new contract for bitcoin binary options.QuoteAs with all contracts offered through Commission-regulated exchanges and cleared through Commission-regulated clearinghouses, the completion of the processes described above is not a Commission approval [My emphasis]. It does not constitute a Commission endorsement of the use or value of virtual currency products or derivatives.
Three vendors of cryptocurrency derivatives self-certifying their products is not an official seal of approval. It's of no more worth than Mr. C.M.O.T. Dibbler self-certifying that his sausages-in-a-bun are the best sausages on open air sale in the town square today.
[It seems so, my first source where I did see the news were referring that source (which I did quickly searched) wrongly. Let see what happens, but at least they aren't prohibiting these futures etc. for now. I'll assume these will be highly lucrative, but shady business for a short time. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I doubt it.
Financial derivatives are tricky things; some can stabilize markets, some can destabilize markets. Which they do largely depends on whether the buyers of those derivatives are speculating or are hedging against future price changes because they need actual protection against those price changes.
FWIW, Bitcoin just hit $15,000. Those 5,000 bitcoin pizzas made somebody very rich!
edit: Opps - false alarm. It's only $13,801
Bitcoin transaction fees are a bit of a fun killer as I have just discovered.
I have been saving $20/week for the last couple of months in bitcoin just for interest sake. Now I have 9 small bitcoin amounts in my wallet and it's worth more than double what I have put in. So I decided to sell it.
However, dun dun, dunnn:- to convert it back into cash right now would cost me $100 in fees to get $200 in cash back!
This is partly because the transaction fees are quite high at the moment because there is a backlog. However even if they were normal I would be paying 10% or more in fees.
What I believe I needed to do is 'prep' for selling these by offering a small fee to combine the small transactions into one at a time when there is no backlog. To get it done cheaply, that transaction would take an long time to go through and therefore my ability to sell is out of my control.
Logically this makes a savings plan in bitcoin a bad idea if you are investing regular small amounts. It's a pretty big downside.
Bitcoin transaction fees are a bit of a fun killer as I have just discovered.
I have been saving $20/week for the last couple of months in bitcoin just for interest sake. Now I have 9 small bitcoin amounts in my wallet and it's worth more than double what I have put in. So I decided to sell it.
However, dun dun, dunnn:- to convert it back into cash right now would cost me $100 in fees to get $200 in cash back!
This is partly because the transaction fees are quite high at the moment because there is a backlog. However even if they were normal I would be paying 10% or more in fees.
What I believe I needed to do is 'prep' for selling these by offering a small fee to combine the small transactions into one at a time when there is no backlog. To get it done cheaply, that transaction would take an long time to go through and therefore my ability to sell is out of my control.
Logically this makes a savings plan in bitcoin a bad idea if you are investing regular small amounts. It's a pretty big downside.
That doesn't sound quite right. Are you saying, you have 9 different addresses? If you have all the money in one address, then only need to pay the fee once ($15 right now) plus a currency conversion fee.
It looks like these guys are offering ~2.7% fees: https://localbitcoins.com/ad/571105/cash-out-your-bitcoins-bank-all-banks (but I think min is $300).
Copay requires high fees for low amounts transactions?
The parameter used for the fee calculation is the TX size, not the output amount. So, this could happen when you have many small inputs in your wallet, so you need to use all (or most) of them to build the transaction and your fee will be increase significantly. For a more detailed explanation check this contributor comment: https://github.com/bitpay/copay/issues/5164#issuecomment-265569494. This could be useful too: https://github.com/bitpay/copay/issues/4803#issuecomment-254496226.
I'd learned long ago that the existing national currency systems are entirely faith-based
Come to think of it, buying into tulips made more sense, as when they lose their value they still make beautiful flowers.
I'd learned long ago that the existing national currency systems are entirely faith-based
Only in failed states, ...
In a functioning state, if everyone loses faith in fiat currency does it lose all its value? It does not, people will want it to relinquish their debts to government (or simply to facilitate trade with restrictive legal tender laws). There is demand, thus it will have value. Your lack of faith can not remove that utility, thus it can not be the full basis of its value.
Force is a more fundamental basis for the value of fiat currencies than faith.
Bitcoin transaction fees are a bit of a fun killer as I have just discovered.
I have been saving $20/week for the last couple of months in bitcoin just for interest sake. Now I have 9 small bitcoin amounts in my wallet and it's worth more than double what I have put in. So I decided to sell it.
However, dun dun, dunnn:- to convert it back into cash right now would cost me $100 in fees to get $200 in cash back!
This is partly because the transaction fees are quite high at the moment because there is a backlog. However even if they were normal I would be paying 10% or more in fees.
What I believe I needed to do is 'prep' for selling these by offering a small fee to combine the small transactions into one at a time when there is no backlog. To get it done cheaply, that transaction would take an long time to go through and therefore my ability to sell is out of my control.
Logically this makes a savings plan in bitcoin a bad idea if you are investing regular small amounts. It's a pretty big downside.
but this actually remains remarkably stable over history. In Roman times you could buy a fine set of clothes for about an ounce of gold