[worldwidetraveler]

(01-27-2019 10:07 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

I love the idea of crypto.

I'm not interested in it as an investment but would love to build a marketplace that took crypto as payment instead of having to go through Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Stripe or any other services that can close you down for saying the wrong thing.

I don't see it happening unless the value is somehow pegged to the dollar. At least in the beginning so people will feel safer in using that type of marketplace. I don't see people wanting to sell in crypto if they worry about cashing out and losing a lot of money.

Is there anything like that at the moment? Is it even possible to do something like that with crypto?

It looks like the Winklevoss twins created the Gemini dollar that is pegged to the US dollar for the exact reasons I posted.

IBM has stablecoin that is pegged to the US dollar.

Anyone know much about these? I like where it is going.

[SamuelBRoberts]

The issue with them is:
A.) They're not really cryptos, they're just ledgers being kept by single institutions. No different from your bank account, really.
B.) You can't really make any money off them.

[Giacomo Casanova]

(01-28-2019 04:57 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

The issue with them is:
A.) They're not really cryptos, they're just ledgers being kept by single institutions. No different from your bank account, really.
B.) You can't really make any money off them.

Actually there is a decentralized alternative in the ETH platform which is called DAI and growing in popularity. Created through Maker DAO it allows the deposit of a collateral in ETH (which can be liquidated if the price goes below a certain threshold) in order to get up to 150% the correspondent in DAI pegged 1:1 vs US dollar. It is possible to buy them in the open market though several crypto exchanges. Everything is handled through smart contracts. You can't make money, that's right, but it can be useful if you want to trade through exchanges or if you want to have a direct control of your funds in your wallet without the risk of volatility (stable against USD).
On the other end, being stable vs USD, it is impacted by the hyper inflation, so it's not really a deflationary currency/store of value like bitcoin.

[SamuelBRoberts]

Dai's peg has failed a few times already, right? Or did I dream that?

[Giacomo Casanova]

Mh I have checked and it was just for a short while in the first month when market cap was very low. Tether on the other end lost the peg badly for a few days recently
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/dai/

[SamuelBRoberts]

Hm...
These things always break when you really need them, is the thing. The peg keeps until there's a crisis, and a crisis is when you wanna use it.
I'd be super careful around it and wait to see it survive some serious nasty downturns before I started using it.

[worldwidetraveler]

(01-28-2019 04:57 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

The issue with them is:
A.) They're not really cryptos, they're just ledgers being kept by single institutions. No different from your bank account, really.
B.) You can't really make any money off them.

Ok, maybe I am using the wrong term here. I thought it was suppose to be another currency. Not just buying and hoping to make money on speculation, but using it for actual commerce. I understand some places were taking bitcoin as payment. It just doesn't seem like it took off since the decline.

I think crypto or blockchain or whatever term is more appropriate has the ability to change the way we do business. I don't see it fully being embraced for commerce unless it becomes more stable.

People are still going to have to pay their bills and buy food. Being able to say one crypto coin will always be one dollar will make people feel a lot safer than worrying about a bitcoin dropping before they have a chance to cash out and pay their bills. I want to buy some groceries and not worry about the value of my bitcoin when I do it.

Not to mention this helps safeguard our liberties from companies like MasterCard.

[Lampwick]

This guy has been really critical of stablecoins, especially DAI:

https://prestonbyrne.com/2017/12/10/stab...d-to-fail/

DAI tries to maintain stability by overcollateralizing. There are some other mechanisms, but that's the main one. To be honest, I don't understand the pro and con arguments very well. But at a basic level, it doesn't make sense to me how it can maintain stability if the rest of crypto, its collateral, goes to zero.

[SamuelBRoberts]

Sadly, these are "stable" because they're being backed by a single point of failure (IBM or the Winklevoss twins, respectively), which means that they're not really any different from Mastercard.
Your liberties are just as threatened as they were before, but now IBM is in charge of them, not Mastercard.

[worldwidetraveler]

(01-28-2019 08:08 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

Sadly, these are "stable" because they're being backed by a single point of failure (IBM or the Winklevoss twins, respectively), which means that they're not really any different from Mastercard.
Your liberties are just as threatened as they were before, but now IBM is in charge of them, not Mastercard.

Sad to hear. That defeats the whole purpose of using something like that.

Anyway, I appreciate the insights from everyone.

[SamuelBRoberts]

In theory the Maker DAI, which is discussed above, should be different. But I'd wait a few years to see if that's really the case. Stablecoins that aren't just backed one for one by dollars have serious challenges and it remains to see if they can be solved.

[erjk]

This is going to sound really silly and vague, but the smartest person I know, currently a senior engineer for a developing coin, told me he mathematically proved that Monero isn't the best privacy coin available, and that holding it is a terrible idea. He says Zcash is better but still not ideal from a privacy standpoint.

[SamuelBRoberts]

(01-28-2019 08:53 PM)erjk Wrote:  

This is going to sound really silly and vague, but the smartest person I know, currently a senior engineer for a developing coin, told me he mathematically proved that Monero isn't the best privacy coin available, and that holding it is a terrible idea. He says Zcash is better but still not ideal from a privacy standpoint.

I've heard similar things, that all privacy coins are flawed to some level or another.
I wouldn't try anything serious with them.

[zoom]

(01-27-2019 10:07 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

I love the idea of crypto.

I'm not interested in it as an investment but would love to build a marketplace that took crypto as payment instead of having to go through Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Stripe or any other services that can close you down for saying the wrong thing.

I don't see it happening unless the value is somehow pegged to the dollar. At least in the beginning so people will feel safer in using that type of marketplace. I don't see people wanting to sell in crypto if they worry about cashing out and losing a lot of money.

Is there anything like that at the moment? Is it even possible to do something like that with crypto?

Are you talking about crypto payment processors such as Bitpay? You pay with crypto the equivalent USD value and then the merchant has the option to convert it to fiat or settle in crypto.

Roosh V himself accepts crypto in his bookstore.

[SamuelBRoberts]

https://uncommoncore.co/maker-dai-stable...-scalable/

Interesting article on Dai from a source that seems non-retarded.
Haven't had a full chance to analyze it yet but that site is generally intelligent.

[Swordfish1010]

(01-28-2019 08:08 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

Sadly, these are "stable" because they're being backed by a single point of failure (IBM or the Winklevoss twins, respectively), which means that they're not really any different from Mastercard.
Your liberties are just as threatened as they were before, but now IBM is in charge of them, not Mastercard.

Mastercard is a credit card processor. Not a bank, and certainly not a currency.

[The Grey]

(01-29-2019 01:39 AM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

https://uncommoncore.co/maker-dai-stable...-scalable/

Interesting article on Dai from a source that seems non-retarded.
Haven't had a full chance to analyze it yet but that site is generally intelligent.

Great source. Uncommoncore.co is created by two of my favorite researchers in the crypto space.

[Obermarschall]

As many people pointed it out, when nobody talks about it, you should accumulate. However, I strongly advise you to get the basics of technical analysis. You don't want to buy it when it is 'shortly' overbought.

[worldwidetraveler]

(01-28-2019 09:10 PM)zoom Wrote:  

Are you talking about crypto payment processors such as Bitpay? You pay with crypto the equivalent USD value and then the merchant has the option to convert it to fiat or settle in crypto.

Roosh V himself accepts crypto in his bookstore.

Yeah, I saw Bitpay before. I was talking more about crypto being linked to the US dollar. One crypto coin to one US dollar.

[worldwidetraveler]

(01-29-2019 02:45 AM)Swordfish1010 Wrote:  

(01-28-2019 08:08 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

Sadly, these are "stable" because they're being backed by a single point of failure (IBM or the Winklevoss twins, respectively), which means that they're not really any different from Mastercard.
Your liberties are just as threatened as they were before, but now IBM is in charge of them, not Mastercard.

Mastercard is a credit card processor. Not a bank, and certainly not a currency.

I am sure Sam knows the difference. He was just responding to me and how I used Mastercard as an example of shutting payment processing for political reasons.

[worldwidetraveler]

(01-29-2019 01:39 AM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

https://uncommoncore.co/maker-dai-stable...-scalable/

Interesting article on Dai from a source that seems non-retarded.
Haven't had a full chance to analyze it yet but that site is generally intelligent.

Thanks for posting that. It looks like it may be damn near impossible to maintain any kind of equilibrium between the dollar and a crypto coin demand.

Maybe I am thinking about this all wrong. Maybe something more private that isn't purchased on some kind of market but solely used in the buying and selling of actual products.

Damn, this idea is getting to the point where I won't be able to let it go. The last idea I couldn't drop has been a software program I've been working on for the past 10 years.

[SamuelBRoberts]

[url=https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1090141112210055169][/url]

A take I found interesting.
What he doesn't say though is that none of these things are going to make you as a token holder much money, no matter how good their tech gets.

[semibaron]

(01-28-2019 07:57 PM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(01-28-2019 04:57 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

The issue with them is:
A.) They're not really cryptos, they're just ledgers being kept by single institutions. No different from your bank account, really.
B.) You can't really make any money off them.

Ok, maybe I am using the wrong term here. I thought it was suppose to be another currency. Not just buying and hoping to make money on speculation, but using it for actual commerce. I understand some places were taking bitcoin as payment. It just doesn't seem like it took off since the decline.

I think crypto or blockchain or whatever term is more appropriate has the ability to change the way we do business. I don't see it fully being embraced for commerce unless it becomes more stable.

People are still going to have to pay their bills and buy food. Being able to say one crypto coin will always be one dollar will make people feel a lot safer than worrying about a bitcoin dropping before they have a chance to cash out and pay their bills. I want to buy some groceries and not worry about the value of my bitcoin when I do it.

Not to mention this helps safeguard our liberties from companies like MasterCard.

It's not really about stability in price as every business owner would immediately convert the crypto received into fiat. There are a lot of problems around regulation, accounting and taxation.

[[email protected]]

You can make money off stable coins like tether by longing it on bitfinix whenever it's value caves in more than 3%. With leverage even. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of withholding lucrative tips or cockblocking rvf people. I'd understand it if you don't feel inclined to share things with outgroups but there's no point in discussing crypto here if it's not to offer practical advice to each other. What is the point of rvf members reading through essays and word salads if there's no information they can leverage off of?

I dislike stable coins. Unfortunately I'm using ones like TUSD to short some coins I own in the bear market. Initially I was very paranoid I couldn't cash them out but turns out you can transfer them to bittrex and exchange them for USD and then have them wire that to your bank account. For now, it works.

[earlgrey]

(01-30-2019 07:22 AM)[email protected] Wrote:  

You can make money off stable coins like tether by longing it on bitfinix whenever it's value caves in more than 3%. With leverage even.

I would just be careful about buying tether/DAI on the dips. It has worked historically until one day it doesn't. Just don't bet the farm on it.