Cryptocurrency

[CCarter]

Citigroup, Bank Of America and JPMorgan have all banned cryptocurrency purchases with creditcards now.

You also can't buy Stocks, Mutual Bonds, a lot of other investments, or lap dances with credit cards either - that news is simply fear-mongering. (Sauce: 10 things you can't (easily) buy with credit cards)

The good news of the Bitcoin is it's transaction verification has finally dropped down to under 10 minutes:

Older 7 day average was nearly 2 days. 2 Days to complete a transaction (or not cause it could fail in that time period), was a bit ridiculous. The Bitcoin's price swings along would make purchase prices un-realistic for the masses (again something no one seems to want to address).

With the drop in transaction times it also drops the Bitcoin miners' revenue, the old average was $55 and now the current average of a transaction is $5. But paying $5 for a transaction is still ridiculously high when compared to credit card transactions fees, or cash with zero transaction fees - again something people seem to be putting their heads in the sand over.

Steam lets you buy games using LTC

Steam also dropped the Bitcoin from it's accepted payments cause of volatility in December citing high fees and price volatility. (sauce: and Steam Drops Bitcoin Payments Citing High Fees and Price Volatility)

When people report news, they should report ALL of it.

#HODLING

P.S. I was never actually hodling cause I don't believe in the technology since no one seems to be able to address in laymen terms how the masses will adopt it.

 

[darkzerothree]

@CCarter

That is true. Steam dropped BTC in favor of LTC.
As I just responded to "ya can't buy anything with crypto" I did not report that part, but only listed stuff you can buy.

(As trading one crypto for another is not a big deal)

Here in southern Germany, crypto is gaining traction as a technology. Lots of new ideas, from tracking pharma transport temperatures, truck driving times (huge legal issue), certificates for luxury items (tracking the Rolex from factory to x number of owners, etc..

 

[Ryuzaki]

What is the reasoning behind all of these social media sites and ad networks suddenly banning crypto ads all around the same time?

 

[c4yrslf12]

What is the reasoning behind all of these social media sites and ad networks suddenly banning crypto ads all around the same time?

Likely because quite a few scams have already occurred, and since it's an emerging 'investment' world, it's tough to vet everyone appropriately.

I'm of the opposite mindset, that people should do their own research, and if they fall victim to a scam, tough cheese. However, I think the ad networks and others are playing the "big brother for our users" card.

 

[Steve Brownlie]

Yeah it seems like it's a case of 'everyone used to be chill' then things happened like the PPC for illegitimate pharma products then... malware downloads in ads for open source software searches then...

We get to where we are when networks are just keen to stay away from anything that isn't a good risk/reward for them to carry ads for.

 

[Kris]

What is the reasoning behind all of these social media sites and ad networks suddenly banning crypto ads all around the same time?

From what I saw it was due to the really high number of scams popping up. I was seeing ads in my feed promising people to make guaranteed daily returns just by them paying $x amount. And many self-proclaimed investment experts with zero qualifications.

From Facebook's updated advertising policy.

Ads must not promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings, or cryptocurrency.
​

I think some of the recent initial coin offerings was the last nail in the coffin. Too many were popping up that weren't offering any real-world benefits other than lining the pockets of the creators.

 

[Prentzz]

Here's the link to their policy announcement.

 

[Kris]

Huge trading spike happening in the last hour or so.

(Bitcoin in AUD)

593% increase in trading volume in 1 hour.

Ethereum and Ripple jumped up a bit too.

 

[CCarter]

Trying to find a buttcoin ATM to sell is impossible. Either they only allow buying, or have ridiculous fees to sell.

Average is 16-18% to sell or buy. WTF

One place got 9% buy, 10% sell. Still WTF

So for everything $1000 i want to buy or sell on average I have to part with over 15% of the money? $150+?

If one person with a group of ATMs would get to 2% to sell or buy they would kill it!

Mass adoption here we come! #HODLING

 

[GNews]

Are there any cryptos spiking currently?

 

[Nargil]

Are there any cryptos spiking currently?

There's a lot of movement on all altcoins across the board. Nothing compared to 2017 obviously, but there are nice gains to be made if you follow the markets properly. ICX had a very nice run. XTZ too for a large cap shitcoin. And the best part is, that even if BTC makes a move these days, altcoins don't really dump, so that's a very good sign of possible altseason upcoming. Definitely start taking look at the charts.