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from the everybody-like-bubbles-until-they-pop dept.
Something odd is going on in finance this week. One unit of BitCoin briefly exceeded the value of a troy ounce of gold before it fell back. However, this occurred during Ethereum rallying to its current peak above US$100. Perhaps this is like comparing apples, oranges, and dog-biscuits but — as of this week — we now have a situation where Ethereum is well above the US$1 credibility threshold of most alternative digital currencies and, to a simpleton, BitCoin was more valuable than gold.
What changed? Nothing obvious. Banks have teams of shirking resume builders working on trendy projects and they've been working on digital currencies for years. Likewise, tranches of investments funds have been going into technology for decades. However, after puffing and bursting a housing bubble and educational bubble, is this the next place to jub other people's money? Is it Charles Stross' Accelerando coming to life? I don't know but I'll be very concerned if there is a financial wobble within the next month.
(External hyperlinks via Vinay Gupta, an Ethereum contributor, Ethereum evangelist and all-around great guy who helps the homeless.)
[Ed Note: Asking what is Ethereum? Me too. Additional information on the above topic can be found at the IB Times]
(Score: 2, Informative) by dbv on Sunday May 07 2017, @07:34PM (6 children)
No, cartels don't use Bitcoin for money laundering. They use too big to fail banks [usatoday.com].
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Sunday May 07 2017, @08:57PM (5 children)
Just because they use one, and got caught for it, doesn't mean they aren't and don't use other methods as well. The US Customs and Border Patrol pat themselves on the back for stopping a few billion at the border while the other 60% gets by unseen.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 1) by dbv on Sunday May 07 2017, @10:17PM (3 children)
They used HSBC, for years and to the tune of billions. Do you have any proof at all of them using Bitcoin? Maybe they don't like the publicly available blockchain for transactions that large?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tftp on Sunday May 07 2017, @11:33PM (2 children)
They could use many one-time accounts (tens of thousands) to obfuscate the transfers. But a better question to ask is this: what is the daily volume of BTC transfers? The answer to that [blockchain.info] is from $200M to $400M per day. Doesn't look like a handful of geeks paying for pizzas or coffee. It's equally unlikely that it's all immigrant workers who are sending money back home. I do not know anyone IRL who would be dealing in BTC at all, let alone in such numbers. This volume suggests some persistent activity, and it may well be one of ways to finance illegal activities.
(Score: 1) by dbv on Tuesday May 09 2017, @01:21AM (1 child)
Could, doesn't look like, may. LOL. Pretty thin.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Tuesday May 09 2017, @02:27AM
The complaint published when Ulbricht was arrested included information the FBI gained from a system image of the Silk Road server collected on 23 July 2013. It noted that, "From February 6, 2011 to July 23, 2013 there were approximately 1,229,465 transactions completed on the site. The total revenue generated from these sales was 9,519,664 Bitcoins, and the total commissions collected by Silk Road from the sales amounted to 614,305 Bitcoins. These figures are equivalent to roughly $1.2 billion in revenue and $79.8 million in commissions, at current Bitcoin exchange rates...", according to the September 2013 complaint, and involved 146,946 buyers and 3,877 vendors.[12]
This one site generated at least $2M in revenue daily - and that was retail. Transaction-wise, if you look at the chart [wikipedia.org], it would be six times as high.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @10:51PM
Hahaha. Where do you think that 60% is? Bitcoin? Cash like in Breaking Bad? Really? lol
Is that what you have to believe so you can live in a Just World?