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posted by martyb on Friday September 15 2017, @04:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the check-back-in-ten-years dept.

In a recent Reuters story http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-banks-conference-jpmorgan/jpmorgans-dimon-says-bitcoin-is-a-fraud-idUSKCN1BN2KP, JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon threw a bomb at the emerging cryptocurrency.

In the story he states, "The currency isn't going to work. You can't have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart."

He goes on to compare Bitcoin to the 17th-century Dutch tulip bulb situation.

Is he right, or is he just shilling for the present system of imaginary-value fiat currencies?

[Separately, according to Bloomberg, Bitcoin has been on a five-day decline: Bitcoin Crashes After Chinese Exchange Says It Will Halt Trading. --Ed.].


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  • (Score: 2) by n1 on Friday September 15 2017, @07:19PM (2 children)

    by n1 (993) on Friday September 15 2017, @07:19PM (#568641) Journal

    I completely agree, cash is extremely valuable to me as someone who travels internationally.

    I am not looking forward to cashfree society, but it does seem to be where we're headed, banks, governments and other institutions have it in their long game. They are not known for seeking public consent in these matters, like when fractional reserve banking and the end of the gold standard came into play. They were not democratically endorsed shifts in how we used money, they were necessary actions to save 'the system'... The next necessary action to save the system will be to reduce to a level where physical currency is effectively removed from circulation.

    The comment i replied to was comparing bitcoin to banknotes, in an attempt to demonstrate the value of fiat currency and to apparently explain why Dimon is right and bitcoin is a fraud and cult. Bitcoin is used in many different ways, it seems the most common use is to make financial transactions across the world. Something you can't do reliably or cost effectively with banknotes. If you've made a bank transfer or Western Union transfer overseas into a different currency for any reason, you'll be aware it takes time and the costs are usually very high. Bitcoin removes this, as a currency, not as an investment.

    As I stated already, I am not a fan of bitcoin, but I can understand the utility just as much as banknotes, if in different situations. Not to be conspiratorial, but it wouldn't surprise me if bitcoin is actually part of the larger campaign to go 'cashfree' ... It is being used right now in emerging markets for individuals to protect their assets and pay for goods and services, without having to deal with a slow and corrupt bureaucracy, or risk demonetization. See China and India. The civilian populations in countries that have been primarily cash based have now been given an international currency option that their omnipresent government/cb has less direct control over, and they seem to be taking advantage of it.

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 15 2017, @08:11PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday September 15 2017, @08:11PM (#568672)

    It is cool that BTC is an accessible option to escape some really bad monetary systems. People I know from unstable countries used to keep over half of their savings in gold jewelry.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @11:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @11:37PM (#568750)

    Interesting. As a volunteer I receive international payments (worldwide to me in USA) from university student teams, $500 to join a consortium. I started out 10 years ago and accepted bank-2-bank transfers (wires, direct transfers using SWIFT numbers, etc) and they were mostly awful. Often an intermediate bank would take a fee with no documentation, there was no tracking, arbitrary delays, etc.

    So I started requesting Western Union and then PayPal. At present, I think the PayPal option is the cheapest. Both WU and PP fix the exchange rate at the time of initiation--I can wait to redeem for a week and if there have been changes in the exchange rate I'll still get the USD 500. Because both ends of the transaction are by one company, they usually work OK.

    Q. what are Bitcoin exchange fees for this size of transfer -- buying in the non-USA country and then selling (convert to USD) once it gets here. Can this be as automated and easy as PayPal? Will I always receive exactly $500, or could I lose/gain during the time between purchase and sale of the Bitcoins? Maybe I need to find a large bitcoin exchange that has many international branches, so both ends are through one company?