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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: 3, Insightful) by archfeld on Sunday May 07 2017, @06:21PM (17 children)
Crypto currencies are the wet dream for the cartels and other entities seeking a way to launder funds. If you literally had a house full of cash that you could not do anything with, you could in 'theory' trade in for a lot of some crypto currency in a shady market, even at a minor loss as that much cash is only so much paper to you, and then shuffle crypto currency through several markets changing types, selling here and there in different currencies in the end emerging with clean, untraceable funds in legitimate countries where you could even pay taxes on the cash and invest in legitimate businesses. I would not be surprised to see more of these types of electronic currencies appear, peak and then drop into obscurity.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(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?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @10:12PM (4 children)
yeah, i'm sure there is a lot of money laundering (who gives a shit? what people do to make their money is not my business unless you're stealing it from me or mine.) but there are also people who just believe in the right of a free individual to be able to do business without some usurer getting a cut or some useless sack of crap in government stealing some of it. fuck the banksters and the pigs in government.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Sunday May 07 2017, @11:38PM (3 children)
Personally I agree, just because I pointed out that bitcoins are a perfect vehicle for money laundering doesn't mean I oppose it but that it and other crypto currencies are a very good place to do some money shuffling. The market is confusing and no one is sure of the impact this kind of 'new' market is having or could have on the economies of the world.
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/05/07/1417231 [soylentnews.org]
Not only does it effect the US economy but the world market as a whole, not sure if it is good or bad at this point but when it causes a noticeable blip on the world market, someone is getting rich off it. I just wish it was me :) At what point do you think that anything that happens in the economy DOESN'T effect you and yours ? If the government ends up paying out to cover the dirtbag banksters, or losing money by it 'we the people' will get to make up the difference in more unfair, unwanted taxes enacted by elected douchebags employed by the corporations. One way or another they will find a way to screw us.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @12:35AM (2 children)
i wasn't really trying to give you a hard time with my reply. just cussing the bastards, not necessarily you. i hope everyone in the world abandons fiat currency. It has the potential to kill big government and the banks with their fractional reserve banking scam. We don't need them or their taxes. I know it affects me. that's why i'm divesting from the scam. feeding it won't satisfy it. it's a monster, it's proven that. no income tax and less and less fiat currency. it's beans, bullets, band-aids and bitcoin time. i'll pay my local sales tax for now, when i have to. eventually we should be able to work around that too. Eventually the whole house of cards will come crashing down. interlopers and thieves is all they are. fuck them all, consequences be damned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @06:50AM (1 child)
Since pre-Biblical days, its been the human condition that the masses were subject to one war-lord or another.
We have our worker bees which produce everything, and we have our elite, many of which are nothing but pure parasites.
I can't lop all elites in that group, as there are also many there who perform vital leadership and planning functions.
Its like comparing Elon Musk to George Soros. Personally, I'd much rather Elon Musk keep every dollar he gets, as he does things with it, while I see nothing wrong with taxing every dollar Soros gets.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cafebabe on Monday May 08 2017, @01:55PM
Are you mad? You support PayPal [wikipedia.org] co-founder Elon Musk? PayPal survives because it is shiftier than the average credit card scammer [paypalsucks.com].
1702845791×2
(Score: 1) by WillR on Monday May 08 2017, @02:49PM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday May 08 2017, @07:37PM (3 children)
Because bit coin is international, and can be exchanged in many places for several other types of currency, both virtual and actual, and virtual currencies can be generated and exchanged by agencies outside the traditional banking circles which are very well regulated and interdependent. While the US Fed's aren't the most current or reactive to virtual currencies. Heck they just noticed that there are other methods beyond wire transfer available. The motions of virtual currencies are not so well understood, thus it is much harder to follow and predict.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 1) by WillR on Tuesday May 09 2017, @12:54AM (2 children)
Right, I get the advantage of shuffling your millions between different cryptocurrencies and using several brokers to cash out, it's the cash IN I don't get. How do you turn 50,000 $20 bills in a bedroom in LA into cryptocurrency without the money going through a conventional bank account somewhere under US jurisdiction on the way?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by tftp on Tuesday May 09 2017, @02:34AM
How do you turn 50,000 $20 bills in a bedroom in LA into cryptocurrency without the money going through a conventional bank account somewhere under US jurisdiction on the way?
Something like this, perhaps? [localbitcoins.com] I clicked on just one random link, and the trader is willing to accept up to $20K in one transaction.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Tuesday May 09 2017, @04:29AM
The money overage I was thinking about is in stash houses in Mexico as a result of drug trafficking. I am sure that Colombia has a similar locales.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/09/19/22-billion-dollars-found-photos-of-a-mexican-drug-lords-home-after-being-raided/ [veteranstoday.com]
https://www.google.com/search?q=drug+money+stash+houses&tbm=isch&imgil=JEwzyFciEhhTvM%253A%253B1PvNyMLuWtiABM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.snopes.com%25252Fphotos%25252Fcrime%25252Fdrugmoney.asp&source=iu&pf=m&fir=JEwzyFciEhhTvM%253A%252C1PvNyMLuWtiABM%252C_&usg=__YK1JjxqgLIOXo0lu7TOTjysfPSU%3D&biw=1273&bih=617&dpr=1&ved=0ahUKEwj149T7--HTAhWFLmMKHTglDx8QyjcINg&ei=wkQRWfX6L4XdjAO4yrz4AQ#imgrc=JEwzyFciEhhTvM:&spf=196 [google.com]
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge