BITCOIN

slopemaster

One problem with crypto which few mention is the problems involved in cashing it in to something you can actually spend.

(Unless you want to buy drugs or something.)

I had a small amount in BTC back in 2013. So 2 years back i had made a large % gain but still a fairly modest amount of money, and decided to cash it in.

First thing that happened was my Bitstamp account got frozen. It took me MORE THAN  A YEAR to get it unfrozen and get my money out. (Had to threaten court action as they weren't covered by the regulator.)

Guess what happened then - - - my bank (LLoyds, now my ex-bank) decided to freeze my account because the money came from BTC*, and it took me EXACTLY A YEAR (and going to the regulator) to get that unfrozen.

All this hassle for a profit in 4 figures.

Just for that reason alone, I will never touch crypto again.

*at the time, the bank denied that was the reason and gave me the standard anti-money-laundering script. But when it was finally unfrozen, they admitted that coming from Bitcoin was the trigger.

Futuristic

slopemaster said:

One problem with crypto which few mention is the problems involved in cashing it in to something you can actually spend.

(Unless you want to buy drugs or something.)

I had a small amount in BTC back in 2013. So 2 years back i had made a large % gain but still a fairly modest amount of money, and decided to cash it in.

First thing that happened was my Bitstamp account got frozen. It took me MORE THAN  A YEAR to get it unfrozen and get my money out. (Had to threaten court action as they weren't covered by the regulator.)

Guess what happened then - - - my bank (LLoyds, now my ex-bank) decided to freeze my account because the money came from BTC*, and it took me EXACTLY A YEAR (and going to the regulator) to get that unfrozen.

All this hassle for a profit in 4 figures.

Just for that reason alone, I will never touch crypto again.

*at the time, the bank denied that was the reason and gave me the standard anti-money-laundering script. But when it was finally unfrozen, they admitted that coming from Bitcoin was the trigger.

2 years ago there were hardly any fiat on/off ramps, today you can find them everywhere with <£1 fees (Binance/kraken/coinbase etc with near instant FPS withdrawals). There are also tons of crypto cards which you can sell crypto and then top up to (nexo / crypto.com / Coinbase etc) 

Banks are more aware of "crypto" now so whilst people may still get blocked its a lot easier explanation. 

Zola.

Yeah this just isn't an issue these days as long as you have KYC'd with the exchange and your bank isn't an overbearing parent about where you send your money. 

Zola.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkiNUycxugM

Decent conversation. (1:40 to skip ads)

Zola.

https://www.bitcoinlightning.com/federal-reserve-comments-on-lightning-network/

Type_45

masonic said:

Fingers crossed those pesky particle physicists don't create a new stable chemical element with superior properties to gold.

Diamonds can be manufactured.  Has that lowered the value of diamonds?


Gold can be made from platinum or mercury.

Section62

Type_45 said:

masonic said:

Fingers crossed those pesky particle physicists don't create a new stable chemical element with superior properties to gold.

Gold can be made from platinum or mercury.

Are you sure about that?

Zola.

Section62 said:

Type_45 said:

masonic said:

Fingers crossed those pesky particle physicists don't create a new stable chemical element with superior properties to gold.

Gold can be made from platinum or mercury.

Are you sure about that?

Technically it can be, but not for any useful commercial purpose. So yeah that makes it pretty weird point to make!! Platinum is also more scarce than gold and any supply is usually snapped up pretty quickly. 

 https://www.wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2014/05/02/can-gold-be-created-from-other-elements/#:~:text=Bombarding a platinum or mercury,from other elements is radioactive.

Usually gold is created from platinum, which has one less proton than gold, or from mercury, which has one more proton than gold. Bombarding a platinum or mercury nucleus with neutrons can knock off an neutron or add on a neutron, which through natural radioactive decay can lead to gold. As should be obvious by this production process, much of the gold created from other elements is radioactive. Radioactive gold is hazardous to humans and cannot be sold commercially. Furthermore, when radioactive gold undergoes radioactive decay after a few days, it is no longer gold. Therefore, in order to create non-radioactive gold that you can sell to consumers you have to:

1. Build a nuclear reactor to act as your source of neutrons.
2. Place mercury in the reactor. After a large amount of work, only a tiny portion of gold is created.
3. Decontaminate the resulting gold. This is harder than it sounds because you can't separate out non-radioactive gold from radioactive gold using purely chemical methods.

Section62

Zola. said:

Section62 said:

Type_45 said:

masonic said:

Fingers crossed those pesky particle physicists don't create a new stable chemical element with superior properties to gold.

Gold can be made from platinum or mercury.

Are you sure about that?

Technically it can be, but not for any useful commercial purpose. So yeah that makes it pretty weird point to make!! Platinum is also more scarce than gold and any supply is usually snapped up pretty quickly. 

Yes, though I was primarily wondering whether Type_45 had missed masonic's careful use of the word 'stable'.

Reaper

Interesting to hear Elon Musk has sold 75% of his Bitcoin just 14 months after saying he would not. 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62246367

Was that a lie to keep the price up as he sold? Even if it was it is an unregulated market so he can tweet whatever he likes, unlike his tweets that affected the share price - they got him into hot water.