5 ms·

Bitcoin to the rescue .. ?

by argumentum 13y ago

polarix 13y ago
The BTC ATM market is ready to heat up in a big way.
- gargarplex 13y ago
  Are your initials GP?
smtddr 13y ago
First thing that came to mind. This is one way bitcoin helps people; when banks start refusing to allow you to use your money how you want. Remember when wikileaks couldn't get donations because "pressure" was put on paypal, mastercard & visa not to process those payments? Bitcoin. Wanna donate to the piratebay? Anonymous? ...bitcoin. Megacorps wanna donate to a political campaign without being found out later on? ....bitcoin.
- kungfooguru 13y ago
  Yea, put your companies capital into a volatile, non-FDIC insured, commonly robbed medium. Genius.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - Sambdala 13y ago
    When the subject at hand is about companies that don't have an option?
    - cowsandmilk 13y ago
      I don't see what problem bitcoin solves for these businesses. The first example in the article is having to take $51,000 in cash to pay the company's taxes to the state. Bitcoin does not solve this in any fashion. I really struggle to find the problem that bitcoin solves in this situation.
  - waterlesscloud 13y ago
    "Commonly robbed" is an exaggeration.
  - azernik 13y ago
    That's the beauty of it - you don't need to use bitcoin to store your capital. Just use it to get money from your customers to a hard-currency account, which I would guess is easier with BTC than with large quantities of physical cash. There's risk in the movement of a day's cash flow by BTC, but probably not much higher than the risk of transferring cash in your personal car.
- maqr 13y ago
  It's really important to understand that bitcoin is not anonymous by default, and it might well be less anonymous than cash by default. I know there are solutions to anonymizing BTC, but for the average person who bought some BTC from a service online and used it to send a transaction to a political campaign or TPB or wherever, I wouldn't call it any more anonymous than paypal.
  - spikels 13y ago
    Exactly right but these buyers & sellers don't care about anonymity too much. It is the banks who are worried. If governments were really devious they would replace their cash with a non-anonymous cryptocurrency like BitCoins. That would make it hate for the underground economy to avoid the police or taxation.
  - asperous 13y ago
    The services online aren't broadcasting the names of the people using their addresses- so it's basically anonymous to the common person. It's true that without using a mixer (aka "money launderer") Big Government could seize the service to get your name... but what about https://localbitcoins.com/ https://localbitcoins.com/ ?
Crito 13y ago
How do these businesses cheaply, regularly, and reliably turn large amounts of cash into bitcoins, without going through somebody that is spooked by the Federal Government? Asking their customers to do it for them is unrealistic. Their target audience is not "HN techies", but rather "general population". Maybe in the future having the customers do it will be a realistic solution, but maybe in the future it will be fully legalized anyway...
- lukifer 13y ago
  It would be a smart move on the part of stores to operate aggressively-priced LocalBitcoins sales on the side, to reduce their cash on hand.
- natrius 13y ago
  Raise prices for dollar purchases and discount Bitcoin purchases. After three weeks of that, 90% of customers will be paying with Bitcoin.
  - rmc 13y ago
    You presume every shop in the town/city will accept this BitCoin plan. If not, then punters will just switch to the shop that operates with dollars, and accepts the risks/drawbacks the shops in this article do, and you're business will fail.

Bitcoin to the rescue .. ?

polarix 13y ago

The BTC ATM market is ready to heat up in a big way.

gargarplex 13y ago
Are your initials GP?

smtddr 13y ago

First thing that came to mind. This is one way bitcoin helps people; when banks start refusing to allow you to use your money how you want. Remember when wikileaks couldn't get donations because "pressure" was put on paypal, mastercard & visa not to process those payments? Bitcoin. Wanna donate to the piratebay? Anonymous? ...bitcoin. Megacorps wanna donate to a political campaign without being found out later on? ....bitcoin.

kungfooguru 13y ago
Yea, put your companies capital into a volatile, non-FDIC insured, commonly robbed medium. Genius.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- Sambdala 13y ago
  When the subject at hand is about companies that don't have an option?
  - cowsandmilk 13y ago
    I don't see what problem bitcoin solves for these businesses. The first example in the article is having to take $51,000 in cash to pay the company's taxes to the state. Bitcoin does not solve this in any fashion. I really struggle to find the problem that bitcoin solves in this situation.
- waterlesscloud 13y ago
  "Commonly robbed" is an exaggeration.
- azernik 13y ago
  That's the beauty of it - you don't need to use bitcoin to store your capital. Just use it to get money from your customers to a hard-currency account, which I would guess is easier with BTC than with large quantities of physical cash. There's risk in the movement of a day's cash flow by BTC, but probably not much higher than the risk of transferring cash in your personal car.
maqr 13y ago
It's really important to understand that bitcoin is not anonymous by default, and it might well be less anonymous than cash by default. I know there are solutions to anonymizing BTC, but for the average person who bought some BTC from a service online and used it to send a transaction to a political campaign or TPB or wherever, I wouldn't call it any more anonymous than paypal.
- spikels 13y ago
  Exactly right but these buyers & sellers don't care about anonymity too much. It is the banks who are worried. If governments were really devious they would replace their cash with a non-anonymous cryptocurrency like BitCoins. That would make it hate for the underground economy to avoid the police or taxation.
- asperous 13y ago
  The services online aren't broadcasting the names of the people using their addresses- so it's basically anonymous to the common person. It's true that without using a mixer (aka "money launderer") Big Government could seize the service to get your name... but what about https://localbitcoins.com/ https://localbitcoins.com/ ?

Crito 13y ago

How do these businesses cheaply, regularly, and reliably turn large amounts of cash into bitcoins, without going through somebody that is spooked by the Federal Government? Asking their customers to do it for them is unrealistic. Their target audience is not "HN techies", but rather "general population". Maybe in the future having the customers do it will be a realistic solution, but maybe in the future it will be fully legalized anyway...

lukifer 13y ago
It would be a smart move on the part of stores to operate aggressively-priced LocalBitcoins sales on the side, to reduce their cash on hand.
natrius 13y ago
Raise prices for dollar purchases and discount Bitcoin purchases. After three weeks of that, 90% of customers will be paying with Bitcoin.
- rmc 13y ago
  You presume every shop in the town/city will accept this BitCoin plan. If not, then punters will just switch to the shop that operates with dollars, and accepts the risks/drawbacks the shops in this article do, and you're business will fail.