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Bitcoin

Bitcoin Hits Record as Mastercard, BNY Mellon Embrace Crypto (bloomberg.com) 81

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Bitcoin jumped to a record high after Mastercard and Bank of New York Mellon moved to make it easier for customers to use cryptocurrencies. From a report: The largest digital asset rose as much as 7.4% to $48,364, surpassing the all-time high reached Monday after Tesla announced it would hold $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency on its balance sheet. The wider Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index also touched a record. "The crypto-asset world is bursting into the realms of traditional finance at a staggering pace," said Simon Peters, an analyst at investment platform eToro. Mastercard singled out so-called "stablecoins," which often peg their value to that of another asset, such as the U.S. dollar. Mastercard has already partnered with crypto card providers such as Wirex and BitPay, but has required digital currencies to be converted into fiat before processing payments for transactions on its network.
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Bitcoin Hits Record as Mastercard, BNY Mellon Embrace Crypto More

Bitcoin Hits Record as Mastercard, BNY Mellon Embrace Crypto

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  • to buy a video card, if you can imagine. GTX1030's are selling for over $100.

    • I heard there are chip shortages, and everyone upgrading while being stuck at home. The miners have moved on to purpose built cards.

      -Time to find another narrative instead of blaming crypto.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        I heard there are chip shortages, and everyone upgrading while being stuck at home. The miners have moved on to purpose built cards.

        -Time to find another narrative instead of blaming crypto.

        No, it's crypto. Not necessarily bitcoin, but bitcoin hype generally brings up others like ETH and XRP (ripple) trying to get in on the game. Just like how the GameStop hype brought up AMC and BlackBerry as people too late to the party try to find alternatives that will likely be #2 and #3 as well.

        And ETH miners are buyi

    • The only major coin that can still be mined profitably with video cards is ETH, and that one only with at least 8GB on each card. 2GB and 4GB video card prices have also spiked, so the current shortage most likely has nothing to do with cryptocurrency mining.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 1s44c ( 552956 )

      That's COVID related chip shortages. It's not due to bitcoin, which stopped being mined on video cards years ago.

  • Enough already (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hackertourist ( 2202674 ) on Thursday February 11, 2021 @10:52AM (#61051530)

    The flood of Bitcoin reporting almost makes me pine for the bad old days when every second story was about Trump instead. This is a tech site, not a second-rate investment advice column.

    Technical developments of cryptocurrency: ok
    incessant cheerleading over the value of BTC: not ok

    • Mad that your $1 investment a decade ago would be worth over $100k now?

      • Mad that people are pushing for a currency that costs $570 per transaction, and pollutes more than the state of Switzerland.

        • And has been tied to organized crime activities in the past, like drug markets and murder for hire.

          We always have to hear about it bc its about investment from perception, not real value. Same way perception (limited awareness of cost) drives choices which destroy environments. Same w gamestop bubble: Those first to obey dog trainer and get out early are rewarded, second group looking at trends are punished. The whole thing is a vulnerability brought about by inequality: A small amount of people can create

          • Might as well do away with physical cash then because it's also used for illegal purposes. Also people never bought drugs before bitcoin...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          Mad that people are pushing for a currency that costs $570 per transaction, and pollutes more than the state of Switzerland.

          And one that tops put at 10 transactions per second.Globally. Even if it did not have all its other severe problems, as a "currency" this thing is a bad joke.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mvdwege ( 243851 )

        I for one am perfectly happy not to be associated with a mess of cranks, idiots, scammers, and alt-righters.

      • I mean, do I regret not buying Bitcoin then? Yes. I doubt I would have continued holding when it went 100x. But the reason I didn't buy then is that I think it's stupid and useless and the fact that some people are making fortunes doesn't mean it's not stupid and useless. I mean, I also regret not buying lottery tickets with certain numbers on them. That doesn't mean that I think the lottery is a great investment going forward. Certainly, the era of 100x returns is completely gone.

      • Its called "counting the hits and ignoring the misses". How many coins have failed and how many bitcoin exchanges have been thinly veiled scams?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      The flood of Bitcoin reporting almost makes me pine for the bad old days when every second story was about Trump instead. This is a tech site, not a second-rate investment advice column.

      Technical developments of cryptocurrency: ok
      incessant cheerleading over the value of BTC: not ok

      Same here. At least Trump was a different kind of stupid every day and some times he was hilarious. BTC is just the same old boring set of lies over and over again.

    • I will voice the completely opposite opinion— I want to better understand why the hell Bitcoin still survives from a tech standpoint, and how these companies will serve to overcome those limitations to make it a viable investment or currency. Because from everything I know in my heart and brain (and gut), Bitcoin is a miserable technical solution for widespread adoption. Will these companies go for the bait-and-switch approach and switch to a Proof-of-Stake solution of an alternative cryptocurrency?

      • Sure, those would be interesting topics to address. But the majority of the articles we're seeing now is just breathless "ZOMG BTC has risen in value again" with no technical substance whatsoever.

  • Bitcoin is like a mini economy in a glass jar that people experiment with. Everyone is over fertilizing it and now a monster plant is coming out of it infecting the real ecosystem. Meanwhile millions are still unemployed and homeless.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jythie ( 914043 )
      The current investment ecosystem is also flush with cash but doesn't have enough places for it to go. Just like we saw with the subprime stuff, when there is too much money and not enough investments, people find ways to package or sell things to meet that demand.

  • The Trump era of financial regulators being asleep at the switch led to this, cryptocurrencies should've been nuked from orbit the instant they appeared, as with all previous internet funny monies. Act now before this gets further out of hand.

    • Maybe they can sick the EPA on bitcoin, that'll work!

      Require EnergyStar rated coins! Because EnergyStar worked for my dehumidifiers that need replacing every 18 months and wind up in a landfill. -oh wait.

    • This is too hilarious even for slashdot. Remember when a judge ruled that linking to DeCSS code was illegal so people kept posting it here? Or when another judge wanted 3d printed gun files removed from the internet? Now you want similar data removed for some reason.

      • I'm not asking for information to be censored, I'm asking for consistent application of anti-money-laundering regulations.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          I'm not asking for information to be censored, I'm asking for consistent application of anti-money-laundering regulations.

          Indeed.

    • The Trump era of financial regulators being asleep at the switch led to this

      The Obama-era regulators were doing things. In 2013, mixers and marketplaces were told to comply with anti-money laundering, know your customer, and reporting suspect activities. In 2015, the US CFTC started regulating future contracts surrounding bitcoin. In 2016, the government included bitcoin in regulations that concerned "funds". Then, during the Trump presidency, nothing.

  • Here's a couple of good Twitter threads [twitter.com] by Stephen Diehl (@smdiehl) about what Bitcoin really is (with an earlier one further down below).

    Let's discuss the environmental cost of bitcoin. Because despite all the push for sustainable and green investment in the tech sector, there's a giant smoldering Chernobyl sitting at the heart of Silicon Valley which a lot of investors would prefer you remain quiet about. Thread (1/)

    TLDR on bitcoin economics: It's a pyramid-shaped investment scheme backed by the collec

    • Why in the world are you quoting Twitter?

      -Hell hath frozen over.

  • BitchCoin [youtube.com] are far more entertaining.

  • What is the value going to be in a decade? I don't think it will be what it is now. To me bitcoin is another flash crash with the timescale in a decade instead of a week.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      What is the value going to be in a decade? I don't think it will be what it is now. To me bitcoin is another flash crash with the timescale in a decade instead of a week.

      It will depend on when the supply of idiots runs out, just as any other pyramid scheme. Sure, BTC has been going longer than basically all other such scams, and that deserves respect, but it does not change its nature.

    • Well, if you take that perspective, Tesla doing a pump-and-dump (-and-pump) might make sense to shake out some of the volatility long-term given the money they have tied up in it. It essentially becomes bounds-testing and could shake out hysterisis. ...but how do you manage the transaction limitation if you actually want to make it viable...

  • I don't know if this has been overlooked, not tracked or it has been decided that it wasn't a problem. There are a whole lot of people who, whether by accident or design, have done very well out of it. Some of them have fairly alternate views.

    For instance, according to a flakey article in 2017 Roger Ver was the biggest bitcoin millionaire with $52M. Twice as much as the Winklevoss Twins who recently became billionaires because of the surge in price. Mr Ver doesn't appear to be that nice a person. "He sold

    • I have a feeling you are right; it becomes self-promoting as an investment (and means to hide cash). I wonder when they choose to sell.

  • MC and the others do not "embrace" BTC. They are just after a short-term, cheap (for them) marketing stunt.

  • Only 24 hours after the last Bitcoin post, we're back to the "Bitcoin at all time high" spam. Bitcoin is dependent upon FOMO - it has no utility. Once the fomo hits the wall (and this is inevitable - exponential growth can't continue forever), say goodbye to Bitcoin - don't be fooled by the masses yelling "hodl" - just like $GME and their "diamond hands", Bitcoin's price will drop off a cliff. Posts like these fuel this fire of stupid. The huge amount of pollution being pumped into the atmosphere, more than

  • We're still ignoring the massive environmental impact of bitcoin, right? Just checking.

    • We're still ignoring the massive environmental impact of bitcoin, right? Just checking.

      Only a few people are ignoring it - but they're ignoring it HARD.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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