Coinbase Expands Crypto Buying Reach With Apple Pay Integration (techcrunch.com) 22
Major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has integrated Apple Pay into its Onramp service, enabling third-party apps to offer direct cryptocurrency purchases through Apple's payment system.
The move significantly streamlines the traditionally complex process of converting traditional currencies to cryptocurrencies, eliminating multiple steps and extra fees previously required. It also marks a notable shift in Apple's historically cautious stance toward cryptocurrency, following years of restricting crypto-related features and removing major exchanges from its App Store in certain markets.
The move significantly streamlines the traditionally complex process of converting traditional currencies to cryptocurrencies, eliminating multiple steps and extra fees previously required. It also marks a notable shift in Apple's historically cautious stance toward cryptocurrency, following years of restricting crypto-related features and removing major exchanges from its App Store in certain markets.
What do you get (Score:2)
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Apparently, you get Apple.
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And the pandemic of... (Score:3)
...financial stupidity spreads
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...financial stupidity spreads
I swear, it's worse than COVID ever was.
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No, it's savvy: DeFi currencie are about to become deregulated in the USA, or, hands-off at least. Under Trump, it will be legal to sell these coins (and charge commissions). Now, it's all about marketing. Legal DeFi is bad for people who want it to act as a security, great for people who want to go shopping without regular banking laws being involved.
After avoiding the issue for years, it's interesting that Apple wants to sell what are essentially, digital collectibles. That would make great conspir
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Apple actually has a rather long list [apple.com] of prohibited uses for Apple Pay. The only thing that's changing is that they're allowing approved cryptocurrency exchanges to obtain an exception. Apple still isn't directly selling cryptocurrencies or otherwise encouraging their users to do so.
If I had to guess, it's probably less that Apple gets anything directly out of this and more that they just don't want everyone who buys and sells crypto to switch over to Android.
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Apple is also facing anti-trust and other similar trials or triburnal processes in multiple countries. They may have decided to do a sweep over activities they prohibit and un-prohibit ones that they expect push back from during trial. Or alternatively they may have un-prohibited some that they can point at and say “look
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This isn't DeFi.
This is ultra centralized.
It's moving numbers in a ledger at a single company.
It has always been easy to buy cryptocurrency (Score:3)
The move significantly streamlines the traditionally complex process of converting traditional currencies to cryptocurrencies, eliminating multiple steps and extra fees previously required
This is false. It has always been easy to buy cryptocurrency. The hard part has always been to get real money out again. Similar to baseball cards or rare stamps. Sure, a mint-condition Penny Black is "worth" millions of dollars, but if you try to take it to a bank or pay a debt with it, you'll be told to fuck off and come back with dollars. Then you find that the stamp dealer wants a 20% commission to sell it for you.
It's the same with crypto. Super easy to buy a little pice of a bitcoin, but hard (or extortionately expensive) to convert back into fiat currency.
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The hard part has always been to get real money out again.
That's just bullshit. Anyone can open an account on a cryptocurrency exchange and start trading. It works the same as trading stocks on your brokerage account. You can sell your crypto and withdraw the money to your bank account at any time. The liquidity for Bitcoin is staggering, your baseball collection card comparison is moronic and completely off the mark.
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It's not hard to sell crypto on Coinbase, but it's still expensive to do so. The exchange fees that they charge for buying and selling remind me of what the online brokerages charged back in the 1990's. If you're buying small amounts of crypto, you could easily lose 10% of your money on transaction costs.
Re: It has always been easy to buy cryptocurrency (Score:3)
Coinbase fees are around 1%.
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The exchanges do make it easy, but it ruins a lot of the original idea of a cryptocoin. Someone with a few million in bitcoin in person can't easily deal with it directly with their hard drive, I think, or maybe they can?
In any case, the cryptocoins end up not being used as a currency, or even a backing currency, but as a volatile investment instrument. But coinbase is still the number one site to get your scam victim's money laundered, most people should run from it as fast as they can.
Re: It has always been easy to buy cryptocurrency (Score:2)
That's fucking nonsense. Exchanges work both ways.
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They SHOULD work both ways. But everyone knows it's easier to buy than to sell. You can easily buy bitcoin anywhere - your local convenience store will have a machine to do it trivially.
But try cashing it in. In fact, try cashing in more than a handful and you'll find out how hard it'll be. Most exchanges don't have sufficient capitalization to handle more than a handful of bitcoin without running into trouble.
Bitcoin works for small transactions just fine.
Everything wrong with cryptocurrency (Score:2)
Why would you do that? (Score:2)
Why would you do that, except very early participation in what is in many ways (at least for Bitcoin) a pyramid scheme?