Blockchain technology like Bitcoin is being overhyped: analyst

C4Cat said:
It's subversive though, has the potential to take a lot of control away from banks - in a world were everyone used cryptocurrencies, banks, as they exist today, would be totally unnecessary.
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And it would also make it terribly difficult to manage currency flow in and out of countries, which is why regulators such as the SARB is paying a lot of interest. I doubt it'll impact banks particularly harshly. They'll have to adapt, sure, but centuries of financial systems are built on how banks work. To move away from that... I doubt it would be allowed. Not in my lifetime anyway.
 
Messugga said:
And it would also make it terribly difficult to manage currency flow in and out of countries, which is why regulators such as the SARB is paying a lot of interest. I doubt it'll impact banks particularly harshly. They'll have to adapt, sure, but centuries of financial systems are built on how banks work. To move away from that... I doubt it would be allowed. Not in my lifetime anyway.
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Yeah, but that's how things evolve. I asked a friend in US to buy something for me which I couldn't get here. Previously I would have used PayPal to transfer money to him, which means I needed an FNB account. Last transaction I just transferred bitcoins to him, no banks involved at all. I could buy something from you, pay with bitcoins, no need to withdraw money or even have a bank account to do so.
 
C4Cat said:
Yeah, but that's how things evolve. I asked a friend in US to buy something for me which I couldn't get here. Previously I would have used PayPal to transfer money to him, which means I needed an FNB account. Last transaction I just transferred bitcoins to him, no banks involved at all. I could buy something from you, pay with bitcoins, no need to withdraw money or even have a bank account to do so.
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And that will get stopped by regulators as soon as volumes become significant enough.
 
C4Cat said:
Yeah, but that's how things evolve. I asked a friend in US to buy something for me which I couldn't get here. Previously I would have used PayPal to transfer money to him, which means I needed an FNB account. Last transaction I just transferred bitcoins to him, no banks involved at all. I could buy something from you, pay with bitcoins, no need to withdraw money or even have a bank account to do so.
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Exactly with bitx I don't need a bank account (theoretically)
 
Messugga said:
And that will get stopped by regulators as soon as volumes become significant enough.
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And how will they regulate it exactly?

To be honest I don't mind regulations and the management of currency flows but if it can be done without banks and bank charges involved that would make me happy.
 
C4Cat said:
And how will they regulate it exactly?

To be honest I don't mind regulations and the management of currency flows but if it can be done without banks involved that would make me happy.
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Same way they regulate things like money laundry. At some point you put your money into a service. Unless you want to deal only in cash. But you've been able to pay people in cash while bypassing banks for ages, just not as quickly and efficiently as with Bitcoin.
Hell, look at how much money is being pushed through cellphone networks up north I'm Africa, where bank branches aren't commonplace.
 
Messugga said:
Same way they regulate things like money laundry. At some point you put your money into a service. Unless you want to deal only in cash. But you've been able to pay people in cash while bypassing banks for ages, just not as quickly and efficiently as with Bitcoin.
Hell, look at how much money is being pushed through cellphone networks up north I'm Africa, where bank branches aren't commonplace.
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Difference being of course is that cash is issued by the government, distributed by the banks and can therefore be controlled, manipulated and traced. Somebody somewhere must have a bank account if cash is going to go into circulation.

None of this is true of cryptocurrencies as they currently exist. Although I guess legislation could come in to enforce the registration of digital wallets with the authorities, thus making all transactions traceable.
 
C4Cat said:
Difference being of course is that cash is issued by the government and can therefore be controlled, manipulated and traced.
None of this is true of cryptocurrencies as they currently exist. Although I guess legislation could come in to enforce the registration of digital wallets with the authorities, thus making all transactions traceable.
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I was at a talk recently on block chain where the SARB was present. Their view is that they don't want to stifle growth by overly legislating, provided risk isn't being created. In other words, they'll do what needs to be done in order to maintain control, when it becomes necessary. Currently, it's such a small amount of money going through that they're not too concerned.
 
Messugga said:
You'd be surprised. It's a distributed ledger. It's entirelt based on everyone knowing what's going on.
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Sure, but all they know is that 17qcceJf1p5StSVQ5pinNU41fsx3CgZeup received money.
They don't know who 17qcceJf1p5StSVQ5pinNU41fsx3CgZeup is or where in the world 17qcceJf1p5StSVQ5pinNU41fsx3CgZeup is or which country 17qcceJf1p5StSVQ5pinNU41fsx3CgZeup is a citizen of.

You can test this by sending bitcoins to 17qcceJf1p5StSVQ5pinNU41fsx3CgZeup :p
 
C4Cat said:
Sure, but all they know is that 17qcceJf1p5StSVQ5pinNU41fsx3CgZeup received money.
They don't know who 17qcceJf1p5StSVQ5pinNU41fsx3CgZeup is or where in the world 17qcceJf1p5StSVQ5pinNU41fsx3CgZeup is or which country 17qcceJf1p5StSVQ5pinNU41fsx3CgZeup is a citizen of.

You can test this by sending bitcoins to 17qcceJf1p5StSVQ5pinNU41fsx3CgZeup :p
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And I don't argue that at all. Not at this point in time anyway. But in a world where so much of your transactional data is tracked, I wouldn't be entirely comfortable in that providing anonymity.
The way I see it, you need to unlink yourself from funds reaching your bitcoin wallet. Maybe by getting other people to load it into your account or whatever. But then you're heading into money laundering territory, which is hardly new.
 
Messugga said:
And I don't argue that at all. Not at this point in time anyway. But in a world where so much of your transactional data is tracked, I wouldn't be entirely comfortable in that providing anonymity.
The way I see it, you need to unlink yourself from funds reaching your bitcoin wallet. Maybe by getting other people to load it into your account or whatever. But then you're heading into money laundering territory, which is hardly new.
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Money laundering applies to government issued money. I don't think there is a law that classifies bitcoins shuffle as money laundry
 
Thor187 said:
Money laundering applies to government issued money. I don't think there is a law that classifies bitcoins shuffle as money laundry
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You took some government issued money to buy bitcoin at some point, right?
 
Thor187 said:
Mined.

Then services rendered is paid for by bitcoins
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Doesn't really matter. The IRS at least treats digital currency as capital assets. I'm sure locally it's something similar. Same rules apply as trading in any other good.
 
Messugga said:
Doesn't really matter. The IRS at least treats digital currency as capital assets. I'm sure locally it's something similar. Same rules apply as trading in any other good.
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I don't think so, according to SA bitcoins isn't even a currency.
 
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