By Jeff Berwick: While European politicos negotiate in Brussels, deciding the fate of
other people’s money in Cyprus, the free market has already moved in to
help Cypriots get access to their money via other means…
Banks have been closed for the last week in Cyprus and if they do re-open on Tuesday, it has now been announced that daily withdrawal limits at ATMs will be 100 euros per day.
As the Cypriot Drama unfolds before our very eyes, I began pondering
what tangible solutions there are to bank holidays and bank runs. What
could I do to help in Cyprus and all other countries (like Spain, Greece
and Italy) for which, as we have predicted at TDV, bank closures are
coming? The answer wasn’t hard to come up with. If these people had
simply bought bitcoins with their savings, not only would they currently
have 100% access to their funds, but also they would have enjoyed a
parabolic move to the upside over past months.
ENTER THE WORLD’S FIRST OPERATIONAL BITCOIN ATM
Upon examination of the marketplace and many discussions with Justin O’Connell (TDV Newsletter & Gold Silver Bitcoin), as well as another key strategic partner of ours, I have decided to move forward with that I believe could be the next multi-billion dollar business venture: Bitcoin ATM.
But that isn’t all. It is wholly our intention at Bitcoin ATM to put the company in the right position to open its very first ATM in Cyprus. If we did this now, and we are moving quickly to make this so, we would be the only functioning ATM on the island.
How do I know this is such a good idea? Just look at what Bloomberg recently wrote about Bitcoin as currency:
I am not the first person to note Bitcoin’s Aristotelian attributes as money.
Durability: Bitcoin exists on the networks of users everywhere. Just like the internet, there is no singular switch to turn Bitcoin off. Bitcoin has already seen tremendous volatility, and the userbase has remained.
Portability: What’s more portable than a flash drive? Or, how about a private key memorized in your brain. There is nothing more portable than a thought, and that’s what Bitcoin can be if you memorize your private key and keep the coins on a cold storage medium (also another technology the Bitcoin ATM team has planned).
Fungibility: Bitcoin is divisible up to 8 decimal places. That means that at its current growth (inflation) rate of 3,600 bitcoin-a-day, the ultimate total amount of 21,000,000 bitcoin ever to be on the market can be divided among billions of people on the planet.
Intrinsic Value: A bet for Bitcoin is a bet for the Internet. We all have first hand experience with the intrinsic value of the Internet. What’s more, Bitcoin values the notion of privacy in a world where privacy has become scarcer than silver.
The Dollar Vigilante
Source
BitPay is also reducing its fees. The
company will now process Bitcoin transactions and support settlement
into 11 local currencies at a rate of 0.99% for all merchants.
Previously, there were separate conversion fees on top of the 0.99%
processing fee, so the company has essentially waived the currency
conversion charges.
Bitcoin payments are designed to resemble cash transactions more than credit-card transactions. Bitcoin payments have no disallowed merchant category codes (MCCs), no selective payment embargoes, no chargebacks and near immediacy of final transaction confirmation.
Accepting the digital Bitcoin currency as a payment method allows merchants to reach customers in over 60 countries not supported by PayPal. It also allows merchants to reach various countries that are restricted by Visa and MasterCard for high fraud or lack of infrastructure. A consumer transacting in bitcoins needs only a mobile phone application or an Internet connection.
"We chose to celebrate this milestone by rewarding all merchants, large and small, with an across-the-board fee reduction, instead of offering tiered pricing which rewards only the largest merchants," says BitPay CEO Tony Gallippi, in a press release. "We want our merchants to use this fee reduction to offer discounts and incentives to their customers for paying with Bitcoin."
Settlements to local currencies are made with a guaranteed exchange rate locked in at the point of sale for no additional fee. This protects the merchant from potential volatility of the bitcoin exchange rate.
Supported currencies for settlement include the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, euro, Pound sterling, Danish krone, Mexican peso, Norwegian krone, Swedish krona and South African rand. Currently, BitPay provides one-day settlement for the U.S. and settlement in 2-3 days for other countries. Euro settlement is currently available in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
BitPay has over 4,000 merchants on its payments platform and is acquiring new merchants at a rate of 1,000 per month, the company says. It also recently announced that it has integrated its payment platform with Amazon’s fulfillment services, enabling merchants to combine frictionless international payments with international shipping in a fully-automated system.
The Amazon deal alone is a massive win for BitPay as it fits perfectly with Amazon's expansion strategy and showcases the qualities of the bitcoin payment method. Gallippi said in an interview that "the Amazon partnership has the potential to catapult the company to an entirely new level."
Source
Devils Advocate:
Banks have been closed for the last week in Cyprus and if they do re-open on Tuesday, it has now been announced that daily withdrawal limits at ATMs will be 100 euros per day.
As the Cypriot Drama unfolds before our very eyes, I began pondering
what tangible solutions there are to bank holidays and bank runs. What
could I do to help in Cyprus and all other countries (like Spain, Greece
and Italy) for which, as we have predicted at TDV, bank closures are
coming? The answer wasn’t hard to come up with. If these people had
simply bought bitcoins with their savings, not only would they currently
have 100% access to their funds, but also they would have enjoyed a
parabolic move to the upside over past months.ENTER THE WORLD’S FIRST OPERATIONAL BITCOIN ATM
Upon examination of the marketplace and many discussions with Justin O’Connell (TDV Newsletter & Gold Silver Bitcoin), as well as another key strategic partner of ours, I have decided to move forward with that I believe could be the next multi-billion dollar business venture: Bitcoin ATM.
But that isn’t all. It is wholly our intention at Bitcoin ATM to put the company in the right position to open its very first ATM in Cyprus. If we did this now, and we are moving quickly to make this so, we would be the only functioning ATM on the island.
How do I know this is such a good idea? Just look at what Bloomberg recently wrote about Bitcoin as currency:
One place where it’s not safe is in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is generally referred to as a “digital currency” or “virtual currency,” a form of cash that doesn’t need government backing. Unfortunately it’s missing the most essential aspect of money: it’s not useful for buying anything. Bitcoin’s rise as a tool for financial speculation underlines the failure of the virtual currency idea.As Dollar Vigilante readers will know, I take issue with a number of assumptions in this paragraph. For instance, no economic law exists (in the real world) which stipulates that cash needs government backing. Also, I have found that Bitcoin is useful for many things, not the least of which are the many things we accept Bitcoin for here at TDV Media, such as TDV Offshore, TDV Passports, TDV Newsletter, TDV Homegrown, and Get Your Gold Out Of Dodge.
I am not the first person to note Bitcoin’s Aristotelian attributes as money.
Durability: Bitcoin exists on the networks of users everywhere. Just like the internet, there is no singular switch to turn Bitcoin off. Bitcoin has already seen tremendous volatility, and the userbase has remained.
Portability: What’s more portable than a flash drive? Or, how about a private key memorized in your brain. There is nothing more portable than a thought, and that’s what Bitcoin can be if you memorize your private key and keep the coins on a cold storage medium (also another technology the Bitcoin ATM team has planned).
Fungibility: Bitcoin is divisible up to 8 decimal places. That means that at its current growth (inflation) rate of 3,600 bitcoin-a-day, the ultimate total amount of 21,000,000 bitcoin ever to be on the market can be divided among billions of people on the planet.
Intrinsic Value: A bet for Bitcoin is a bet for the Internet. We all have first hand experience with the intrinsic value of the Internet. What’s more, Bitcoin values the notion of privacy in a world where privacy has become scarcer than silver.
The Dollar Vigilante
Source
______________________
BitPay, Reaching a $2M Milestone in March, Cuts Fees
Bitcoin payments are designed to resemble cash transactions more than credit-card transactions. Bitcoin payments have no disallowed merchant category codes (MCCs), no selective payment embargoes, no chargebacks and near immediacy of final transaction confirmation.
Accepting the digital Bitcoin currency as a payment method allows merchants to reach customers in over 60 countries not supported by PayPal. It also allows merchants to reach various countries that are restricted by Visa and MasterCard for high fraud or lack of infrastructure. A consumer transacting in bitcoins needs only a mobile phone application or an Internet connection.
"We chose to celebrate this milestone by rewarding all merchants, large and small, with an across-the-board fee reduction, instead of offering tiered pricing which rewards only the largest merchants," says BitPay CEO Tony Gallippi, in a press release. "We want our merchants to use this fee reduction to offer discounts and incentives to their customers for paying with Bitcoin."
Settlements to local currencies are made with a guaranteed exchange rate locked in at the point of sale for no additional fee. This protects the merchant from potential volatility of the bitcoin exchange rate.
Supported currencies for settlement include the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, euro, Pound sterling, Danish krone, Mexican peso, Norwegian krone, Swedish krona and South African rand. Currently, BitPay provides one-day settlement for the U.S. and settlement in 2-3 days for other countries. Euro settlement is currently available in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
BitPay has over 4,000 merchants on its payments platform and is acquiring new merchants at a rate of 1,000 per month, the company says. It also recently announced that it has integrated its payment platform with Amazon’s fulfillment services, enabling merchants to combine frictionless international payments with international shipping in a fully-automated system.
The Amazon deal alone is a massive win for BitPay as it fits perfectly with Amazon's expansion strategy and showcases the qualities of the bitcoin payment method. Gallippi said in an interview that "the Amazon partnership has the potential to catapult the company to an entirely new level."
Source
Devils Advocate:
"Highly stable you can get service and you feel comfortable it""
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bitcoinmoneyatm.com "