Why you can’t cash out pt 2: Bitcoin and Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering laws (KYC/AML)
KYC/AML regulations are an endless source of woe for the Bitcoin trader. Why don’t banks want to go near Bitcoin? It’s not fear of competition.
BBC Bitcoin feature: My 400 coin bet paid off, but is it too late for others?
A slightly longer version of me being interviewed by the BBC for Wednesday’s News at Ten. This time the book title’s on the screen!
BBC News at Ten tonight (Wed 20 Dec 2017)
Filmed yesterday, should be live tonight, cross fingers.
News: Illiquidity, CFTC on the Bitcoin market, Parity rescue rejected, PR, academic COI, more stupid Bitcoin forks
The most important news, of course, is that you still have time to get that relative who’s telling you about Bitcoin that paperback of Attack Of The 50 Foot Blockchain for Christmas!
Why you can’t cash out pt 1: Why Bitcoin’s ‘price’ is largely fictional
Public discussion and media coverage of Bitcoin assumes certain things about Bitcoin:
• Bitcoin has a price, that you could expect to buy or sell it around.
• Bitcoin is like buying a share in a company, or a commodity like gold — the market works the same way.
• Bitcoin is liquid — you can easily convert your money to Bitcoin, and your Bitcoin to money.
None of these are true.
News: Bitfinex warrant canary disappears, Hyperledger loses members, Kik vs CryptoKitties
“Bitcoin is finance, distilled … There are no fundamentals, no cash flows or price-earnings ratios, to evaluate. It is pure speculation about speculation, a Keynesian beauty contest where all the pictures are blank.”
BaldCoin™, the astounding new crypto asset from /r/buttcoin
I tweeted about the Lightning Network, and someone posted it to Reddit /r/btc as “Some old dude raising good questions about LN.” Of course, /r/buttcoin took its turn …
News: 1bn Tethers, NiceHash return, India, buying Bitcoin, FCA, Lightning Network, book news
One billion Tethers! Each and every one backed by a redeemable US dollar, of course, as they state. 800 million of those being loaned out on Bitfinex for margin trading.
Book news: Paperback in Australia, Kindle discount in India, Patreon reverses fee change
Paperbacks in Australia for Christmas, cheap ebooks in India and Patreon’s reversed its awful fee revamp.
CoinDesk 2017 Buttcoin retrospective, original version
The original version of my 2017 Buttcoin retrospective for CoinDesk, for your amusement.