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Bitcoin Businesses The Almighty Buck

Winklevoss Twins Get Closer To Launching Their Bitcoin Exchange 93

An anonymous reader writes: Reuters has an update on the Winklevoss twins plan to launch a regulated Bitcoin exchange called Gemini. The two have filed a New York trust application necessary for them to launch their Gemini bitcoin exchange. If approved, the exchange would be able to accept deposits, and issue loans. The twins say they want to make digital currency mainstream in the United States.
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Winklevoss Twins Get Closer To Launching Their Bitcoin Exchange

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  • Bitcoin only? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ArcadeMan ( 2766669 ) on Sunday July 26, 2015 @02:15PM (#50185891)

    Will they only deal with Bitcoin or will they also accept other crypto-currencies such as Litecoin, Dashcoin and Dogecoin?

    • by digsbo ( 1292334 )
      I'd be really interested in a multiple-currency exchange. Also, why are you getting downmodded "overrated" for an interesting question?
      • Stupid auto-complete... you make an error once and the stupid thing still uses that mistake months later...

        For the exchange URL, I meant https://www.cryptsy.com/ [cryptsy.com]

        • Shift+Delete when selecting the incorrect entry in nearly every autocomplete dropdown will remove that entry.

    • Will they only deal with Bitcoin or will they also accept other crypto-currencies such as Litecoin, Dashcoin and Dogecoin?

      BTC-E added certain coins like Name, Nova, PPC, and those stuck but there were at least 3 others that were added then removed due to a lack of interest from customers. Bots just sync up the alts like a Bitcoin metacurrency and they became pointless.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    No, what they said is they see digital currency expanding and want to be the ones on control.

    They hope REAL money is used to buy bitcoins , they can then use that real money to get interest or buy property, the digital money...eh not so much, they certainly won't be paying interest and I am sure there will be fees.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      Yep, I think I'll keep my government REALcoins... If Bitcoin becomes as safe as US Savings Bonds, I might take a look.

      • by digsbo ( 1292334 )
        What is the real estimated return on 10 year notes held to maturity right now?
        • I think the point is the bonds guarantee you will get all your invested dollars 1:1 in 10 years (plus some interest). That is an important guarantee as it makes planning possible with a stable currency.

          And the comment above appears to be pointing out that Crypto Currencies cannot make that promise, the values flux wildly at times at may go to zero.
          Maybe the Winkies can work on that.
          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by digsbo ( 1292334 )
            Yeah, if you follow conventional wisdom. Which works, until it doesn't. Most likely you're guaranteed to lose purchasing value on a ten year note right now with a yield of 2.264%. Unless you really think inflation is going to be below that over the same time span. The US can't pay its debts without money printing. Between money printing and default, neither makes a 10 year note a great investment at this time. And the dollar won't be the world reserve currency forever.
            • Your type has been saying the same thing for decades, centuries: inflation will explode! The Swiss franc will become the world's reserve currency! Except the dollar's stronger now, even after the Fed created trillions upon trillions out of thin air. And the Swiss are charging negative interest rates precisely because they don't want to be the reserve currency. When you become the world's reserve currency you lose control over the money supply. The Fed for example can't control the supply of Eurodollars.

              The

            • by donscarletti ( 569232 ) on Monday July 27, 2015 @01:18AM (#50187965)

              And the dollar won't be the world reserve currency forever.

              I think you can look at anything and say that it will not be the case forever and be guaranteed to be right. However, the USD, despite its issues, is looking strong for the next few decades because the other currencies have even bigger issues than the greenback.

              The Euro's speculative value is based heavily on the strength of the union, rather than the strength of the large economies backing it. No matter how strong and stable Germany and France may be, they can never wholly support the Euro's worth. Even with a strong Italy and Spain, the Euro would still be prone to shocks and fears. The Euro is held as a reserve currency, but not with the same gusto as it was 5 years ago.

              Chinese Yuan RMB, is first and foremost, a controlled currency. Currency exchanges in China are limited by law and complicated to perform, leading it to have a lower volume of trade and thus lower fluidity on the foreign market than Australian/Canadian Dollars, Swiss Franks and Mexican Pesos. Beyond that, it exists to serve Chinese monetary policy, rather than American monetary policy largely existing to serve the Dollar, leading to a lot of exposure to holders of large amounts of it.

              The Japanese Yen is used as a reserve currency because of its low inflation. But because of its low inflation, Japan is not growing, despite the 0.1% interest rate they have had for almost a decade now, which makes it unlikely to eclipse anyone anytime soon.

              Australian dollars, Swiss Franks and Canadian Dollars, each are underpinned by economies too small and too focused on particular sectors. The only reason AUD and CHF are traded so much is that they move rapidly in a predicable direction due to certain economic conditions. It makes them suitable for a hedge in currency baskets, but not to hold the bulk of value. Besides, its not certain that there is enough of these currencies in circulation to make holding the world's reserves in it practical. Possibly Australia and Canada are just large enough to endure foreign banks either hording their currencies or creating money on paper by lending the another currency against debts in their own, but Switzerland with its half trillion GDP would surely consider this as an act of sabotage.

              So what does that leave beyond USD? Pound Stirling, which is in fact a commonly held reserve currency. But the UK does not have the natural resources or the population for rapid growth, so I doubt it will overtake the US.

              So what is left? Brazil, Russia and India? Well, the Ruble is a basket case, the Real has 8.5% inflation and the Rupee is in deflation at the moment, leading to concerns about money supply.

              I think the USD could get a lot worse before people start thinking about getting rid of it.

              • by digsbo ( 1292334 )

                I think the USD could get a lot worse before people start thinking about getting rid of it.

                That's certainly true. And it's probably very similar to what some Brits said in early 1900s, when the Pound was the global reserve currency. But people will want an alternative, and a number of cryptocurrencies might reasonably be held as a hedge against dollar decline.

                • Yup. The pound lost a lot of value after Britain fought two extremely expensive world wars in which they sold off a very large amount of accumulated capital to finance the wars.

        • 10 year treasuries have averaged ~2.5% over the last 5 years:

          http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/US... [cnbc.com]

          Median CPI, before fiddling, has average about 2% over the last 5 years

          So over that period, the estimated real return is 0.5%

          • T-bills are like the pea in a shell game, where the shells are money created out of the thin, hot air of bankers' IOUs to each other. In other words T-bills are the gold of the modern world monetary system.

    • Ah, REAL money. The kind that can be inflated willy-nilly by banks, and generally based on secrecy instead of math, open source and a public ledger.
    • by tomhath ( 637240 )
      What they really said is that they bought a fortune in bitcoins before the pyramid collapsed and now they're trying to find some suckers to pump it back up.
  • by ravenspear ( 756059 ) on Sunday July 26, 2015 @02:31PM (#50185923)

    They have consulted a coder on the idea and he is currently working on the implementation.

    It remains to be seen how this will turn out.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I read this as "Rich douchebags find way to be bigger douchebags while pissing on money and everyone who isn't rich"

  • Mark Zuckerberg to announce "independently-developed" bitcoin exchange named FaceBitBookCoin ... impending lawsuits in 3... 2... 1...
  • Oh yeah, who wouldn't trust these two slippery guys? Please, take my money!
  • Sylvester the Cat has announced that he's opening a shelter for homeless canaries.

    • by umghhh ( 965931 )
      Your statement would perfectly fit as a summary. Pity we do not have a possibility to mod one post into summary. Could be helpful not only in this case.
    • by hodet ( 620484 )

      Go submit this on Fark. Easy green light.

      • by KGIII ( 973947 )

        I thought the same thing. Get out of my head! Literally - word for word and in that same order. I think I may have included "it is" in my thinking but it parses exactly the same and is not trivial for me to verify. How very strange.

  • ...for someone else to open a bitcoin exchange first, so they can claim they stole their idea.

  • IÂve been reading "Winklevoss Twins close to launching bitcoin ETF" stories since mid-2013. It has always just about cleared the last regulatory hurdle and it is always going to launch in a month or two and it is always "still on track." Slashdot just seems to be an amplifier of the latest publicity blitz.

    OK, fine. Maybe it will happen and maybe it won't. No particular reason I know to pay attention to it until it does.

    Funniest thing I've read about it appeared in January, 2015 [insidebitcoins.com]: "We believe that anyone

  • ... Zuckerberg should release his own version of the exchange before they go live.

Fast, cheap, good: pick two.

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