
Why Coinbase and not Bitcoin will replace Mastercard - BLP4YC
http://researchly.leobosankic.com/2018/07/31/why-and-how-coinbase-and-not-bitcoin-will-replace-mastercard/
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smilesnd
I don't think coinbase/bitcoin will replace anything. At best they might get
1% of that market, but they will never be real competition. Besides the
technical issues where cryptocurrency cannot keep up with the same demands
credit and banks can. Coinbase sits on a razor blade of questionable ethical
practices. Reddit and other cryptocurrency forums always have a handful of
people asking for help dealing with exchanges(say exchanges because not just
coinbase does this) that either fail to transfer funds or funds just go
missing over night. The regular response from people is "it is crypto money
what you expect?". Saying it is the normal for money to go missing with no
recourse just demonstrate the lack of control and power a end user has in this
anarchy financial system.

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BLP4YC
"Coinbase sits on a razor blade of questionable ethical practices." Nice
coincidence: Just on Tuesday (31.07.2018) Coinbase reported that they have
hired a chief compliance officer
([https://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCAKBN1KL1BH-...](https://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCAKBN1KL1BH-
OCATC))

"The regular response from people is "it is crypto money what you expect?"
Although we should point out that it is general investing "knowledge" that one
can lose everything, this must _never_, as you correctly pointed out, happen
due to technical issues. I am just now realizing that it is actually truly
crazy how ok people are w/ losing money due to such incidents.

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QML
I wonder if there's an opposite term for 'leapfrogging' [1], whereby the pace
or focus of technology -- instead of allowing poorer countries to skip trends
altogether -- it leaves them behind.

An example of leapfrogging is China's payment system which switched directly
from a cash-only system to a mobile-payment system in the span of a decade,
entirely bypassing the need for credit cards.

I believe that cryptocurrencies, ironically, are leaving the unbanked populace
behind by being a payment-only system instead of being a payment-credit
system. If Bitcoin is truly successful and replaces Visa and MasterCard --
both of which also operate as a credit system -- then that's just going to
result in slower economic growth in underdeveloped countries.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leapfrogging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leapfrogging)

~~~
BLP4YC
I get your point. Although (as I have touched slightly upon in the article)
several crypto-based donation systems exist and some companies are already
working on crypto-based lending.

BTW: the only term I can think of is "leaving behind"

~~~
QML
Ideally, we would be able to provide modern financial services backed by first
world institutions to underdeveloped countries. An example of this came
through a podcast I listen to [1].

For the most part, I am skeptical of cryptocurrencies since they need to solve
stability and identity first before tackling credit. An additional problem
might also be usability; private-public key pairs should be abstracted away to
the end user. As for donation systems, I don't think they have the same
network effect as credit systems.

[1]
[https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/09/07/492988779/epis...](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/09/07/492988779/episode-723-the-
risk-farmers)

~~~
BLP4YC
"need to solve stability and identity first before tackling credit." that
makes sense, yes.

"private-public key pairs should be abstracted away to the end user" what do
you mean by that?

"I don't think they have the same network effect as credit systems" What kind
of network effects to do you see w/ a credit system?

~~~
QML
1\. Having something equivalent to account with a username and a recoverable
password.

2\. Credit systems where you loan money to other people based on other's
deposits has a multiplier effect [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_multiplier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_multiplier)

~~~
BLP4YC
Now I understand you first point.

Did not know about the Money_multiplier. Cool info, thanks!

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themagician
"Bitcoin has never had a service interruption" — LMAO!

Yeah, no service interruption. Just a period of weeks on and off where it took
hours or days to confirm transactions.

~~~
BLP4YC
yeah, what use has 100% uptime if you cannot use it reasonably. sometimes I am
unsure if such tweets originate from not knowing or not _wanting_ to know.

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gremlinsinc
Assinine, coinbase has MANY problems and is nowhere near a market leader.
Paypal would stand a better chance, but then they use mastercard for their
debit card, but if they could roll out their own network of cards like
Amex/Discover have that is accepted everywhere, then they'd be the new dog.
Stripe also could do something like this considering their market share.

People trust paypal/stripe over coinbase, coinbase has been known to freeze
money and have horrible customer service. I've taken all my coins out and
won't be using them in the future at all.

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koosnel
It has been obvious for years now that Bitcoin will not replace Mastercard due
to it's technical limitations.

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jmpeax
Nice work, author of blog post. 1) Recognize a stagnation in e-coin
investment; 2) buy up some Coinbase; 3) Write a blog post how Coinbase will
beat Bitcoin; 4) Profit.

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BLP4YC
Hi. Thanks for your comment. However, I am unsure what you mean. Can you
please explain?

As disclosure: I am in no way affiliated w/ Coinbase (nor do I hold any stakes
in them). I do, however, own various cryptocurrencies.

