Such fun... when was the last time you ever heard of a bank doing soothing for the greater good? Well never I guess. So when the banks suddenly decide they are going to stop you using a credit card to buy stuff you know something major is up eh.! A bank preventing you using a card to buy a whole class of products what? It's like banks saying you can't buy cigarettes because they may kill you, hello we know that but you never stopped it before. So the news that you can't buy crypto currency with a credit card must have deeper meaning. Plus is an ICO which sells you a token the same? This announcement is really very vague and probably illegal... based on the fact banks work in a legal, compliant and regulated world, ha ha ha.
The big story is the unbridled panic and lack of knowledge by the banking community around crypto currency and to be frank anything which could create change. The trouble is nothing was learnt in 2008 and most of the brighter people have left the industry and the new millenniums have realised that there is a new world where banks, who nearly destroyed their parents a decade ago when they were teenagers, is just not the place to work. Those interested in finance have moved into the crypto world and more importantly blockchain.
So I hear you cry... but crypto-currencies have crashed its all over, it was a bubble I told you so. Well the real reason we have massive crash at the moment is because of hoards of investors who, although crying its a bubble, were buying into the market like crazy during December and in January, decided to cash out. Which is OK that's the business.
Above 3 month Bitcoin price
However its not a big a crash as you think percentage wise the numbers are just bigger. Max, my millennium son, siting in Sydney trading a bit, really seems to represent a new thinking and he sees the red of January has enormously good news.
For instance Arcbloc a new blockchain start up raised all its funding in 19 minutes on Sunday. Max missed his allocation but the smart money is investing in the technology. Its old Government thinking, old school businesses and therefore old school 60+ men who are going to get this wrong big time.
Let's look at some stuff. Ebay may start accepting crypto within 3 months. Facebook is banning stupid get rich quick crypto ads and working on its own blockchain. Santander Bank is using Xcurrent tech(blockchain) dev code based on Ripple to roll out a friction less money transfer system. Taiwan is opening up IOTA trade and marching in the face of China opposition to crypto because the Chinese government really has not changed since the bad old days.
But Baidu in China, one of the biggest social media companies in China, takes the Micky by setting up a Crptokitty look alike... which is really just another coin, finger up to Xi Jinping.
The Russian state bank (Sherbank) although not allowed to set up and exchange in Russia is doing so in Switzerland. So that must have been sanctioned by good old Vlad Putin eh. (You wouldn't want to upset him)
So it's a really big mess and we thought Brexit was complicated. We then hear that John McAffee founder of the security software company of the same name has bet that Bitcoin will be a USD1million each by 2020... well wouldn't that be fun.
OK feet on ground, there are now 1300 different coins, most are worthless, there are hundreds on ICO (initial coin offerings) planned this month most will never see the light of day. It's just like the 2000 dot com boom and bust in many respects but with one critical difference. At no time did the dot com boom effect traditional banking and finance they still made the most money!!! But this time young motivated people want to change the way money works and how trust is managed. They don't want trust, (read my blog on trust please), to be in the hands of the few they want is democratised, decentralised and made inherently open. Block chain and future new distributed systems not yet even thought about bit on they way will do this.
So when your bank tells you what you can spend your money on you know its only because they think they will loose out.