Author Topic: What can I do with my bitUSD?  (Read 4690 times)

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jakub

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So it looks like a bit of chicken-and-egg problem: there are few bitUSD consumers because there are no bitUSD retailers and there are no retailers because there are not enough consumers.

I can see two things:
1. The reasons for consumers to keep their funds in bitUSD are quite limited (hedging/speculation and safe storage of value) and the process of adding more incentives (music, gambling) will slowly continue.
2. The reasons for retailers NOT to accept bitUSD are quite obvious (inconvenience and high cost of conversion) and there is a clear solution to alleviate this: create a direct gateway between fiat and bit-assets.

If Bitstamp/Bter can legally operate serving as a gateway between BTC and fiat - why can't we use our own company resources (i.e. BitShares) and build a similar gateway between bit-assets and fiat? It would be even easier as it could work on a fixed spread basis, just like https://metaexchange.info/.

I am aware that there was an attempt to create the bitUSD/USD pair on Bter and it failed due to low liquidity which can be easily explained: Bter did not care about it because it was not as vital for them as it should be for us.

So why don't we create our own non-profit gateway and artificially (i.e. using bots) maintain liquidity there in the initial phase? There will be no profits from it in terms of money but huge benefits in terms of infrastructure support for bit-asset retailers. It would be just like Tesla investing its resources in building charging stations for their cars.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2015, 06:50:57 pm by jakub »

Offline btswildpig

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It can do anything you want , just have imagination and patience ......
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Offline Empirical1.2

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Sellers will accept currency that is useful to them.. it's the same as is occurring with Bitcoin currently but the difference with a debit card it that would be the great equaliser..

The sea-change will come when mass consumers have a reason to hold and value bitUSD.  When this becomes the case the merchants, seeking sales and profits, will find ways to make it easy for consumers to spend their value (bitUSD).  It is not the merchants that drive adoption.  The merchant adoption is simply a response to consumer adoption.  No matter how inciting one makes it for merchant to use crypto, its use will not be popular unless consumers have a reason to use it for transactions in place of fiat.  This is were Bitcoin is currently getting it wrong.  It has merchant adoption greatly exceeding consumer adoption.  This can not be sustained, and is currently being reflected in the stagnation of the bitcoin price.

I agree that is a factor in Bitcoin's stagnation but I believe there are possible tax benefits using stable BitAssets for merchants especially as well as businesses that might have difficulty getting a standard account. So while customer adoption is usually the main route to merchant adoption, I think if BitAssets were further developed some merchants might find value in using them in their own right, not just because their potential customers are.  Darkcoin/Dash already has a bit of that market, so they might be best placed currently to add a DRKUSD to their blockchain.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2015, 04:10:36 pm by Empirical1.2 »
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Offline James212

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Sellers will accept currency that is useful to them.. it's the same as is occurring with Bitcoin currently but the difference with a debit card it that would be the great equaliser..

The sea-change will come when mass consumers have a reason to hold and value bitUSD.  When this becomes the case the merchants, seeking sales and profits, will find ways to make it easy for consumers to spend their value (bitUSD).  It is not the merchants that drive adoption.  The merchant adoption is simply a response to consumer adoption.  No matter how inciting one makes it for merchant to use crypto, its use will not be popular unless consumers have a reason to use it for transactions in place of fiat.  This is were Bitcoin is currently getting it wrong.  It has merchant adoption greatly exceeding consumer adoption.  This can not be sustained, and is currently being reflected in the stagnation of the bitcoin price. 
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Offline Empirical1.2

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At the moment BitUSD is useful as a stable USD savings account that can't be seized or bailed-in which is great for a variety of use cases, and will become more appealing as the next financial crisis plays out.  Unfortunately it requires further development or a higher yield to be very appealing even to existing BTS shareholders at this stage. https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=14831.msg192017#msg192017

The easiest way to gain traction though is to give it a use. So with BitShares Music people might use a BitUSD type product happily as a by-product of doing something else, same with BitShares PLAY. So I was keen on blockchain based BitAsset Gambling starting with simple games of chance as way to kickstart/bootstrap a BitAsset use case other than just savings etc.

https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=13788.0P
https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=13869.0

This was exciting to me because of the potential size of the market and the fact that it didn't require third parties just the skill of our existing developers. Unfortunately that's a no go for the Chinese market at this stage.

The more retailers that accept it and hold it the better too. It's particularlu appealling for those businesses that might struggle getting a standard account or for crypto projects that raise funds but don't want to be exposed to BTC volatilty. (Dash currently has a decent sized dark market niche already apparently and NXY has a strong Asset Exchange with 15 of the top 100 crypto CAP's being NXT based so I wouldn't be surprised to see them add a BitAsset in the coming year.)

The other thing I think is that BitAssets were better backed by a no inflation crypto-currency BTSX. So that BTS use would be seen as part of an entire financial ecosystem and movement as opposed to financial products backed by shares in a DAC. We'll have to see if people who have faith in the increased competitiveness of the current model are able to make it deliver in practice.


« Last Edit: March 29, 2015, 02:54:00 pm by Empirical1.2 »
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Offline fav

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Gourl implementation would be a great start in terms of adoption /tools for merchants. https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=15191.0

We need a cryptothrift for bitusd, or better, make cryptothrift.com accept bitusd :)

jakub

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Gateways have been a huge issue for a long time.  No one is willing to deal with all the regulation and legal stuff required to become a gateway...
If I was running an internet business of buying and selling tickets (in electronic form) for a music concert - that I guess would be perfectly legal.
Also, there are legal internet services performing instant exchange between fiat currencies (e.g. you wire them USD and they wire you EUR).
But in case of bitUSD for some reason it becomes gray area.
I am not trying to be a smart ass (I'm not even a lawyer), I'm trying to understand the core of the problem as in my opinion being able (or unable) to solve this issue has a massive impact on BitShares future.
 

Offline davidpbrown

Yes, of course is all baby steps atm and a long way to go but as the momentum towards digital currencies increases and the critical mass making services viable, those will appear. Everyone overestimates how quick change can happen. Sellers will accept currency that is useful to them.. it's the same as is occurring with Bitcoin currently but the difference with a debit card it that would be the great equaliser.. value held in digital tokens would overnight become available to spend but it needs the legislation in place to allow that. Given the stresses on the economy, Governments will be keen to allow any route to new economy, it just takes them a while to do due diligence and make change. I expect another push in the UK will occur in the Autumn after the UK elections. Perhaps next year then we'll be able to spend BTS or GBP or any other without noticing the difference when a card is swiped.
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jakub

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The option that makes bitXYZ really useful, will be a debit card that can spend digital currency; and I suggested as much in my reply to the UK.gov call for information. Whether that is at the point of sale or a sale ahead of time crediting the card in whatever currency that debit card company prefers, won't matter; what matters is method that makes digital currencies useful.. once one exists, it'll be trivial to offer the option to all.
Spending bitXYZ has always been the easy part, the difficult part is to convince the sellers to accept it as payment. If they had an easy way to convert bitXYZ into fiat the problem would be solved.

What BitShares offers right now and will continue to offer in the future, is a real simple option to play the differences in markets. If you have more confidence in USD than BTS you move across to bitUSD and the inverse when you consider BTS will rise. So, right now you can use any BitShares asset to draw a profit from the volatility in BTS. I'm no expert at this but apparently there are already bots available to play the exchanges and the more options that are real world assets, the more likely BitShares will attract those who do understand the skill of playing markets.
The target group for this usage is very limited so it cannot be treated as a foundation for mass adoption.

2. is a fallacy that ye olde banks will have a necessary place in the new world. Those old banks will need to evolve too and be more flexible, otherwise they will become redundant. The big money will be the service that offers the debit card for digital currencies.
"The old banks" might eventually fall but it is hard to imagine this to happen without having a bridge that people can use to cross from "old banks" and "new banks". And it's up to "new banks" to build this bridge.

Offline btswildpig

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you can purchase some English-----Chinese translation service from me   :P :P
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Offline davidpbrown

Not yet.. but with the Bank of England looking seriously at digital GBP, I expect the context will change 6months+ from now. It's likely that BoE will back off owning the risk of hosting its own network. Other options like pegged assets such as BitShares offers will always be a good alternate to actual digital fiat.

The option that makes bitXYZ really useful, will be a debit card that can spend digital currency; and I suggested as much in my reply to the UK.gov call for information. Whether that is at the point of sale or a sale ahead of time crediting the card in whatever currency that debit card company prefers, won't matter; what matters is method that makes digital currencies useful.. once one exists, it'll be trivial to offer the option to all.


What BitShares offers right now and will continue to offer in the future, is a real simple option to play the differences in markets. If you have more confidence in USD than BTS you move across to bitUSD and the inverse when you consider BTS will rise. So, right now you can use any BitShares asset to draw a profit from the volatility in BTS. I'm no expert at this but apparently there are already bots available to play the exchanges and the more options that are real world assets, the more likely BitShares will attract those who do understand the skill of playing markets.

So, 1. No, obviously not. 2. is a fallacy that ye olde banks will have a necessary place in the new world. Those old banks will need to evolve too and be more flexible, otherwise they will become redundant. The big money will be the service that offers the debit card for digital currencies.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2015, 12:59:08 pm by davidpbrown »
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Offline carpet ride

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Im pretty sure they're are a few being worked on


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Offline lil_jay890

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Gateways have been a huge issue for a long time.  No one is willing to deal with all the regulation and legal stuff required to become a gateway...

jakub

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If we look at BitShares as a company we can all agree that our end product is bitUSD (and other bit-assets). The product looks good as it does what it says on the tin: thanks to the embedded collateral it is secure and thanks to the market peg mechanism it closely tracks the value of USD. That's really cool but what I can do with it?

Can I buy anything with it? No, because nobody is selling anything for it.
Can I sell anything for it? Not really, because to pay my bills I would have to be able to convert bitUSD into fiat USD and at this stage it is both expensive and complicated (bitUSD -> BTC -> USD).

So it looks like we have designed and built a superior Tesla car but all we can do with it is keep it in garage because there is no infrastructure to charge the batteries once we try to use the car.

Imagine an internet service offering this:
A. Using a bank transfer or credit card I wire them USD 100.00 and they instantly send bitUSD 100.00 to my BitShares wallet (minus a small fee).
B. From my BitShares wallet I send them bitUSD 100.00 and they instantly transfer USD 100.00 to my bank account (minus a small fee).

I have these questions:
1. Would you agree that without the existence of such service bit-assets are doomed to be quite useless?
2. How difficult would it be to build such a service in each country? What are the main obstacles that are preventing this from happening?