<story><title>MasterCard to open up network to cryptocurrencies</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-mastercard/mastercard-to-open-up-network-to-select-cryptocurrencies-idUSKBN2AA2WF</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nexthash</author><text>Set this chart to &amp;quot;all&amp;quot; and tell me that this price movement is not a bubble. There is no earthly reason for why a &amp;quot;BitCoin&amp;quot; is worth $47,459.66 as of this post.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.coindesk.com&amp;#x2F;price&amp;#x2F;bitcoin&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.coindesk.com&amp;#x2F;price&amp;#x2F;bitcoin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cryptocurrency adoption in 3rd world countries like Nigeria, Vietnam, and the Philippines is not a good thing. It&amp;#x27;s actually really sad, because it means they cannot rely on or trust their country&amp;#x27;s currency. Therefore, they are forced to place bets in a volatile and dangerous game to keep their life savings. If Bitcoin or Ethereum or Dogecoin go bust, they will still lose everything, because there is no trust, recourse, or regulation tolerated in a decentralized system. Well, not much worse than their home country&amp;#x27;s currency, I guess.</text></item><item><author>tboyd47</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s important for people to read the actual press release: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mstr.cd&amp;#x2F;3tLaPZM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mstr.cd&amp;#x2F;3tLaPZM&lt;/a&gt; There&amp;#x27;s good info here which will be new info to many.&lt;p&gt;Why did they do this? It turns out that about a third of Nigerians report using or holding cryptocurrency (!). &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.statista.com&amp;#x2F;chart&amp;#x2F;18345&amp;#x2F;crypto-currency-adoption&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.statista.com&amp;#x2F;chart&amp;#x2F;18345&amp;#x2F;crypto-currency-adoptio...&lt;/a&gt; Second place are Vietnam and the Phillipines. For all, the #1 reason was for remittances.&lt;p&gt;Haven&amp;#x27;t we all had it drilled into our heads by CNBC and the likes that crypto was nothing but a big speculative bubble? Woops, I guess that was a big lie.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Users will also benefit from Wirex’s Cryptoback™ rewards program, which automatically gives customers up to 1.5% back in Bitcoin for every purchase made in-store.&lt;p&gt;It does appear that they will support transfers to external wallets (!), contrary to what has been claimed elsewhere in this thread -&amp;gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;wirexapp.com&amp;#x2F;help&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;how-do-i-transfer-cryptocurrency-from-my-wirex-crypto-account-to-an-external-crypto-wallet-0056&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;wirexapp.com&amp;#x2F;help&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;how-do-i-transfer-cryptocu...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The card is not yet available to US customers, although, apparently it is in the works -&amp;gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.bitcoin.com&amp;#x2F;wirex-launching-us-after-receiving-state-money-transmission-license&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.bitcoin.com&amp;#x2F;wirex-launching-us-after-receiving-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hanniabu</author><text>&amp;gt; Set this chart to &amp;quot;all&amp;quot; and tell me that this price movement is not a bubble&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a new asset class, of course it&amp;#x27;s going to see huge gains as it picks up adoption and of course if you zoom all the way out it&amp;#x27;ll look like a bubble. The bubble goes bust every few years and comes back stronger. That&amp;#x27;s a healthy market.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; It&amp;#x27;s actually really sad, because it means they cannot rely on or trust their country&amp;#x27;s currency.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s a huge benefit and reason why bitcoin will become popular. It&amp;#x27;s a portable store of value outside the control of any government. It doesn&amp;#x27;t have the same issues as the US dollar for example where other countries need to be concerned about how not only their country is performing, but also the US since their reserves are in USD.&lt;p&gt;This is also why it&amp;#x27;s gaining popularity around the world. Trust in governments is rapidly decreasing and the world as a whole is destabilizing due to polarization, poverty&amp;#x2F;wealth gaps, and rising environmental concerns.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; there is no trust&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s the point. It&amp;#x27;s trustless. You don&amp;#x27;t need to worry about it.</text></comment>
<story><title>MasterCard to open up network to cryptocurrencies</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currency-mastercard/mastercard-to-open-up-network-to-select-cryptocurrencies-idUSKBN2AA2WF</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nexthash</author><text>Set this chart to &amp;quot;all&amp;quot; and tell me that this price movement is not a bubble. There is no earthly reason for why a &amp;quot;BitCoin&amp;quot; is worth $47,459.66 as of this post.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.coindesk.com&amp;#x2F;price&amp;#x2F;bitcoin&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.coindesk.com&amp;#x2F;price&amp;#x2F;bitcoin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cryptocurrency adoption in 3rd world countries like Nigeria, Vietnam, and the Philippines is not a good thing. It&amp;#x27;s actually really sad, because it means they cannot rely on or trust their country&amp;#x27;s currency. Therefore, they are forced to place bets in a volatile and dangerous game to keep their life savings. If Bitcoin or Ethereum or Dogecoin go bust, they will still lose everything, because there is no trust, recourse, or regulation tolerated in a decentralized system. Well, not much worse than their home country&amp;#x27;s currency, I guess.</text></item><item><author>tboyd47</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s important for people to read the actual press release: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mstr.cd&amp;#x2F;3tLaPZM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mstr.cd&amp;#x2F;3tLaPZM&lt;/a&gt; There&amp;#x27;s good info here which will be new info to many.&lt;p&gt;Why did they do this? It turns out that about a third of Nigerians report using or holding cryptocurrency (!). &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.statista.com&amp;#x2F;chart&amp;#x2F;18345&amp;#x2F;crypto-currency-adoption&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.statista.com&amp;#x2F;chart&amp;#x2F;18345&amp;#x2F;crypto-currency-adoptio...&lt;/a&gt; Second place are Vietnam and the Phillipines. For all, the #1 reason was for remittances.&lt;p&gt;Haven&amp;#x27;t we all had it drilled into our heads by CNBC and the likes that crypto was nothing but a big speculative bubble? Woops, I guess that was a big lie.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Users will also benefit from Wirex’s Cryptoback™ rewards program, which automatically gives customers up to 1.5% back in Bitcoin for every purchase made in-store.&lt;p&gt;It does appear that they will support transfers to external wallets (!), contrary to what has been claimed elsewhere in this thread -&amp;gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;wirexapp.com&amp;#x2F;help&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;how-do-i-transfer-cryptocurrency-from-my-wirex-crypto-account-to-an-external-crypto-wallet-0056&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;wirexapp.com&amp;#x2F;help&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;how-do-i-transfer-cryptocu...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The card is not yet available to US customers, although, apparently it is in the works -&amp;gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.bitcoin.com&amp;#x2F;wirex-launching-us-after-receiving-state-money-transmission-license&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.bitcoin.com&amp;#x2F;wirex-launching-us-after-receiving-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hntrader</author><text>I can say the same things about artwork or gold.&lt;p&gt;To me these things are totally useless, paint on a canvas (when I could just look at a photo of the same thing) and a shiny piece of metal, no utility whatsoever, who cares?&lt;p&gt;Well the value doesn&amp;#x27;t come from one person&amp;#x27;s assertion of value, it&amp;#x27;s supply and demand. Apparently enough people like paint on a canvas and shiny metal for their own reasons.</text></comment>