<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>olalonde</author><text>Bitcoin is used as a speculative investment today only because it is so underpriced. Once its value stabilizes, its use in day to day transactions will grow.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Should also note that MasterCard crypto transactions almost certainly won’t be settled on the blockchain.&lt;p&gt;And neither are USD transactions. In fact, USD doesn&amp;#x27;t even have a blockchain! The great thing with Bitcoin is once you want to cash out your Bitcoin, you can take it with you &amp;quot;on chain&amp;quot; without any intermediary (and it&amp;#x27;s a bit more convenient than carrying bags of cash).</text></item><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>These stories usually spur more enthusiasm for buying cryptocurrency, but ironically those buyers aren’t interested in spending cryptocurrency using their MasterCard.&lt;p&gt;They’re hoping other people will buy cryptocurrency from these announcements, driving the price up. Or, more likely, they’re just hoping other people will buy cryptocurrency and &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; use it in these spending systems.&lt;p&gt;Spending cryptocurrency would result in selling that cryptocurrency, which would drive the price down. That’s not what cryptocurrency investors actually want.&lt;p&gt;Should also note that MasterCard crypto transactions almost certainly won’t be settled on the blockchain. Not with $8 Bitcoin transaction fees.  They’ll just be denominated in cryptocurrency and people can deposit&amp;#x2F;withdraw in certain cryptocurrencies. MasterCard only needs to buy and sell on the blockchain as needed to provide an FX window. The actual transactions would be stored in traditional database systems (aside from customer deposits&amp;#x2F;withdrawals, just like Coinbase)&lt;p&gt;Why? Because MasterCard would get to act as an exchange and collect exchange fees. Exchange fees are a great way to charge consumers for spending their own money in 2021, when normal credit cards actually pay people 1-2% to use them. Cryptocurrency’s inefficiency is their financial upside.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>raiyu</author><text>Bitcoin is used as a speculative instrument because by definition it is deflationary. Which means it is more expensive to buy something with it today, then tomorrow. Just look at Chamath&amp;#x27;s tweet about how he bought a property for Bitcoin in 2014 for $1.4MM but today that same amount of bitcoin would be $100MM+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;markets.businessinsider.com&amp;#x2F;currencies&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;chamath-palihapitiya-bitcoin-land-investmet-loss-porn-btc-tesla-2021-2-1030067864&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;markets.businessinsider.com&amp;#x2F;currencies&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;chamath-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;This creates an environment there is never a reason to use the currency for a purchase, strictly because it&amp;#x27;s supply is completely limited and never increasing over time.&lt;p&gt;Since the world economy continues to grow as GDP, output, and the population grows, it stands to reason that if Bitcoin in any way parallels our real world economic scenario, it would continue to rise in price per unit, because the overall GDP continues to increase.&lt;p&gt;As a result, it in fact never stabilizes, unless overall GDP stops growing.&lt;p&gt;Since it never stops growing, it never makes sense to use it for a purchase, and so you have a flywheel effect of ever increasing upward price pressure.</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>olalonde</author><text>Bitcoin is used as a speculative investment today only because it is so underpriced. Once its value stabilizes, its use in day to day transactions will grow.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Should also note that MasterCard crypto transactions almost certainly won’t be settled on the blockchain.&lt;p&gt;And neither are USD transactions. In fact, USD doesn&amp;#x27;t even have a blockchain! The great thing with Bitcoin is once you want to cash out your Bitcoin, you can take it with you &amp;quot;on chain&amp;quot; without any intermediary (and it&amp;#x27;s a bit more convenient than carrying bags of cash).</text></item><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>These stories usually spur more enthusiasm for buying cryptocurrency, but ironically those buyers aren’t interested in spending cryptocurrency using their MasterCard.&lt;p&gt;They’re hoping other people will buy cryptocurrency from these announcements, driving the price up. Or, more likely, they’re just hoping other people will buy cryptocurrency and &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; use it in these spending systems.&lt;p&gt;Spending cryptocurrency would result in selling that cryptocurrency, which would drive the price down. That’s not what cryptocurrency investors actually want.&lt;p&gt;Should also note that MasterCard crypto transactions almost certainly won’t be settled on the blockchain. Not with $8 Bitcoin transaction fees.  They’ll just be denominated in cryptocurrency and people can deposit&amp;#x2F;withdraw in certain cryptocurrencies. MasterCard only needs to buy and sell on the blockchain as needed to provide an FX window. The actual transactions would be stored in traditional database systems (aside from customer deposits&amp;#x2F;withdrawals, just like Coinbase)&lt;p&gt;Why? Because MasterCard would get to act as an exchange and collect exchange fees. Exchange fees are a great way to charge consumers for spending their own money in 2021, when normal credit cards actually pay people 1-2% to use them. Cryptocurrency’s inefficiency is their financial upside.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>agentdrtran</author><text>&amp;quot;Once its value stabilizes, its use in day to day transactions will grow.&amp;quot; and how will it grow when it&amp;#x27;s a fixed amount of currency with a fixed amount of transactions per second?</text></comment>