Cryptocurrencies

[Eldad]

On 7/3/2026 at 12:57 PM, SharperDingaan said:

 

The payment recipient is you, and you are very glad to have it.

 

Somebody freezes your accounts,  sends their thugs after you, and puts up border restrictions to seize and detain. As a well informed lad .... you escape in a small plane, but have to leave your wealth behind.

 

Sometime later, in a different country, you access your BTC account, and liquidate. Proceeds laundered though the newly opened bank account of a recent dead person, in a 3rd country. 

 

You have paid yourself, and lived to fight another day. The oppositions jaws snapped on thin air.

 

Different strokes.

 

SD

 

Take your physical gold with you in the plane and skip a bunch of steps. 

[SharperDingaan]

7 hours ago, Eldad said:

Take your physical gold with you in the plane and skip a bunch of steps. 

 

Security takes you, your family, and all your baggage off the plane. You visit the little sound proofed room, are roughed up, all the family jewellery pulled off you, and your wife and daughters strip searched. Most of your stash now gone, or used to bribe your way out.

 

BTC on the other hand ..... you might give up the seed phrase on a single account, with very little in it. Look stupid, look poor, but walk away still intact.

 

SD

Edited July 8 by SharperDingaan

[TwoCitiesCapital]

59 minutes ago, SharperDingaan said:

 

Security takes you, your family, and all your baggage off the plane. You visit the little sound proofed room, are roughed up, all the family jewellery pulled off you, and your wife and daughters strip searched. Most of your stash now gone, or used to bribe your way out.

 

BTC on the other hand ..... you might give up the seed phrase on a single account, with very little in it. Look stupid, look poor, but walk away still intact.

 

SD

 

For some of us, there's Bitcoin. 

 

For others, there's nature's pocket. 

[73 Reds]

1 hour ago, SharperDingaan said:

 

Security takes you, your family, and all your baggage off the plane. You visit the little sound proofed room, are roughed up, all the family jewellery pulled off you, and your wife and daughters strip searched. Most of your stash now gone, or used to bribe your way out.

 

BTC on the other hand ..... you might give up the seed phrase on a single account, with very little in it. Look stupid, look poor, but walk away still intact.

 

SD

You guys really need to think about this more creatively.  There are a multitude of ways to hide/conceal/ maintain wealth worldwide without the need for BTC or worrying about "frozen" accounts.  It takes planning but evidently some of you really worry about this stuff.

[SharperDingaan]

2 minutes ago, 73 Reds said:

You guys really need to think about this more creatively.  There are a multitude of ways to hide/conceal/ maintain wealth worldwide without the need for BTC or worrying about "frozen" accounts.  It takes planning but evidently some of you really worry about this stuff.

 

Sorry .... but no trade secrets 

 

SD

[Libs]

I'm bullish on BTC as digital gold, but have always considered the rest of the crypto space garbage. This is making me re-think. If Agentic AI is indeed the future, and I think it will be huge, it can only run on the crypto rails. Eye - opening:

 

https://www.franklintempleton.com/articles/2026/digital-assets/agentic-ai-the-killer-use-case-for-blockchain-and-crypto

 

Courtesy of our controversial friend, Jordi Visser and his weekly video.

[wabuffo]

Excerpt from the article Libs posted:
 

“Legacy credit card and banking infrastructures are unsuited for agentic micropayments due to their fee structures; a standard credit card transaction averages 2%-3% plus a flat fee of approximately US$0.30, versus AI agent payments that average US$0.001 to purchase a single second of compute or a data query.”

 

Statements like this are like when someone claims they are a huge sports fan and says "I think LeBron is going to hit 50 homers for the Sixers next year".

 

Credibility immediately goes out the window.

 

Lolz.

Edited 5 hours ago by wabuffo

[lnofeisone]

1 hour ago, wabuffo said:

Excerpt from the article Libs posted:
 

“Legacy credit card and banking infrastructures are unsuited for agentic micropayments due to their fee structures; a standard credit card transaction averages 2%-3% plus a flat fee of approximately US$0.30, versus AI agent payments that average US$0.001 to purchase a single second of compute or a data query.”

 

Statements like this are like when someone claims they are a huge sports fan and says "I think LeBron is going to hit 50 homers for the Sixers next year".

 

Credibility immediately goes out the window.

 

Lolz.

I think I'm a tad confused. Can you elaborate on why this statement loses the author credibility? I'm curious because this a real problem and there are companies that rely on innovation here in agentic space (thinking Cloudflare and their L402 and x402 integration in the Workers platform). 

[wabuffo]

Can you elaborate on why this statement loses the author credibility?

 

Because the author is comparing a credit transaction (funds are being borrowed with the associated compensation built into the transaction cost for credit risk being assumed by the lender and not the payment network) with a debit transaction (funds are in place ahead of the transaction and being withdrawn from a deposit account).

 

That means the author is either unaware of the difference (hence my ignorant sports fan analogy) -- or, worse, is aware and deliberately misleading the audience for obvious promotional reasons.

 

Bill

Edited 5 hours ago by wabuffo

[TwoCitiesCapital]

Do agentic AIs not have the same problem that they may distrust one another on payment? 

 

And do block chain rails where they can identify the wallet balance beforehand, and smart contracts that escrow the funds until actions are taken, not relieve that burden of fraud/nonpayment? 

 

And that block chain can effect faster/cheaper transactions without the need for banking intermediaries that take a cut as a result? I thought this was already well accepted....

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by TwoCitiesCapital

[wabuffo]

And that block chain can effect faster/cheaper transactions without the need for banking intermediaries that take a cut as a result? I thought this was already well accepted....

 

I mean V has an annual data processing expense of $890 million to move $14.2 trillion in annual payments (both credit and debit) or 1 bp ($0.0001 per payment dollar moved).   So, if we're just comparing electronic bits moving through a network, I'm fairly certain Visa's marginal cost to move bits is also pretty much close to zero. 

 

So there's no technological innovation here in cost per transaction vs current payment rails.

 

But I get it, there are financial institutions making these debit payments and they take a cut. And to emphasize the point - we are talking about debit transactions not credit card transactions. The average US debit transaction of $40 at a large bank costs 23-cents in interchange (0.00575 per payment dollar) so this should be the proper comp in that up-thread article. 

 

I would argue that the real comp for blockchain then should also include the on- and off-ramps to/from bank deposit accounts.  What is the all-in cost then to compare against a Visa debit card payment?  I bet its not less than .00575 per payment dollar.

 

I include the on-off ramps, because we are never going to live in a world where Bitcoin is an actual currency that anyone spends.  Even if we look at US-regulated stablecoins as a payment medium, they are not gaining any traction from what I can see.  Paypal's stablecoin is dead in the water, and Circle's USDCs in circulation is down 7.1% so far in 2026 (CRCL promised 40% CAGRs, lolz).  Meanwhile, bank deposits are up 4% in 2026, and currency in circulation is up 2%.  Go fiat!

 

Look - I'm not anti Bitcoin, I'm just a neutral to slightly skeptical agnostic.  

 

Bill

(full disclosue I have been short CRCL since after it went public).

Edited 4 hours ago by wabuffo

[Blake Hampton]

Is there a market for perpetual Fartcoin futures yet?

[TwoCitiesCapital]

3 hours ago, Blake Hampton said:

Is there a market for perpetual Fartcoin futures yet?

 

Do perpetuals for Doge and Shiba Inu count? Because those exist.