Coinbase Users Can Now Buy Crypto Assets Using Apple Pay

[MacRumors]

Popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced that it is now allowing traders to use bank cards linked to Apple Pay to purchase crypto assets on the platform.

"Today, we're introducing new and seamless ways to enable crypto buys with linked debit cards to Apple Pay and Google Pay, and instant cashouts up to $100,000 per transaction available 24/7," said a Coinbase blog post on Thursday.

"If you already have a Visa or Mastercard debit card linked in your Apple Wallet, Apple Pay will automatically appear as a payment method when you're buying crypto with Coinbase on an Apple Pay-supported iOS device or Safari web browser."

In addition, Coinbase said it is also making it easier and faster for users to access their money by offering instant washouts via Real Time Payments (RTP), allowing customers in the U.S. with linked bank accounts to instantly and securely cash out up to $100,000 per transaction.

In June, Coinbase debit cards gained Apple Pay support, allowing it to be added to the Wallet app on iPhone. The Coinbase Card automatically converts the cryptocurrency that a user wishes to spend to U.S. dollars, and transfers the funds to their Coinbase Card for Apple Pay purchases and ATM withdrawals.

Article Link: Coinbase Users Can Now Buy Crypto Assets Using Apple Pay

 

[senttoschool]

I worked in the crypto space for 2 years. 99.99% of the projects are straight-up scams.

Everything in crypto is just a ponzi scheme (and a bit like a pyramid scheme). You own a crytocurrency? You hype it up blindly in order to get more buyers. Then you exit for a profit. Anyone saying cryptocurrency is useful or is the future is only saying that to drive hype, thus price, before exiting.

14 years later, crypto hasn't done anything useful except enabling money laundering and buying illegal things. Not only that, it wastes energy (green or not) and hundreds of thousands of people talent that could have gone into solving more pressing problems in the world.

What cryptocurrencies are is just a modern, efficient way of creating and exiting scams. Cryptocurrencies take advantage of social media to spread and the fact that there is a lot of cash looking for "investments" due to our current low interest-rate environment.

Unlike owning things like stocks where the entities must have boards, report financials, have audits, disclose risks, crypto companies can raise $100 million and then completely shut down the next day without any repercussions except getting a few angry tweets from investors. Once you give money to a crypto project, the founders can do whatever the hell they want.

People say blockchain doesn't have a "killer application" yet. Actually, it does. Its killer application is scamming.

There is a reason why a significant portion of crypto companies are registered in the Cayman Islands.

I wish the U.S. and EU would just grow a pair and ban all crypto like China did.

 

[iapplelove]

Nice, I use coinbase pro as my main exchange.

 

[senttoschool]

I also want to explain why Bitcoin hasn't replaced money and never will.

For a blockchain, you can only pick 2 of the 3 following: decentralization, security, and performance.

Bitcoin is very decentralized (copies of the blockchain in millions of computers) and has good security (mining). But it can only perform 4.6 transactions per second because mining is incredibly computationally intensive and the blockchain is spread across millions of computers.

Compare this to Visa. Visa prioritizes security and performance. It's centralized. For simplicity of explaining this, Visa transactions only need be verified by Visa, probably using a high-performance centralized Oracle database. This allows Visa to handle 24,000 transactions per second and this limit can easily increase with more CPUs and servers.

All cryptocurrencies just turn the dial between decentralization, security, and performance. Any magical new blockchain that promises "100000x" the performance of Bitcoin is just less decentralized with less security. These blockchains are usually easily manipulated. In fact, there's a website dedicated to calculating how much it costs to attack them: https://www.crypto51.app/

Any cyrptocurrency that wants to process as many transactions as Visa will basically have to use a system very similar to Visa's which means it's no different than Visa. And we already have a Visa (and many other legitimate financial companies).

Hence, Bitcoin is just "digital gold" or something that does nothing except sit there and drain up a country's worth of energy.

 

[InGen]

I also want to explain why Bitcoin hasn't replaced money and never will.

For a blockchain, you can only pick 2 of the 3 following: decentralization, security, and performance.

Bitcoin is very decentralized (copies of the blockchain in millions of computers) and has good security (mining). But it can only perform 4.6 transactions per second because mining is incredibly computationally intensive and the blockchain is spread across millions of computers.

Now, look at Visa. Visa prioritizes security and performance. It's centralized. For simplicity of explaining this, Visa transactions only need be verified by Visa, probably using a high-performance centralized Oracle database. This allows Visa to handle 24,000 transactions per second and this limit can easily increase with more CPUs and servers.

All cryptocurrencies just turn the dial between decentralization, security, and performance. Any magical new blockchain that promises "100000x" the performance of Bitcoin is just less decentralized with less security. These blockchains are usually easily manipulated. In fact, there's a website dedicated to calculating how much it costs to attack them: https://www.crypto51.app/

Any cyrptocurrency that wants to process as many transactions as Visa will basically have to use a system very similar to Visa's which means it's no different than Visa. And we already have a Visa (and many other legitimate financial companies).

Hence, Bitcoin is just "digital gold" or something that does nothing except sit there and drain up a country's worth of energy.

I agree with much of what you said, despite having dabbled with various coins personally, although I think you’re not taking into consideration the evolution of the technology and it’s long term future potential.

There are very complex financial systems growing around the trading & exchanging of Cryptos, especially over the past 2 years. If a crypto coins future potential-use was as clear as day then absolutely everyone would be jumping onboard overnight, destabilising the market.

However there is slowly but surely heavy investment being poured into setting up infrastructure and governance systems that are facilitating crypto’s growth and I can’t see that it’s all being done simply to profit from some hype bubble.

I don’t think anyone knows with absolute certainty what the use-case will be for all these intangible digital coins all with their own tokenomics at play, however enough people believe that there will be a radical shift to their use over fiat and other commodities in the trading of value in the future.

I think you’re judging it too harshly too early, in the scope of a millennium of technologically advanced civilisation, a decade is nothing really. There is a future somehow for these digital coins.

 

[senttoschool]

I agree with much of what you said, despite having dabbled with various coins personally, although I think you’re not taking into consideration the evolution of the technology and it’s long term future potential.

There are very complex financial systems growing around the trading & exchanging of Cryptos, especially over the past 2 years. If a crypto coins future potential-use was as clear as day then absolutely everyone would be jumping onboard overnight, destabilising the market.

However there is slowly but surely heavy investment being poured into setting up infrastructure and governance systems that are facilitating crypto’s growth and I can’t see that it’s all being done simply to profit from some hype bubble.

I don’t think anyone knows with absolute certainty what the use-case will be for all these intangible digital coins all with their own tokenomics at okay, however enough people believe that there will be a radical shift to their use over fiat and other commodities in the trading of value in the future.

I think you’re judging it too harshly too early, in the scope of a millennium of technologically advanced civilisation, a decade is nothing really. There is a future somehow for these digital coins.

The fundamental pins of a blockchain do not change.

For example, I know a lot of DeFi is being built on Ethereum. But in order for Ethereum to scale and increase performance, it has to decrease security. It's already doing that by having to move to a PoS system instead of PoW system.

And if Ethereum ever has to process as many transactions as Visa, well, guess what? It needs to build its system exactly like Visa.

 

[miniyou64]

I worked in the crypto space for 2 years. 99.99% of the projects are straight-up scams.

Everything in crypto is just a ponzi scheme (and a bit like a pyramid scheme). You own a crytocurrency? You hype it up blindly in order to get more buyers. Then you exit for a profit. Anyone saying cryptocurrency is useful or is the future is only saying that to drive hype, thus price, before exiting.

14 years later, crypto hasn't done anything useful except enabling money laundering and buying illegal things. Not only that, it wastes energy (green or not) and hundreds of thousands of people talent that could have gone into solving more pressing problems in the world.

What cryptocurrencies are is just a modern, efficient way of creating and exiting scams. Cryptocurrencies take advantage of social media to spread and the fact that there is a lot of cash looking for "investments" due to our current low interest-rate environment.

Unlike owning things like stocks where the entities must have boards, report financials, have audits, disclose risks, crypto companies can raise $100 million and then completely shut down the next day without any repercussions except getting a few angry tweets from investors. Once you give money to a crypto project, the founders can do whatever the hell they want.

People say blockchain doesn't have a "killer application" yet. Actually, it does. Its killer application is scamming.

There is a reason why a significant portion of crypto companies are registered in the Cayman Islands.

I wish the U.S. and EU would just grow a pair and ban all crypto like China did.

I hope you got paid in fiat to post this nonsense.

 

[senttoschool]

I hope you got paid in fiat to post this nonsense.

Where are the actual counterarguments? Or there just isn't any?

This is the third person who refuses to address any of my points except to resort to ad hominem.

Quote my arguments and provide your counterargument. Let's debate.

 

[viperguy]

Serious question: Can someone explain to me what is all the hype about crypto? I wanna know specifically:
1) What exactly can Bitcoin do that money doesn’t already; and
2) How are we supposed to fight money laundering and all sorts of crime money being traded on Bitcoin if the operation is encrypted.

 

[miniyou64]

Where are the actual counterarguments? Or there just isn't any?

This is the third person who refuses to address any of my points except to resort to ad hominem.

Quote my arguments and provide your counterargument. Let's debate.

You wrote a novel with nothing but opinions based on incorrect assumptions. Thankfully crypto, specifically Bitcoin and some other big chains are going absolutely no where whether you like it or not. Enjoy your manipulated currency. The true coins spell freedom for the underprivileged. I feel bad you had such a bad experience though

 

[miniyou64]

Serious question: Can someone explain to me what is all the hype about crypto? I wanna know specifically:
1) What exactly can Bitcoin do that money doesn’t already; and
2) How are we supposed to fight money laundering and all sorts of crime money being traded on Bitcoin if the operation is encrypted.

1) Bitcoin is permissionless. Anyone can control their own money, and no one else can. It can’t be stopped or shut down. And you can prove ownership.
2) The old fashioned way. Encryption is for everyone’s protection. The real crime is what governments do debasing the money supply and making hard working people poorer by default. Crypto fixed this since you can trust the big ones with their built in rules that are not changed on a whim.

 

[senttoschool]

1) Bitcoin is permissionless. Anyone can control their own money, and no one else can. It can’t be stopped or shut down. And you can prove ownership.
2) The old fashioned way. Encryption is for everyone’s protection. The real crime is what governments do debasing the money supply and making hard working people poorer by default. Crypto fixed this since you can trust the big ones with their built in rules that are not changed on a whim.

1. Bitcoin is not permissionless. It's controlled by the majority. The majority can say you have 0 bitcoin or 100,000 bitcoin. It can be stopped and shut down and hacked.

2. Bitcoin addresses are not "encrypted". They are just long strings used as IDs. If you know someone's wallet address, then you can see every transaction this person makes to and from the address.

I highly recommend reading the actual Bitcoin code to get a better understanding of it: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin

 

[Dav17e]

1. Bitcoin is not permissionless. It's controlled by the majority. The majority can say you have 0 bitcoin or 100,000 bitcoin. It can be stopped and shut down and hacked.

2. Bitcoin addresses are not encrypted. They are just long strings. If you know someone's wallet address, then you can see every transaction this person makes to and from the address.

I highly recommend reading the actual Bitcoin code to get a better understanding of it: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin

Any thoughts on the lightening network for scaling maintaining security and decentralisation?

 

[DanTSX]

I made plenty in crypto.

Crypto is a joke. It’s an inefficient proxy for some properties of money. And the crypto world is full of scammers and clowns.

The fact that crypto value is universally quoted in terms of a home currency (I.e. $ USD) is visible proof that people are never really serious about it fulfilling it’s techbro libertarian ideals.

 

[trixn]

I worked in the crypto space for 2 years. 99.99% of the projects are straight-up scams.

Everything in crypto is just a ponzi scheme (and a bit like a pyramid scheme). You own a crytocurrency? You hype it up blindly in order to get more buyers. Then you exit for a profit. Anyone saying cryptocurrency is useful or is the future is only saying that to drive hype, thus price, before exiting.

14 years later, crypto hasn't done anything useful except enabling money laundering and buying illegal things. Not only that, it wastes energy (green or not) and hundreds of thousands of people talent that could have gone into solving more pressing problems in the world.

What cryptocurrencies are is just a modern, efficient way of creating and exiting scams. Cryptocurrencies take advantage of social media to spread and the fact that there is a lot of cash looking for "investments" due to our current low interest-rate environment.

Unlike owning things like stocks where the entities must have boards, report financials, have audits, disclose risks, crypto companies can raise $100 million and then completely shut down the next day without any repercussions except getting a few angry tweets from investors. Once you give money to a crypto project, the founders can do whatever the hell they want.

People say blockchain doesn't have a "killer application" yet. Actually, it does. Its killer application is scamming.

There is a reason why a significant portion of crypto companies are registered in the Cayman Islands.

I wish the U.S. and EU would just grow a pair and ban all crypto like China did.

Spot on description of what crypto currencies are. They are just "assets" with no meaningful real value. We only see their prices explode because we see prices in all asset markets explode. That is not a success story of crypto currencies, it's an asset bubble caused by poor macroeconomic policies. The low-interest-rate of the recent years has brought us there.

And why are interest rates so low? Because politicians and economists (mostly neoclassical) incorrectly assumed that monetary policy by central banks can control consumer price inflation by indirectly controlling money creation through lending of private banks. But they evidently can't because the amount of money does not cause such inflation. Rising salary does. More money in the wrong place just causes asset bubbles.

But since at least a decade (in japan even since about 25 years) companies do not lend money anymore even with zero interest rates. Central banks can lower interest rates but they can't force companies to invest. This is perfectly described by economist Richard Koo.

)

Instead money goes into assets. But if one saves money there must be another one that takes the same amount as debt. Currently it's the state.

Crypto currencies are not the solution, they are a symptom of poor monetary policy. Private banks are creating billions of additional money every year through lending. But those credits that have in the past been used by companies to invest into an increase of productivity increasingly flow into the pockets of the already wealthy that instead use it to bet on rising prices of assets, no matter if it is stocks, real estate or crypto currencies. The whole development reminds me of what happened in 1929.

Currencies that are unregulated and subject to massive speculation on the market will never be accepted as general means of payment because they are inherently unstable and they lack an authority that enforces demand for it through taxation.

 

[senttoschool]

I made plenty in crypto.

Crypto is a joke. It’s an inefficient proxy for some properties of money. And the crypto world is full of scammers and clowns.

The fact that crypto value is universally quoted in terms of a home currency (I.e. $ USD) is visible proof that people are never really serious about it fulfilling it’s techbro libertarian ideals.

And do you know what libertarians love? Money.

Give me enough money and I'll become a democrat, republican, communist, libertarian, fascist, whatever you want.

 

[AstonSmith]

The fact that crypto value is universally quoted in terms of a home currency (I.e. $ USD) is visible proof that people are never really serious about it fulfilling it’s techbro libertarian ideals.

Thank you, yes! Exactly.

The only reason crypto is considered to be worth anything is because they can be converted into real currencies ($€£ etc). If all the exchanges were closed down overnight, they'd be practically worthless.

 

[Dav17e]

And do you know what libertarians love? Money.

Give me enough money and I'll become a democrat, republican, communist, libertarian, fascist, whatever you want.

You wanted a civilised conversation and I gave you a pretty good counterargument.... any chance I could get a reply re the lightening network?

Any thoughts on the lightening network for scaling maintaining security and decentralisation?

Nevermind, you just qualified yourself.

 

[senttoschool]

The only reason crypto is considered to be worth anything is because they can be converted into real currencies ($€£ etc). If all the exchanges were closed down overnight, they'd be practically worthless.

Actually, if all cryptocurrencies disappeared overnight, the world will continue to run without missing a beat since world does not need cryptocurrency. We'd just have more energy and talent for something else more useful.

 

[senttoschool]

You wanted a civilised conversation and I gave you a pretty good counterargument.... any chance I could get a reply re the lightening network?

It decreases security.

Decentralization, security, performance. Pick 2 out of 3.

 

[Dav17e]

It decreases security.

Decentralization, security, performance. Pick 2 out of 3.

How so?

 

[Psychicbob]

I don’t see why people slag off crypto when all the major countries are looking into implementing their own crypto.

 

[senttoschool]

How so?

https://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper.pdf

Start from page 49.

 

[senttoschool]

I don’t see why people slag off crypto when all the major countries are looking into implementing their own crypto.

No they're not.

Many countries are creating a digital currency without blockchain, which is different from cryptocurrency.

 

[Yokon54]

Great. More ways for most people to lose real money.

Is Bitcoin a scam? Ask yourself how Bitcoin is valued and you have your answer.

What does Bitcoin produce? The answer is nothing and this is why it is such a great scam. The price can literally be anything you want and there will be some contrived argument to justify it.

At the end of the day, if you’re valuing your Bitcoin in terms of dollars, you still want the dollars and all your arguments fall apart.

Bitcoin is slow, bad for the environment, and does nothing a digital dollar couldn’t do (most of which already exists). The current dollar (the world currency) can be easily transferred to blockchain underpinnings if that somehow means something.

Now all the people long Bitcoin or made money will come tell me I’m wrong. If you made money, congrats on the gamble. You were smart to covert to dollars.