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James,

Thank you for your $500 contribution. I don't see how this could harm P123's marketing or their bottom-line if members are paying for a large portion of the costs. P123 attracting new customers is to everyone's benefit. While a polarizing issue in the forum, it is clear than even JPMorgan has a plan for benefiting from it. Whether they believe in it or not and whether it might conflict with the profits from my credit cards at some time in the future. Maybe they will benefit when the FED has a cryptocurrency and have a hand in the regulations written. Which is not meant to imply regulations are not needed or that JPMorgan might not be a be a good resource for instituting some to those policies:

"As with any investment, if you are considering investing in Bitcoin, we encourage you to understand the risks and rewards that can come with it. Contact your J.P. Morgan team for more information."

Link to above quote: If you are exploring Bitcoin—5 things you need to know

Jim

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22

So, I don't really care what P123 does with this other than hope it is a rational business decision. I am not a paid business advisor, BTW.

Here is a thoughtful and nuanced discussion by Lyn Alden who is always wonky while managing to be articulate at the same time. She is complex enough (and probably intelligent enough) that you may have other descriptions--both good and bad--that are true at the same time. Anyway, her ideas are interesting sometimes. I don't get paid to judge her as a person..

Still it may be worth noting that she does not like government control of much of anything, it seems—especially "Nigerian, Vietnamese, Argentinian, Lebanese, Russian, or Turkish" control but also the United States. The limits of control over Bitcoin in the United States, because it is open-source, may be interesting to those concerned about eventual regulations by the US regarding Bitcoin, as a practical concern.

From a social justice perspective, criminals are indeed using Bitcoin, as well as citizens in totalitarian regimes—which she focuses on in this article. I am not interested in weighing in on this but it expands on an issue @WERNER touched on already.

Rhetorical question (pertinent, I believe): How do you feel about this. US immigrants still use Western Union a lot, I understand. For transferring $200 thru Western Union, the cost ranges from 4% to 10% for international transfers (based on my limited research). Should there be more regulation of these transfers or more competition thru technological developments (or both)? I'm not going to opine but it could be part of a comprehensive discussion about the technologies enabling the transfer of money.

Assessing the Health of Bitcoin by Lyn Alden

Also, Marco points out there are other Cryptocurrencies. Some of them may be better. Lyn Alden may agree on that or at least be able to point out some of the problems with Bitcoin. Here is just one additional discussion on her site of the second largest digital asset (Ethereum) for example. Generally, Ethereum uses "stable coins" which may address some of the legitimate issues with Bitcoin including the volatility and the currency exchange:

An Economic Analysis of Ethereum

Linked by Lyn Alden in the above article about Stable Coins: Federally Chartered Banks and Thrifts May Participate in Independent Node Verification Networks and Use Stablecoins for Payment Activities

Excerpt from this Office of the Comptroller of Currency letter: "Our letter removes any legal uncertainty about the authority of banks to connect to blockchains as validator nodes and thereby transact stablecoin payments on behalf of customers who are increasingly demanding the speed, efficiency, interoperability, and low cost associated with these products.”

TL;DR: Banks can and do use Stablecoins and Blockchain for reasons that include reduced transaction costs.

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