Re <<Hearing rumblings today that bitcoin is likely to win the contest to be declared "not a currency"...
... The enthusiastic claim that means "all regulatory hurdles are eliminated'... which is not dealing with reality.
The realists will note that if bitcoin isn't a currency... it is becuase it lacks utility it claims to have...
Etherium, meanwhile... seems to be doing rather well these days... with fewer of its enthusiasts interested in claiming it lacks utility.>>
As China PBOC effectively declared bitgold to be bitgold, and likely to be tradable against eCNY, the rest of the CBs can go with it, against it, or wait and see. But must do one of the three sooner or later.
Going against the PBOC declaration entails danger. Going with it simply reasonable. Doing neither just milling time.
The big regulatory hurdle set must include addressing of issues ranging from KYC and taxation, but difficult to get around cross-border migration of escaping savings and off-shore exchanges answerable to few, especially if in context of Cold War 2.0, both from the funding leakage perspective as well as from the fiat dilution angle.
Bitgold may or may not be a currency. The truly expensive aged MaoTai (the liquor) most assuredly is not a currency, but is used as 'gift' in transactions that might as well be in cash form. Bitgold has a utility, that of remaining a metaphysical constant in a universe infused with change.
Ethereum doing well for now, against bitgold but not DOGE. Good thing is that arguably DOGE is a bubble, a joke, an insurrection, or all three, whereas ETH is uncapped, according to folks of deep faith. Time shall tell. I am wagering 1/3 each in BTC, ETH, and CSPR, with forays into DOGE, back-stopped by hard gold and solid platinum, and yield / premium harvesting DRD / SBSW / China Mobile. And am getting more exposure to the list of suspects that be BTG, SA, KL, FNV, ... I do not know what else to do.
The CBs must QE. The final authorities must MMT. The mob must be sated. The debt must be wasted. Should such remain true, then any financial hiccup temporary, and all dips are buy junctures.
For something that lacks a use-case, Square is doing well by it.
Walmart distributes CCP-enabled good. Square supports CCP-facilitated bitgold import for exchange of real gold export. The ledger balances well.
bloomberg.com
Square Revenue More Than Triples, Driven by Bitcoin Sales
Kurt Wagner
7 May 2021, 05:36 GMT+8
Square Inc.’s quarterly sales more than tripled, surpassing analysts’ estimates, driven by skyrocketing Bitcoin purchases through the company’s Cash App.
First-quarter sales were $5.06 billion, beating the $3.37 billion average projection from analysts, according to data gathered by Bloomberg. Revenue from Bitcoin sales -- which includes the total value of Bitcoin purchases on its Cash App -- climbed more than elevenfold to $3.51 billion, up from $306 million a year earlier, the company said Thursday in a shareholder letter. Still, gross profit from those Bitcoin transactions was just $75 million, reflecting the fees that Square collects.
Surging purchases of Bitcoin have been a major boon for the company over the past year as more consumers have flocked to the cryptocurrency. Square takes a transaction fee when users buy or sell the cryptocurrency through Cash App, but the profit Square makes on each transaction is small compared to the overall revenue generated.
San Francisco-based Square announced in February that the company had purchased roughly $170 million of Bitcoin, which amounted to about 5% of the company’s total cash, equivalents and marketable securities. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey, who also runs social network Twitter Inc., is a vocal Bitcoin proponent, and has praised the idea of an unregulated, global cryptocurrency. The bio on Dorsey’s Twitter account simply says “#bitcoin.”
For the March quarter, Square’s gross payment volume, or the total cost of goods and services processed using its transaction products, increased 29% to $33.14 billion. Analysts had projected growth of 17%. Net income was $39 million, or 8 cents a share, the company said.
In the letter, Square said regional reopenings following the Covid-19 pandemic-related shutdowns helped seller GPV increase 144% in April, a sign that in-person businesses are starting to rebound in the current quarter.
(Updates with April gross payment volume numbers in final paragraph.)
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