If you can't access your crypto that means you're doing it wrong.
Oh I certainly did it wrong, this is Bitcoin I mined when prices were about $250, even if I didn’t mess up and overwrite my wallet and lose the recovery I would have sold it long ago I’m sure. Still hurts that I can see it anytime I want but can’t touch.
Do debit cards offer cashback or reward points over there? That's the only reason I use my credit cards... for the reward points. Pay them off each month but get my points to pay for flights or gift cards or whatever.
No, that's mostly not a thing. They exist, but only barely and not for the vast majority of cards.
We have much smaller banking and transaction fees etc. obviously, because we don't have to pay for all those gift cards, bonuses or rewards. My main bank account has no recurring fees at all as long as I don't show up physically to bother them or lose my card, or do something else that's outside of daily basic banking services like paying bills and buying stuff. ATM fees also mostly not a thing.
(My other bank charges me like 5 euros a month total I think, which I consider to be quite a lot, but moving that one thing I have there would cost much more, so it's not worth the effort.)
It's hard for me to see the attraction of that bonus system, I'd rather decide myself how I spend my money instead of paying companies so they'll give me gift cards.
But I assume it's kind of like your crappy overpriced internet providers, not something you can opt out of.
It's hard for me to see the attraction of that bonus system, I'd rather decide myself how I spend my money instead of paying companies so they'll give me gift cards.
Unless you get an explicit discount, you are paying for the transaction fees no matter what; they are baked into the price. So you are really only hurting yourself if you don't play the game.
The reward systems are pretty meh, but as long as you have a good credit score, you can get multiple credit cards to maximize rewards. I use different cards for different purchases.
There is also the advantage of it being interest-free credit (for 21-days), that way if something does happen you can dispute the charges and usually get that dealt with before the grace period is up. Let's say someone double charges your CC accidently, you don't lose the money a 5-10 business day turnaround on getting a refund (the worst I've personally experienced), doesn't affect your bank account.
If someone does charge "a convenience fee" or equivalent for CC usage, I always use debit though as it's generally 3% and only two CC give rewards that are better (3% and 5%), though those rewards are restricted to categories.
Unless you get an explicit discount, you are paying for the transaction fees no matter what; they are baked into the price. So you are really only hurting yourself if you don't play the game.
The reward systems are pretty meh, but as long as you have a good credit score, you can get multiple credit cards to maximize rewards. I use different cards for different purchases.
There is also the advantage of it being interest-free credit (for 21-days), that way if something does happen you can dispute the charges and usually get that dealt with before the grace period is up. Let's say someone double charges your CC accidently, you don't lose the money a 5-10 business day turnaround on getting a refund (the worst I've personally experienced), doesn't affect your bank account.
If someone does charge "a convenience fee" or equivalent for CC usage, I always use debit though as it's generally 3% and only two CC give rewards that are better (3% and 5%), though those rewards are restricted to categories.
Yeah as I thought, not something you can opt out of.
Anyway, different places have different banking practices, and that's why there's less credit cards in Europe. Not a reason the world need crypto.
I don't pay a monthly fee for banking, either. I do use a card with a yearly fee, but beyond the rewards, it has perks like travel insurance and rental car insurance which has saved me loads over the years. I just pay it off every month, and rarely use debit. Totally worth it.
Was going to post that later tonight, it was a good watch and I highly recommend it. I found it illuminating that NFT are basically a receipt to a transaction that may or may not have a contract that only applies to the original purchaser. Or you are buying literally nothing due to how copyright works.
Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York
Two Defendants Charged In Non-Fungible Token (“NFT”) Fraud And Money Laundering Scheme
IRS-CI Special Agent-in-Charge Thomas Fattorusso said: “NFTs represent a new era for financial investments, but the same rules apply to an investment in an NFT or a real estate development. You can’t solicit funds for a business opportunity, abandon that business and abscond with money investors provided you. Our team here at IRS-CI and our partners at HSI closely track cryptocurrency transactions in an effort to uncover alleged schemes like this one.”
Bitcoin has steadily been gaining acceptance from the traditional finance and investment world in recent years but Warren Buffett is sticking to his skeptical stance on bitcoin.
He said at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder meeting Saturday that it’s not a productive asset and it doesn’t produce anything tangible. Despite a shift in public perception about the cryptocurrency, Buffett still wouldn’t buy it.
“Whether it goes up or down in the next year, or five or 10 years, I don’t know. But the one thing I’m pretty sure of is that it doesn’t produce anything,” Buffett said. “It’s got a magic to it and people have attached magics to lots of things.”
Quote:
“In my life, I try and avoid things that are stupid and evil and make me look bad in comparison to somebody else – and bitcoin does all three,” Munger said. “In the first place, it’s stupid because it’s still likely to go to zero. It’s evil because it undermines the Federal Reserve System... and third, it makes us look foolish compared to the Communist leader in China. He was smart enough to ban bitcoin in China.”
Bitcoin is not going to zero IMO, the price floor will always be a function of the cost of electricity. Right now it's ~$35k to mine one, hence the price support we see right now.
Evil because it undermines the federal reserve system...that's quite the interpretation. I suppose anything that encourages the federal reserve system is inherently good?
Evil might not be the correct word, but perhaps hazardous. A country having control of it's own currency is pretty fundamental for a many reasons. If you lose those levers, it could be troublesome.
Evil might not be the correct word, but perhaps hazardous. A country having control of it's own currency is pretty fundamental for a many reasons. If you lose those levers, it could be troublesome.
If a country should have control of its own currency to avoid hazard then should the US Federal Reserve be nationalized?
Their is good reason it is the way it is, as explained in the article. This is no way the same as turning your currency over to an unmanaged digital currency. The comparison is kinda nonsensical.
If you were trying to complete a transaction on the Ethereum network last night, you might have been taken aback by the ridiculously high gas fees you saw.
For example, one user purchased a $25 NFT on Saturday evening. Their total price? $3,325. That's $3,300 just in fees...
...Ethereum transactions can fail if a user doesn't pay enough in gas fees. When this happens, not only does the transaction not go though, but the user is still charged the gas fee...
...But, this past Saturday night, the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) brand by Yuga Labs launched a brand new NFT project called Otherside. The project offered 100,000 "deeds" for "virtual land" in the form of NFTs. The original Bored Ape NFTs can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, cryptocurrency investors lined up to try and score at least one of the 100,000 NFTs in its latest series.
The result: An overwhelmed Ethereum Network that caused fees to skyrocket to astronomically high amounts...
...Last night's debacle is just another example of how cryptocurrency, NFTs, and really everything related to the blockchain just isn't ready for the mainstream.
LOL. Bored Ape Yacht Club "virtual land" NFTs managed to bring Etherium to it's knees. Quite the resilient system that crumbles under demand.
From the article:
One cryptocurrency advocate noticed that from just the Bored Ape's NFT sale, approximately $100 million were wasted during the first hour of the "land" sale in gas fees alone.
Their is good reason it is the way it is, as explained in the article. This is no way the same as turning your currency over to an unmanaged digital currency. The comparison is kinda nonsensical.
If the argument is that a country should have control of its currency to avoid hazard, then the US Federal Reserve Bank (the entity that creates US dollars) should be a branch of the government.
