Also, I hope this doesn't put downward pressure on BTC. There is already mounting pressure as the world invests in dollars considering widespread conservative political movement across the globe, and no one quite knows what's going to happen. As the dollar goes up, I'd think that would have another negative effect on BTC.
I see BTC crashing very soon, but in the meantime, I'm waiting cautiously.
Also over the past year or so it has primarily been China pushing the price of Bitcoin higher. So that also minimizes any effect this could have in my opinion.
(If anyone has stats on the spread between Chinese prices and Western exchange prices, that would be good to see.)
Anyone remember dwolla? Probably not. They tried to do the same thing, but it turned out the only reason anyone cared about them was bitcoin-friendliness.
I'm not sure why anyone in their right mind would want to compete in the "social money" market right now given that it's saturated with low- or zero-margin projects, often sponsored by large companies. Square cash, venmo, Facebook cash, snapcash. The only one of the bunch I use is square cash because it's the least "social".
From December 2010 until 2014, Dwolla claimed to protect consumer data from unauthorized access with “safe” and “secure” transactions. On its website and in communications with consumers, Dwolla claimed its data security practices exceeded industry standards and were Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliant. They claimed also that they encrypted all sensitive personal information and that its mobile applications were safe and secure.
But rather than setting “a new precedent for the payments industry” as asserted, Dwolla’s data security practices in fact fell far short of its claims. Such deception about security and security practices is illegal. Specifically, the CFPB found, among other issues, that Dwolla misrepresented its data-security practices by:
Falsely claiming its data security practices “exceed” or “surpass” industry security standards: Contrary to its claims, Dwolla failed to employ reasonable and appropriate measures to protect data obtained from consumers from unauthorized access.
Falsely claiming its “information is securely encrypted and stored”: Dwolla did not encrypt some sensitive consumer personal information, and released applications to the public before testing whether they were secure.
As for the change in business model, they announced (2) on a Friday afternoon after the U.S. election, with less than one month before the switchover. Some people were left in the lurch. (3)
1. http://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-takes-...
2. https://www.dwolla.com/updates/focus/
3. https://discuss.dwolla.com/t/the-changes-this-dec-7th/3209/7
We don't have anything like any of those in Canada, if someone wants to try :)
It costs $1.50 per transaction so it's not practical for paying your friend $5 to split a burrito etc.
Are we sure they were even doing this?