久久久无码人妻精品无码_6080YYY午夜理论片中无码_性无码专区_无码人妻品一区二区三区精99

Bitcoin: struggling for currency

Updated: 2013-11-22 07:18

By Alfred Romann(HK Edition)

  Print Mail Large Medium  Small

Despite the fact that there is almost nowhere to spend Bitcoins in Hong Kong, locally based entrepreneurs, traders and consultants are playing an increasingly important role in the growing crypto economy based on digital currency. Alfred Romann writes.

Hong Kong has yet to embrace Bitcoin, the digital currency that can pass from person to person anywhere round the world, virtually in secret and beyond the reach to standard currency controls. The city's entrepreneurs, however, are moving quickly to get in on the ground floor.

The new Hong Kong-based Asia Nexgen Bitcoin Exchange has already opened for business. Seedcoin, an investor in Bitcoin and an incubator for Bitcoin-related businesses, has set up shop in Hong Kong. The largest Bitcoin scam to date was executed by a Hong Kong registered company, Global Bond Ltd. That bit of legerdemain cost investors $4.1 million when Global Bond's principal vanished into the ether, and all for a currency that's all but worthless in Hong Kong's day to day commerce. You might get a massage in a couple of places.

The founder of Seedcoin, Eddie Travia, organized a conference in Singapore earlier this month. The director of compliance at Matrixvision, which works with companies to set up compliance structures, is based in Hong Kong.

Bitcoin is not backed by the central banks of any government capable of floating beneath the radar and outside the gaze of governments. It's a digital currency or crypto currency that's stored in so-called "wallets" online or offline. Users can "buy" bitcoins by walking into exchanges like itBit, BTC China, Mt Gox or Asia Nexgen and paying with dollars, yuan, euros, or whatever is legal tender. They can also be obtained from the sale of goods and services. Some vendors demand it. Bitcoins may be transferred from one party to another using unique transfer codes or addresses that move the Bitcoin instantly from one wallet to the other. It takes minutes to set up a wallet.

You can transfer bitcoins to someone on the other side of the world as rapidly as you can to somebody sitting the in the same room. It's this ability to move cash instantaneously that contributes to the growing popularity of the virtual currency.

Despite its flexibility and increasing global notoriety, Bitcoin remains more of an economic and commercial curiosity. Its market capitalization is believed to be somewhere in the $7.5 billion range, as of Nov 20. That is a tiny fraction of the $1.2 trillion in circulation in banknotes from the US Federal Reserve or the 5.5 trillion yuan (US$900 billion) in China's coin of the realm.

In terms of foreign exchange trading, Bitcoin barely registers. On any given day, the value of trades between the USD and the Euros (just that one pair) is about $1.3 trillion, according to the Bank for International Settlements. That amounts to slightly less than a quarter of one side of the total foreign exchange traded.

The growing debate over bitcoin centers on the relatively paltry amounts that are exchanged on global markets, an issue which clearly limits the currency's value and contributes to volatility.

Underlying all the concerns, fears and hopes of Bitcoin users is volatility. The value of a unit of the digital currency skyrocketed, plummeted and then recovered to the tune of around 40 percent in the space of just a few minutes on November 18. The value of Bitcoin has been changing so fast that by the time newspapers are printed and delivered, pieces of data, like price and market valuation, are likely to be out of date.

Bitcoiners say speculators on the Chinese mainland have been driving up the value of the currency since May but it's been only in the past couple of weeks that Bitcoin has raised eyebrows and attracted serious global attention. The value of a Bitcoin on exchanges around the world hit $750 on Tuesday, double the price of a week earlier. For a few minutes, Bitcoins traded above $1,000 on BTC China, the largest Bitcoin exchange in the country, before crashing down to $600 and then climbing back above $700.

Passing fad?

The vertiginous rise in the value of Bitcoin, a digital currency with no central authority to speak of and an infrastructure very few people understand, is leading many to question whether this may be a passing fad, a speculative bubble being inflated by gamblers.

"The time is right for the markets to experiment with other forms of money," said Edan Yago, CEO of Epiphyte, a company that is building payment protocols.

Bitcoin is rooted in Asia. The mysterious creator of Bitcoin was a Japanese man or a group using the Japanese pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto. The largest exchanges in the world are in Japan and China. Other exchanges have popped up in Australia and Singapore. A conference in Shanghai this week follows the one in Singapore last week.

For the time being, Bitcoin has little practical value. Only a handful of places will accept Bitcoins, even though the number seems to be growing, particularly in Germany and in Vancouver, Canada. Some online vendors accept Bitcoin in China and at least one real estate company is allowing people to use Bitcoin to buy property.

Still, Bitcoin is most useful as a trading tool or a means to profit from the arbitrage of the price between the different exchanges. That has attracted hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of Bitcoin buyers.

In China, the dominant player is BTC China, the Chinese Bitcoin exchange recently received US$5 million in funding from Lightspeed China Partners. BTC is one of about 17 different transaction platforms in China but it's the largest.

There still are serious issues to be addressed.

One is trust. Currencies are based on the trust users place on the issuer. A banknote, whether it is a yuan, dollar or yen, is much like a check issued by a central authority at a specified value to the user. That value of that banknote or bill is backed by the assets and economy of the issuer, in this case China, the United States, or Japan.

The value of Bitcoin is determined entirely by the market. It is worth whatever buyers say it is worth. It has no intrinsic value. It behaves more like a company stock than a currency, although a stock traded in an exchange is often backed by the assets and operations of the business that issues it.

Issues of concern

"Anyone can put software in a computer and be working towards adding block chains," said Hakim Mamoni, chief technology officer (CTO) at Hong Kong's Seedcoin. Block chains are the complex trails that back the legitimacy of Bitcoins and are based on complex cryptography and mathematical formulas.

A second issue of concern is regulation. Both fiat currencies and stocks are regulated. There is no regulation associated with Bitcoin. Hearings in the US to determine what Bitcoin is and how to regulate it got underway on Nov 18 but that is only the first step. Germany and Canada may be leading the way but they are achieving this for the most part by staying out of it.

China has no regulation of Bitcoin although it did put forward rules in 2009 that banned the use of digital currencies. Those rules were aimed at Q Coins, a digital currency developed by the Internet company Tencent to use in its online games that evolved quickly and became a proxy for real money in China.

A third issue is liquidity. For the time being, there is not that much of it. There are more than 10 million bitcoins out there, about half the theoretical maximum of 21 million, but even with tens of thousands of active traders there are not enough to create stability.

In this sense, Bitcoin is not unlike a company stock with low trading volume. A single transaction can send the value of the currency way up or way down.

A fourth issue is trust. Buyers must rely on the exchanges where they buy Bitcoins. They also have to trust the security of the virtual "wallets" where Bitcoins are stored. That is not always easy.

"A ridiculous number of Bitcoin wallets have been stolen in the last three years. Some of them with US$5 million. Bank heists don't get that good," said Kyle Drake, a US wallet developer.

Trust covers other areas as well. This month, Singapore authorities declared Bitcoin transactions are not covered by consumer protection laws and without some kind of consumer protection "this is going nowhere," said Steve Beauregard, who has launched GoCoin in the US after a career as a developer and distributor of Blackberry in Hollywood.

On the other hand, there are plenty of potential uses for Bitcoin or some kind of digital currency that does not require banking services.

"The big opportunity that I see is the unbanked people who cannot participate in the online economy," said Beauregard.

This is one aspect. Some, like Seedcoin's Chief Technology Officer Hakim Mamoni, have hopes that Bitcoin will eliminate the global need for monetary policy or take money out of global politics.

"Bitcoin is taking the world by storm," said Mamoni. "It is not politics but mathematics."

Bitcoin: struggling for currency

Bitcoin: struggling for currency

Bitcoin: struggling for currency

(HK Edition 11/22/2013 page2)

久久久无码人妻精品无码_6080YYY午夜理论片中无码_性无码专区_无码人妻品一区二区三区精99

    免费高清不卡av| 蜜臀av一区二区三区| 91麻豆自制传媒国产之光| 综合久久国产九一剧情麻豆| 色综合中文综合网| 国产一区二三区| 国产欧美一区二区三区在线看蜜臀 | 92国产精品观看| 一区二区三区在线免费视频| 欧美亚洲动漫另类| 天堂av在线一区| 久久亚洲私人国产精品va媚药| 久久精品国内一区二区三区| 久久精品欧美日韩精品| 99久久综合国产精品| 亚洲线精品一区二区三区 | 欧美一区二区三区精品| 老司机精品视频导航| 中文字幕av免费专区久久| 色av一区二区| 久久精品国内一区二区三区| 国产目拍亚洲精品99久久精品| 91欧美激情一区二区三区成人| 五月天中文字幕一区二区| 久久夜色精品一区| 91亚洲精品一区二区乱码| 五月天久久比比资源色| 久久久国产精华| 91福利社在线观看| 青青草视频一区| 国产精品美女www爽爽爽| 欧美色图第一页| 国产精品综合av一区二区国产馆| 亚洲三级电影网站| 欧美日韩精品免费| 国产乱人伦偷精品视频免下载| 亚洲精品免费在线播放| 欧美一区二区视频观看视频| 成人免费福利片| 天堂久久一区二区三区| 久久久99久久精品欧美| 欧美午夜精品理论片a级按摩| 国内久久精品视频| 亚洲综合久久av| 久久毛片高清国产| 欧美三级蜜桃2在线观看| 国产成人亚洲综合a∨猫咪| 午夜国产精品影院在线观看| 欧美激情综合五月色丁香小说| 欧美视频精品在线观看| 国产成人亚洲精品狼色在线| 亚洲精品v日韩精品| 久久久久久久久久久黄色| 欧美性生活大片视频| 盗摄精品av一区二区三区| 日本欧美一区二区| 国产精品毛片a∨一区二区三区| 在线成人小视频| 色综合天天综合在线视频| 国产一区二区福利视频| 亚洲夂夂婷婷色拍ww47| 国产精品天干天干在线综合| 日韩一二在线观看| 欧美天堂亚洲电影院在线播放| 成人性生交大片| 久久成人免费日本黄色| 亚洲国产欧美在线| 国产精品久久久爽爽爽麻豆色哟哟 | 久久亚洲一区二区三区四区| 91美女片黄在线| 国产电影一区二区三区| 日韩不卡在线观看日韩不卡视频| 亚洲伦理在线精品| 国产精品女同一区二区三区| 欧美tickling网站挠脚心| 精品视频在线免费| 91啪在线观看| 成人综合婷婷国产精品久久蜜臀 | 久久美女艺术照精彩视频福利播放| 欧美片在线播放| 色播五月激情综合网| 成人免费视频视频| 欧美午夜影院一区| 97se亚洲国产综合自在线| 国产一区二区剧情av在线| 亚洲成人福利片| 亚洲精品国产一区二区精华液| 国产精品入口麻豆原神| 久久人人超碰精品| 日韩一区二区三区视频在线观看| 欧美亚洲一区二区在线观看| 色欧美日韩亚洲| 91麻豆免费视频| 91丨porny丨户外露出| 99久久免费精品高清特色大片| 国产99久久久精品| 国产精品77777| 国产精品18久久久久| 国产一区二区成人久久免费影院| 日本sm残虐另类| 日韩av中文在线观看| 一区二区三区免费| 一区二区在线观看视频| 亚洲成人资源在线| 奇米影视在线99精品| 久色婷婷小香蕉久久| 国产在线精品一区二区三区不卡| 国产乱码精品一区二区三区av| 国产成人av电影在线观看| 99久久精品免费看国产| 日本精品免费观看高清观看| 欧美日韩一二三区| 日韩欧美在线网站| 久久影院视频免费| 中文字幕一区在线观看视频| 亚洲日本青草视频在线怡红院| 亚洲午夜免费电影| 美国毛片一区二区| 国产成人在线观看免费网站| 91亚洲精品乱码久久久久久蜜桃| 在线观看一区二区视频| 51久久夜色精品国产麻豆| 精品国产免费一区二区三区四区| 欧美激情中文不卡| 亚洲精品国产无天堂网2021| 天堂蜜桃91精品| 国产精品一区二区在线观看不卡| 成人高清av在线| 精品视频1区2区3区| 精品精品国产高清a毛片牛牛| 中文一区二区在线观看| 一级中文字幕一区二区| 美洲天堂一区二卡三卡四卡视频| 国产成人免费在线视频| 在线观看一区二区视频| 日韩免费福利电影在线观看| 国产精品久久久久久亚洲伦| 亚洲第一搞黄网站| 国产乱子伦视频一区二区三区 | 国产欧美一区二区精品性| 亚洲精品日日夜夜| 蜜桃视频一区二区三区在线观看 | av资源网一区| 欧美高清一级片在线| 国产网站一区二区| 亚洲一级在线观看| 国产最新精品精品你懂的| 91一区一区三区| 日韩欧美一区二区免费| 国产精品久久综合| 日本不卡在线视频| www.欧美亚洲| 欧美一二三四区在线| 综合分类小说区另类春色亚洲小说欧美| 日韩av电影免费观看高清完整版在线观看| 国产成人免费视频精品含羞草妖精| 欧美性xxxxxx少妇| 国产欧美日韩视频一区二区| 亚洲二区视频在线| 风间由美中文字幕在线看视频国产欧美 | 久久亚洲一区二区三区四区| 亚洲黄色性网站| 国产精品18久久久久久vr| 欧美三级在线看| 国产精品理伦片| 久久99精品久久久久久国产越南| 一本大道久久a久久精二百| 欧美精品一区二区三区很污很色的| 亚洲欧美日韩综合aⅴ视频| 国产在线精品一区在线观看麻豆| 欧美在线影院一区二区| 国产在线乱码一区二区三区| 99re6这里只有精品视频在线观看| 欧美va在线播放| 午夜国产不卡在线观看视频| av高清久久久| 久久亚洲一区二区三区四区| 五月天婷婷综合| 91视频在线观看免费| 久久久综合九色合综国产精品| 午夜一区二区三区视频| 成人黄色网址在线观看| 精品少妇一区二区| 天堂va蜜桃一区二区三区 | 亚洲欧美一区二区三区久本道91| 精品中文字幕一区二区小辣椒 | 国产精品免费人成网站| 美女一区二区视频| 欧美午夜一区二区三区免费大片| 国产精品成人免费| 国产老妇另类xxxxx| 欧美一卡2卡三卡4卡5免费| 亚洲一区二区精品久久av| 99精品视频在线观看| 国产蜜臀97一区二区三区| 麻豆极品一区二区三区| 欧美人成免费网站| 亚洲v精品v日韩v欧美v专区| 91久久精品一区二区三区| 日韩毛片在线免费观看|