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Winklevoss Twins Plan Regulated Bitcoin Exchange

Posted by timothy on from the trust-us-there-are-two-of-us dept.

itwbennett writes They of the square jaws and famous dispute with Mark Zuckerberg over the origins of Facebook, are also believed to be among the largest holders of Bitcoin in the world. Now they want to launch a regulated Bitcoin exchange—named Gemini, of course. To bolster confidence, they said they have formed a relationship with a chartered bank in the state of New York. "This means that your money will never leave the country," the twins wrote in a blog post. "It also means that U.S. dollars on Gemini will be eligible for FDIC insurance and held by a U.S.-regulated bank.

6 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. so many problems with this idea by ihtoit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    not least of which, allowing an organisation that is answerable to none but the United States Supreme Court to regulate a virtual currency that is in direct competition with its own pet, the Almighty Dollar.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    1. Re:so many problems with this idea by Baron_Yam · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >a virtual currency that is in direct competition with its own pet, the Almighty Dollar.

      This is what Bitcoin proponents would have you believe, but there is no competition at present, and the flaws inherent in the protocol mean there never will be.

      Perhaps some other future crypto will be a competitor, but all Bitcoin does is spawn scams or payment gateways that evolve into PayPal equivalents (once they're big enough they cut Bitcoin out of the loop).

  2. seizure-ready by mabu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It also means when the time comes for the traditional banking institutions to lobby the authorities to seize all the assets of this "illegal currency", they can easily do so.

  3. Nobody should trust these scammers by gavron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who would trust them?

    First this: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/ed...
    (bitcoin trust)

    Then this: http://www.investopedia.com/ar...
    (bitcoin payment system)

    Now this thing... ("regulated" exchange that can't leave the US for an international virtual decentralized currency...)

    Perhaps they just didn't get that memo about their relevance having tanked somewhere after they wanted to
    renege on their FB settlement and go for a do-over uh-gain:
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/...

    Their fifteen minutes of fame is up. The harder they try and bring themselves
    into relevance the funnier it gets. The bell has rung. Time to get off the stage little boys.

    E

  4. Re: BTC Insured? by guruevi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The insurance is the least of their problems. For a good fee anything is insurable. The problem lies in the replacement. Banks/Feds/Insurance when losing money just replace the number in their databases or print the money, no insurance company nor bank nor the Feds actually has a reserve of cash to cover all their accounts in case of a massive hack that empties all their accounts. Not as easily done with cryptocurrency, once it is gone you can only replace it with more cryptocurrency. So you actually need to stash or be able to lend the insured amount instead of just relying on someone to bail you out with fake money.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  5. bitcoin is circling the drain, but.... by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the Winkletwins want to hype it up long enough so that I can dispose of the last of my BTC stash while 1BTC is still over US$200, I'm game.

    Having bitcoins kept in a US bank seems to defeat the purpose of bitcoin, but it it helps me with my previous point, then by golly, full speed ahead.