Just came across this upcoming product fully taking advantage of the Bitcoin network - highly recommend to spend 10mins to read for anybody interested in cross-border money transfers and its future.
This solution is pretty much Transferwise on steroids - the article actually explains the difference between Strike and TW in detail.
They are currently getting people to register to get early access / testing and I’d assume most of the folks here would be at least as interested in this as myself.
- Strike then moves the bitcoins across the Atlantic Ocean where it arrives in one of our many European infrastructure pieces in less than a second and for no cost.
dafuq? Sounds like a scam to me…
He? BTC is already cross-border ready… scam!
are you for real? you realize we are talking about all the points there happening within seconds, right?
instead of following TW and matching relevant fiat transactions, they convert fiat A to btc (which operates 24/7/365) and then btc to fiat B (w/o any intermediary costs)
not sure whether that’s sarcastic or not, but nobody argues that it’s not. looks like you haven’t really read the article tbh
Looks like revolut but using BTC as a common pair when doing “forex”. No idea how they claim to be better than actual forex though.
Yeah but then the blog post shouldn’t try to explain it like that. Other scam flags:
Sorry if you ask me this is some random dude trying to get rich quick.
I’m waiting for Cash App coming to switzerland
Transaction time for big ticket transfers
Sure, you got your own judgement - appreciate that. Jack Mallers is not really a random dude in the BTC community.
Presumably you may also be a bit skeptical towards such innovations given your “adventure” in the p2p space. Guess we’ll see once the rollout has gone global and how widely it will (not) be accepted.
I’m sure they have some transaction limits (though they don’t say what they are).
I saw this as well and was very impressed. I installed the app on my phone but not yet launched in CH… coming soon. Jack just did a podcast last week with Preston Pysh who is also well regarded in the BTC community. You can listen to it here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/btc007-bitcoin-disrupting-payment-clearing-houses-w/id928933489?i=1000504476029
I didn’t know they accepted credit cards in ancient Rome… 
On a more serious note, as @nabalzbhf said it’s hard to believe they can arbitrage the Fx market by adding an additional transaction to/from BTC without fees anywhere.
Is this supposed to be a nonprofit organization?
They indeed have transaction limits, and they’re not very high according to their FAQ:
@Swisslife , this Jack Mallers might be well respected in the BTC community, but what he’s doing is at best misleading advertisement
So it’s worse than revolut?
I disagree.
Go to that link provided.
Read the first paragraph of marketing hyperbole (actually, I’m going to quote it verbatim here for you):
“Today, the world changes; the fundamentals of value exchange between our species enters a new epoch.”
Don’t bother wasting the estimated remaining 11:50 of reading time but just skip the rest and do your own due diligence:
Go to their website and find out:
Let’s go to the business model and examples (OK, admittedly I did skim through the article):
Stellar is the coin for this use case. Bitcoin transactions are too expensive and slow, and Bitcoin itself is too volatile even for short timespans. But in general this business model is something that traditional banks have to implement internally to speed things up and minimize technical costs.
… or even better: NANO
No fees, green and instant! You can check it out (and get some for free): https://nano.org/get-nano
… and fully decentralized ofc!
The founder did a great interview recently on the “What bitcoin did” podcast.
It is actually pretty good, I see it more as a future payment network/infrastructure using the Lightning wallet rather than a simple transfer method. Think about it as an open, decentralized, non-custodial transfer solution.
What is more interesting is that people are starting to build real application on the btc network.
Since we have a thread. Waiting list are open
Someone with little relevant experience or credentials solving problems few real people have with questionable legal authorisation through ill-suited means.
Go, look at the TransferWise screenshots:
Now go and look it up at TransferWise (now: Wise) themselves.
Actually, I’ll do it so you don’t have to. I‘ll even do it in hi-res, since I‘m such a nice guy:
Now do the reverse, to check if it’s just the Jack’s netting explanation that has reversed.
Has TransferWise ever advertised in such a way (“7+ days”), without giving a an approximate date or timeframe in their calculator?
Yup, smells very bad:
The claim:
If I wanted to send $1,000 from Chicago, USA to Berlin, Germany, Strike is able to take my US dollars and deliver them to the intended Berlin resident in Euros instantly and at no cost.
And it’s possible, because:
Strike then automatically converts my $1,000 to bitcoins ready for use in its infrastructure using its real-time automated risk management and trading infrastructure.
Sure, because processing digital operations doesn’t require energy and energy is free.
Strike then moves the bitcoins across the Atlantic Ocean where it arrives in one of our many European infrastructure pieces in less than a second and for no cost.
Sure, because the Bitcoins were physically located in Chicago and are not a decentralized asset that’s not located in a single specific location.
Strike then takes the bitcoins and automatically converts them back into Euros using its real-time automated risk management and trading infrastructure.
And that still either doesn’t require energy, or uses free energy, or that energy cost is gifted by Strike because Strike is a charity that not only doesn’t expect to make a profit but is willing to register a loss in order to process our business.
Also:
Real physical value escrowed thousands of miles, in real time, and using USD and EUR at the user’s convenience
Neither fiat nor bitcoin are real physical value, unless the claim is that the actual paper notes were teleported across the sea instead of other bills being issued, to which we give the same value because we have faith in their issuer, or just digital data, because money is fungible.
This smells like wishful thinking and scam, I’d not touch it with a 10 foot pole.
