Posted on Sep 14, 2015
USAA creates research team to study use of bitcoin technology
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Edited 9 y ago
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 22
Hey all, former USAF Captain and long time lurker on RP. I've been working at Coinbase for a few years now and actually led this integration with USAA. In short, it allows Coinbase users to display and view their bitcoin balance on their USAA homepage (much like how you can connect your PayPal wallet or Merrill Lynch account to USAA for a holistic view of your finances).
Good news is this is hopefully the first of many future integrations USAA is considering. Stay tuned as we hope to have more great product integrations soon!
Good news is this is hopefully the first of many future integrations USAA is considering. Stay tuned as we hope to have more great product integrations soon!
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It is the future of commerce. Fiat currency is a relic of the stone age. I have a lot of experience with this technology. Please ask away and i will do my best to answer your questions.
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1LT Christopher Sorge
Check out http://www.neucoin.org and http://www.ethereum.org for new altcoins.
Ethereum is a decentralized platform for applications that run exactly as programmed without any chance of fraud, censorship or third-party interference.
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LCpl Steven Fiore
I know this is an old topic, but i'd love to ask you about your opinions on some of the fun altcoins. like some of the latest PoS coins :)
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1LT Christopher Sorge
I really like ether and neucoin. I havent looked over any of the other projects / coins yet.
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It's crazy and to a certain extent we already use something that is a bitcoin. Our dollar is no longer propped by a gold standard, and more transactions occur online than with actual paper exchanging hands. I don't think we need something different.
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LCDR (Join to see)
PO2 Brian Rhodes very true, I just don't see the "need" for bitcoins.
You're definitely right about the differences though.
You're definitely right about the differences though.
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MAJ (Join to see)
Strictly speaking there is no formal need, however when formal currencies are digitized there is a commensurate ability to track and scrutinize the actions of its users. When you spend US Dollars digitally, a record of it being YOU that spent it is a by-product. In essence, the BitCoin anonymous wallet system allowed people to un-tether their meat-space selves from their digital spending, basically the digital equivalent of working solely in cash, and also made it absurdly hard for a nation to control and falsify the BitCoin process and/or ledger. That is why it was taken up first and foremost by techno-libertarians, and why it's most popular (and well-known) use is for financing the anonymous distribution of drugs and weaponry.
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LCDR (Join to see)
PO2 Brian Rhodes yeah typically it's people trying to hide what they're doing for one reason or another.
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SGT Justus Hanna
Huge advantage with Bitcoin: cut out the middleman. Need to send someone some cash from US to Europe? Pay 8% to western union, pay fees to your bank, or pay $0.01 to send using Bitcoin. Right now we are using a system that was built for another time: the correspondent banking network.
For example, if you want to send a payment from Texas to California, that payment will "clear" through a trusted 3rd party (ACH clearinghouse/Fed), which functions like an escrow so that no ones screws anyone else over. Now if you send a payment outside the US, your bank must have a correspondent bank account at bank in the foreign country, then they might have to reach out to another local bank in that province of the recipient. All of these "hops" tack on fees and end up costing the sender more $. Blockchain finally solved the third party of trust problem by having the masses observe and verify all transactions. If you understand the implications of this and how it will change not only the banking industry, but many sectors we haven't even fathomed yet. Very cool stuff.
For example, if you want to send a payment from Texas to California, that payment will "clear" through a trusted 3rd party (ACH clearinghouse/Fed), which functions like an escrow so that no ones screws anyone else over. Now if you send a payment outside the US, your bank must have a correspondent bank account at bank in the foreign country, then they might have to reach out to another local bank in that province of the recipient. All of these "hops" tack on fees and end up costing the sender more $. Blockchain finally solved the third party of trust problem by having the masses observe and verify all transactions. If you understand the implications of this and how it will change not only the banking industry, but many sectors we haven't even fathomed yet. Very cool stuff.
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