Cryptocurrencies in the Bahamas
EDITOR, The Tribune.
THIS letter is in regard to today’s Business section; an article was posted about Bitcoin being a “game changer” according to Mario Curry. I, while a supporter of cryptocurrencies, do not agree on this for The Bahamas – at least not in the next few years.
Cryptocurrencies are a topic that’s seeing mainstream media recently and is being treated like a buzzword to make people seem smart or in line with the times. There’s a lot to look at before you can even take it into practice in a country like ours. These range from banking regulations to support for online payments, to more than just dealing with one of the dozens of crypto currencies, to handling the wildly volatile state of these ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings). The list goes on.
At present, we barely have a proper online shopping system in The Bahamas, most use countries that don’t support The Bahamas and so need to use US accounts or, if lucky, find a local vendor. I found one recently that ripped off the name of a major online payment vendor. Even then, we barely have any main places using online payments unless they’re a utility company or a hotel. Then again, some of the websites our biggest companies have here aren’t that great either.
There’s the matter that countries are trying to regulate the ICOs, with the US now set to tax earnings from them this year. Some banks across the world are against ICOs while some are for them and will likely start their own. Estonia is looking at building their ICO called estcoins.
There’s also the other cryptocurrencies other than Bit coin like Bitcoin Cash, which is a fork of Bitcoin, or Etherium or Litecoin or Dogecoin or Ripple or Tangle, which isn’t an ICO but works similarly, and the list goes on.
Oh, and let’s not forget that the reason people even started talking about Bitcoin with such fervor recently was because of how its price soared, but not as much after it then crashed by over $4,000 weeks later.
In sum, I say that until we can raise our technical savviness as a country, cryptocurrencies have no staying power for actual use other than investments. Certain companies may take it on, but they risk crashes of hundreds or thousands of dollars. Build a stable foundation before looking at volatile possibilities, and have people that know what they’re talking about to lead the way.
MICHAEL ARMOGAN
Host@Tech Talk – MOAR; Cookies
January 3, 2018.
Comments
Porcupine 6 years, 10 months ago
Agreed. Seems like the interest is in making money out of nothing without realizing the many downsides of moving to a cashless society. There is a curtain. And there is someone behind it.
ohdrap4 6 years, 10 months ago
whoever is promoting crypto around here knows that the IPOs and investments in the bahamas have fleeced a lot of people.
have an ipo, then the share price drops, nothing happens , just causes a few to go live in lyford cay.
Why not rip off more people?
banker 6 years, 10 months ago
As I write this, there is the article plus two comments. I haven't seen an intrinsic understanding of cryptocurrencies in anything written on this page so far.
Cryptocurrencies could get the Bahamas out of an economic hole, but instead, because the full ramifications of tokenization are not understood, ignorance and backwardness will prevail.
Cryptocurrencies are a very small part the picture. Bitcoin is an even smaller part of the picture. Perhaps the proper term should be crypto-tokens. These things have the ability to economically transform the Bahamas. But as long as we have the promulgation of ignorance, and painting everything with one broad brush, we will remain economically backwards.
What most don't realise, is that if we start leading the way, and inventing the future with crypto-tokens AND cryptocurrency, we have a way of revitalising our Financial Services Industry. From what I see here, nobody has an appreciation of this "wave" and once again we will be stuck in the doldrums of a Third World country.
ReallyPeople 6 years, 10 months ago
@banker No, they can't. Cryotcurrencies are a base that's still in wild flux and are not stable in the least. Should we have people looking into it? Yes. Should we prepare for blockchain technology? Yes. Should we invest in Bitcoin? No, not as a country. Should we invest into blockchain? Yes.
ICOs were mentioned correctly. There's no "token" system - Bitcoin was invented to become an online payment system, it just has been struggling to catch on. Others liked the idea and are copying or improving on it with things like smart contracts, etc.
This article is simply stating that we need to actually get on board with stable regulations already so that things like blockchain won't be demonized and actually stand a chance.
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