Goldman Sachs to Open a Bitcoin Trading Operation

One element I find fascinating about the cryptocurrency &#x2F; blockchain &#x2F; ICO debates on HN and elsewhere is that there are 2 diametrically opposed sides with passionate advocates. On one side are the boosters that think it is a great innovation with enormous potential. The other side thinks blockchain is practically useless, the most overhyped technology ever created, a bubble never-before seen in history.<p>Yet every day there are stories (such as this article) showing crypto becoming more deeply ingrained in mainstream circles. New projects and new companies are forming consistently, just like with any new disruptive technology. But some very knowledgable people continue to argue with passion that the entire technology is a useless fraud!<p>However this pans out, there are going to be a lot of people on one side that were totally, completely wrong. I doubt there is much middle ground for this.

Sounds like a reasonable operation to set up. Goldman is ostensibly in the business of selling shovels in a gold rush so if enough of their clients are demanding a product that gives then exposure to bitcoin then Goldman senses there&#x27;s money to be made here in fees.

Re: Goldman’s activity pumping and dumping IPO’s they knew to be worthless to screw over retail investors during the late 90s tech bubble.<p>Read Matt Taibbi’s hyperbolic yet mostly accurate Rolling Stone article for more info.<p>It’s safe to assume Goldman isn’t neccesarily getting into bitcoin because it believes in the technology.

Goldman Sachs is not opening a bitcoin trading operation because they believe in the legitimacy of blockchain tech. The only reason Goldman is doing this is because they smell money and realize that jumping into a bubble can net them hundreds of millions&#x2F;billions of dollars in profit. They are not going to make money from buying bitcoin, they are going to make money in fees they charge other large clients to buy&#x2F;sell&#x2F;hedge&#x2F;etc bitcoin. They&#x27;ll also create some exotic bitcoin-based financial instruments that nobody can understand but will sell to pension funds for gobs of money.<p>Will blockchain revolutionize tech and business in general? Will a Bitcoin be worth a million bucks some day? Will crypto replace traditional currency? I don&#x27;t know - but I guarantee that is not the angle Goldman is playing here.

Imagine that the year is 2011, Bitcoin appears for one of the first times on HN, and someone says &quot;in the future Goldman will trade bitcoin&quot;. Ha ha ha ha ha....<p>Today, someone (me) says: in the future, first world central banks will hold bitcoin as a reserve among the usual things (dollars, euros, gold, ...)

There might be many bad aspects about cryptocurrencies.<p>But they don&#x27;t have to be perfect, they just need to be better than what currently exists.<p>ACH and SWIFT are, at their very best, mediocre and sad when technologically compared to blockchain.<p>In fairness though, if all transactions made it into a blockchain, fewer and fewer people would be able to store it in their computers, let alone process it.

This was news in the fall, wasn’t it? Trying to renew the hype it seems. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2017-12-21&#x2F;goldman-is-said-to-be-building-a-cryptocurrency-trading-desk" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2017-12-21&#x2F;goldman-i...</a>

Where there are muppets ...err clients ... to be fleeced, Goldman will be there!

So Bitcoin is anything but it was it was supposed to be. And I wonder why people still care about this scam!

Goldman Sucks

Can Blockchain replace Fed?

The mighty USD is going to have a rough time going up against the Yuan (and the Silk Road) and Bitcoin to be crowned as the new global standard.