[arpit]

From Tyler Winklevoss's answer on the Product Hunt page for Gemini: "Gemini is a New York state limited liability trust company, we did not apply for or have a BitLicense which is a much lower standard. As a limited liability trust company we are a fiduciary, which allows us to accept both individual and institutional customers under New York Banking Law (unlike the BitLicense, which does not convey such fiduciary powers). In short, we can work with both Main Street and Wall Street."

Source: https://www.producthunt.com/tech/gemini-2

[roymurdock]

So the difference is that they're trying to play nice with regulators from day 1, rather than breaking the rules and rolling with the legal punches in order to serve early adopters?

[acveilleux]

Yeah, another to way to put it is they aim for legitimacy so they can be the bitcoin counterparty of choice for Fortune 500s and wall street. And generally run things like any sane financial institution dealing with volatile securities.

Not running a bitcoin cafe out of customer funds...

[7Figures2Commas]

> Yeah, another to way to put it is they aim for legitimacy so they can be the bitcoin counterparty of choice for Fortune 500s and wall street.

According to Coinbase, the total value of all Bitcoin is currently about $3.5 billion. This is a tiny, tiny market for "Fortune 500s and Wall Street" and is equivalent to the value of a single (smaller) mid-cap company. Even at its peak, the total value of all Bitcoin was only around $14 billion.

Daily Bitcoin transaction volume hasn't exceeded $100 million since July and has been as low as $33 million recently[1]. For comparison, daily volume in the FX markets exceeds $5 trillion.

Blockchain technology might be important but Bitcoin itself is about as interesting as the Burmese kyat or Gambian dalasi.

[1] https://blockchain.info/charts/estimated-transaction-volume-...

[elif]

I'm not a real trader... but i can see the value in trading something that goes up and down 30% in a quarter..

EDIT: those currencies you mention are under prolonged inflation and are tied to the economic output of some small countries... bitcoin isn't either of those

[7Figures2Commas]

You can trade equity options and gain or lose far more than 30% in well under 90 days.

The problem with Bitcoin is liquidity and market depth. Even if you're a small-time trader, there are better trading markets to focus your time and energy on.

Regarding the random currencies I mentioned in jest: I was making the point that any obscure currency or security is just about as interesting as Bitcoin.

[sjclemmy]

If you take the view that Bitcoin is just the start and the popularity of the blockchain to secure financial transactions will grow and become mainstream over time then this has first mover advantage written all over it.

[bduerst]

There is such a thing as trading on volatility but like the other person said, the volume is so low that it's not significant.