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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @leo OP 19 Oct \ parent \ on: Trip Report: Berlin Travel
There's definitely a great local community that appreciates using Bitcoin, and one of the few cities globally that people move to because of the local scene
I don't think it's liquidity, both SGD and HKD are freely convertible and easy to swap. Also, why would they have different exchange rates for different SGD products?
It seems they are hiding costs in the exchange rates
In my experience the exchange rates (USD, EUR, CAD) have always been fair in the past. Their Lightning node is also well-managed, so there are usually no significant routing fees.
But you're right, the card in question has an absurd exchange rate, regardless of what you pay with. I also checked for the Ikea and Grab SGD vouchers, and it seems like they use at least three different exchange rates for SGD/USD, then apply a fair rate for USD/BTC.
I also checked for HKD, and the 7-Eleven vouchers are also marked up by 8%, the Foodpanda cards were marked up 10%.
For CAD or EUR I couldn't find any cards with a markup. Glad you noticed, will look carefully in the future!
I agree, Canada shouldn't miss this historic opportunity. They might have to legalize housing and healthcare, though!
Flying sucks generally, and lounges are just a way to upsell you on a slightly less bad experience. Trains in Europe or Asia are amazing, especially when the station is downtown. You can sip aperitivos in a cute local cafe, then ten minutes later speed with 200mph towards your destination. No security, no queues, no faux status upgrades. I'll always take a 6h train ride over a 1h flight.
Keep your node, with one or two channels to other good routing nodes. It's very useful for making and sending payments over the Lightning Network
Are KYC coins really expected to be more valuable in such a situation? That's the only way I could see separate markets with separate prices emerging. How much could the difference be? Anything more than few bips would be easy to arbitrage.
When I say Lightning payment processor, I mean any kind of service or program that helps you generate an invoice on your or their Lightning node and check whether this is paid.
The most common payment processor in Vancouver is Coinos, which also acts as a custodial wallet. There is also IBEX and Eukapay. Very common elsewhere is the PoS functionalities of Wallet of Satoshi. I also like BTCPay, LNbits, Bitcoin Suisse, and there are countless others.
A good example is the LNbits TPoS. Feel free to open it on your device, generate an invoice over 1 cent and pay it from any wallet. You can then verify on your device that the invoice is paid because a green tick appears on the screen, but I hold the keys to my node.