Retail is back. 50% increase in volumes to exchanges and doubling of values in last couple of months
Mainstream media has fun https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-to-spend-bitcoin-uk-where-pay-for-in-cryptocurrency-2wxzsh3gs 
The FT hates Bitcoin. Especially when it goes up in fiat terms!!
North Pole is ice on water so no issue. South Pole Antarctica is on land so that is an issue when it hits.
More than 60x
Still requires central custody by WoS
Off shore unregulated. Probably worried about being another Binance style prosecution
Money history in UK
Throughout human history, the way that we pay for goods and services has been becoming progressively less tangible and more remote. Early human history was a barter economy. Then coins started appearing in the world around 600 BC, and the Romans brought them to Britain around the first century AD. The Royal Mint was founded in 886 and is the 10th oldest company on the planet. Cheques appeared around
1660 - issued by Goldsmith bankers for making loans. Banknotes - exchangeable for the equivalent value in gold - were produced in the UK from the mid-18th century. Wire transfers became possible around 1871. Around 1960, wages started to be paid direct into bank accounts, and the first ATM was introduced in 1967. The rate of change has accelerated rapidly over recent decades, with credit cards, debit cards, contactless, online banking, mobile banking and digital wallets. With each wave of innovation, money is less physical. and increasinglv has simply become a digitised number. As our relationship with money changes, the way that we authorise, understand and control our payments have changed at incredible pace over recent years. In 2022, 86% of payment transactions in the UK were digital, compared to 44% in 2012
๐๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ "๐ถ๐๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ผ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด" :
nostr:npub18m4nmc2wchzgcmzvnluqjzxyrpshp64mwje2vuz60kulny3v6c0qtgcl2x : We don't need that.
At least for the use case you mention here.
A little surprised by this position... but let us explain :
Not so long ago, you referred to #Bitcoin as the value layer of the internet, with satoshis being the transport units of value, similar to data packets for TCP over IP.
It was such a great comparison, you nailed it, we loved it, it inspired us!
If you still believe in this, and in the fact that "Bitcoin is the only viable neutral settlement asset and network that can usher in a new era of global real-time payments", then, you should have a look to what can be achieved using Discreet Log Contracts...
and thus fostering, strengthening the resilience and the adoption of the underlying technology and native asset.
For example, we've managed to implement the first synthetic dollar on Lightning (USDP) : users can use the network as a means of transferring value displayed in dollars, yen or whatever, while only holding satoshis and contracts under the hood.
No issuer, no token, no counterparty risk.
We believe in this approach over relying on tokens and token issuers that could quickly become great points of failure because : "Everything else is either too centralized, not secure enough, doesn't have the required regulatory clarity [...]" in your own words.
Put another way, bringing stablecoins on Lightning means introducing centralized trusted parties AND counterparty risks on it, and could be a significant waste of energy (people wishing to use stablecoins already do so with USDT via TRON, for example).
Not to mention the risks of market/technology/regulatory capture.
There are other ways to bring fiat on Lightning of course, just like POUCH are doing with regulated banks for the custody...
Let's use Bitcoin and Lightning for what they are!
#Bitcoin as highway, sats as vehicles, let's ride!
nostr:note1et9l9aq0yk0w72sxme8eghgmea76lyqfvfluh97psqaf9s8qym9smzzkue
First time Iโve seen your product. Looks very cool as I assumed there was exchange riskโฆ but no!!
โUltimately, though, the digital payments sector can still claim a fundamentally bright outlook, with a real-world use case of which crypto [Bitcoin] fans can only dream.โ
Then they fight you.
https://www.ft.com/content/3602b710-4324-435a-b54e-6d437590a257
The FT will always play to its TradFi audience.
2012: "No one uses it"
2013: "Only criminals use it"
2015: "Only nerds use it"
2017: "Only speculators use it"
2019: "Only a small % of the world uses it"
2020: "Only small companies use it"
2021: "Only small countries use it"
2022 and 2023?
UK banks have a mixed ability to allow payments to crypto exchanges
I would hope there are ways around the ban