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Gotta love how the negative crypto articles rise to the top on HN immediately. What's not understood is that crypto is a way for the un-banked (1/3 of the peopl

Gotta love how the negative crypto articles rise to the top on HN immediately. What's not understood is that crypto is a way for the un-banked (1/3 of the people on earth who barely have clean water, toilets or telephones, yes telephones and that make $1/day) now have access and participation in a global trading platform. Disruption for the first time is happening to both VCs and traditional investment bankers and they are rekt. Be a contrarian.

matt4077 9y ago
The unbanked have absolutely no use for a volatile pseudo-currency with transaction costs >$20
- KasianFranks 9y ago
  Ever heard of other crypto?
samastur 9y ago
I would be more willing to believe this if among many other things bitcoin price didn't rise so much. As it is, it is clearly mostly bought and not "traded" which suggest it is used as a store of value (or investment) and not currency. It might be that cryptocoins will perform that role some time in the future, but this is not what is happening now.
darkstar999 9y ago
Except that bitcoin transaction cost is what, $10 or $15 now? There's no way "unbanked" people will benefit from that, at all.
- montecarl 9y ago
  Yes. For right now, the demand for transactions is greatly outstripping the fixed supply of transactions that the network can provide. Nobody has convincingly solved the problem (IOTA, I'm looking at you...). Altcoins don't have this problem yet either because they are not as widely used and those that can do more transactions per second have blockchains that would be growing very quickly in size if the blocks were close to full. None of the current globally distributed trustless ledgers cannot support a huge number of transactions per second. We will need new technologies, possibly on top of bitcoin, or through new technology.
- Tepix 9y ago
  He wrote crypto, not bitcoin.
  - KasianFranks 9y ago
    Good point.
  - matt4077 9y ago
    Yet the economists they're mocking were asked about bitcoin.
- Rmilb 9y ago
  There have been low transaction fees in the past and they can return. Currently that is not the case.
deadmetheny 9y ago
How are these people without basic necessities accessing their coins, exactly? It's hard to trade Internet Fun Bucks without Internet access.
dresstotheleft 9y ago
Barely have toilets and telephones, yet unfettered access to the internet and Bitcoin exchanges?
- KasianFranks 9y ago
  Where are you from?

matt4077 9y ago

The unbanked have absolutely no use for a volatile pseudo-currency with transaction costs >$20

KasianFranks 9y ago
Ever heard of other crypto?

samastur 9y ago

I would be more willing to believe this if among many other things bitcoin price didn't rise so much. As it is, it is clearly mostly bought and not "traded" which suggest it is used as a store of value (or investment) and not currency. It might be that cryptocoins will perform that role some time in the future, but this is not what is happening now.

darkstar999 9y ago

Except that bitcoin transaction cost is what, $10 or $15 now? There's no way "unbanked" people will benefit from that, at all.

montecarl 9y ago
Yes. For right now, the demand for transactions is greatly outstripping the fixed supply of transactions that the network can provide. Nobody has convincingly solved the problem (IOTA, I'm looking at you...). Altcoins don't have this problem yet either because they are not as widely used and those that can do more transactions per second have blockchains that would be growing very quickly in size if the blocks were close to full. None of the current globally distributed trustless ledgers cannot support a huge number of transactions per second. We will need new technologies, possibly on top of bitcoin, or through new technology.
Tepix 9y ago
He wrote crypto, not bitcoin.
- KasianFranks 9y ago
  Good point.
- matt4077 9y ago
  Yet the economists they're mocking were asked about bitcoin.
Rmilb 9y ago
There have been low transaction fees in the past and they can return. Currently that is not the case.

deadmetheny 9y ago

How are these people without basic necessities accessing their coins, exactly? It's hard to trade Internet Fun Bucks without Internet access.

dresstotheleft 9y ago

Barely have toilets and telephones, yet unfettered access to the internet and Bitcoin exchanges?

KasianFranks 9y ago
Where are you from?