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Seems like everyone is looking at this from a 1st world perspective where our trust in money and the financial system has worked in our favor (generally). In p
by duckqlz 9y ago
Seems like everyone is looking at this from a 1st world perspective where our trust in money and the financial system has worked in our favor (generally). In places like Vietnam where their currency has crashed to 0 in memoriable history a decentralized currency seems like a great idea.
Furthermore there is over 500B USD (more than global foriegn investment) sent from migrant workers back to the thrid world every year. Each transaction can cost anywhere from 5 - 15% depending on the country. Than the reciepient incurs more fees for exchanging to their local currency. This results in an enormous amount of economic waste and can be completely avoided with a decentralized and trusted block chain currency.
All of this causes incentive for the technology to persist and keep expanding. In this sense I feel the author and many commentors have missed the point. A decentralized currency is not for places where trust already exists (yet) but it already has applications where it does not.
IMO this is what has "futurists" up in arms. Just like how the internet had the potential to allow the flow of information to pass between boarders freely from the beginning but was seen as a novelty. This is becuase it was looked at under a 1st world lens where public libraries and free education were already norms. It was only when information got into the hands of those who previously could not get it did we see an explosion of ideas and progress. What if the same thing happens with money?
- sotdan 9y agoThen I assume there must be evidence that the Vietnamese and migrant workers in the US are rushing to adopt decentralized currencies. Is there?
- duckqlz 9y agoThere is a lot of evidence of the potential bitcoin has for remittance. This doesn't mean that it has been adopted by ALL the migrant workers in the US but if the transaction cost is 0 and the competitor charges 15% its only a matter of time before it is adopted by everyone. The links below only scratch the surface. Aside from the references below most of my previous post comes from on the ground experience in developing nations. I sincerely doubt there is a formal study showing the exact numbers since there is no incentive for migrant workers (who may be undocumented) to expose themselves for capital flight. My overall point though is that while you, as an American, may have complete faith in the current financial system there are certainly places in the world where this is not the case. The financial system is global and the US is no longer the biggest player. [1] Krygyzstan https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/08/kyrgyzstan-bitcoin-experiment-migrant-savings https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/08/kyrgyzstan-bit... [2] Africa http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bitcoin-is-being-used-by-african-migrant-workers-to-send-money-home-10098169.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bitcoin-is-b... [3] Tajikistan https://eurasianet.org/node/68272 https://eurasianet.org/node/68272 [4] General https://riskmagazine.nl/article/2017-09-15-bitcoin-the-perfect-solution-for-remittance https://riskmagazine.nl/article/2017-09-15-bitcoin-the-perfe... [5] South east asia http://inc-asean.com/editor-picks/bitcoin-disrupting-southeast-asias-remittance-industry/ http://inc-asean.com/editor-picks/bitcoin-disrupting-southea... https://imgur.com/a/RySeB https://imgur.com/a/RySeB