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I got downvoted the last time I said this, but cryptocurrencies are actually pretty nice for doing exactly what their purpose is: sending money over the interne

by mjfl 9y ago

I got downvoted the last time I said this, but cryptocurrencies are actually pretty nice for doing exactly what their purpose is: sending money over the internet. Do you know how hard it is to get Stripe or Paypal to approve you for international credit card processing? If you're a "hacker" working out of your apartment, they automatically assume you're trying to launder money and shut you down, even if you've worked hard to provide solid documentation that you are who you say you are and you're doing what you say you're doing. Even if they do approve you it can take months to integrate into their system. And that's with Stripe and/or Paypal, without Stripe and/or Paypal it's impossible. Until crypto. With crypto you can set up a transaction system in a day, by yourself. I think that's great value.

Felz 9y ago
Well, of course something that skirts around regulations will require less red tape. Once the government catches up, you'll be required to do similar hoop jumping for cryptos. Exchanges suffer this problem already, don't they?
- solotronics 9y ago
  The cat is already out of the bag its just like bittorrents of copyrighted content. Yeah It's illegal but that doesn't stop anyone. Also, with how easy it is to change one crypto for another how would you even regulate it? I am not asking that retorically and am genuinely interested in this if anyone has an idea of how cryotocurrency regulations would work.
  - lalaland1125 9y ago
    You regulate the fiat onramps and offramps which are the exchanges. Nobody uses bitcoin to actually pay for things, so once you take away the ability to exchange it for fiat, the whole scheme collapses. The US government could end most of this tomorrow by simply shutting down a handful of exchanges.
    - ghthor 9y ago
      This is very shortsighted. In the positive future, you aren't going to need to exchange into fiat currency, youll just exchange in crypto.
calibas 9y ago
In my personal experience, the transfer fees, transaction times, and the fact that the market can crash overnight, makes cryptocurrencies more trouble than they're worth, at least at the moment.
- sincerely 9y ago
  I don't particularly care whether crypto succeeds or not but transfer fees and long confirmation times are pretty much relegated to bitcoin only and even then are much less now than they were in the end of 2017. ethereum is very cheap and fast to send, and there are many altcoins that offer free/extremely fast payments.
dcow 9y ago
Too bad humans ruined the stability of such currencies by building marketplaces designed to enable speculation. I mean I guess it's inevitable and maybe you can argue market places will help CC stabilize quicker, but it's disappointing from a purist perspective. I think there's great value in a decentralized currency that is resistant to manipulation by a central power. But bitcoin stopped being that lately.
toomanybeersies 9y ago
The ease of setting up online payments is a double edged sword. On one hand, it makes it a lot easier for someone to earn some money on their side project. But on the other hand, it also makes it a lot easier for scammers et al. to accept payments from their victims. And that's not to mention that you can't do chargebacks with Bitcoin, unlike if I get scammed with my CC where I can ring my bank and reverse the charges.
- ghthor 9y ago
  Chargebacks can be handled by an escrow contract. Paying an unknown or untrusted payee? Use an escrow service backed by a institution that sells trust and and escrow service. This type of institutionally backed transaction holds legit value. The current problem is, that ALL digital transactions in non crypto currencyies REQUIRE this institution. This has enabled a monoplistic middleman posistion to develop that I don't need if I want to pay my friend for a painting they made. Ask anyone that uses the square payments if theyd rather take cash or pay the card processing fee? These type of small businesses will jump all over crypto when the UX and education hits the right tipping point.
  - toomanybeersies 9y ago
    But then the escrow service will charge a fee and will also have a degree of gatekeeping because they don't want scammers. So we're back to where we started.
    - ghthor 9y ago
      No were not, because very few transactions require an escrow. I do 90% of my in person transactions without an escrow using cash. These transactions can be replaced with crypto for a very very small fee, negligible compared to the card processing fee. The essense here is that currently a card transaction is like an escrow transaction, but most tranactions don't require that level of security, notably in person transactions. And thats where cryto is a next level tech, it can func in the same way as current card transactions and it can also operate at almost the transaction cost of cash.
floatboth 9y ago
Yeah, it's nice to be able to just send money internationally to friends/clients/whoever without using your private information / real world identity / whatever. If cryptocurrencies stayed as the small nerd money that no one cares about, that would be great. But of course, capitalism ruined everything, now the buttcoins are 99% used for speculation and scams, there was literally a PonziCoin lol, prices are huge and volatile, transaction fees are huge, the GPU market is completely screwed, there is attention from governments and businesses, and (back to the topic of the article) everyone wants a fucking blockchain instead of a database. (note: If you just want an immutable proof of non-tampering, you need Certificate Transparency!! Not a slow power-wasting system designed around libertarian "trust no one" wank.)
village-idiot 9y ago
The funny thing about it all is that Bitcoin really stopped functioning like a currency over a year ago, these days its really more of a speculative asset more than anything else.

by mjfl 9y ago

Felz 9y ago

Well, of course something that skirts around regulations will require less red tape. Once the government catches up, you'll be required to do similar hoop jumping for cryptos. Exchanges suffer this problem already, don't they?

solotronics 9y ago
The cat is already out of the bag its just like bittorrents of copyrighted content. Yeah It's illegal but that doesn't stop anyone. Also, with how easy it is to change one crypto for another how would you even regulate it? I am not asking that retorically and am genuinely interested in this if anyone has an idea of how cryotocurrency regulations would work.
- lalaland1125 9y ago
  You regulate the fiat onramps and offramps which are the exchanges. Nobody uses bitcoin to actually pay for things, so once you take away the ability to exchange it for fiat, the whole scheme collapses. The US government could end most of this tomorrow by simply shutting down a handful of exchanges.
  - ghthor 9y ago
    This is very shortsighted. In the positive future, you aren't going to need to exchange into fiat currency, youll just exchange in crypto.

calibas 9y ago

In my personal experience, the transfer fees, transaction times, and the fact that the market can crash overnight, makes cryptocurrencies more trouble than they're worth, at least at the moment.

sincerely 9y ago
I don't particularly care whether crypto succeeds or not but transfer fees and long confirmation times are pretty much relegated to bitcoin only and even then are much less now than they were in the end of 2017. ethereum is very cheap and fast to send, and there are many altcoins that offer free/extremely fast payments.

dcow 9y ago

Too bad humans ruined the stability of such currencies by building marketplaces designed to enable speculation. I mean I guess it's inevitable and maybe you can argue market places will help CC stabilize quicker, but it's disappointing from a purist perspective. I think there's great value in a decentralized currency that is resistant to manipulation by a central power. But bitcoin stopped being that lately.

toomanybeersies 9y ago

The ease of setting up online payments is a double edged sword. On one hand, it makes it a lot easier for someone to earn some money on their side project. But on the other hand, it also makes it a lot easier for scammers et al. to accept payments from their victims. And that's not to mention that you can't do chargebacks with Bitcoin, unlike if I get scammed with my CC where I can ring my bank and reverse the charges.

ghthor 9y ago
Chargebacks can be handled by an escrow contract. Paying an unknown or untrusted payee? Use an escrow service backed by a institution that sells trust and and escrow service. This type of institutionally backed transaction holds legit value. The current problem is, that ALL digital transactions in non crypto currencyies REQUIRE this institution. This has enabled a monoplistic middleman posistion to develop that I don't need if I want to pay my friend for a painting they made. Ask anyone that uses the square payments if theyd rather take cash or pay the card processing fee? These type of small businesses will jump all over crypto when the UX and education hits the right tipping point.
- toomanybeersies 9y ago
  But then the escrow service will charge a fee and will also have a degree of gatekeeping because they don't want scammers. So we're back to where we started.
  - ghthor 9y ago
    No were not, because very few transactions require an escrow. I do 90% of my in person transactions without an escrow using cash. These transactions can be replaced with crypto for a very very small fee, negligible compared to the card processing fee. The essense here is that currently a card transaction is like an escrow transaction, but most tranactions don't require that level of security, notably in person transactions. And thats where cryto is a next level tech, it can func in the same way as current card transactions and it can also operate at almost the transaction cost of cash.

floatboth 9y ago

Yeah, it's nice to be able to just send money internationally to friends/clients/whoever without using your private information / real world identity / whatever. If cryptocurrencies stayed as the small nerd money that no one cares about, that would be great. But of course, capitalism ruined everything, now the buttcoins are 99% used for speculation and scams, there was literally a PonziCoin lol, prices are huge and volatile, transaction fees are huge, the GPU market is completely screwed, there is attention from governments and businesses, and (back to the topic of the article) everyone wants a fucking blockchain instead of a database. (note: If you just want an immutable proof of non-tampering, you need Certificate Transparency!! Not a slow power-wasting system designed around libertarian "trust no one" wank.)

village-idiot 9y ago

The funny thing about it all is that Bitcoin really stopped functioning like a currency over a year ago, these days its really more of a speculative asset more than anything else.