Is Bitcoin efficient? Perhaps not. But it's no worse than the alternative - banks. Story 1. I went to Taipei to meet someone from HN. He wanted to pay me back

Is Bitcoin efficient? Perhaps not. But it's no worse than the alternative - banks. Story 1. I went to Taipei to meet someone from HN. He wanted to pay me back for my train tickets. His American bank card didn't work in the ATM. I suggested, half-jokingly, "Why not Bitcoin?" When he was back in the US, I set up an account, and the transaction was easy. Story 2. I wanted to donate to a webcomic: http://blog.mixflavor.com/p/donate.html http://blog.mixflavor.com/p/donate.html First I tried PayPal. "We're sorry. You cannot use your PayPal account registered in Taiwan to send payments to, or receive payments from, other PayPal accounts registered in Taiwan." This lunchtime I went to my bank, to try to make a transfer. The guy at the entrance saw the screenshot, and asked a colleague. She and he then made a phone call. A third person came downstairs, and she spoke English. She couldn't understand the written Chinese, and told me it's not their bank's problem. She told me to go to another bank down the street. The second bank involved 3 people reading, translating, discussing, searching Google Maps, to then send me on to a third bank. The third bank had a security guard at the entrance who asked what I was trying to do, and took me to an ATM to make a deposit. He navigated the Chinese-language menus, asked for my phone number, took cash, and finally made the deposit. It took 45 minutes and 8 people to try to send money to someone, and I was late to come back to the office. Bitcoin is doing well, not because the blockchain is so hot right now, but because banks are just awful.