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Why would something that serves such an extremely small niche market ever be “widespread”? Rather than focusing on what crypto is bad at (nearly everything bec

Why would something that serves such an extremely small niche market ever be “widespread”? Rather than focusing on what crypto is bad at (nearly everything because trust is useful for 99% of its applications), crypto should focus on the niche where it’s actually good at: large money transfers across international boundaries.

pavlov 8y ago
> ... niche where it’s actually good at: large money transfers across international boundaries Is Bitcoin even good at that? If you're going to transfer a million dollars from Nigeria to the USA, presumably you're going to want to cash it out at the other end. If the exchange providing your USD follows the law, they'll be asking the same questions concerning the provenance of the $1M that would get asked for a regular wire transfer. So you're not really getting access to the money any quicker in the end. Of course if the intent is to diffuse the $1M into smaller crypto transactions and cash out those under the radar... Well, that's a different niche entirely than just plain old "large international wires".
lost953 8y ago
aka Crime (for the most part)
- zhonwang 8y ago
  Silk Road has been gone for a long time. At this point I would guess that 75% of the volume of BTC movement is from speculators. That's probably conservative.
  - empath75 8y ago
    Money laundering, ransomware, election meddling.
cryptobeanbaby 8y ago
Ah yes, like how Coinbase told its investors that Bitcoin is great for money laundering and bypassing sanctions? Immune to country- specific sanctions (e.g. Russia-Visa) http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/COINBASE-INVESTOR-presentation-2-2.pdf http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/COINBASE-IN...
Yizahi 8y ago
That is including or excluding paying capital gains taxes that is required for cashing out such transactions?

pavlov 8y ago

> ... niche where it’s actually good at: large money transfers across international boundaries Is Bitcoin even good at that? If you're going to transfer a million dollars from Nigeria to the USA, presumably you're going to want to cash it out at the other end. If the exchange providing your USD follows the law, they'll be asking the same questions concerning the provenance of the $1M that would get asked for a regular wire transfer. So you're not really getting access to the money any quicker in the end. Of course if the intent is to diffuse the $1M into smaller crypto transactions and cash out those under the radar... Well, that's a different niche entirely than just plain old "large international wires".

lost953 8y ago

aka Crime (for the most part)

zhonwang 8y ago
Silk Road has been gone for a long time. At this point I would guess that 75% of the volume of BTC movement is from speculators. That's probably conservative.
- empath75 8y ago
  Money laundering, ransomware, election meddling.

cryptobeanbaby 8y ago

Ah yes, like how Coinbase told its investors that Bitcoin is great for money laundering and bypassing sanctions? Immune to country- specific sanctions (e.g. Russia-Visa) http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/COINBASE-INVESTOR-presentation-2-2.pdf http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/COINBASE-IN...

Yizahi 8y ago

That is including or excluding paying capital gains taxes that is required for cashing out such transactions?