4 ms·

> He could have sent it 'traditionally' but he would have been harassed about why he was sending money abroad and wasted considerable time and effort going to a

> He could have sent it 'traditionally' but he would have been harassed about why he was sending money abroad and wasted considerable time and effort going to a physical bank branch. Instead in under a minute he sent me some Ethereum and we both were able to confirm the transaction near immediately Have you heard of options like TransferWise or OFX? They offer immediate transfers, lower transaction fees than ETH or BTC, etc. Using crypto in this manner is wholly unnecessary. > I can take this money and start earning interest higher than any bank will give me within a few minutes Earning interest? Are you talking about "HODLing"? ETH has dropped by nearly 90% since its peak less than 2 years ago. There's massive risk in holding ETH/BTC. You don't get to cherry-pick dates and claim that it's better than holding in a bank—it's not. BTC/ETH are 0-sum games, so on average nobody earns a dime of interest.

kobasa 7y ago
First of all YOU are the one cherry picking dates (conveniently picking the all-time high price which only lasted for a small timeframe). And now, I'm talking about DeFi (decentralized finance) where you can earn interest on top of your principal. Also the ETH transaction fee is literally a few cents.
ppf 7y ago
>Earning interest He's talking about "DeFi" ("distributed finance") - the current craze in the Ethereum world. Various groups are offering significant interest rates for loaning out your Eth. It's hard to see how it's not another speculation bubble waiting to burst.
- microtherion 7y ago
  I suppose calling this “Probabilistic Online-Zone Investment” aka “POnZI” would have been a bit on the nose.
  - tuesdayrain 7y ago
    Jeez, the quality of HN comments these days is not what it used to be.
- leppr 7y ago
  DeFi loans are typically very over-collaterized. Due to this, they represent way less of a risk to the economy than traditional credit.
  - ppf 7y ago
    How much collateral do you need for an asset that is as volatile as a cryptocurrency?
    - xur17 7y ago
      I believe makerdao sets it at 150%. If it ever drops under that amount they auction off the underlying asset on the the open market.
  - xur17 7y ago
    I've looked into using these a few times, and I'm honestly more worried about smart contract bugs.
mrep 7y ago
> BTC/ETH are 0-sum games, so on average nobody earns a dime of interest I would argue it is actually negative sum as billions of dollars worth is newly minted every year and a lot of that inevitability has to be sold to pay the miners electricity bills. I'm honestly shocked they haven't collapsed due to the never ending supply side pressure requiring billions of dollars worth of capital inflow every year.
- leppr 7y ago
  The supply of Bitcoin is by design not "never ending" [1]. The future inflation rate is known and trending towards 0, eventually turning BTC deflationary. [1] https://medium.com/@k_schellinger/understanding-bitcoins-21-million-limit-310297a7d962 https://medium.com/@k_schellinger/understanding-bitcoins-21-...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- DennisP 7y ago
  That will change on Ethereum when they finish rolling out proof of stake.
zionic 7y ago
> lower transaction fees than ETH or BTC Citation needed. At the time of this post, a <5m transfer is $0.004. That's not a typo. $0.031 for <2m. https://ethgasstation.info/ https://ethgasstation.info/

kobasa 7y ago

First of all YOU are the one cherry picking dates (conveniently picking the all-time high price which only lasted for a small timeframe). And now, I'm talking about DeFi (decentralized finance) where you can earn interest on top of your principal. Also the ETH transaction fee is literally a few cents.

ppf 7y ago

>Earning interest He's talking about "DeFi" ("distributed finance") - the current craze in the Ethereum world. Various groups are offering significant interest rates for loaning out your Eth. It's hard to see how it's not another speculation bubble waiting to burst.

microtherion 7y ago
I suppose calling this “Probabilistic Online-Zone Investment” aka “POnZI” would have been a bit on the nose.
- tuesdayrain 7y ago
  Jeez, the quality of HN comments these days is not what it used to be.
leppr 7y ago
DeFi loans are typically very over-collaterized. Due to this, they represent way less of a risk to the economy than traditional credit.
- ppf 7y ago
  How much collateral do you need for an asset that is as volatile as a cryptocurrency?
  - xur17 7y ago
    I believe makerdao sets it at 150%. If it ever drops under that amount they auction off the underlying asset on the the open market.
- xur17 7y ago
  I've looked into using these a few times, and I'm honestly more worried about smart contract bugs.

mrep 7y ago

> BTC/ETH are 0-sum games, so on average nobody earns a dime of interest I would argue it is actually negative sum as billions of dollars worth is newly minted every year and a lot of that inevitability has to be sold to pay the miners electricity bills. I'm honestly shocked they haven't collapsed due to the never ending supply side pressure requiring billions of dollars worth of capital inflow every year.

leppr 7y ago
The supply of Bitcoin is by design not "never ending" [1]. The future inflation rate is known and trending towards 0, eventually turning BTC deflationary. [1] https://medium.com/@k_schellinger/understanding-bitcoins-21-million-limit-310297a7d962 https://medium.com/@k_schellinger/understanding-bitcoins-21-...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
DennisP 7y ago
That will change on Ethereum when they finish rolling out proof of stake.

zionic 7y ago

> lower transaction fees than ETH or BTC Citation needed. At the time of this post, a <5m transfer is $0.004. That's not a typo. $0.031 for <2m. https://ethgasstation.info/ https://ethgasstation.info/