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Remittances are one of the big, obvious use cases where crypto can save poor people a ton of money. To the tune of a collective $40-50 billion a year. https://

Remittances are one of the big, obvious use cases where crypto can save poor people a ton of money. To the tune of a collective $40-50 billion a year. https://academy.binance.com/blockchain/blockchain-use-cases-remittance https://academy.binance.com/blockchain/blockchain-use-cases-...

hocuspocus 6y ago
Call me when a blockchain-backed remittance service reaches even a small fraction of the customer-base of companies like Transferwise or CurrencyFair. If it was an efficient way to cut on fees, everyone would do it. Yet almost nobody does.
- Karunamon 6y ago
  That strikes me as more of an implementation detail. Day-to-day cryptocurrency use still requires a level of technical sophistication my grandma isn't comfortable with.
  - hocuspocus 6y ago
    It is. So why don't remittance services do it behind the scenes?
    - notahacker 6y ago
      Because the converting currency X to crypto to currency Y is certainly not going to be cheaper or less volatile than a remittance service's existing forex setup which skips the middle bit, and it introduces a risky counterparty in the form of crypto exchanges.
      - ashtonkem 6y ago
        Fundamentally bitcoin (and most other cryptos) are trying to fill two mutually exclusive goals. On one hand, they’re supposed to be the currency of the future; on the other you’re supposed to invest or trade in them like a speculative instrument to grow your net worth (hodl, mooning, lambos, etc.) The issue is that these two can’t be filled by the same instrument effectively. Currencies need to be stable and predictable, nobody wants to discover that their paycheck has suddenly halved in value. They can inflate, but they should do that in a slow and steady manner so wages can keep up. On the other hand you want some volatility in your speculative instruments, as without volatility there’s no real opportunity to earn a profit and grow your net worth. If something tries to be both, the results are disappointing. Either there’s no enough volatility to make traders happy, or there’s enough volatility to expose laborers or payment processors (depending on use case) to purchasing power shocks or conversion rate risks. Unfortunately, it’s my belief that bitcoin maintains a lot of its value by trying to continually bring in new suckers (sorry, investors) in order to keep demand high without significant use cases. This kind of continual recruitment process is both fascinating, and really ruins bitcoin for anyone who wanted to use it for non-speculative purposes.
    - bravoetch 6y ago
      Some do, for certain cases.
  - Ar-Curunir 6y ago
    Bitcoin has been around for 12 years. The UX around cryptocurrencies is still crap.
- bjoernw 6y ago
  What's your number? That's exactly what Ripple is working on - replacing SWIFT. https://ripple.com/ripplenet https://ripple.com/ripplenet
  - justusw 6y ago
    And how many years have they been at it? My impression in 2019, trying to add it to an Android app, was badly documented or deprecated libraries. And then there is the whole debacle with XRP, the currency, and Ripple, the underlying tech, being used interchangeably and confusing everyone. Banks aren’t even interested in XRP. And bank adoption hasn’t been exactly smooth so far either: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-ripple-idUSKBN1J92JG https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-ripple-idUSKBN...
    - bjoernw 6y ago
      That article is from 2018 :) Check out the mobile wallet XUMM for a solid approach.
sukilot 6y ago
Poor (and rich) people get computer viruses all the time. Put a Bitcoin wallet on everyone's machine and remittance fees would be a drop in the ocean compared to theft.

hocuspocus 6y ago

Call me when a blockchain-backed remittance service reaches even a small fraction of the customer-base of companies like Transferwise or CurrencyFair. If it was an efficient way to cut on fees, everyone would do it. Yet almost nobody does.

Karunamon 6y ago
That strikes me as more of an implementation detail. Day-to-day cryptocurrency use still requires a level of technical sophistication my grandma isn't comfortable with.
- hocuspocus 6y ago
  It is. So why don't remittance services do it behind the scenes?
  - notahacker 6y ago
    Because the converting currency X to crypto to currency Y is certainly not going to be cheaper or less volatile than a remittance service's existing forex setup which skips the middle bit, and it introduces a risky counterparty in the form of crypto exchanges.
    - ashtonkem 6y ago
      Fundamentally bitcoin (and most other cryptos) are trying to fill two mutually exclusive goals. On one hand, they’re supposed to be the currency of the future; on the other you’re supposed to invest or trade in them like a speculative instrument to grow your net worth (hodl, mooning, lambos, etc.) The issue is that these two can’t be filled by the same instrument effectively. Currencies need to be stable and predictable, nobody wants to discover that their paycheck has suddenly halved in value. They can inflate, but they should do that in a slow and steady manner so wages can keep up. On the other hand you want some volatility in your speculative instruments, as without volatility there’s no real opportunity to earn a profit and grow your net worth. If something tries to be both, the results are disappointing. Either there’s no enough volatility to make traders happy, or there’s enough volatility to expose laborers or payment processors (depending on use case) to purchasing power shocks or conversion rate risks. Unfortunately, it’s my belief that bitcoin maintains a lot of its value by trying to continually bring in new suckers (sorry, investors) in order to keep demand high without significant use cases. This kind of continual recruitment process is both fascinating, and really ruins bitcoin for anyone who wanted to use it for non-speculative purposes.
  - bravoetch 6y ago
    Some do, for certain cases.
- Ar-Curunir 6y ago
  Bitcoin has been around for 12 years. The UX around cryptocurrencies is still crap.
bjoernw 6y ago
What's your number? That's exactly what Ripple is working on - replacing SWIFT. https://ripple.com/ripplenet https://ripple.com/ripplenet
- justusw 6y ago
  And how many years have they been at it? My impression in 2019, trying to add it to an Android app, was badly documented or deprecated libraries. And then there is the whole debacle with XRP, the currency, and Ripple, the underlying tech, being used interchangeably and confusing everyone. Banks aren’t even interested in XRP. And bank adoption hasn’t been exactly smooth so far either: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-ripple-idUSKBN1J92JG https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-ripple-idUSKBN...
  - bjoernw 6y ago
    That article is from 2018 :) Check out the mobile wallet XUMM for a solid approach.

sukilot 6y ago

Poor (and rich) people get computer viruses all the time. Put a Bitcoin wallet on everyone's machine and remittance fees would be a drop in the ocean compared to theft.