5 ms·

Are you telling me with a straight face that the UX on crypto is better than traditional banking? FWIW, I was into crypto during the previous peak, and transfe

Are you telling me with a straight face that the UX on crypto is better than traditional banking? FWIW, I was into crypto during the previous peak, and transferring it around involved copy-pasting strings of gibberish and sacrificing chickens to the gods so I wouldn't mess up and nuke it all. As far as I can tell things have gotten worse, not better, since.

TimJRobinson 5y ago
UX has improved a LOT since 2017. I've been using ZapperFi for playing around with DeFi and it's an amazing experience. It's much easier and faster than any other financial trading app I've used (it's on par with Robinhood).
kybernetikos 5y ago
> Are you telling me with a straight face that the UX on crypto is better than traditional banking? Crypto is a big space and there's a lot of variety, but yes. Not that many banks where I am offer effectively free and quick transfers with the ease of scanning a QR code, which I have done with crypto. Even better is the experience of using ripple on keybase chat, which is far superior to anything I've seen offered by a bank in my area. Sure, some cryptocurrencies are more painful, but that's not a necessary characteristic of the whole space, and perhaps even more important - we can innovate in the crypto space more easily than we can innovate in the traditional payments space. Actually traditional banking has got a lot better at payments recently, and I think it's to some extent because they realize that they need to compete.
- Grustaf 5y ago
  In large parts of the world, from Scandinavia to Africa, you can transfer money instantly using only phone-numbers (or QR codes). I use the Danish mobile pay every day and never yet felt that it would improve from "being on the blockchain".
  - randomhodler84 5y ago
    now you have to have a cell phone number, registered with the state, and pay ongoing maintenance for the number’s service in order to take part in commerce. Imagine a world where nobody had to get anyone’s permission to send or receive payments, or pay ongoing fees for a service number, or register that number with the state. Now do you see where cryptocurrency folks are coming from?
    - Grustaf 5y ago
      1. No, the state doesn’t have to register my phone number. And in countries where this is the case, that’s not a question of technology. 2. In poor countries where monthly phone bills or lack of banking is an issue they often have prepaid. 3. Almost every adult in the world has a phone, you don’t even need a smartphone for some of these payment systems. 4. If you’re a poor Kenyan farmer that has been using your phone to pay anonymously for over a decade, I highly doubt you care that you need “permission” from Safaricom to do it. So no, I really really don’t see the point. And I am someone that raised (a tiny amount of) seed money for a crypto based money transfer system for Africa in 2012. There could be improvements on the margins but there’s really no disruptive advantage to it being “decentralised”.
      - randomhodler84 5y ago
        I would like to not own a phone, nor a phone number in the future. The way it’s going, the smarter folks will.. not be using consumer tech. Registering phone numbers with the state is the global standard for a majority of humans, so don’t give me that “I don’t have to register”. Try that in China, Brazil, India, etc. With permissionless systems, as long as I have an internet connection, I can send and receive money. If you don’t see this value, I’m sorry. You are arguing for a state run centralized closed system of monetary control, and I am arguing for a non-state open monetary system in which anyone can participate. Do you understand how vastly different these two things are?
        Grustaf 5y ago
josh2600 5y ago
Yes it absolutely is for international banking.

TimJRobinson 5y ago

UX has improved a LOT since 2017. I've been using ZapperFi for playing around with DeFi and it's an amazing experience. It's much easier and faster than any other financial trading app I've used (it's on par with Robinhood).

kybernetikos 5y ago

> Are you telling me with a straight face that the UX on crypto is better than traditional banking? Crypto is a big space and there's a lot of variety, but yes. Not that many banks where I am offer effectively free and quick transfers with the ease of scanning a QR code, which I have done with crypto. Even better is the experience of using ripple on keybase chat, which is far superior to anything I've seen offered by a bank in my area. Sure, some cryptocurrencies are more painful, but that's not a necessary characteristic of the whole space, and perhaps even more important - we can innovate in the crypto space more easily than we can innovate in the traditional payments space. Actually traditional banking has got a lot better at payments recently, and I think it's to some extent because they realize that they need to compete.

Grustaf 5y ago
In large parts of the world, from Scandinavia to Africa, you can transfer money instantly using only phone-numbers (or QR codes). I use the Danish mobile pay every day and never yet felt that it would improve from "being on the blockchain".
- randomhodler84 5y ago
  now you have to have a cell phone number, registered with the state, and pay ongoing maintenance for the number’s service in order to take part in commerce. Imagine a world where nobody had to get anyone’s permission to send or receive payments, or pay ongoing fees for a service number, or register that number with the state. Now do you see where cryptocurrency folks are coming from?
  - Grustaf 5y ago
    1. No, the state doesn’t have to register my phone number. And in countries where this is the case, that’s not a question of technology. 2. In poor countries where monthly phone bills or lack of banking is an issue they often have prepaid. 3. Almost every adult in the world has a phone, you don’t even need a smartphone for some of these payment systems. 4. If you’re a poor Kenyan farmer that has been using your phone to pay anonymously for over a decade, I highly doubt you care that you need “permission” from Safaricom to do it. So no, I really really don’t see the point. And I am someone that raised (a tiny amount of) seed money for a crypto based money transfer system for Africa in 2012. There could be improvements on the margins but there’s really no disruptive advantage to it being “decentralised”.
    - randomhodler84 5y ago
      I would like to not own a phone, nor a phone number in the future. The way it’s going, the smarter folks will.. not be using consumer tech. Registering phone numbers with the state is the global standard for a majority of humans, so don’t give me that “I don’t have to register”. Try that in China, Brazil, India, etc. With permissionless systems, as long as I have an internet connection, I can send and receive money. If you don’t see this value, I’m sorry. You are arguing for a state run centralized closed system of monetary control, and I am arguing for a non-state open monetary system in which anyone can participate. Do you understand how vastly different these two things are?
      - Grustaf 5y ago

josh2600 5y ago

Yes it absolutely is for international banking.