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I see so many first world people writing about crypto not solving problems for them. I'm sure it's not malicious, but crypto is trying to bring equality to fina

by toolz 5y ago

I see so many first world people writing about crypto not solving problems for them. I'm sure it's not malicious, but crypto is trying to bring equality to finance. Of course it's not going to be obvious or even the focus of crypto to solve problems for the already overly catered to rich people. There's nothing wrong with that and there's nothing wrong with writing about how it doesn't solve problems for you, but don't you think it's a little bit bad to not at least look at problems truly impoverished people have and mention those? I think it's something like 17% of the world is underbanked or unbanked - that means there is a huge issue where families can't save money and the people who work smart and/or hard can't grow out of their situation. I don't mean all crypto is aiming to solve these problems, but it's certainly a category of problem solving that's important to me as a human who wants to see equality in finance, globally.

earnesti 5y ago
Crypto solved very nicely my problems, well the money related problems. Now I am rich and life is comfortable.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
danaris 5y ago
I have yet to see any clear explanation for how cryptocurrencies are supposed to solve the problem of people in third-world countries not having access to banking, in practice. For one thing, it seems to me that step 1 in that is understanding why they are underbanked or unbanked, because if it's because they don't have reliable access to the internet...well, that's going to put a bit of a crimp in any plans to get crypto to them.
- toolz 5y ago
  There are many articles describing how crypto can help in this category, from people who lack the proper documentation to open bank accounts to people who live in areas that are too high risk for traditional banks to include them. Lack of stable internet is going to be an issue for many, but that's a problem that is being worked on by many organizations and I presume will be solved in time.
danShumway 5y ago
The fees on top of NFTs and platforms like Bitcoin are so egregious right now that they're basically only useful for large transfers. Yes, yes, Lightning, whatever. It's very impressive that the Bitcoin space got the novel idea of solving blockchain problems by using the blockchain less. /s But there are only narrow examples I can think of where cryptocurrency is helping: specifically 3rd-world transfers of money out of and into the country are maybe the strongest use-case today. But most cryptocurrencies that I see aren't optimized for that, and a lot worse, it's not clear to me that the popular cryptocurrencies will continue to be useful for that in the future, particularly as governments clamp down on them. I question whether crypto is actually the best method of bringing banking to unbanked people, and more than that I question to what extent the space is actually focused on that, because I know at the very least, the majority of the US community around Bitcoin is not thinking about 3rd-world countries. I've seen cryptocurrencies evolve from their earliest stages where people were very earnestly talking about replacing financial systems, into the modern day were if I say Bitcoin is a bad currency somebody will jump on the thread and tell me that Bitcoin isn't supposed to be a currency. ---- > that means there is a huge issue where families can't save money and the people will to work smart or hard can't grow out of their situation. I think it's tough to claim that currencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin are long-term answers to this problem; I don't see a movement of wealth redistribution happening, I think that people are trying to jump on early so they'll be rich later, and the underlying technology of these systems is such that they are literally designed to become less profitable to get on board with over time. I can sort of imagine how a cryptocurrency that was specifically designed for money transfer across nations or for use by unbanked/poor communities might function, but I'm not sure it looks a lot like Bitcoin. Bitcoin has transaction fees, that's problem number 1. It requires an Internet connection, that's problem number 2. Decreasing rewards for transactions are designed to consolidate wealth among the early adopters, that's problem number 3. I'm just not sure I buy it.

by toolz 5y ago

earnesti 5y ago

Crypto solved very nicely my problems, well the money related problems. Now I am rich and life is comfortable.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

danaris 5y ago

I have yet to see any clear explanation for how cryptocurrencies are supposed to solve the problem of people in third-world countries not having access to banking, in practice. For one thing, it seems to me that step 1 in that is understanding why they are underbanked or unbanked, because if it's because they don't have reliable access to the internet...well, that's going to put a bit of a crimp in any plans to get crypto to them.

toolz 5y ago
There are many articles describing how crypto can help in this category, from people who lack the proper documentation to open bank accounts to people who live in areas that are too high risk for traditional banks to include them. Lack of stable internet is going to be an issue for many, but that's a problem that is being worked on by many organizations and I presume will be solved in time.

danShumway 5y ago

The fees on top of NFTs and platforms like Bitcoin are so egregious right now that they're basically only useful for large transfers. Yes, yes, Lightning, whatever. It's very impressive that the Bitcoin space got the novel idea of solving blockchain problems by using the blockchain less. /s But there are only narrow examples I can think of where cryptocurrency is helping: specifically 3rd-world transfers of money out of and into the country are maybe the strongest use-case today. But most cryptocurrencies that I see aren't optimized for that, and a lot worse, it's not clear to me that the popular cryptocurrencies will continue to be useful for that in the future, particularly as governments clamp down on them. I question whether crypto is actually the best method of bringing banking to unbanked people, and more than that I question to what extent the space is actually focused on that, because I know at the very least, the majority of the US community around Bitcoin is not thinking about 3rd-world countries. I've seen cryptocurrencies evolve from their earliest stages where people were very earnestly talking about replacing financial systems, into the modern day were if I say Bitcoin is a bad currency somebody will jump on the thread and tell me that Bitcoin isn't supposed to be a currency. ---- > that means there is a huge issue where families can't save money and the people will to work smart or hard can't grow out of their situation. I think it's tough to claim that currencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin are long-term answers to this problem; I don't see a movement of wealth redistribution happening, I think that people are trying to jump on early so they'll be rich later, and the underlying technology of these systems is such that they are literally designed to become less profitable to get on board with over time. I can sort of imagine how a cryptocurrency that was specifically designed for money transfer across nations or for use by unbanked/poor communities might function, but I'm not sure it looks a lot like Bitcoin. Bitcoin has transaction fees, that's problem number 1. It requires an Internet connection, that's problem number 2. Decreasing rewards for transactions are designed to consolidate wealth among the early adopters, that's problem number 3. I'm just not sure I buy it.