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The value prop here is the “without a third party” bit I presume? That seems more like a political or ethical preference rather than true value. Email allowed y

The value prop here is the “without a third party” bit I presume? That seems more like a political or ethical preference rather than true value. Email allowed you to instantly and perfectly send a message anywhere at any time, and you could cut down on machine and paper/ink costs. Genuine value. Ironically, the crypto way of doing transactions is more like the fax machine to Venmo’s email. The former is slow and more expensive, while the latter is instant and free. Edit: I’d also like to point out you still have a third party in crypto. It’s just that the third party is the entire network rather than a single company.

capableweb 5y ago
If you compare email to snailmail, the same argument could be made. That it's over the internet is just a preference, why care about email when normal mail works perfectly fine? "Without a single 3rd party" is a technical feature, one that allows people to transfer money anywhere, for any reason via any device connected to the internet, without having to open up a bank account. According to the last numbers I've read, the number of "unbanked" people is above 1 billion in the world, some in my family is included there. For them, cryptocurrencies gives them the opportunity of sending/receiving currency cross-border much easier than what Venmo/Paypal/Transferwise/WesternUnion ever been able to provide (and trust me, we've tried most platforms). The Bitcoin way of doing transactions is indeed slow and expensive, but there are many alternatives out there, if you care to look for them. > Edit: I’d also like to point out you still have a third party in crypto. It’s just that the third party is the entire network rather than a single company. Yup, that's why my comment includes "single 3rd party", not just "any 3rd party". Everyone who understands blockchain understands that there are 3rd parties involved, not everyone seems to understand the difference between multiple and single 3rd parties though.
- pg_bot 5y ago
  "If you compare email to snailmail, the same argument could be made. That it's over the internet is just a preference, why care about email when normal mail works perfectly fine?" This is nonsense. Email is orders of magnitude cheaper and faster than snail mail. Talk to any business owner who made the switch from physically mailing bills to emailing their clients invoices and ask them how much time and money they saved. The value proposition for email is obvious.
  - unicornmama 5y ago
    Talk to 8 year old me who made the switch from physically mailing letters to my grandfather to emailing him.
  - capableweb 5y ago
    > This is nonsense. Email is orders of magnitude cheaper and faster than snail mail. Talk to any business owner who made the switch from physically mailing bills to emailing their clients invoices and ask them how much time and money they saved. The value proposition for email is obvious. Sure, now it is obvious, same with the web. But it wasn't always obvious to everyone, although it was obvious to some at that point in time. Email didn't become mainstream as soon as it appeared, and same with multiple "obvious" technologies. Something doesn't become obvious until it is, but at the beginning, there are always people who don't see the value even though many would say it's obvious. My gradma never understood the value proposition of the internet, even though even her neighbor of similar age did and countless others do understand the value proposition.
- notahacker 5y ago
  If you ask "why care about email when normal mail works just as fine" then "because you always get it quicker" is a much better answer for "well there are edge cases where an unbanked person might actually have access to a local cryptocurrency speculator offering them spendable cash for less commission than Western Union or the local hawala service"

capableweb 5y ago

If you compare email to snailmail, the same argument could be made. That it's over the internet is just a preference, why care about email when normal mail works perfectly fine? "Without a single 3rd party" is a technical feature, one that allows people to transfer money anywhere, for any reason via any device connected to the internet, without having to open up a bank account. According to the last numbers I've read, the number of "unbanked" people is above 1 billion in the world, some in my family is included there. For them, cryptocurrencies gives them the opportunity of sending/receiving currency cross-border much easier than what Venmo/Paypal/Transferwise/WesternUnion ever been able to provide (and trust me, we've tried most platforms). The Bitcoin way of doing transactions is indeed slow and expensive, but there are many alternatives out there, if you care to look for them. > Edit: I’d also like to point out you still have a third party in crypto. It’s just that the third party is the entire network rather than a single company. Yup, that's why my comment includes "single 3rd party", not just "any 3rd party". Everyone who understands blockchain understands that there are 3rd parties involved, not everyone seems to understand the difference between multiple and single 3rd parties though.

pg_bot 5y ago
"If you compare email to snailmail, the same argument could be made. That it's over the internet is just a preference, why care about email when normal mail works perfectly fine?" This is nonsense. Email is orders of magnitude cheaper and faster than snail mail. Talk to any business owner who made the switch from physically mailing bills to emailing their clients invoices and ask them how much time and money they saved. The value proposition for email is obvious.
- unicornmama 5y ago
  Talk to 8 year old me who made the switch from physically mailing letters to my grandfather to emailing him.
- capableweb 5y ago
  > This is nonsense. Email is orders of magnitude cheaper and faster than snail mail. Talk to any business owner who made the switch from physically mailing bills to emailing their clients invoices and ask them how much time and money they saved. The value proposition for email is obvious. Sure, now it is obvious, same with the web. But it wasn't always obvious to everyone, although it was obvious to some at that point in time. Email didn't become mainstream as soon as it appeared, and same with multiple "obvious" technologies. Something doesn't become obvious until it is, but at the beginning, there are always people who don't see the value even though many would say it's obvious. My gradma never understood the value proposition of the internet, even though even her neighbor of similar age did and countless others do understand the value proposition.
notahacker 5y ago
If you ask "why care about email when normal mail works just as fine" then "because you always get it quicker" is a much better answer for "well there are edge cases where an unbanked person might actually have access to a local cryptocurrency speculator offering them spendable cash for less commission than Western Union or the local hawala service"