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And it's exactly that - yeah perhaps it's not as cheap as EU wire transfers which are sponsored by the banks as loss leaders for mortgages and insurance, but in

And it's exactly that - yeah perhaps it's not as cheap as EU wire transfers which are sponsored by the banks as loss leaders for mortgages and insurance, but international transfers certainly are much cheaper, quicker and reliable/safer with BTC, and you are never forced to use a 3rd party, it's optional - as opposed to the traditional system. I'm happy with what I got.

newaccount74 5y ago
No, crypto has not revolutionised payments. Payments are still dominated by credit / debit cards. In some markets app based mobile payments are starting to take off, but it really doesn't look like BTC is gaining any market share. Maybe I'm missing something, but as far as I can tell I can't buy a single thing that I would want to buy with BTC. It's actually getting worse. Some years ago I bought something with BTC. Now fees are so high that it is practically impossible to buy stuff with BTC. And even if you just use BTC for transferring money, you need 3rd parties to buy/sell bitcoins (and they will charge a fee). You can't keep your money in BTC, because as I stated above you can't buy anything with BTC.
- emteycz 5y ago
  Crypto has not revolutionized payments for you. It's a revolution for me and other people making cross-border (EU-Ukraine, EU-USA, EU-Africa...) transfers. It's really problematic to make these transfers even today, when in theory everything should go smooth - but it almost never does. Bitcoin works reliably every time, quickly and cheaply. What's $15 network fee when I'm saving $135 compared to bank wire and never lose my money and the other side gets it the same day? And I'm not even talking about the currency conversion cost savings and reduction of exposure to currency moves - 5 days is enough to see small currencies crash to 10% of original value. Bitcoin usually won't crash to 10% in a day or two. What you're listing as a downside is actually a upside - both sides are happy to cut out the 3rd party and replace it with two 2nd parties - the sender/recipient and the cryptocurrency exchange. It's less hard and cheaper than finding a common third party (also, finding a common party is impossible in some cases) and much more reliable/trustable in summary. Yeah micro-payments and in-store payments are not revolutionized by BTC, but that does not mean BTC is useless.
- OJFord 5y ago
  You've never seen it as a checkout option? I mostly agree with you (nothing's been revolutionised) but I've seen plenty of web shop checkouts where I'm just buying something normal/not because they accept crypto (which I didn't know beforehand) and it happens to be an option. I assume the payment provider just converts and gives them whatever currency they want, just as they do for global currencies already if they don't want my Great British Pounds for some reason.

newaccount74 5y ago

No, crypto has not revolutionised payments. Payments are still dominated by credit / debit cards. In some markets app based mobile payments are starting to take off, but it really doesn't look like BTC is gaining any market share. Maybe I'm missing something, but as far as I can tell I can't buy a single thing that I would want to buy with BTC. It's actually getting worse. Some years ago I bought something with BTC. Now fees are so high that it is practically impossible to buy stuff with BTC. And even if you just use BTC for transferring money, you need 3rd parties to buy/sell bitcoins (and they will charge a fee). You can't keep your money in BTC, because as I stated above you can't buy anything with BTC.

emteycz 5y ago
Crypto has not revolutionized payments for you. It's a revolution for me and other people making cross-border (EU-Ukraine, EU-USA, EU-Africa...) transfers. It's really problematic to make these transfers even today, when in theory everything should go smooth - but it almost never does. Bitcoin works reliably every time, quickly and cheaply. What's $15 network fee when I'm saving $135 compared to bank wire and never lose my money and the other side gets it the same day? And I'm not even talking about the currency conversion cost savings and reduction of exposure to currency moves - 5 days is enough to see small currencies crash to 10% of original value. Bitcoin usually won't crash to 10% in a day or two. What you're listing as a downside is actually a upside - both sides are happy to cut out the 3rd party and replace it with two 2nd parties - the sender/recipient and the cryptocurrency exchange. It's less hard and cheaper than finding a common third party (also, finding a common party is impossible in some cases) and much more reliable/trustable in summary. Yeah micro-payments and in-store payments are not revolutionized by BTC, but that does not mean BTC is useless.
OJFord 5y ago
You've never seen it as a checkout option? I mostly agree with you (nothing's been revolutionised) but I've seen plenty of web shop checkouts where I'm just buying something normal/not because they accept crypto (which I didn't know beforehand) and it happens to be an option. I assume the payment provider just converts and gives them whatever currency they want, just as they do for global currencies already if they don't want my Great British Pounds for some reason.