3 ms·
Being able to transfer value across the internet without the permission of a middle man, is valuable in the real world.
by dskloet 5y ago
Being able to transfer value across the internet without the permission of a middle man, is valuable in the real world.
- rland 5y agoNo, you can’t. If you follow the axioms of the cryptocurrency evangelists to their logical ends, transferring cryptocurrency to another wallet is something that happens entirely in virtual space. Of course, this virtual space is coupled with physical space, by hugely centralized entities called exchanges. To get your money across the border, you need to deal with them. In that case the physical value you can buy with your cryptocurrency comes about from the exchange, not the currency. Value is a physical thing, not a virtual thing. That’s because we live in the physical, not the virtual world. But we’ll readily delude ourselves into believing that’s not the case.
- _57jb 5y agoI can send money from a cold wallet to any address I want. An exchange is merely a full node with a user interface. To operate as an exchange there are certain KYC/AML rules they must follow. Setting up a node takes about 20 minutes and then letting it sync for a couple hours to a day depending on your internet. You can send crypto with as high or low as a fee as you want...it's just a manipulation of the queueing metric and which transactions miners add to the chain. With exchanges they set that for you.
- dskloet 5y agoI'm not sure what you are saying. A credit card transaction is also virtual, but you can use it to buy real world coffee. It's the same with crypto.
- ethbr0 5y agoOnly to the extent it allows me to do things. Realistically, that currently means fiat->crypto->fiat, which requires a semi-stable conversion rate (on the order of time to complete the roundtrip), but the transitory nature of the crypto holding seems a nebulous link to floor value.