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This article is an example of a person speaking from the perspective of massive financial privilege. Does the author realize how much people in the third world

This article is an example of a person speaking from the perspective of massive financial privilege. Does the author realize how much people in the third world have been screwed over by banks and why they wouldn't want to trust one? The author's opinion would be vastly different if the author were a resident of Turkey or Lebanon or Nigeria right now.

severak_cz 5y ago
I see this pro crypto argument by disfuctional states a lot. But is there sufficient infrastructure to use crypto in disfuctional state? If you want to be cashless you need a lot of infrastructure around you...
- oblio 5y ago
  And you quite very likely need to be willing to break the law, as most countries only recognize/accept payments in local currencies.
- thebean11 5y ago
  What infrastructure? The sender and receiver need smartphones.
  - maxbond 5y ago
    The same argument can be made here. "You're speaking from a place of infrastructure privilege. Not everyone can afford smartphones. Not everyone has reliable access to electricity. Not everyone has reliable access to internet." (I'd like to clarify I'm pointing out that this argument can be made, I'm not actually claiming to be familiar with anyone's circumstances or privileges.)
    - thebean11 5y ago
      That's true. I'm not an expert, my guess though would be that more people have access to smartphones with a network connection than have access to a good banking system with stable currency.
    - csomar 5y ago
      A smartphone is no longer a privilege. > In 2022, the number of smartphone users in the world today is 6.648 Billion, which translates to 83.89% of the world's population owning a smartphone. In total, the number of people that own a smart and feature phone is 7.26 Billion, making up 91.62% of the world's population.
- csomar 5y ago
  > But is there sufficient infrastructure to use crypto in disfuctional state? No, but it's better than the infrastructure in their countries.
oblio 5y ago
What would you do as a resident of Turkey or Lebanon or Nigeria? Would you use cryptocurrency for currency or for savings?
- lowkey 5y ago
  One tends to save in crypto and convert to spend in local fiat or USD as late as possible in order to maximize their protection from debasement of the fiat currency.
  - oblio 5y ago
    How does that get reconciled with the huge swings in crypto value? Some of them are worse than inflation in unstable countries.
    - lowkey 5y ago
      Price volatility is definitely a thing in Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoins. However there are many other cryptocurrencies whose value is designed not to fluctuate - specifically stablecoins. Ignoring Tether for the moment there are many other stablecoins that can be used to generate savings at a rate of ~50x the interest paid on USD by banks. Imagine someone in Jordan, or Cypress, or Turkey who now has access to USD equivalent on a permissionless blockchain and is able to generate real inflation-adjusted returns on stablecoins. Regarding the volatility of non-stablecoins, those who hold believe that we are still early in the price discovery of a new class of assets and while I can’t speak for others, personally, I have a longer term investment horizon on the order of 4-5 years at a minimum. Looking back on the price of Bitcoin or Ethereum over any 4 year time horizon, the valuation has grown much faster than any traditional asset class.
      - oblio 5y ago
        > Ignoring Tether for the moment there are many other stablecoins that can be used to generate savings at a rate of ~50x the interest paid on USD by banks. There's a reason we don't have huge return on investment on most assets. There's not way that 50:1 ratio can ever possibly work at a large scale. Unless, you know, it's a scam. It's Econ 101.

severak_cz 5y ago

I see this pro crypto argument by disfuctional states a lot. But is there sufficient infrastructure to use crypto in disfuctional state? If you want to be cashless you need a lot of infrastructure around you...

oblio 5y ago
And you quite very likely need to be willing to break the law, as most countries only recognize/accept payments in local currencies.
thebean11 5y ago
What infrastructure? The sender and receiver need smartphones.
- maxbond 5y ago
  The same argument can be made here. "You're speaking from a place of infrastructure privilege. Not everyone can afford smartphones. Not everyone has reliable access to electricity. Not everyone has reliable access to internet." (I'd like to clarify I'm pointing out that this argument can be made, I'm not actually claiming to be familiar with anyone's circumstances or privileges.)
  - thebean11 5y ago
    That's true. I'm not an expert, my guess though would be that more people have access to smartphones with a network connection than have access to a good banking system with stable currency.
  - csomar 5y ago
    A smartphone is no longer a privilege. > In 2022, the number of smartphone users in the world today is 6.648 Billion, which translates to 83.89% of the world's population owning a smartphone. In total, the number of people that own a smart and feature phone is 7.26 Billion, making up 91.62% of the world's population.
csomar 5y ago
> But is there sufficient infrastructure to use crypto in disfuctional state? No, but it's better than the infrastructure in their countries.

oblio 5y ago

What would you do as a resident of Turkey or Lebanon or Nigeria? Would you use cryptocurrency for currency or for savings?

lowkey 5y ago
One tends to save in crypto and convert to spend in local fiat or USD as late as possible in order to maximize their protection from debasement of the fiat currency.
- oblio 5y ago
  How does that get reconciled with the huge swings in crypto value? Some of them are worse than inflation in unstable countries.
  - lowkey 5y ago
    Price volatility is definitely a thing in Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoins. However there are many other cryptocurrencies whose value is designed not to fluctuate - specifically stablecoins. Ignoring Tether for the moment there are many other stablecoins that can be used to generate savings at a rate of ~50x the interest paid on USD by banks. Imagine someone in Jordan, or Cypress, or Turkey who now has access to USD equivalent on a permissionless blockchain and is able to generate real inflation-adjusted returns on stablecoins. Regarding the volatility of non-stablecoins, those who hold believe that we are still early in the price discovery of a new class of assets and while I can’t speak for others, personally, I have a longer term investment horizon on the order of 4-5 years at a minimum. Looking back on the price of Bitcoin or Ethereum over any 4 year time horizon, the valuation has grown much faster than any traditional asset class.
    - oblio 5y ago
      > Ignoring Tether for the moment there are many other stablecoins that can be used to generate savings at a rate of ~50x the interest paid on USD by banks. There's a reason we don't have huge return on investment on most assets. There's not way that 50:1 ratio can ever possibly work at a large scale. Unless, you know, it's a scam. It's Econ 101.