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,,I can send money anywhere for basically $0'' This book (Check your financial privilege) written by a human rights activist is just for you: https://www.amaz

,,I can send money anywhere for basically $0'' This book (Check your financial privilege) written by a human rights activist is just for you: https://www.amazon.com/Check-Your-Financial-Privilege-Gladstein/dp/B09V2NM9VJ https://www.amazon.com/Check-Your-Financial-Privilege-Gladst... ,,anyone born into a reserve currency like the euro, yen, or pound has financial privilege over the 89% of the world population born into weaker systems.''

UncleMeat 5y ago
Yet all of the people getting rich on cryptocurrency seem to live in those 11%. So much for "power to the people."
- xiphias2 5y ago
  They may live there, but a lot of them are immigrants. I'm an example for that: I migrated to western countries and started to feel that the direction they are taking is similar to what I have experienced in my country when I was young. I decided to quit the government based financial system, as I lost trust in it. Sadly lot of people who don't understand the reason just do lots of day trading, which is a modern version of casino, that's how exchanges make so much profit.
- kobalsky 5y ago
  the part that matters is that everyone has access to it, not that someone who isn't you is making money with it.
  - glutamate 5y ago
    Who do you think they are making money from?
  - UncleMeat 5y ago
    When the wealthy deign to give "access" to the poor while using the arms of capitalism to enrich themselves, that's not charity. People getting rich off financial derivatives of the transactions of the rest of the world are just getting rich. They aren't providing value.
    - kobalsky 5y ago
      No one gives access to crypto, you have access. If you open your wallet and you find a global reserve currency then you should buy the book that was linked earlier about privilege. Maybe it's just me, but when you live in a place where it's illegal to purchase foreign currency and you are forced to convert all your income from exports into a currency that evaporates in front of your eyes, your view of crypto changes dramatically.
      - giaour 5y ago
        I believe GP was referring to access to capital markets, not permission to use cryptocurrency. "Access" to an empty cryptocurrency wallet is worthless no matter where you live.
      - unmole 5y ago
        > Maybe it's just me, but when you live in a place where it's illegal to purchase foreign currency And what happens when the country decides to make buying cryptocurrencies illegal?
- fleddr 5y ago
  "Power to the people" in reference to crypto does not mean a redistribution of pre-existing wealth. How would that even work? Crypto sells your house? The humanitarian aspects of crypto are "banking the unbanked", protection against seizures/extreme inflation of the local currency in specific countries (Libya, Turkey, etc, the ability for refugees to cross borders with their wealth, and the ability of immigrants to send money back to their families back home.
arcticbull 5y ago
Luckily they can increase their 'financial privilege' through something like a Wise multi-currency account. That lets people in huge swaths of the world (and growing) send money internationally, free of charge or for very low fees. [1] Crypto isn't the answer. And neither is charging anyone who has non-crypto solutions with 'financial privilege.' There's a world of 'trad-fi' solutions to this problem. Wise. M-PESA. Flutterwave. Just to pick 3. What you don't pay in crypto with direct fees (and you do pay direct fees for everything) you also pay in counter-party risk, volatility, irreversibility. Trying to foist that on the world's poor as some kind of implement of financial freedom is kind of shameful, imo. [1] https://wise.com/us/multi-currency-account/ https://wise.com/us/multi-currency-account/
- xiphias2 5y ago
  I used it before, but it needs a bank account as far as I know. Right now I'm in Colombia, and most of the people here don't have a bank account, because they know people who were burned by huge late fees. When I was in Costa Rica a person asked me if I know a bank that doesn't take his money away, because sometimes money just disappears from the bank accounts. With Bitcoin you can get hacked, you can lose your password, but at least you can really own it, and no bank can just randomly take away your money. Just a few weeks ago Russia did the same thing for international accounts of people there, which is in the news, but it's happening in lots of 3rd world countries every day.
  - arcticbull 5y ago
    > I used it before, but it needs a bank account as far as I know. Wise Multi-Currency does not, to my knowledge - it is a bank account and provides you banking details in many jurisdictions. The fact your bank charged you late fees isn't a reason not to have a bank, IMO, but to each their own. > With Bitcoin you can get hacked, you can lose your password, but at least you can really own it, and no bank can just randomly take away your money. Lots of people get their crypto seized by the government, all the time. At one point the biggest single Bitcoin wallet holders were the FBI and the Bulgarian FBI. It's time to let that narrative go.
unmole 5y ago
I don't live in country whose currency is not used as a reserve. I still can send money instantly to anyone within the country for free and send money internationally for a small fee. It will actually be more expensive to send money using cryptocurrencies because of the spread.

UncleMeat 5y ago

Yet all of the people getting rich on cryptocurrency seem to live in those 11%. So much for "power to the people."

xiphias2 5y ago
They may live there, but a lot of them are immigrants. I'm an example for that: I migrated to western countries and started to feel that the direction they are taking is similar to what I have experienced in my country when I was young. I decided to quit the government based financial system, as I lost trust in it. Sadly lot of people who don't understand the reason just do lots of day trading, which is a modern version of casino, that's how exchanges make so much profit.
kobalsky 5y ago
the part that matters is that everyone has access to it, not that someone who isn't you is making money with it.
- glutamate 5y ago
  Who do you think they are making money from?
- UncleMeat 5y ago
  When the wealthy deign to give "access" to the poor while using the arms of capitalism to enrich themselves, that's not charity. People getting rich off financial derivatives of the transactions of the rest of the world are just getting rich. They aren't providing value.
  - kobalsky 5y ago
    No one gives access to crypto, you have access. If you open your wallet and you find a global reserve currency then you should buy the book that was linked earlier about privilege. Maybe it's just me, but when you live in a place where it's illegal to purchase foreign currency and you are forced to convert all your income from exports into a currency that evaporates in front of your eyes, your view of crypto changes dramatically.
    - giaour 5y ago
      I believe GP was referring to access to capital markets, not permission to use cryptocurrency. "Access" to an empty cryptocurrency wallet is worthless no matter where you live.
    - unmole 5y ago
      > Maybe it's just me, but when you live in a place where it's illegal to purchase foreign currency And what happens when the country decides to make buying cryptocurrencies illegal?
fleddr 5y ago
"Power to the people" in reference to crypto does not mean a redistribution of pre-existing wealth. How would that even work? Crypto sells your house? The humanitarian aspects of crypto are "banking the unbanked", protection against seizures/extreme inflation of the local currency in specific countries (Libya, Turkey, etc, the ability for refugees to cross borders with their wealth, and the ability of immigrants to send money back to their families back home.

arcticbull 5y ago

Luckily they can increase their 'financial privilege' through something like a Wise multi-currency account. That lets people in huge swaths of the world (and growing) send money internationally, free of charge or for very low fees. [1] Crypto isn't the answer. And neither is charging anyone who has non-crypto solutions with 'financial privilege.' There's a world of 'trad-fi' solutions to this problem. Wise. M-PESA. Flutterwave. Just to pick 3. What you don't pay in crypto with direct fees (and you do pay direct fees for everything) you also pay in counter-party risk, volatility, irreversibility. Trying to foist that on the world's poor as some kind of implement of financial freedom is kind of shameful, imo. [1] https://wise.com/us/multi-currency-account/ https://wise.com/us/multi-currency-account/

xiphias2 5y ago
I used it before, but it needs a bank account as far as I know. Right now I'm in Colombia, and most of the people here don't have a bank account, because they know people who were burned by huge late fees. When I was in Costa Rica a person asked me if I know a bank that doesn't take his money away, because sometimes money just disappears from the bank accounts. With Bitcoin you can get hacked, you can lose your password, but at least you can really own it, and no bank can just randomly take away your money. Just a few weeks ago Russia did the same thing for international accounts of people there, which is in the news, but it's happening in lots of 3rd world countries every day.
- arcticbull 5y ago
  > I used it before, but it needs a bank account as far as I know. Wise Multi-Currency does not, to my knowledge - it is a bank account and provides you banking details in many jurisdictions. The fact your bank charged you late fees isn't a reason not to have a bank, IMO, but to each their own. > With Bitcoin you can get hacked, you can lose your password, but at least you can really own it, and no bank can just randomly take away your money. Lots of people get their crypto seized by the government, all the time. At one point the biggest single Bitcoin wallet holders were the FBI and the Bulgarian FBI. It's time to let that narrative go.

unmole 5y ago

I don't live in country whose currency is not used as a reserve. I still can send money instantly to anyone within the country for free and send money internationally for a small fee. It will actually be more expensive to send money using cryptocurrencies because of the spread.