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Monero still tries to fit in this niche. The only thing it's useful for is financial crime though - if your problem is just making a payment you can do it in d

by andy81 4y ago

Monero still tries to fit in this niche. The only thing it's useful for is financial crime though - if your problem is just making a payment you can do it in dollars relatively easily and safely.

stevekemp 4y ago
Payments here in the EU, even between countries, are pretty straightforward. Transferring money from the EU to UK, or EU to USA, Peru, or Canada get more complicated and expensive though. Those are the kind of transfers I had in mind. There are transferwise, and similar services, but even so it's not as cheap as it should/could be.
- greyhair 4y ago
  The problem of transferring currencies is that you are always buying through currency traders, who are attempting to make a profit on knowing current exchange rates and predicting near and long term exchange rates. I was visiting Montreal from the US a couple decades ago, and I wanted to exchange some US dollars for Canadian, and in the financial center, I found five different exchanges with five different rates. I had to walk about six blocks total to hit them all, but the difference between the lowest and highest was significant.
  - jameshart 4y ago
    The problem that international fund transfers require currency brokerage is not solved by introducing another currency. Why do you need to convert currency when transferring to someone in another country in the first place? Because the banking infrastructure in that country is denominated in their currency. Because their bank account only permits them to hold balances in that currency. And because only funds in that currency are guaranteed by the banking laws in that country. If it weren’t for that, currency conversions could be ignored! If everyone in the world had bank accounts that could handle euros, say, you could transfer funds globally; people could make purchases by transferring euros, etc etc. In fact there’s not a lot stopping you from doing that. You can have an account denominated in whatever currency you like. Provided you don’t care about things like deposit protection. And that’s all Bitcoin and other crypto really add to the mix - a uniformly available currency for denominating non-deposit-protected balances.
eric_cc 4y ago
> The only thing it's useful for is financial crime though Privacy is only useful for crime?
salawat 4y ago
The thing is, one person's crime is another's fight against tyranny/oppression. Saying someone committed a financial crime depending on jurisdiction can be entirely different things. And to be frank, I don't buy that financial Total Information Awareness is necessarily a good thing for a society to have.

by andy81 4y ago

Monero still tries to fit in this niche. The only thing it's useful for is financial crime though - if your problem is just making a payment you can do it in dollars relatively easily and safely.

stevekemp 4y ago

Payments here in the EU, even between countries, are pretty straightforward. Transferring money from the EU to UK, or EU to USA, Peru, or Canada get more complicated and expensive though. Those are the kind of transfers I had in mind. There are transferwise, and similar services, but even so it's not as cheap as it should/could be.

greyhair 4y ago
The problem of transferring currencies is that you are always buying through currency traders, who are attempting to make a profit on knowing current exchange rates and predicting near and long term exchange rates. I was visiting Montreal from the US a couple decades ago, and I wanted to exchange some US dollars for Canadian, and in the financial center, I found five different exchanges with five different rates. I had to walk about six blocks total to hit them all, but the difference between the lowest and highest was significant.
- jameshart 4y ago
  The problem that international fund transfers require currency brokerage is not solved by introducing another currency. Why do you need to convert currency when transferring to someone in another country in the first place? Because the banking infrastructure in that country is denominated in their currency. Because their bank account only permits them to hold balances in that currency. And because only funds in that currency are guaranteed by the banking laws in that country. If it weren’t for that, currency conversions could be ignored! If everyone in the world had bank accounts that could handle euros, say, you could transfer funds globally; people could make purchases by transferring euros, etc etc. In fact there’s not a lot stopping you from doing that. You can have an account denominated in whatever currency you like. Provided you don’t care about things like deposit protection. And that’s all Bitcoin and other crypto really add to the mix - a uniformly available currency for denominating non-deposit-protected balances.

eric_cc 4y ago

> The only thing it's useful for is financial crime though Privacy is only useful for crime?

salawat 4y ago

The thing is, one person's crime is another's fight against tyranny/oppression. Saying someone committed a financial crime depending on jurisdiction can be entirely different things. And to be frank, I don't buy that financial Total Information Awareness is necessarily a good thing for a society to have.