4 ms·
> Currently there is no way to send "money" to someone in another country on the other side of the world, in a decentralized way, and without transaction fees.
by abofh 4y ago
> Currently there is no way to send "money" to someone in another country on the other side of the world, in a decentralized way, and without transaction fees.
Why is this necessary? I have banks in three countries and generally pay nothing to move money between them or to pay others. This really doesn't feel like a problem that needs to be solved except by those trying to avoid taxation.
- Jamie9912 4y agoYou never wanted to send your friend money for them to buy something in the moment?
- abofh 4y agoAnd there are dozens and dozens of ways to do that: Venmo, PayPal, iPay, bill pay, ach, wire transfer, iBAN, payconiq, biscuit, cash, check, beer. And that's just in my neck of the woods, I'm sure I'm forgetting more.
- Jamie9912 4y agoVenmo is USA only. Paypal takes egregious transactio fees. Everything you listed has transaction fees except for biscuits, cash, check and beer. Which will take much longer than 60 seconds to arrive
- web4 4y agoand now there is one more way to do that: crypto. it is like asking “Why Does PayPal Exist When We Have iBAN?” obviously some subset of the globe finds it more useful than iBAN transfers for their needs (like setting up an online shop).
- abofh 4y agoI'm not anti crypto, I simply argue that the problems alleged by OP don't really exist except in the mind of people who once had a bank twenty years ago. By and large, if I want something that holds its value pegged to the US dollar, I hold a US dollar. Moving a US dollar costs me nothing anywhere in the world. Moving a USDT or whatever means I now have to set up an exclusive banking relationship with someone I trust even _less_ than my bank. Maybe it solves a problem for some subset of the globe, but I'm not convinced their problems are the noble ones stated above.
- web4 4y agosure, if you just want USD then hold that. if you want an asset that tracks USD, but has the freedom to exchange in crypto markets, be held in a non custodial way, and operate with smart contracts, a USD pegged stablecoin makes sense.
- Closi 4y agoSo you have friends that you transfer crypto to if they need to purchase something at a shop and don’t have the funds? God that whole process sounds painful. In the Uk we would just transfer the money across with a bank transfer as all banks support instant transfers which have no fees (including between banks).
- web4 4y agonot everybody lives in the UK. the point is not to be a system that beats a single service for sending GBP from A to B in the UK. the point is a system that has a variety of uses and applications accessible by anybody, regardless of which country the user resides in. even in countries with good banking like UK, many e-commerce companies will still choose Stripe VISA and PayPal to reach customers outside the UK and integrate a payment processor API. an online shop could offer crypto as a payment mechanism if they wanted to avoid using these companies and if it met their needs.