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I mean I see two clear use cases. 1. Transferring funds I can transfer crypto faster and a lot cheaper than any money transfer. Hell I can receive and withdra

I mean I see two clear use cases. 1. Transferring funds I can transfer crypto faster and a lot cheaper than any money transfer. Hell I can receive and withdraw same day. 2. Earning interest By parking my money in a stable coin and dropping it into an AMM like uniswap I can earn 10x-50x more interest than just parking it in my bank account. No volatility. Only risk is hacker risk.

librish 4y ago
When you say cheaper and faster, what are you comparing to? If I want to convert and send USD from the US to EUR in Germany the crypto solution will be expensive (trading fees on both legs) and pretty slow (time it takes for the exchange to send EUR to your German bank account).
- rpmw 4y ago
  Yeah this strikes me as odd too. My bank will instantly deposit transfers while the (free) ACH process takes time to clear. I can transfer up to something like $99,999 a day which is fine for my needs. At worst case a $15 fee to wire funds which I could probably get waived if I asked customer support nicely. There is also plenty of recourse in the unlikely event something goes wrong.
  - m348e912 4y ago
    With crypto you don't have to ask nicely, you just send. Being your own bank has it's advantages (and risks).
    - rpmw 4y ago
      Sure, but I'd say for just about every person the risks far outweigh the rewards. And IMO adding intermediaries to account for that risk seems an unnecessary abstraction given the current system.
    - librish 4y ago
      You have to ask the exchange to give you your fiat.
conception 4y ago
Assuming the stable coin is actually a stable coin and not backed by hopes and dreams in reality.
- bnchrch 4y ago
  Sure. There’s risk there too. I prefer usdc as the reserves are audited regularly
pavlov 4y ago
Re: 1), I can transfer money within the Eurozone at no cost, 24/7, practically instantaneous. It's really hard for any crypto solution to beat that. For non-Euro transfers, I regularly send USD wires and they clear the same day. The fees are a fixed $25 (so 0.25% for a $10k transfer), which IMO is reasonable. Re: 2), uhh, yeah. I think that's what Celsius users believed too.
- sampa 4y ago
  re 1) try to make 5 transfers of 3-7k euros to other people, get your account blocked, go to bank to find somebody to tell you why they did and what they want, wait indefinitely after you provide them explanations and paperwork
- Joker_vD 4y ago
  The 1) part is true for most of the developed countries (except the US, apparently), and even for many underdeveloped countries: IIRC in some African countries people transfer funds between cell phone accounts.
- rvz 4y ago
  > It's really hard for any crypto solution to beat that. Not really. One can do that with either XRP, Stellar, or Algorand blockchains with has virtually little to no fees, much faster and far cheaper than a wire transfer, all worldwide. Perhaps is that why Moneygram realised that Stellar was a great use-case for their service? [0] [0] https://stellar.org/moneygram https://stellar.org/moneygram
- bnchrch 4y ago
  Unfortunately 1) Isn’t ubiquitous. In Canada it costs me $2.50 locally, arrives in hours, clears in days. It also only works for Canadian recipients. And wires (which I also send regularly) cost $75 and require me to be there in person. Not to mention the amount of information I have to extract from the recipient. So when I use crypto I have a product that when compared to the current methods is faster, easier, cheaper with no transaction size or geography restrictions. 2) a centralized company taking deposits is not the same as a smart contract.
ogogmad 4y ago
> 2. Earning interest The earning interest is like picking up pennies in front of a bulldozer. You'll be OK 99% of the time but then you'll get flattened. You'll earn maybe 10% interest per annum, but be at risk of losing 100% of your deposit at any moment. Your deposit is completely uninsured. If you have no solid guarantee that you'll get your money out, use the precautionary principle to conclude that you won't. Also, for 10% of something to be more than pocket change, you need to deposit much more than pocket change. If you're depositing pocket change into these services, you're not really investing. If you're depositing more than pocket change, you're running a big risk. I recommend you get your money out now.
M2Ys4U 4y ago
>I can transfer crypto faster and a lot cheaper than any money transfer. Hell I can receive and withdraw same day. Are you comparing this to the abysmal US banking system, or the systems that exist in most of the rest of the world? Because I can do that in GBP right now from all of my banks (both with old firms and the challenger banks) for free.
- bnchrch 4y ago
  Canada but pretty close. I’ve found crypto a great method when buying small apps and companies off people. Saves me $75 and a trip to the bank.
cuteboy19 4y ago
Where does the interest come from?
- bnchrch 4y ago
  Take a look at AMMs. Essentially my deposit goes into a pool of two currencies. Let’s use USDC and EUROC for example. The pool is used to facilitate people trading from USDC to EUROC and vice versa. To trade through the pool you’re charged a small fee. 0.01% to 0.3% in most cases. Those fees are then distributed to all the people who deposited in the pool. Proportional to their share of the deposits. I like to think of it as breaking up the fees charged by (now) unnecessary forex brokers and agents and distributing it back to the people.

librish 4y ago

When you say cheaper and faster, what are you comparing to? If I want to convert and send USD from the US to EUR in Germany the crypto solution will be expensive (trading fees on both legs) and pretty slow (time it takes for the exchange to send EUR to your German bank account).

rpmw 4y ago
Yeah this strikes me as odd too. My bank will instantly deposit transfers while the (free) ACH process takes time to clear. I can transfer up to something like $99,999 a day which is fine for my needs. At worst case a $15 fee to wire funds which I could probably get waived if I asked customer support nicely. There is also plenty of recourse in the unlikely event something goes wrong.
- m348e912 4y ago
  With crypto you don't have to ask nicely, you just send. Being your own bank has it's advantages (and risks).
  - rpmw 4y ago
    Sure, but I'd say for just about every person the risks far outweigh the rewards. And IMO adding intermediaries to account for that risk seems an unnecessary abstraction given the current system.
  - librish 4y ago
    You have to ask the exchange to give you your fiat.

conception 4y ago

Assuming the stable coin is actually a stable coin and not backed by hopes and dreams in reality.

bnchrch 4y ago
Sure. There’s risk there too. I prefer usdc as the reserves are audited regularly

pavlov 4y ago

Re: 1), I can transfer money within the Eurozone at no cost, 24/7, practically instantaneous. It's really hard for any crypto solution to beat that. For non-Euro transfers, I regularly send USD wires and they clear the same day. The fees are a fixed $25 (so 0.25% for a $10k transfer), which IMO is reasonable. Re: 2), uhh, yeah. I think that's what Celsius users believed too.

sampa 4y ago
re 1) try to make 5 transfers of 3-7k euros to other people, get your account blocked, go to bank to find somebody to tell you why they did and what they want, wait indefinitely after you provide them explanations and paperwork
Joker_vD 4y ago
The 1) part is true for most of the developed countries (except the US, apparently), and even for many underdeveloped countries: IIRC in some African countries people transfer funds between cell phone accounts.
rvz 4y ago
> It's really hard for any crypto solution to beat that. Not really. One can do that with either XRP, Stellar, or Algorand blockchains with has virtually little to no fees, much faster and far cheaper than a wire transfer, all worldwide. Perhaps is that why Moneygram realised that Stellar was a great use-case for their service? [0] [0] https://stellar.org/moneygram https://stellar.org/moneygram
bnchrch 4y ago
Unfortunately 1) Isn’t ubiquitous. In Canada it costs me $2.50 locally, arrives in hours, clears in days. It also only works for Canadian recipients. And wires (which I also send regularly) cost $75 and require me to be there in person. Not to mention the amount of information I have to extract from the recipient. So when I use crypto I have a product that when compared to the current methods is faster, easier, cheaper with no transaction size or geography restrictions. 2) a centralized company taking deposits is not the same as a smart contract.

ogogmad 4y ago

> 2. Earning interest The earning interest is like picking up pennies in front of a bulldozer. You'll be OK 99% of the time but then you'll get flattened. You'll earn maybe 10% interest per annum, but be at risk of losing 100% of your deposit at any moment. Your deposit is completely uninsured. If you have no solid guarantee that you'll get your money out, use the precautionary principle to conclude that you won't. Also, for 10% of something to be more than pocket change, you need to deposit much more than pocket change. If you're depositing pocket change into these services, you're not really investing. If you're depositing more than pocket change, you're running a big risk. I recommend you get your money out now.

M2Ys4U 4y ago

>I can transfer crypto faster and a lot cheaper than any money transfer. Hell I can receive and withdraw same day. Are you comparing this to the abysmal US banking system, or the systems that exist in most of the rest of the world? Because I can do that in GBP right now from all of my banks (both with old firms and the challenger banks) for free.

bnchrch 4y ago
Canada but pretty close. I’ve found crypto a great method when buying small apps and companies off people. Saves me $75 and a trip to the bank.

cuteboy19 4y ago

Where does the interest come from?

bnchrch 4y ago
Take a look at AMMs. Essentially my deposit goes into a pool of two currencies. Let’s use USDC and EUROC for example. The pool is used to facilitate people trading from USDC to EUROC and vice versa. To trade through the pool you’re charged a small fee. 0.01% to 0.3% in most cases. Those fees are then distributed to all the people who deposited in the pool. Proportional to their share of the deposits. I like to think of it as breaking up the fees charged by (now) unnecessary forex brokers and agents and distributing it back to the people.