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>>>especially those who are aware of the extent to which unregulated wash trading dominates NFT markets, rendering most of this activity imaginary at best and f

>>>especially those who are aware of the extent to which unregulated wash trading dominates NFT markets, rendering most of this activity imaginary at best and fraudulent at worst. NFTs are basically a digital variation of the physical art market....with all that that implies, such as money laundering and wash trading: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/29/business/art-money-laundering-sanctions-senate/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/29/business/art-money-launde... While some view the art world with scorn on HN, I don't think it attracts anywhere near as much derision as crypto and NFTs. >>>When asked to point to success stories or real world use cases I use crypto to make micro-loans to a friend in the Philippines, who occasionally runs into cashflow problems with her small used goods business.

semiquaver 4y ago
Thank you for your response. I agree that the art market deserves much more scorn than it receives. Regarding your friend, I’m curious to know how competitive crypto is for your use case. Western union charges about 2% to transfer $5000 from the US to the Philippines and can deposit directly in a bank account. I understand that international wire transfers are comparable. Services like remitly appear to be even cheaper. How does crypto compare in price and convenience?
- CapricornNoble 4y ago
  >>>Western union charges about 2% to transfer $5000 That is absolute extortion. I sent ~0.05 BTC in May and the transaction fee was 0.067%. Eyeballing the transaction screenshot she sent, she wasn't getting hammered on the exchange rate to pesos either (via coins.ph). There was some KYC involved (sender name/address required to release the funds on her end) that slowed us down a little. It wasn't a requirement several years ago. I bet we could have fed the form fake info but didn't want to risk the funds being frozen, she needed cash in hand in less than 24hrs to purchase new inventory.

semiquaver 4y ago

Thank you for your response. I agree that the art market deserves much more scorn than it receives. Regarding your friend, I’m curious to know how competitive crypto is for your use case. Western union charges about 2% to transfer $5000 from the US to the Philippines and can deposit directly in a bank account. I understand that international wire transfers are comparable. Services like remitly appear to be even cheaper. How does crypto compare in price and convenience?

CapricornNoble 4y ago
>>>Western union charges about 2% to transfer $5000 That is absolute extortion. I sent ~0.05 BTC in May and the transaction fee was 0.067%. Eyeballing the transaction screenshot she sent, she wasn't getting hammered on the exchange rate to pesos either (via coins.ph). There was some KYC involved (sender name/address required to release the funds on her end) that slowed us down a little. It wasn't a requirement several years ago. I bet we could have fed the form fake info but didn't want to risk the funds being frozen, she needed cash in hand in less than 24hrs to purchase new inventory.