4 ms·

Western Union being free is the outlier here.

by chordalkeyboard 4y ago

xydinesh 4y ago
I'm not sure if it is free. They may have made money from the exchange rate
- dzamo_norton 4y ago
  Absolutely, this can be seen in the broker's spreads.
ralfhn 4y ago
it's definitely not free. There's a fee but even if they waive it, they make more money from currency exchange rates.
- RomanPushkin 4y ago
  There was no exchange rate conversion. In my case they received the exact amount in USD.
notahacker 4y ago
True, but then the stuff Western Union charges a significant margin for is the stuff which is a very useful service (getting spendable local cash in someone's village). If you can get that at all with crypto, the guy in the village exchanging cryptos for local currency is going to charge even more...
- chordalkeyboard 4y ago
  not really, El Salvador switched from wire transfers to BTC exactly because the fees were lower.
  - notahacker 4y ago
    No, El Salvador switched from wire transfers to BTC because the president wanted to. Which doesn't has anything to do with the fact that if you've got Bitcoins in a village in some random developing country, you need to find somebody that's willing to give you local banknotes. That person is usually going to charge more commission than Western Union for the privilege of doing so, because they can.
    - chordalkeyboard 4y ago
      > El Salvador switched from wire transfers to BTC because the president wanted to. The country switched to using BTC as legal tender because it was already being used as local currency because the people were using it for payments due to the lower fees. > That person is usually going to charge more commission than Western Union for the privilege of doing so, because they can. It seems like you're assuming this to be the case without having any real knowledge of the situation. BTC was adopted by El Salvadorans exactly because they were able to spend less on fees over the competition.

4 ms·

Western Union being free is the outlier here.

by chordalkeyboard 4y ago

Western Union being free is the outlier here.

xydinesh 4y ago
I'm not sure if it is free. They may have made money from the exchange rate
- dzamo_norton 4y ago
  Absolutely, this can be seen in the broker's spreads.
ralfhn 4y ago
it's definitely not free. There's a fee but even if they waive it, they make more money from currency exchange rates.
- RomanPushkin 4y ago
  There was no exchange rate conversion. In my case they received the exact amount in USD.
notahacker 4y ago
True, but then the stuff Western Union charges a significant margin for is the stuff which is a very useful service (getting spendable local cash in someone's village). If you can get that at all with crypto, the guy in the village exchanging cryptos for local currency is going to charge even more...
- chordalkeyboard 4y ago
  not really, El Salvador switched from wire transfers to BTC exactly because the fees were lower.
  - notahacker 4y ago
    No, El Salvador switched from wire transfers to BTC because the president wanted to. Which doesn't has anything to do with the fact that if you've got Bitcoins in a village in some random developing country, you need to find somebody that's willing to give you local banknotes. That person is usually going to charge more commission than Western Union for the privilege of doing so, because they can.
    - chordalkeyboard 4y ago
      > El Salvador switched from wire transfers to BTC because the president wanted to. The country switched to using BTC as legal tender because it was already being used as local currency because the people were using it for payments due to the lower fees. > That person is usually going to charge more commission than Western Union for the privilege of doing so, because they can. It seems like you're assuming this to be the case without having any real knowledge of the situation. BTC was adopted by El Salvadorans exactly because they were able to spend less on fees over the competition.