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> I'm not going to argue against some benefits' crypto can have. Especially with the under banked. The under-banked don't have bank accounts because they don't

> I'm not going to argue against some benefits' crypto can have. Especially with the under banked. The under-banked don't have bank accounts because they don't have money. Nobody with money has trouble accessing a bank account. There's tons of online-only bank accounts you can open, often with no fees and zero or limited minimum balance requirements. Ally or Schwab in the US. Internationally, there's Wise, and all sorts of regional options like M-Pesa in a number of African countries. Historically we've had postal banking. The problem is a social one, for congress to solve. It's akin to saying people are hungry because they don't have grocery bags. The issue isn't the lack of bag, it's lack of food to put into it.

jacquesm 4y ago
> The under-banked don't have bank accounts because they don't have money. They might have some money but they may not have a home address.
csomar 4y ago
This is a comment that says "I have no idea about the struggle of 4Bn+ people around the world when it comes to payments and banking, so I am just going to dismiss all these people as non-existent and argue that everything is fine here in the West".
- arcticbull 4y ago
  Ah yes my favorite counter-argument: check your privilege. The GDP per capita of Burundi is $221. A couple years ago a single Bitcoin transaction cost $60. The thermodynamics of these kinds of systems make them dramatically more expensive than classical finance because you have to replicate the data so many times. The only reason a Bitcoin payment doesn't cost significantly more than that is nobody's using it, lol. It's slow, it's inefficient, and worse yet, there's no authority to help try and stabilize the currency. The worst off are hurt the most by wild volatility swings, and crypto is volatility incarnate. The promise that volatility would decrease as a function of market cap simply did not materialize. Enough with the silly privilege arguments, let's stick to facts. I specifically called out M-PESA because it's a regional solution to an actual problem they have. [1] And not a blockchain in sight. [1] https://www.vodafone.com/about-vodafone/what-we-do/consumer-products-and-services/m-pesa https://www.vodafone.com/about-vodafone/what-we-do/consumer-...
  - latchkey 4y ago
    > A couple years ago a single Bitcoin transaction cost $60. Ah yes let's counter an argument with something that is a couple years old. This was brief during a time of high usage, which has also been fixed. Today, the average bitcoin transaction cost is a couple dollars. https://ycharts.com/indicators/bitcoin_average_transaction_fee https://ycharts.com/indicators/bitcoin_average_transaction_f... Let's also not forget that there are a lot more chains now, where the fees are pennies.
- zinekeller 4y ago
  This shows that contrary to your own assertion you are the one that actually don't know what you're talking about. Technology-wise, most countries have faster methods of sending money than how US system works: FedNow is a very late welcome addition that analogous systems already exist in other countries for years, even in places where you don't expect (Nigeria, Myanmar and India of all places do have near real-time transactions). It's genuinely embarrassing that when FedNow was initially announced, most financial analysts and bankers have simply exclaimed "finally!" because that's how behind US is. Society-wise, most people who are having monetary problems also have much more pressing life-or-death problems: there are danger where they are living (either due to conflicts or due to the general inhospitality of the place), they don't have access to clean water and food, they don't have decent work despite their best efforts, and they don't have a place to study and improve their skills. It doesn't help that their government tends to block improvements that will go to their citizens and just plunder their countries' resources. What problems does cryptocurrency solve here?
overthrow 4y ago
Under-banked does not mean they have no money. They obviously have some money or they would starve. Many live paycheck-to-paycheck and give 3% of their wages to a check cashing service. If it were as easy as you seem to think for them to get a bank account, those check cashing businesses all around the country would not exist.
- arcticbull 4y ago
  Indeed the problem is they don't have enough money. Regardless this is a problem for congress. If we're sure they have enough money, this has historically been solved with postal banking. Let's just re-start that. [1] Check cashing isn't just about cashing the check, it's a predatory short-term lending facility. Actually cashing a check is a solved problem. And again, not addressed by crypto. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Savings_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Savings_S...
  - overthrow 4y ago
    You're right, this is a job for the government... but the government isn't solving the problem. "Let's just" have the government do their job. Call me when that happens. While we sit around waiting, the private sector stepped in with a (interim?) solution. What's wrong with that?
    - arcticbull 4y ago
      The (a) scams and (b) insane volatility. The folks you are alluding to who fall into this category are the least sophisticated and most desperate. This makes them easy marks. They shouldn't be buying into unregistered securities to resolve their banking problems. That's how we got the Great Depression and why we not have an SEC. Further, these folks are disproportionately affected by the insane volatility and high fees of the crypto space. These so-called financial products are just proxies for US dollar liquidity in the global financial system. If we had to write a prospectus I don't know anyone who isn't a money manager who could figure out how to actually deploy this sensibly. Let alone a homeless person without an address. How are they to 'do their own research'? Something that makes the problem worse isn't a substitute for a proper solution. In the US you generally need an account at an AML/KYC exchange to buy crypto for dollars and a bank account, so already we're off to a bad start. Or you can use a bitcoin ATM, which costs like 20%, dramatically worse than predatory lenders.
latchkey 4y ago
> The under-banked don't have bank accounts because they don't have money. I spent 4 years in Vietnam before getting locked out due to covid. The last two were on a motorcycle traveling all over the country. Women in the north have money. They store that wealth in gold. In order to keep it secure, they keep it in their teeth. [0] These same women also have smart phones and really good and inexpensive 4g (probably 5g now) networking, because the government provides the telcom as a function of the military. Coverage is almost 100%, even in the most remote areas. Those are the underbanked. They need security and they need a way to capitalize on their holdings (think collateralized Kiva loans). Crypto, today, provides that. I know it is true, because I'm doing it myself. It is 2023, let's bring people out of the dark ages. [0] https://www.google.com/search?q=vietnam+woman+gold+teeth https://www.google.com/search?q=vietnam+woman+gold+teeth
- arcticbull 4y ago
  You should just show them wise.com where they can open a US dollar account. Wise today provides that too. The idea that you need a distributed ledger for this is straight up false and this is just trying to dredge up problems to solve for a technology that has not found any meaningful use case despite 15 years of flailing.
  - V__ 4y ago
    > you need a distributed ledger for this You don't need it. That doesn't mean it doesn't work as a solution. Not everyone can open a wise account. KYC makes it difficult for people without proper documents. One can accept that most of crypto is bad, and still see that some people have some use for it (for now). Like, nuance is a thing.
    - arcticbull 4y ago
      And in exchange you get wild volatility swings and full financial freedom for criminals. Some things are just bad.
      - 4y ago

jacquesm 4y ago

> The under-banked don't have bank accounts because they don't have money. They might have some money but they may not have a home address.

csomar 4y ago

This is a comment that says "I have no idea about the struggle of 4Bn+ people around the world when it comes to payments and banking, so I am just going to dismiss all these people as non-existent and argue that everything is fine here in the West".

arcticbull 4y ago
Ah yes my favorite counter-argument: check your privilege. The GDP per capita of Burundi is $221. A couple years ago a single Bitcoin transaction cost $60. The thermodynamics of these kinds of systems make them dramatically more expensive than classical finance because you have to replicate the data so many times. The only reason a Bitcoin payment doesn't cost significantly more than that is nobody's using it, lol. It's slow, it's inefficient, and worse yet, there's no authority to help try and stabilize the currency. The worst off are hurt the most by wild volatility swings, and crypto is volatility incarnate. The promise that volatility would decrease as a function of market cap simply did not materialize. Enough with the silly privilege arguments, let's stick to facts. I specifically called out M-PESA because it's a regional solution to an actual problem they have. [1] And not a blockchain in sight. [1] https://www.vodafone.com/about-vodafone/what-we-do/consumer-products-and-services/m-pesa https://www.vodafone.com/about-vodafone/what-we-do/consumer-...
- latchkey 4y ago
  > A couple years ago a single Bitcoin transaction cost $60. Ah yes let's counter an argument with something that is a couple years old. This was brief during a time of high usage, which has also been fixed. Today, the average bitcoin transaction cost is a couple dollars. https://ycharts.com/indicators/bitcoin_average_transaction_fee https://ycharts.com/indicators/bitcoin_average_transaction_f... Let's also not forget that there are a lot more chains now, where the fees are pennies.
zinekeller 4y ago
This shows that contrary to your own assertion you are the one that actually don't know what you're talking about. Technology-wise, most countries have faster methods of sending money than how US system works: FedNow is a very late welcome addition that analogous systems already exist in other countries for years, even in places where you don't expect (Nigeria, Myanmar and India of all places do have near real-time transactions). It's genuinely embarrassing that when FedNow was initially announced, most financial analysts and bankers have simply exclaimed "finally!" because that's how behind US is. Society-wise, most people who are having monetary problems also have much more pressing life-or-death problems: there are danger where they are living (either due to conflicts or due to the general inhospitality of the place), they don't have access to clean water and food, they don't have decent work despite their best efforts, and they don't have a place to study and improve their skills. It doesn't help that their government tends to block improvements that will go to their citizens and just plunder their countries' resources. What problems does cryptocurrency solve here?

overthrow 4y ago

Under-banked does not mean they have no money. They obviously have some money or they would starve. Many live paycheck-to-paycheck and give 3% of their wages to a check cashing service. If it were as easy as you seem to think for them to get a bank account, those check cashing businesses all around the country would not exist.

arcticbull 4y ago
Indeed the problem is they don't have enough money. Regardless this is a problem for congress. If we're sure they have enough money, this has historically been solved with postal banking. Let's just re-start that. [1] Check cashing isn't just about cashing the check, it's a predatory short-term lending facility. Actually cashing a check is a solved problem. And again, not addressed by crypto. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Savings_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Savings_S...
- overthrow 4y ago
  You're right, this is a job for the government... but the government isn't solving the problem. "Let's just" have the government do their job. Call me when that happens. While we sit around waiting, the private sector stepped in with a (interim?) solution. What's wrong with that?
  - arcticbull 4y ago
    The (a) scams and (b) insane volatility. The folks you are alluding to who fall into this category are the least sophisticated and most desperate. This makes them easy marks. They shouldn't be buying into unregistered securities to resolve their banking problems. That's how we got the Great Depression and why we not have an SEC. Further, these folks are disproportionately affected by the insane volatility and high fees of the crypto space. These so-called financial products are just proxies for US dollar liquidity in the global financial system. If we had to write a prospectus I don't know anyone who isn't a money manager who could figure out how to actually deploy this sensibly. Let alone a homeless person without an address. How are they to 'do their own research'? Something that makes the problem worse isn't a substitute for a proper solution. In the US you generally need an account at an AML/KYC exchange to buy crypto for dollars and a bank account, so already we're off to a bad start. Or you can use a bitcoin ATM, which costs like 20%, dramatically worse than predatory lenders.

latchkey 4y ago

> The under-banked don't have bank accounts because they don't have money. I spent 4 years in Vietnam before getting locked out due to covid. The last two were on a motorcycle traveling all over the country. Women in the north have money. They store that wealth in gold. In order to keep it secure, they keep it in their teeth. [0] These same women also have smart phones and really good and inexpensive 4g (probably 5g now) networking, because the government provides the telcom as a function of the military. Coverage is almost 100%, even in the most remote areas. Those are the underbanked. They need security and they need a way to capitalize on their holdings (think collateralized Kiva loans). Crypto, today, provides that. I know it is true, because I'm doing it myself. It is 2023, let's bring people out of the dark ages. [0] https://www.google.com/search?q=vietnam+woman+gold+teeth https://www.google.com/search?q=vietnam+woman+gold+teeth

arcticbull 4y ago
You should just show them wise.com where they can open a US dollar account. Wise today provides that too. The idea that you need a distributed ledger for this is straight up false and this is just trying to dredge up problems to solve for a technology that has not found any meaningful use case despite 15 years of flailing.
- V__ 4y ago
  > you need a distributed ledger for this You don't need it. That doesn't mean it doesn't work as a solution. Not everyone can open a wise account. KYC makes it difficult for people without proper documents. One can accept that most of crypto is bad, and still see that some people have some use for it (for now). Like, nuance is a thing.
  - arcticbull 4y ago
    And in exchange you get wild volatility swings and full financial freedom for criminals. Some things are just bad.
    - 4y ago