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Crypto helped me a lot to store and transfer money in some situations, like moving to another country or being unbanked for reasons beyond my control.

luma 3y ago
If you're following the law, western union could do that for you except more reliably and cheaper.
- alchemist1e9 3y ago
  I suspect that is completely false at this point but somebody else hopefully can provide some evidence.
  - humanizersequel 3y ago
    Not only is Western Union significantly less reliable and significantly more expensive, as someone who gets paid in crypto the most expensive and painful parts of my finances are those that touch the traditional banking system at all.
    - luma 3y ago
      > significantly less reliable and significantly more expensive Going to need a citation on those two claims. You can lookup fees for both, right now BTC fees are about one USD more than a WU transfer. WU is subject to banking laws and if you're going to claim it's "unreliable", you're going to need to provide some evidence of that. It's literally their business, and a heavily regulated one at that.
      - alchemist1e9 3y ago
        See my other comment. You seem misinformed to me.
  - luma 3y ago
    Or you could provide some counter evidence. At the time of this writing, sending $100 to Algeria (it was on top of the list) via WU is a flat $8 fee. Currently BTC transaction fees today are $9.94. So yes, it is literally cheaper and you don't have to guess about the numbers. BTC transaction fees are greater than WU, it takes longer, and of course you need to deal with BTC. At the US side you're still beholden to all the AML and KYC issues that you'd need to deal with anyway, again unless you are doing it illegally. Show me the "unbanked" who can use BTC but somehow cannot walk up to a WU stand with cash in hand. It's a preposterous argument.
    - alchemist1e9 3y ago
      https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/web/user/price-estimator https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/web/user/price-estimator I just used this for $3000 to Algeria and I get $14.99 plus an absurdly bad exchange rate of 120 DZD where the bank rate is 134, so basically another 10.5% fee, which means $300 lost. Frankly I think you have no clue what you are talking about if you somehow believe Western Union is superior in functionality and utility to Bitcoin. Bitcoin transaction fee is currently equivalent to $7.60 and that is a flat fixed fee for any amount, even $1M worth. Additionally there are multiple Bitcoin exchanges operating in Algeria, https://www.bitrawr.com/algeria https://www.bitrawr.com/algeria and you won’t lose anything in exchange rates in local currency transactions.
- karpatic 3y ago
  Ever heard of getting debanked? Or being a refugee? Plenty of legal fund raising campaigns came to political ends. Forced conscription is going on in Ukraine and I've personally met someone who's only assets they could leave with was crypto because it wasn't in a bank.

luma 3y ago

If you're following the law, western union could do that for you except more reliably and cheaper.

alchemist1e9 3y ago
I suspect that is completely false at this point but somebody else hopefully can provide some evidence.
- humanizersequel 3y ago
  Not only is Western Union significantly less reliable and significantly more expensive, as someone who gets paid in crypto the most expensive and painful parts of my finances are those that touch the traditional banking system at all.
  - luma 3y ago
    > significantly less reliable and significantly more expensive Going to need a citation on those two claims. You can lookup fees for both, right now BTC fees are about one USD more than a WU transfer. WU is subject to banking laws and if you're going to claim it's "unreliable", you're going to need to provide some evidence of that. It's literally their business, and a heavily regulated one at that.
    - alchemist1e9 3y ago
      See my other comment. You seem misinformed to me.
- luma 3y ago
  Or you could provide some counter evidence. At the time of this writing, sending $100 to Algeria (it was on top of the list) via WU is a flat $8 fee. Currently BTC transaction fees today are $9.94. So yes, it is literally cheaper and you don't have to guess about the numbers. BTC transaction fees are greater than WU, it takes longer, and of course you need to deal with BTC. At the US side you're still beholden to all the AML and KYC issues that you'd need to deal with anyway, again unless you are doing it illegally. Show me the "unbanked" who can use BTC but somehow cannot walk up to a WU stand with cash in hand. It's a preposterous argument.
  - alchemist1e9 3y ago
    https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/web/user/price-estimator https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/web/user/price-estimator I just used this for $3000 to Algeria and I get $14.99 plus an absurdly bad exchange rate of 120 DZD where the bank rate is 134, so basically another 10.5% fee, which means $300 lost. Frankly I think you have no clue what you are talking about if you somehow believe Western Union is superior in functionality and utility to Bitcoin. Bitcoin transaction fee is currently equivalent to $7.60 and that is a flat fixed fee for any amount, even $1M worth. Additionally there are multiple Bitcoin exchanges operating in Algeria, https://www.bitrawr.com/algeria https://www.bitrawr.com/algeria and you won’t lose anything in exchange rates in local currency transactions.
karpatic 3y ago
Ever heard of getting debanked? Or being a refugee? Plenty of legal fund raising campaigns came to political ends. Forced conscription is going on in Ukraine and I've personally met someone who's only assets they could leave with was crypto because it wasn't in a bank.