4 ms·

1. Sending money to dangerous people like Julian Assange. 2. Sending money to relatives in the third world 3. Keeping your savings when the currency of your n

by indy 2y ago

1. Sending money to dangerous people like Julian Assange. 2. Sending money to relatives in the third world 3. Keeping your savings when the currency of your nation is going through hyperinflation

0dayz 2y ago
Point 3 is bad advice, historically it's been the Swiss franks that is the gold standard for saving up in case of hyperinflation.
- indy 2y ago
  Agreed, but someone in say Argentina or Nigeria will use crypto as that is more attainable.
- dagw 2y ago
  Getting your money into a crypto coin that tracks a stable currency can in some cases be cheaper and easier than getting your money into that currency.
  - FabHK 2y ago
    Yeah, like Liberty Reserve back in 2006. A centralised stable coin, which was shut down by the US government a few years later for the usual reasons: money laundering, crime, etc. Crypto, being permissionless, is just a bit harder to shut down; but not any more legal.
wslh 2y ago
There is a 4: working in an inflationary and non-free market country such as Argentina. That is not only about savings (3) but business transactions.
- freddie_mercury 2y ago
  Crypto isn't the answer to this. "Use literally any other currency, of which crypto is merely one among many" is the answer. Argentines adopted the US Dollar, not any cryptocurrency, to solve their problems.
  - wslh 2y ago
    Completely incorrect. I am Argentinian and perfectly know that Argentines of multiple social classes use crypto. It is even public information!
smoothbenny 2y ago
> 3. Keeping your savings when the currency of your nation is going through hyperinflation What crypto has shown long term stability and isn’t subject to the same forces that cause volatility in any currency?
purge 2y ago
I send money to 'the third world' a lot and it's extremely easy without having to resort to crypto nonsense. Hearing these implausible points repeated every time this question comes up just seems desperate now.
freddie_mercury 2y ago
I live in a third world country and nobody uses crypto to send money. The existing remittance system works fine. Crypto's claim in this area is that could be cheaper than remittances in the traditional banking system. But remittance fees using traditional banking are already only 1.5% so we're not talking about saving massive amounts of money in most circumstances. Which is probably why virtually nobody has switched to it for remittances.
- freedomben 2y ago
  Indeed, the fees involved in sending in the vast majority of crypto, certainly Bitcoin and ethereum, are complete non-starters for this use case. In my opinion, it's a shame, because this is something that crypto could do extremely well. But here we are. I do believe that it will be solved at some point, as long as regulation doesn't make that impossible. It is making it much more difficult for new coins to get started. Obviously that is needed to some extent because we saw all the shit coins over the last several years that ripped people off, but finding a happy medium is essential and challenging.
  - freddie_mercury 2y ago
    Yeah, the last time I looked I would pay the equivalent of 1% to buy USDT (i.e. they are selling for 1% higher than the current spot price) and then another 1-1.3% to sell it and get fiat back out. So 2-2.5% roundtrip versus 1.5% for a regular remittance. So crypto is actually more expensive that the traditional banking system on top of just being weirder. Like, you have to use Binance's P2P in my country which is just way more complicated than the traditional remittance system of "give us their bank account details".
mrtksn 2y ago
1) That's a valid moral use IMHO but not necessarily a legal use case 2) Have you actually done it? There are many services that do this for cheap and fast. Your relatives don't have to open a crypto trading account and use banking to convert the money back into a currency they can use to purchase stuff, they can simply take cash from a chain store, the post office or a local bank branch. 3) When the local currency goes through hyperinflation people store their money in USD, EUR or GOLD. Putting money into crypto is an extra step that don't have to be there doesn't add any value because needs to go through a digital channel like a bank and when shits the fan banks can be PIA. Your local Change office in the mall or the guy at the street who sells and buys USD/EUR/GOLD tend to be more reliable.

by indy 2y ago

1. Sending money to dangerous people like Julian Assange. 2. Sending money to relatives in the third world 3. Keeping your savings when the currency of your nation is going through hyperinflation

0dayz 2y ago

Point 3 is bad advice, historically it's been the Swiss franks that is the gold standard for saving up in case of hyperinflation.

indy 2y ago
Agreed, but someone in say Argentina or Nigeria will use crypto as that is more attainable.
dagw 2y ago
Getting your money into a crypto coin that tracks a stable currency can in some cases be cheaper and easier than getting your money into that currency.
- FabHK 2y ago
  Yeah, like Liberty Reserve back in 2006. A centralised stable coin, which was shut down by the US government a few years later for the usual reasons: money laundering, crime, etc. Crypto, being permissionless, is just a bit harder to shut down; but not any more legal.

wslh 2y ago

There is a 4: working in an inflationary and non-free market country such as Argentina. That is not only about savings (3) but business transactions.

freddie_mercury 2y ago
Crypto isn't the answer to this. "Use literally any other currency, of which crypto is merely one among many" is the answer. Argentines adopted the US Dollar, not any cryptocurrency, to solve their problems.
- wslh 2y ago
  Completely incorrect. I am Argentinian and perfectly know that Argentines of multiple social classes use crypto. It is even public information!

smoothbenny 2y ago

> 3. Keeping your savings when the currency of your nation is going through hyperinflation What crypto has shown long term stability and isn’t subject to the same forces that cause volatility in any currency?

purge 2y ago

I send money to 'the third world' a lot and it's extremely easy without having to resort to crypto nonsense. Hearing these implausible points repeated every time this question comes up just seems desperate now.

freddie_mercury 2y ago

I live in a third world country and nobody uses crypto to send money. The existing remittance system works fine. Crypto's claim in this area is that could be cheaper than remittances in the traditional banking system. But remittance fees using traditional banking are already only 1.5% so we're not talking about saving massive amounts of money in most circumstances. Which is probably why virtually nobody has switched to it for remittances.

freedomben 2y ago
Indeed, the fees involved in sending in the vast majority of crypto, certainly Bitcoin and ethereum, are complete non-starters for this use case. In my opinion, it's a shame, because this is something that crypto could do extremely well. But here we are. I do believe that it will be solved at some point, as long as regulation doesn't make that impossible. It is making it much more difficult for new coins to get started. Obviously that is needed to some extent because we saw all the shit coins over the last several years that ripped people off, but finding a happy medium is essential and challenging.
- freddie_mercury 2y ago
  Yeah, the last time I looked I would pay the equivalent of 1% to buy USDT (i.e. they are selling for 1% higher than the current spot price) and then another 1-1.3% to sell it and get fiat back out. So 2-2.5% roundtrip versus 1.5% for a regular remittance. So crypto is actually more expensive that the traditional banking system on top of just being weirder. Like, you have to use Binance's P2P in my country which is just way more complicated than the traditional remittance system of "give us their bank account details".

mrtksn 2y ago

1) That's a valid moral use IMHO but not necessarily a legal use case 2) Have you actually done it? There are many services that do this for cheap and fast. Your relatives don't have to open a crypto trading account and use banking to convert the money back into a currency they can use to purchase stuff, they can simply take cash from a chain store, the post office or a local bank branch. 3) When the local currency goes through hyperinflation people store their money in USD, EUR or GOLD. Putting money into crypto is an extra step that don't have to be there doesn't add any value because needs to go through a digital channel like a bank and when shits the fan banks can be PIA. Your local Change office in the mall or the guy at the street who sells and buys USD/EUR/GOLD tend to be more reliable.