5 ms·
Cryptocurrency doesn't address the hard parts of financial inclusion (2022)
- TheCapeGreek 2y ago> For us, it’s much more important to have more traditional markers of trust, like approval from bank partners, billboards in major cities, TV and radio ads, and so on. Trust is a function of marketing budget now?
- nejsjsjsbsb 2y agoYes trust as in the emotion. The other side is trust as in honouring that trust, which needs culture, regulation etc. Would you buy a car brand that has never been mentioned anywhere?
- unification_fan 2y agoIf it came with a full disclosure of its internal parts and test results, why not? Why exactly do we allow ourselves to be convinced instead of informed?
- John23832 2y agoIf you consider the US military budget to be part of the Dollar's marketing budget (I do), then this is spot on.
- beAbU 2y agoRealistically, there is not really any way to create trust other than telling people "we are trustworthy". The risk is that if the company is found wanting in the trust department, all the previously built up trust evaporates in an instant, and it's nigh on impossible to regain. So yes, I do think trust is a function of marketing budget.
- chii 2y ago> So yes, I do think trust is a function of marketing budget. But also consistency and stability as the foundation of trust. Marketing is merely a means to transfer the message. If you cannot show consistency and stability, no amount of marketing should give you trust.
- jjk166 2y agoIn context they are talking about poor Senegalese not being savvy to why crypto is trustworthy.
- m0wer 2y agoAlways has been.
- nicholasbraker 2y agoApart from that you don't want to have the volatility of most crypto to be a means of payment. "wait, my hard earned products are now worth 50 % less than an hour ago because some influencer in his basements mom did a rugpull?"
- mu53 2y agothere are many coins that don't fit this description
- bcrl 2y agoI'm sure that a ban on proof-of-work mining would cause an equivalent or greater amount of damage to the value of various "coins". At least with actual metal coins you can melt them down and make things from the metal should the coin devalue unexpectedly.
- jjk166 2y agoThe article lists volatility of the exchange rate as the most important factor.
- whimsicalism 2y agostables exist
- talldayo 2y ago> find new stablecoin > look inside > it's powered by asset speculation Makes me chuckle every time
- mindcandy 2y agoThis is a strawman that assumes choosing between the volatility of a memecoin or USD/Euro when the reality of the situation being discussed is choosing between the volatility of a USD-pegged stablecoin vs. that of a developing nation's currency.
- 2y ago
- whatthedangz 2y ago[dead]
- aaron695 2y ago[dead]
- kevin_b_er 2y agoBecause none of that is the purpose of cryptocurrency. It for tax evasion by the rich, and for the cryptocurrency to seize when its used for crimes or when its defrauded out of someone else. And for riding a seemingly permanently rising currency to riches. In any case, it boils down to "I can make money off cryptocurrency". It doesn't "help" people. If someone says that, they just want to evangelize it because they think that's the key to 'crypto go up'.
- snakeyjake 2y agoI was there, at the dawn. I remember spigots giving out whole-ass bitcoins. The "we're going to change the world" folks either became, or were pushed out by the, Gordon Gekko cosplayers approximately 227 milliseconds after the bitcoin whitepaper was published. As far as I can tell, a larger value in goods and services, real non-crypto-related tangible things and actions, are purchased in Chuck-e-cheese tokens than crypto. Crypto is tulip bulbs for the IT Crowd. It's hyper-tax-evading-money-laundering on steroids. It is everything about "duh banksters" the liars promoting crypto claimed to be against times ten trillion. Crypto is like some very smart people took every negative aspect of the socio-economic system we find ourselves trapped within and amplified them because they realized the grift to be had, then they wrapped it all in a thin veneer of freedom and rebellion. There is no freedom there.
- whimsicalism 2y agolegal evasion is definitely a big part of it, but when your government is corrupt and mismanaged and makes it illegal to hold other currencies while devaluing the money you do hold, maybe a little law breaking is justified e: to be clear, i'm not talking about the US
- lesuorac 2y agoIsn't cryptocurrency pretty much the worst way to avoid taxes? The entire ledger is public. The IRS is going to know that several millions/billions was sent to an address and can just press the exchange to reveal who it is akin to gambling winnings.
- 2y ago
- dole 2y agoWhether crypto hurts or helps financial inclusion remains to be seen in places like Africa and Latin America. The majority of coins are pump-and-dumps or rug pulls, but after 15+ years of BTC somehow surviving, I still have hope crypto can provide financial access to those without direct bank access in these areas without being massive scams or abused by crime.
- whimsicalism 2y agoit gives people much much easier access to a peg to a stable well managed currency like the dollar or euro
- achierius 2y ago> stable well-managed currency Are you suggesting that BTC is either of those? The incredible price-swings, fluctuations, and inherently deflationary nature (which encourages hoarding!) are not great properties for a peg-target to have.
- oleganza 2y agoBTC saved the value over the years for all its holders, including even those who bought during the height of mania and have suffered temporary setback for a few months. For an asset where no one promised anything but uncertainty, that's the only asset that you can rely on as your insurance against asset seizures, inflation, pumps-and-dumps (compare BTC with any other token with marketing - BTC marches on, while all these tokens get pumped/dumped and then stay forever at zero).
- whimsicalism 2y agoask chatgpt what i mean
- mbonnet 2y agoUseless comment.
- whimsicalism 2y agobase has faster confirmation time and lower transaction fees (1% is absolutely ridiculous lol), they're just talking their book.
- trod1234 2y agoI'm kind of surprised that fraud protection isn't listed.
- mindcandy 2y agoI'm finding a lot of these arguments to be disingenuous. Much of the discussion is around "Meanwhile, most people trying to use cryptocurrency to improve financial inclusion aren’t even thinking about on-ramp problems." Kuhn is assuming an argument against a crypto purist who wants 100% crypto-to-crypto services and from there bringing up the real problem than there are not many cash<-->crypto services for people who need better inclusion. But, Kuhn is in exactly the position to provide that service and is choosing not to. Arguing that you don't want to provide crypto services because it's not inclusive because people aren't providing the service you could provide but choose not to because crypto is not inclusive because... > These problems are solvable in principle, by using a stablecoin on a much more efficient blockchain. But that’s a whole lot of effort just to get the user experience back to the baseline that we’ve already built! And even once you’re there, it doesn’t seem like the blockchain has any meaningful advantages that are worth that cost. Comes after arguing a strawman of "memorizing the exchange rate of fish to crypto" to say that the past few paragraphs are invalid and instead of building up the security of a literal money-vault Postgres database, the could have just built a secure key store for a stablecoin based service. > For a technically sophisticated early adopter, the cryptocurrency pitch—“these algorithms guarantee that we can’t get your balance wrong, even if we’re malicious”—makes some sense. But a typical underbanked person in Senegal, who may not understand Merkle trees or Byzantine fault tolerance, might justifiably be skeptical. For us, it’s much more important to have more traditional markers of trust, like approval from bank partners, billboards in major cities, TV and radio ads, and so on. This doesn't change regardless of what tech you use. The only difference is if the end goal of your marketing is "Trust me bro" or "You don't even need to trust me bro".
- faceloss 2y ago[dead]