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It’s not because crypto is useful for the average person. It’s because demand for a place to safely store illicit assets is practically inexhaustible. Had I the
by otterley 1y ago
It’s not because crypto is useful for the average person. It’s because demand for a place to safely store illicit assets is practically inexhaustible. Had I the foresight to realize that criminals would turn to it as an alternative to traditional forms of hoarding and money laundering, I would have invested in it ages ago.
- earnesti 1y agoIsn't the property that it keeps getting up pretty useful for the average person.
- procaryote 1y agoI saw that potential as obvious from day one. I just thought governments would care. Usually when someone sets up a money laundry ring, someone tries to stop it. My best idea, that probably gives governments too much credit, is that it's pretty useful to have a transparent record of illicit money flows, and that you can be OK with a bit of crime to get it.
- earnesti 1y agoGovernments do care, they have developed heavy regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies, such as MiCa in EU. I think central banks have been giving (negative) comments about Bitcoin since 2011 or so when it first gained modest publicity. Governments are huge and consists of many different institutions. I guess many would like to see Bitcoin stopped, but how to do that without fondling with the basic human rights, such as the right to free communication? So far the governments have been regulating it, trying to reduce the illicit use, which doesn't really stop it but actually makes it more legitimate.
- Scoundreller 1y agoGovernment sure killed egold and liberty reserve.
- spaceman_2020 1y agoBaffling that people make blanket statements like these without any real world experience of living in high inflation, poor countries. All the contractors I’ve hired from Philippines or Nigeria or Vietnam want to get paid in USD stablecoins because their currencies depreciate 5-15% against the dollar every year and stablecoins help them protect their capital Same for friends living in high inflation LatAm countries - crypto stablecoins are a way to escape rampant inflation
- ACCount37 1y agoMost people simply don't have that experience. Even the volatility of BTC really doesn't seem like a dealbreaker when you've seen your country's own currency lose 50% of its value in a year.
- p3rls 1y ago[dead]
- otterley 1y agoYou could pay them in USD fiat currency and the benefit to them would be the same. Or, you can pay them in local currency and they can immediately exchange it for USD. They want cryptocurrency because it helps them avoid taxes and trading fees.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- spaceman_2020 1y agoAgain, have you ever tried paying people via wire transfers in countries like Nigeria? In a lot of these places, things like Paypal don’t work. So you have to send wires. You get an awful exchange rate + fees for sending it. And they get an even worse exchange rate when receiving it You easily lose 5-10% spread for every payment And the “avoid taxes” part is, again, heavily western biased where for all their ills, the governments actually work for the people. I say as someone from a third world country - taxes are largely siphoned off by politicians and bureaucrats. Everything from public schools and hospitals and roads are unusable. Avoiding taxes is perfectly morally correct if all it does is feed an oppressive machine
- potato3732842 1y agoYou fundamentally misunderstand society, the state and law. Most bitcoin users aren't storing illicit assets. They're hedging against the state doing something absurd.