4 ms·

Sometimes that's the right thing to do, but none of those examples sound legal.

by BoppreH 1y ago

toenail 1y ago
Cross border remittances are not legal?
- BoppreH 1y ago
  Of course it can be legal, but if someone is using cryotocurrencies for this purpose then they're probably skipping some necessary steps. They could also just really like cryptocurrencies, but that's not a point in favor of the technology.
  - toenail 1y ago
    Maybe they don't like the high fees of the traditional financial system
    - BoppreH 1y ago
      The fees come from fulfilling legal requirements like detection of money laundering and terrorism financing, and also customer security features like fraud detection and multi-factor authentication. There are fintechs for customers who want lower fees and don't need e.g. physical branches or phone support. That's perfectly fine. But a fintech that didn't perform KYC would be shut down pretty quickly by the police, so there's a floor on how low fees can be while remaining legal.
      - toenail 1y ago
        Congrats, you went from it's not legal, to it's irrational, to it's more competitive because of government regulation, you've made progress.
        BoppreH 1y ago
        > more competitive because of government regulation That's the same as "not legal". But I agree that it's still a useful technology, because the moral argument sometimes trumps the legal one. If a north korean defector uses Bitcoin to exfiltrate their life savings, I don't think anybody will complain how it was technically illegal under North Korea's law.
  - sneak 1y ago
    The only “necessary step” is sending the money. All of the other steps artificially imposed upon cross-border transfers in tradfi are unnecessary.
sneak 1y ago
Donating to Wikileaks is entirely legal. The blockade undertaken by Visa and MC at the behest of the USG was extralegal; there were no charges against anyone at the time. Even had there been charges, donating would still have been legal. Furthermore, your criterion was “not better served”; please don’t move the goalposts. Remittances and cross-border donations are way better served by cryptocurrencies than any other mechanism, full stop. It’s faster, cheaper, and way more reliable than any other method.

Sometimes that's the right thing to do, but none of those examples sound legal.

toenail 1y ago

Cross border remittances are not legal?

BoppreH 1y ago
Of course it can be legal, but if someone is using cryotocurrencies for this purpose then they're probably skipping some necessary steps. They could also just really like cryptocurrencies, but that's not a point in favor of the technology.
- toenail 1y ago
  Maybe they don't like the high fees of the traditional financial system
  - BoppreH 1y ago
    The fees come from fulfilling legal requirements like detection of money laundering and terrorism financing, and also customer security features like fraud detection and multi-factor authentication. There are fintechs for customers who want lower fees and don't need e.g. physical branches or phone support. That's perfectly fine. But a fintech that didn't perform KYC would be shut down pretty quickly by the police, so there's a floor on how low fees can be while remaining legal.
    - toenail 1y ago
      Congrats, you went from it's not legal, to it's irrational, to it's more competitive because of government regulation, you've made progress.
      - BoppreH 1y ago
        > more competitive because of government regulation That's the same as "not legal". But I agree that it's still a useful technology, because the moral argument sometimes trumps the legal one. If a north korean defector uses Bitcoin to exfiltrate their life savings, I don't think anybody will complain how it was technically illegal under North Korea's law.
- sneak 1y ago
  The only “necessary step” is sending the money. All of the other steps artificially imposed upon cross-border transfers in tradfi are unnecessary.

sneak 1y ago

Donating to Wikileaks is entirely legal. The blockade undertaken by Visa and MC at the behest of the USG was extralegal; there were no charges against anyone at the time. Even had there been charges, donating would still have been legal. Furthermore, your criterion was “not better served”; please don’t move the goalposts. Remittances and cross-border donations are way better served by cryptocurrencies than any other mechanism, full stop. It’s faster, cheaper, and way more reliable than any other method.