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Give it a few years (infographic for the lazy): http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/0,,contentMDK:232

by pault 13y ago

Give it a few years (infographic for the lazy): http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/0,,contentMDK:23242710~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:282823,00.html http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTINFORMATI... EDIT: to address your last point, I don't believe that it is within the power of any but the most sophisticated central governments to prevent adoption of a decentralized financial network. Look at the history of file sharing and bitcoin drug markets, for example. Every regulatory action creates evolutionary pressure on the network, and the succeeding services become more difficult to suppress.

lingben 13y ago
Yes, this is general knowledge. But what you are asserting is a non-sequitur because you are assuming a direct link from adoption of cell-phones in third world countries to the adoption and use of bitcoin as a currency.
- pault 13y ago
  I was addressing three of your previous points–electricity, internet, computer. I don't see these as issues, and to assume that cryptocurrency will remain as under-serviced and difficult to use as it currently is would be remarkably shortsighted.
  - logfromblammo 13y ago
    They are even less problematic when you consider them in comparison with the infrastructure required for physical currency banking: vaults, guards, armored cars, auditors, trust, communications. When everyone already has the ability to use a cellular phone, the additional marginal resources required for using cryptocurrency are almost trivial. The way most banks operate, they would need electricity, Internet, and computers in all of their branch locations anyway. If you have neither traditional banking nor cryptocurrency, aiming for the latter offers a bigger return on your infrastructure investment.
TylerE 13y ago
I think you are underestimating the suppressive effect of large government-controlled armies packing AK-47s and jeeps.
- pault 13y ago
  Armed government thugs create black markets.

by pault 13y ago

lingben 13y ago

Yes, this is general knowledge. But what you are asserting is a non-sequitur because you are assuming a direct link from adoption of cell-phones in third world countries to the adoption and use of bitcoin as a currency.

pault 13y ago
I was addressing three of your previous points–electricity, internet, computer. I don't see these as issues, and to assume that cryptocurrency will remain as under-serviced and difficult to use as it currently is would be remarkably shortsighted.
- logfromblammo 13y ago
  They are even less problematic when you consider them in comparison with the infrastructure required for physical currency banking: vaults, guards, armored cars, auditors, trust, communications. When everyone already has the ability to use a cellular phone, the additional marginal resources required for using cryptocurrency are almost trivial. The way most banks operate, they would need electricity, Internet, and computers in all of their branch locations anyway. If you have neither traditional banking nor cryptocurrency, aiming for the latter offers a bigger return on your infrastructure investment.

TylerE 13y ago

I think you are underestimating the suppressive effect of large government-controlled armies packing AK-47s and jeeps.

pault 13y ago
Armed government thugs create black markets.