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A few billion people who currently have no bank accounts could suddenly participate in global trade.

by mbrochh 12y ago

maxerickson 12y ago
Is it a foregone conclusion that bitcoin would be cheaper and easier to use than a "Cash Before Delivery" service? Bitcoin beats "Cash On Delivery" because it is trustless, but that's easy to address by having the delivery service allow a remit prior to the shipment. Note that with CBD, a (cash using) recipient has to deal with 1 party, with bitcoin they have to deal with 2 or 3 (obtain, spend, receive). Services would be somewhat different, but it still seems like quite an open question whether bitcoin would (in practice) be better than buying some credit from a payment provider (Paypal or Amazon or whatever).
- markburns 12y ago
  That's true whilst it is treated as effectively a foreign currency. It may start to become irrelevant if bitcoin spreads and is generally held and used as a currency for earning income in, paying for labour/goods/services etc.
  - maxerickson 12y ago
    Sure, but I don't see how bitcoin becomes a very widespread payment mechanism without first being the best option for many transactions.
    - markburns 12y ago
      Yeah it's an obvious bootstrapping/critical mass problem. It will be interesting watching to see if it does cross that line. If the usability is never there I can imagine it never quite taking off, and something slightly better/more usable/with the right timing winning out. But you could have said the same thing about email/the web in the past. A global communication network and protocol without anyone using it is pointless. The same for a global value transfer protocol. It seems obvious _a_ protocol, probably blockchain based, will gain mass adoption eventually.
Perdition 12y ago
How are they buying Bitcoin in the first place? I also doubt that people who don't have bank accounts have private computers. So really the pool is "people with computers and bank accounts in countries so replete with fraud that Paypal and CC companies don't service them".
- vertex-four 12y ago
  > How are they buying Bitcoin in the first place? The argument is that they'd be paid in Bitcoin for goods/services in the first place. It is a currency, after all, just (perhaps currently, perhaps always) a very volatile one.
  - s73v3r 12y ago
    For that to work, they'd have to be able to pay rent, buy food, etc in BTC already. If someone doesn't have a bank account already, they're probably not going to want to have to go through another intermediary to turn their payment into local currency.

A few billion people who currently have no bank accounts could suddenly participate in global trade.

by mbrochh 12y ago

A few billion people who currently have no bank accounts could suddenly participate in global trade.

Is it a foregone conclusion that bitcoin would be cheaper and easier to use than a "Cash Before Delivery" service? Bitcoin beats "Cash On Delivery" because it is trustless, but that's easy to address by having the delivery service allow a remit prior to the shipment. Note that with CBD, a (cash using) recipient has to deal with 1 party, with bitcoin they have to deal with 2 or 3 (obtain, spend, receive). Services would be somewhat different, but it still seems like quite an open question whether bitcoin would (in practice) be better than buying some credit from a payment provider (Paypal or Amazon or whatever).

markburns 12y ago
That's true whilst it is treated as effectively a foreign currency. It may start to become irrelevant if bitcoin spreads and is generally held and used as a currency for earning income in, paying for labour/goods/services etc.
- maxerickson 12y ago
  Sure, but I don't see how bitcoin becomes a very widespread payment mechanism without first being the best option for many transactions.
  - markburns 12y ago
    Yeah it's an obvious bootstrapping/critical mass problem. It will be interesting watching to see if it does cross that line. If the usability is never there I can imagine it never quite taking off, and something slightly better/more usable/with the right timing winning out. But you could have said the same thing about email/the web in the past. A global communication network and protocol without anyone using it is pointless. The same for a global value transfer protocol. It seems obvious _a_ protocol, probably blockchain based, will gain mass adoption eventually.

Perdition 12y ago

How are they buying Bitcoin in the first place? I also doubt that people who don't have bank accounts have private computers. So really the pool is "people with computers and bank accounts in countries so replete with fraud that Paypal and CC companies don't service them".

vertex-four 12y ago
> How are they buying Bitcoin in the first place? The argument is that they'd be paid in Bitcoin for goods/services in the first place. It is a currency, after all, just (perhaps currently, perhaps always) a very volatile one.
- s73v3r 12y ago
  For that to work, they'd have to be able to pay rent, buy food, etc in BTC already. If someone doesn't have a bank account already, they're probably not going to want to have to go through another intermediary to turn their payment into local currency.