Comment by crazygringo
15 hours ago
There's a major distinction, however, in that it's a heck of a lot harder to safely and reliably lug briefcases or suitcases full of $100 bills from Chicago to Tehran, than it is to click and transfer some Bitcoin. Which is the whole point.
Yeah, crypto is a safer, more reliable alternative for many use cases, including those that are fundamentally honest. For instance, if you're an honest person trapped as a citizen in a despotic authoritarian state that doesn't respect your property rights, crypto may be the safest, most reliable alternative for storing and transferring your hard-earned savings.
Ironically, crypto has developed something significantly better for these use cases called stablecoin, which isn't really decentralized.
A currency peg is a double-edged sword in and of itself, to say nothing of the risk brought into the equation by having to trust a stablecoin issuer.
Yes, mostly they are distributed via pallets out the back of C130s
(Definitely in Iraq and Afghanistan, I don't know if there's any back channel deals at the moment paying off Iranians in 100$ bills but I wouldn't be surprised if we were nudging for regime change by funding revolutionaries)
It's not hard even for Iran to trade gold and oil in USD.
> The Wall Street Journal reported, saying the hidden conduit enabled Tehran to receive up to $8.4 billion last year.
[1]: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202510060867