Comment by XCSme
1 day ago
I think crypto lead in 99% of cases just to bad actors and use-cases, I still have to encounter one real success story of someone using crypto successfully long-term or to pay for legit, legal stuff where a different method was not allowed due to unfair restrictions.
I think one of the primary motivations for cryptocurrency was that legal ≠ moral. Therefore, I think cryptocurrency's best use cases are all explicitly illegal.
For example, you can donate to Sci-Hub with cryptocurrency. Sci-Hub has an ideological mission which is widely supported, but it runs afoul of copyright law and is illegal in nearly every country and sanctioned in many. You cannot donate to Sci-Hub with fiat currency.
Unfortunately, I agree that in practice >99% of cryptocurrency's use is for scams.
it's a pretty good tool if you need a ransom payment after you hack a hospital
Let's reframe that; it's very useful for maintaining continuity of care in medicine!
I have read of Venezuelans using it as a safe harbor against their currency instability.
That seems valuable, but I’m not sure how much truth there is to a story I read on the internet.
> That seems valuable, but I’m not sure how much truth there is to a story I read on the internet.
Wait you mean Venezuela didn't experience four years of hyper-inflation in a row? You mean you don't believe that story is true?
I fully believe it and it reads as extremely plausible. I'm less trying to cast down on the claim and more trying to hedge my authority on this subject.
Sending stablecoins is much cheaper and faster than sending a wire, and that requires Ethereum (or similar chain).
Of course, the bottleneck then becomes converting stablecoin dollars to real dollars.
In the end, maybe that friction is actually a net positive for safety.
I don't know, whenever I have to send money to friends, it's free and transferred instantly (Tikkie).
Whener I tried to send Crypto, there were fees over fees, from wallets, transfer fees, etc., probably I was doing something wrong, but that was the most frictionless path
I don't know the details of Tikkie, but likely the money is moving slowly through the clearing house networks and each party is assuming a small amount of risk on each hop to make it appear instant.
On the other hand, sending USDC actually moves the money for real, albeit, not totally free.
it is honestly just a much better UX for transferring large sums of money, something that seems impossible in the US afaict
Get out of your bubble and you will encounter one.