[cc81]

Yeah, that is the problem.

I can buy something from China and pay without any problems. I can send money to my friend using my phone. I can transfer money quickly to a trading platform and buy some stock.

Sending money around and paying for things is easy today and Bitcoin does not make that easier for me. And while I guess a total collapse of the world could happen I feel that it is more likely Bitcoin collapses than Mastercard and my 200 year old bank (that is somewhat backed by my government).

I guess the thing Bitcoin has going for it for some people is buying drugs online but even there I've read that there is considerable resources thrown at monitoring the blockchain to identify buyers and sellers.

[chrisco255]

Are you kidding me? It can take 7 days or more to transfer large amounts of cash around between accounts.

You may be able to buy from China on credit but you can't just move cash around willy nilly. Even debit card transactions take a day or two to clear.

But good luck opening a $25K stock trading account (from cash) in less than 7 days.

[1001101]

I remember reading about 147M$ bitcoin transfer (~195k BTC, would be much more today). [1] As the reference says:

"On the bitcointalk forums, some users were less interested in the owners’ identity and more impressed by the infrastructure that allowed such an amount to be transferred without any regulatory hindrance, lawyers, or fees (the user paid no transaction fee at all). Even handing over that amount in hard cash would be a logistical challenge."

[1] https://www.coindesk.com/194993-btc-transaction-147m-mystery...

[hiyer]

Liu Yiqian paid $170 million on his credit card once [1]. Presumably the transaction was instantaneous. As an added bonus he also got free first class travel for self and family for life because of the points accrued. For those who can afford it BTC is by no means the only way to make such transactions quickly.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/24/billionaire-ea...

[CaptainZapp]

I'd wager that's because America has a rather antiquated banking system.

Moving funds between banks in the EURO area is virtually instantenous and practically free.[1]

And good luck opening any stock trading account with crypto currencies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

[ghthor]

And all the crypto hype that burning inside me is that as an engineer and a technologist its frustrating as hell that our banking system is so danm antiquated. Crypto for me is a manifestation of thousands of frustrated engineers saying, we can do better and technology is powerful, stop holding us back.

[cc81]

I live in Sweden and it is much quicker. I just transferred some money between my bank and Avanza which is one of the largest stock trading sites in Sweden. You have two options:

1. "Direct deposit", all largest banks in Sweden support it and that means that the money is transferred real time. That service is open between 7am and 11pm at Avanza.

2. Normal bank transfer and that takes one day in Sweden.

Source in Swedish but you could translate it: https://www.avanza.se/kundservice.html/281/vad-ar-direktinsa...

Avanza does not have a limit on how much money you can transfer but your bank might have, in that case you might have to rise that limit if you want to transfer a lot.

I don't know if it takes a day or two or clear (or more) if I buy from China but from my perspective it is usually an incredibly smooth checkout and I will get my stuff x amount of weeks later if I'm cheap with transport costs.

[buboard]

i dont think its possible to make an international bank transfer in 1 day. Maybe through SEPA (not sure? ) but that's just inside the EU.

Also, how are fees in sweden ? bank transfer/currency exchange fees are just an absurd abuse of power imho.

[jddj]

I recently moved a fair sum of money between two countries where no EU-style agreements exist.

I used regular money and went through a fairly well-known fintech company who specializes in this type of thing, and I think the whole process only took around 6 hours.

From memory it cost around 0.5% of the transfer value, and gave me the true mid-market rate.

We're not truly living in a world where it's Bitcoin or we stay completely at the mercy of the banks (w.r.t sending money across borders, at least), and the banks will catch up to where the fintech is - much like Travel Agents, they're just still successfully arbitraging their incumbency against the knowledge (w.r.t technology and the other options available) level of the general population.

[buboard]

depends on the country. you re lucky you live in a good one, i live in one of the worst.

[jddj]

Ah shit, that's totally fair. Sorry for coming off as tone-deaf, I got stuck in my filter bubble for a moment.

While international development hopefully isn't a complete lost cause (on long enough timescales), I can definitely see how cryptocurrency could be seen as a viable shortcut around poor government in this respect.

[cc81]

Sure, this is within Sweden.

[buboard]

Then you re exaggerating it. Yuo can't even do that between EU countries, which are literally a single market. Imagine spending your next mediterranean vacation with just your Swish app, you 'd probably starve. The thing is, whatever good infrastructure sweden has built, it will take a looong time for similar tech to be adopted throughout much of the world (and i m pretty certain it will meet a mountain of resistance from rent-seeking banks). Instead, cryptos only require that the other party can download a wallet app, which is arguably easier.

[CaptainZapp]

Imagine spending your next mediterranean vacation with just your Swish app, you 'd probably starve.

Ohh, I don't think you would eat any better by only packing bitcoin.

[cc81]

But when I'm on vacation then my Mastercard in combination with cash works without hassle. There is just one big win with crypto and that would be if I want to send money to someone over distance reasonably anonymously. That is where I can see a real gain over my current setup offers.

[1001101]

> (that is somewhat backed by my government)

I think you've identified one of the advantages of bitcoin. There's no counterparty risk, ie bail-ins. This is the commodity gold replacement use case where the carry on Bitcoin is lower and paid by others.

[cc81]

Yes, but I can loose all my Bitcoin pretty easy if I lack security or if I trust someone else to hold my money and they get hacked or do an exit scam.

I feel that that scenario is much more likely than the collapse of my country and bank.

[al_chemist]

> I can loose all my Bitcoin pretty easy if I lack security

Those are interesting times. We trust government more than we trust ourselves.

[1001101]

Depends on where you live, I guess. Bitcoin is popular in Venezuela.