[bhupy]

The system has just about as much capacity for transactions as batch-driven ACH clearing houses today. Until very recently, the expectation for ACH was that a transaction would clear after days (sometimes weeks). The end user of that product (at scale) is banks, not individuals. Bitcoin/crypto solves the problem of being able to essentially do a "briefcase full of cash" transaction over the internet, a use case that obviously only matters to a tiny sliver of people. The remaining majority would simply use more trust-based institutions (like the Lightning network) to facilitate convenient/instant transactions. The fact that you can run an hour long transaction in a trust-less way on the blockchain is just an option, but realistically not the use-case for most people.

[sfblah]

If the typical user would use a trust-based institution, then what is the advantage to the end user over the traditional banking model? It's hard for me to see why I as an end user would want to use such a thing, outside of speculating on the price of the cryptocurrency. Put differently, if there were a cryptocurrency whose price did not fluctuate, how would you convince me to use it?

[bhupy]

> If the typical user would use a trust-based institution, then what is the advantage to the end user over the traditional banking model?

In theory, it's two-fold:

1) That you have the option to use the same money in that account in a trust-less way. In the USD/cash world, the only way to do this is to withdraw money from my bank, put it in an envelope, and mail it to the recipient. In the crypto world, you might still use a Visa card or a centralized money transfer product to transact day-to-day, but if you want to (just as an example) donate to an adult entertainer on OnlyFans/PornHub (blacklisted by the major CC networks), you can do that off the same crypto wallet via the blockchain. Another (perhaps more topical) example: there are a handful of companies that are effectively persona non grata to the tech world, like Parler and Gab, effectively cut off from PayPal/Visa/MC/etc. If you want to transact with them digitally, the crypto model allows you to do that without mailing briefcases of cash.

2) The underlying currency is deflationary and immune to the whims of a state-run central bank. This is only valuable to you if you're worried about hyperinflation and the money printer.

> Put differently, if there were a cryptocurrency whose price did not fluctuate, how would you convince me to use it?

If the above reasons aren't important to you, the other point I think is that crypto doesn't need 100% adoption to be successful. It's another currency option for those that don't trust the USD or JPY or EUR, and a fully realized crypto/fintech ecosystem affords one the ability to live their entire life off of one of these cryptocurrencies while still interoperating with fiat currencies via exchanges like Coinbase. ~1.5% of the world uses JPY day-to-day, and that’s a perfectly viable currency.