[mancerayder]

Again, I'm not a BTC fanboy, I don't even own any. But obviously it solves SOME problems - like how to transfer some sort of store of value across borders without using a bank. That's one of them.

It's not tulips and 100% useless. A digital currency is interesting to explore. It's interesting enough that institutions are stuffing their cash into it because they are fearing inflation, and the old school explanations of why we won't get inflation are now being questioned.

Don't ask me to forcefully argue for or against, there are many other people on this thread to argue both positions. But you can't say it has NO utility.

[rcrisan]

Hi, thanks for the reply, makes sense what you said. I am not looking for strong stances or arguing; I just want to expand my understanding. I get from you that institutions pour real money into it and they rely on bitcoin's scarcity to overcome inflation. Makes sense. However, I want to understand why using banks or FinTech companies for money transfer is so bad? Nowadays there are low fees, way lower than what Bitcoin offers today. And that is just one aspect. It's just an opinion but I feel that money transfer problems caused by banks are exaggerated, especially in developed countries. Can you explain why I might be wrong about it? I also do not own Bitcoin, my employer is not a bank and I do not have any involvement or desire to promote the banking or payments industry.

[mancerayder]

> However, I want to understand why using banks or FinTech companies for money transfer is so bad?

I've never done it, but when I lived abroad and I had to transfer money, I got fleeced by banks and then (a few years ago) there weren't really any alternatives. I don't have any skin in the game with Bitcoin, but I guess that left a foul taste in my mouth.

There've been other comments about Bitcoin that are a bit more nuanced and interesting, in one case there was a gentleman from Argentina making an impassioned case for the use over and against the polices of his government.

I think there's an element of institutional mistrust that Bitcoin claims - maybe wrongly, given how centralized it is - to solve.

[rcrisan]

Certainly the most important value proposition from the companies behind the established cryptocurrencies is the decentralized network for value transfers. No more "brokerage" firms. Getting rid of these feels like an emotional fulfillment; and today this beats pragmatism. Thanks for writing.

[dmingod666]

Exactly correct. You can recognize its not useless even if you don't like the thing.