| The unbanked tend to have small amounts, and what they have isn't always in the form of cash. I expect there actually are people providing in-person small cash<->crypto exchange services, just like there are e.g. unregulated loan sharks, unofficial "family" banking, etc. for people who cannot use the regular system. However I was originally addressing the "digital currency" aspect, specifically how "$USD at my bank account" is not universal currency the same way cash is, as many people assume banking is open to all. This is not to say crypto is the solution either, rather there is no universally usable digital currency at the moment. As far as I know crypto isn't currently particularly _useful_ for friends (who are banked) to give friends who are not small amounts of crypto-cash to spend on useful things like food and shelter. There are obvious obstacles, such as transaction costs, times, and excessive transparency for that kind of use. People want small transactions between close associates to be private.[1] But those obstacles cannot be assumed to be permanent. The mathematical developments in zero-knowledge crypto recently have been quite remarkable. Scalability is not a fundamental problem; transactions times are being worked on. Costs are complicated because of economic incentives to keep them high but they could reduce to near-zero. If your unregulated landlord wants to buy a Tesla with crypto next year, perhaps they will accept some amount of crypto for rent now - probably a higher amount than they'd accept in cash. [1] (I personally prefer large transactions to be traceable while small ones remain private - so that "follow the money" works for accountability on large things.) |