Bitcoin has been around for a decade now and no one has imagined much less implemented use cases beyond anonymous payments for illegal cross-border transfers or illicit goods and trading other crypto coins
- an asset that cannot easily be seized (safe, mobile, relatively easy to recover with seed words)
- an asset that cannot easily be debased (good at storing value)
- a network that is permissionless to participate in (no requirement for citizenship or identification, just software)
- a network that is censorship resistant (interact with willing parties, pseudo-anonymously).
What you mean to say is that YOU have no use for it. That's fine, you most likely have elite banking access, access to stable and liquid stock and bond markets, forex markets, etc.
Look up Turkey's double digit yearly inflation rate over the last couple decades. Look up the capital controls imposed by Lebanon.
you must be living in your own bubble if you think any of those apply to bitcoin.
> an asset that cannot easily be seized (safe, mobile, relatively easy to recover with seed words)
the us government was able to chase back bitcoin payments made to hackers
- an asset that cannot easily be debased (good at storing value)
bitcoin in it self is not an asset, just like paper money by itself is worthless.
- a network that is permissionless to participate in (no requirement for citizenship or identification, just software)
i'm not sure if it's as permissionless as you think. you would still need an internet connection, which in most cases require identification to setup. regular people aren't gonna implement the software themselves, so they have to get it from somewhere. the most widely distributed bitcoin wallets are not permissionless.
- a network that is censorship resistant (interact with willing parties, pseudo-anonymously).
if you're trading bitcoin through an exchange (i.e 99% of the users), it's not anonymous.
> the us government was able to chase back bitcoin payments made to hackers
"chase back", but not forcibly, cryptographically seized. The blockchain is transparent. So yes, transactions can be traced. But there's a billion dollar bounty out there if you know how to crack private keys.
> bitcoin in it self is not an asset, just like paper money by itself is worthless.
Anything is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Anything is an asset. Some assets are utilized as money better than others (gold, bitcoin, fiat vs apples, paintings).
> i'm not sure if it's as permissionless as you think.
Most people already have internet connections. App stores are not permissionless, but there are many other ways to load software onto a device.
> if you're trading bitcoin through an exchange (i.e 99% of the users), it's not anonymous.
If you're trading Bitcoin through an exchange, then you're not using Bitcoin the network. You would be "trading bitcoin through an exchange". There are also p2p services like localbitcoins and bisq.
>the us government was able to chase back bitcoin payments made to hackers
because they left it on a US exchange. They were not able to chase up the affiliate fee, which should give your pause to think about exactly how it can be reclaimed.
> bitcoin in it self is not an asset, just like paper money by itself is worthless.
I dunno man, i can give a paper $20 bill to a bartender and they give me beer. paper seems not to be worthless by itself.
> i'm not sure if it's as permissionless as you think. you would still need an internet connection, which in most cases require identification to setup. regular people aren't gonna implement the software themselves, so they have to get it from somewhere. the most widely distributed bitcoin wallets are not permissionless.
It is permissionless, in that nobody needs to grant permission to download/compile an open source product and use it.
You have to have permission from your parents to be alive i guess...
> if you're trading bitcoin through an exchange (i.e 99% of the users), it's not anonymous.
Yes, and with the travel rules going in worldwide it will be even less. However, what the powers that be do not understand is that it is PERMISSIONLESS. Once the funds are in the UTXO, they can be spent anywhere, including non-KYC destinations, or even lightning channels. The industry wants to push the narrative that KYC-exchange -> ??? -> KYC-exchange implies ??? is the same beneficial owner. It isn't, and someone is in for a rude shock when their case falls apart due to bad assumptions.
Ultimately, any regulation is a bandaid on a broken arm. The technology exists and is unstoppable.
Settlement within an hour? For cents (vs $10 for wires)? Without permission of 3rd parties? To regions that are not connected to the international banking system? No.
Bitcoin is better for international money transfers than WU or your local bank. I can't believe this is even a talking point in 2021.
If I send bitcoins to friends and family abroad, they are worthless until they are converted again to a real currency. I remember when someone buying Pizza with bitcoins made the news. Now the only thing you can buy with bitcoins is decryption keys from ransomware-installing hackers.
It’s more expensive to use Bitcoin than TransferWise to send international payments or money transfers. TransferWise often settles very fast if the destination country has good fintech plumbing (Australia, Canada, SEPA, etc).
They are not factually correct, and I have done several wise.com transactions to people in other countries last year. The transfer fee was in the order of whole dollars per transaction.
It is also a percent of the send, which, you may not be aware is not how Bitcoin works, rather, Bitcoin is based on the transaction size in (v)bytes.
A bitcoin transaction currently cost 1sat/byte, or $0.04USD for a standard transaction.
You don't get what Bitcoin is about. Wise does not need to exist in a bitcoin standard world!
(Transfer)Wise arbitrarily stopped working for Venezuela over sanctions that don't even apply to the entirety of the country, right before I was going to accept a pretty well paid gig that would have covered my living expenses for months. To say I was fuming would be an understatement. Life or death in an impoverished country.
Found a different gig, less well paid but they accepted paying me in crypto. It was a grand total of 0.10 USD in BTC to receive that money and it took 5 minutes before first confirmation.
Yes, transaction fees can be expensive sometimes, but in practically every case I've experienced they're nothing compared to the highway robbery most of the mainstream payment infrastructure imposes upon everybody.
Those people are lucky to live in country with good fintech plumbing. Many poorer countries do not have that, and the citizens don't even have bank accounts.
- an asset that cannot easily be seized (safe, mobile, relatively easy to recover with seed words)
- an asset that cannot easily be debased (good at storing value)
- a network that is permissionless to participate in (no requirement for citizenship or identification, just software)
- a network that is censorship resistant (interact with willing parties, pseudo-anonymously).
What you mean to say is that YOU have no use for it. That's fine, you most likely have elite banking access, access to stable and liquid stock and bond markets, forex markets, etc.
Look up Turkey's double digit yearly inflation rate over the last couple decades. Look up the capital controls imposed by Lebanon.