[mr_luc]

Hmm -- I just read the article, and it seems pretty pro-bitcoin to me ...

    "They have to take a bus to go to a physical location 
    to pick it up, and there are gangs that hang out 
    around those offices. They know what people are 
    going there for, and they basically rob them."

And

    “Remittances are one area where the status quo 
    in our legacy financial system is terrible"...

And

    ... Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer for the 
    Human Rights Foundation
    
    “That’s drop-dead stunning. It’s an 
    incredible humanitarian improvement.”

The story of the article, and the headline, seems to be: old-timey remittances are on the ropes; can't compete.

[billytetrud]

I guess you're right, the article is pretty pro bitcoin. Still an odd choice of headline if you ask me.

[jimmydorry]

Likely because while writers typically suggest headlines, its the editors and the higher-ups in the food chain that will often slap their own one on the article.

[numair]

And you think the 200 Chivo ATMs aren’t going to be criminal hotspots? Not saying that to be critical — solving that problem seems to be key for more countries than just El Salvador, and for electronic remittance beyond Bitcoin.

[dcolkitt]

No, because unlike Western Union people don’t have to take out their whole balance at once. In fact they don’t have to take out anything, because they can use Chivo BTC to pay anywhere.

[billytetrud]

Criminal hotspots? How so? Are ATMs usually criminal hotspots? If you're thinking that bitcoin ATMs can help people launder money, you're mistaken.

[putnambr]

What they're saying is that if staffed remittance locations have been locations for criminals to hang out and rob people, bitcoin ATMs surely will have the same issue.

[billytetrud]

Ah. Well as others have pointed out, its likely that people will need to go to atms less often (since they can send directly with their app) and that amounts handled at atms would be substantially lower (because when using the lightning network, there aren't incentives to send one large payment vs a number of small payments). So if that's the worry, bitcoin would probably improve that situation as well.

[manigandham]

True, but that's only if you need to convert to hard cash/USD. If you can transact digitally then ATMs have less usage and associated risk.