[psychoslave]

No hate, but no interest either.

After all these years, all scam stories apart, what crypto allow its users to do that they would not be able to do otherwise with less resources? Really I don’t know, and I admit I never wanted to dig the topic as there are many other topic I will never have the time to learn and yet doesn’t seem to have such an issue of what is at best a tremendous noise/signal ratio.

[slowmotiony]

You hear about "scam stories" because they're usually interesting and they get clicks so media will naturally put them on the spotlight. You don't hear about thoudands of people in third world countries who are able to get capital for their projects, start up their business by avoid sanctions put on their countries banking systems, NGOs who are able to collect donations while in autocratic regimes, sick people who can order their medication on the darknet which for whatever reason is not available to them in their country, and so on and so on. The fact that you can just wire $100 to your buddy across the world for a 50 cent fee without caring about banks or IBANs or SWIFT codes or whatever else just blows my mind to this day, it creates so many opportunities one cannot just brush the whole crypto concept off as some nft scam shit.

[kelnos]

Being able to wire $100 to your buddy across the world isn't so useful when you can't be sure if it'll be worth $90 or $100 or $110 by the time your buddy goes to use it.

[jrm4]

Silly example.

Add some zeroes to those numbers and now it is.

(especially if the transaction fees remain in the 10s)

[suslik]

> what crypto allow its users to do that they would not be able to do otherwise with less resources

International money transfers, for instance. The traditional banking system was always slow and expensive, and, on top of that, countries cut each other out due to geopolitical reasons. Many third-world countries have a decent crypto adoption, you can send someone money in a matter of minutes (I do).

[Yizahi]

I can send money in minutes too from bank to bank, internationally and domestically. I could do it for years now.

Some very big sums require approval and are delayed. But guess what - it's not a technical limitation but a legal one. It not like some TCP packet can transmit wire transfer of 1000 dollars and unable to do so for 50000 dollars. And we as society do want to control large sum transfers, unless we want to end up like my home country, with funds funneled with close to no control to offshores.

Sure, if a person want to skirt the law and transfer millions without control then current token systems are perfect for him.

[suslik]

> I can send money in minutes too from bank to bank, internationally

To any country of your choosing? I doubt that.

[carvking]

Bitcoin will be imported with immigrants to the 1st world.

[peyton]

The other day I tried to wire money to somebody in a different country, but my bank didn’t support that country. So I used USDC and sent the funds in seconds without any issue.

[AlexandrB]

> and, on top of that, countries cut each other out due to geopolitical reasons

For a sovereign state this is a feature, not a bug. If you think that countries will take sending of funds to embargoed countries lying down you are sorely mistaken.

[suslik]

Sure, and that's exactly why sovereign states don't like monero and mixers - but that is their problem, not mine. Also, in many cases transferring crypto is not illegal - for instance, it is legal to transfer money to non-sanction banks in Russia, but in many countries, the banking system doesn't allow that. If you had a 90y.o. starving grandma there, you'd be grateful for the crypto.

[mrangle]

Via sanctions, it is illegal for you to use specific mixers assuming you are a US citizen. Which does make it your problem.

And if you have a mixer or private coin that isn't under sanction, it is only a matter of time as determined by the US gov's assessment of the risk of it being widely adopted.

[suslik]

I am not a US citizen, but, regardless, I'm not sure you're right: as long as I don't consider something to be immoral, I don't particularly care if it's legal or not. Given how easy it is to obtain untraceable crypto, I still think it's mostly their problem.

[mrangle]

That's a minuscule use case whose benefits are arguably exaggerated next to the UX inconvenience and other downside factors for the common abuela looking to receive grocery money.

Until crypto becomes at least as easy to get set up with and use as dealing with a bank, Western Union, or online banking, it'll remain niche.