[Der_Einzige]

Except in practice western union does almost all of that (minus centralized intermediary) more reliably, hence why the overwhelming majority of the third world doesn't use or rely on crypto despite these supposed benefits (which seem tailor made to help the third world out)

[LawrenceKerr]

The (centralized) part you put in brackets is quite important. That's the differentiator.

Both systems can obviously co-exist. Much like how gold co-exists with fiat money. Or how there's bittorrent and S3.

And it is true the adoption part is still tiny (just equivalent to one of the top S&P500 companies in market cap) compared to its potential. And the numbers show that as adoption increases, volatility goes down.

[tock]

A third world with a reliable govt doesn't need it. You need trustless currencies only when the centralised alternatives are actually untrustworthy.