[notahacker]

A WU created digital currency would be convertible to cash, on demand, at one's family's local Western Union agent in their remote village in Africa, so they can buy food and petrol with it when they need it. Much of this target market would never have had any access to any form of online payment service before.

And all the coins being "controlled" by a regulated, profitable multinational business with a lot to lose from scamming people (and probably tied to the dollar) is a lot more reassuring than a software protocol administered by a mysterious foreign foundation - transaction fees or no transaction fees.

Not every product has to be an appealing proposition to US-based early adopters to be phenomenally useful.