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by hft_throwaway
4472 days ago
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I think the issue is that bitcoin fanatics assume something is deeply wrong with our current system, or that banks are parasitic and not providing any value. Sure there are places it can be improved, but the current system works well for many people. Before credit cards we had to rely on informal credit. Sure, I could open a bar tab at a local place where I'm a regular, or the man at the corner store might let me run up a small bill. Your word was your bond, but if you left town, wanted to make a large purchase or weren't from the right family (or had the wrong color skin), it was a cash only world. Right now I can travel to any corner of the globe and make transactions on credit with someone who knows nothing about me and has never seen my face. He's confident that he'll be paid and I'm confident that I have recourse in the event of a bad transaction. I don't have to carry large amounts of cash or worry about being robbed. If my card is stolen my liability is relatively small. That costs something, but people overwhelmingly see value in it and are willing to pay this cost. |
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I agree with both you and the fanboys on this point, however. Our current system is better than the old, for sure, but at the end of the day it is true that an insane amount of money is paid to these oligopolous firms as fees for doing a very simple job. Payment processing really is a case of moving database rows around, albeit in a highly available manner, yet they demand huge percentages. My bank goes down about as often as my Gmail, and the latter's free and deals with more information than my bank.
The present is better than the old, but very bad compared to what could be.