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Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?

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Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?

#71

Post by risyachka »

Ekaros wrote: post #67
sjducb wrote: post #16

- The currency of my country is collapsing, I need to buy something which has a value unconnected to my country. - My country imposes export controls on foreign currency. I want to move my money out of my country. - I am unbanked and want to buy a good or service on the internet. - I do not trust the counterparty that I am dealing with on the internet. Using cryptocurrency means that my maximum loss is the vavlu of t…

>- The currency of my country is collapsing, I need to buy something which has a value unconnected to my country. >- My country imposes export controls on foreign currency. I want to move my money out of my country. Never understood who is the counter-party in these scenarios. Someone must sell you the crypto for seemingly worthless local currency. (Unless you somehow smuggle mining equipment in and buy local electri…

You can always find someone to sell USD for crypto in cash. And you will be able to do it only because crypto allows you to actually own your assets.

Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?

#72

Post by kwhitefoot »

ruuda wrote: post #37

Scott Alexander recently ran a grants program ( https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/so-you-want-to-run-a-m... ) and wrote this about the experience: > Then you have to actually give people money. > > You know how, whenever there’s a debate about cryptocurrency, some crypto fanboy gushes about how it makes sending money so much easier? And if you’re like me, you think “yes, but right now you can just enter a number…

High transaction cost is not inherent in the technology of bank transfers. Within Europe it's all electronic and my bank in Norway charges less than 1% for an international transfer.

Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?

#73

Post by melony »

gls2ro wrote: post #60
ruuda wrote: post #37

Scott Alexander recently ran a grants program ( https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/so-you-want-to-run-a-m... ) and wrote this about the experience: > Then you have to actually give people money. > > You know how, whenever there’s a debate about cryptocurrency, some crypto fanboy gushes about how it makes sending money so much easier? And if you’re like me, you think “yes, but right now you can just enter a number…

It seems the core of this is that Paypal charges 3% and alternatives like banks don't work because either they are not allowed to transfer that much money or the recipient does not have an account. Regarding the transfer cap, I really don't understand this. Is that a cap on personal transfers? Regarding Paypal price, let me ask this: Is the 3% Paypal asks required costs o working with fiat currencies? NO. Then that i…

The state (in the general sense, as in the federal government) wants to know where money comes from and where money goes to. Control over capital flow is one of the fundamental levers of modern day political power.

Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?

#74

Post by boeingUH60 »

I live in a third-world country, but I work remotely for some foreign firms. Crypto lets me get payments swiftly, easily. Of course, I also use traditional payment platforms like Payoneer, Skrill, etc, but getting payments in crypto (stable coins only) is far easier, and I can immediately convert to fiat.

A brief comparison between getting paid on Payoneer and a crypto exchange.

Payoneer - Sends invoice, client pays. Payment takes 1 or 2 days to hit my Payoneer account, and withdrawal takes another 1 day to hit my local bank account. If you withdraw on a Friday when the banks have closed, you'll have to wait till Monday to get your money.

Crypto - Sends invoice, client pays. Money hits my account immediately, and I can convert to fiat in less than 30 mins.

Now, I'm not even a fan of crypto because I think the field is spoiled with fraud, shysters, snakes, and all that...but crypto solves a good problem for me of getting instant payments. Notably, I only use stablecoins and abhor speculation.

Edit: Just to add, some mainstream payment platforms like PayPal and TransferWise are blocked in my country, and I've lost a significant number of jobs for this reason because clients refuse to use other payment options.

I think people in the first-world may not have much of a use case for crypto, but people in underdeveloped, unstable countries like mine have an important use case.

Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?

#75

Post by meheleventyone »

risyachka wrote: post #71
Ekaros wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>- The currency of my country is collapsing, I need to buy something which has a value unconnected to my country. >- My country imposes export controls on foreign currency. I want to move my money out of my country. Never understood who is the counter-party in these scenarios. Someone must sell you the crypto for seemingly worthless local currency. (Unless you somehow smuggle mining equipment in and buy local electri…

You can always find someone to sell USD for crypto in cash. And you will be able to do it only because crypto allows you to actually own your assets.

You already need crypto though.

Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?

#76

Post by jokethrowaway »

sjducb wrote: post #16

- The currency of my country is collapsing, I need to buy something which has a value unconnected to my country. - My country imposes export controls on foreign currency. I want to move my money out of my country. - I am unbanked and want to buy a good or service on the internet. - I do not trust the counterparty that I am dealing with on the internet. Using cryptocurrency means that my maximum loss is the vavlu of t…

The credit card one is a good one, credit cards are the worst possible approach I can imagine to transact money with.

Forex exchange is pretty cheap these days with things like Wise.

You can technically charge your debit / credit card just by knowing the number.

All the others are political problems and they can't beat a state actor. Eg. You won't stop the government from seizing your assets: they'll put you in jail until you give them up. We should think about a political solution, not a technical one (I'm all for abolishing the government).

I'm surprised they didn't crack down on crypto earlier, I suspect they're using it as a sort of inflationary device. Having extra unbacked crypto in the world means you have more money in the world, making the rest of the money a little bit less valuable - but I don't think crypto was considered seriously enough to affect fiat, at the beginning. Now, when you want to push your currency or local assets up you can just ban/harm crypto (which is what Russia proposed with the RUB going down a month ago).

Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?

#77

Post by jokethrowaway »

krsdcbl wrote: post #64
malsuwaidi wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PayPal for b2b transactions, Transferwise and similar services for cheaper remittance transfers. Crypto takes electronic payments and adds an ungodly layer of complexity to them.

I feel like paypal is, quite in the contrary, the best example of why you do might want crypto. Background: my mother had her account and assets frozen for a crazy long time after changing her name. Turns out accounts are bound to your name only, and support is unhelpful at best, so when her business started turning profit and she wanted to change her private acc to business they locked up her funds and refused to pr…

Unhelpful support is an understatement, PayPal is a criminal organisation for what it concerns me. I don't care what stupid law they're following, they effectively steal money.

Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?

#78

Post by jokethrowaway »

melony wrote: post #68
sjducb wrote: post #16

- The currency of my country is collapsing, I need to buy something which has a value unconnected to my country. - My country imposes export controls on foreign currency. I want to move my money out of my country. - I am unbanked and want to buy a good or service on the internet. - I do not trust the counterparty that I am dealing with on the internet. Using cryptocurrency means that my maximum loss is the vavlu of t…

You forgot the most important use case: you want to build fintech services and applications, but you don't want to deal with almost a century worth of compliance and a tech stack built on rotten foundations and middleman rentseeking.

Avoiding regulation is a good one, but they'll come for crypto as well.

It's already hard to find unregulated exchanges

Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?

#79

Post by mbaytas »

Today: crypto is a much superior way of sending money across international borders – cheaper, faster, more “user-friendly” (not for everyone, but definitely for my user persona).

More generally, crypto can do most things that a bank can do. It’s not the best at many of those things yet. But it’s evolving much faster than banks do.

Here’s Yanis Varoufakis on disintermediation from banks:

“ Today, you use digital money (phone apps or plastic cards) to buy a cup of coffee at your local Starbucks. But, to do so, you first need an account with a commercial bank. In other words, to grant you access to digital fiat money, the state forces you to fall into the embrace of the commercial banks.

So, today, the state guarantees a monopoly over payments to commercial banks. And that is only one gift to the oligarchy. A second, even greater gift, is that only commercial banks are allowed to have an account with the central bank.” [https://the-crypto-syllabus.com/yanis-varoufakis-on-techno-f...]

(He’s very critical of crypto in the rest of the interview - great read.)

Even more generally, with smart contracts, the blockchain becomes a platform not only for finance and trade, but also law. Every country has laws written in their own language. Smart contracts are our laws, written in code. So, anything done by authorities which involves record-keeping is a candidate for disruption by the blockchain.

The trouble is that many of the best use cases for crypto (land deeds, electric car charging, scientific publishing and citations) are public goods – beneficial for the society as a whole, but not profitable for any individual to build. Once we get over baseball cards and apes, it will be exciting to see public goods flourish on the blockchain.

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