Cryptocurrency and the unbanked

I would say that depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you're trying to get an overview of the space then probably one of the best ways of going about it to locate key figures that are involved in different projects (e.g. Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson) and listen to some podcasts with them or read stuff that they wrote. If you're trying to get a fairly good understanding of some specific technology or aspect of it then you must do your own research and that should be enough to be able to identify and ignore "those people" + as a bonus you might gain insights about the shortcomings or trade-offs of that thing. But then if you're looking for investment opportunities then you should definitely have a very good understanding of what you're getting into, any why - especially if you're being purely speculative and not doing stuff like arbitrage or some form of DeFi farming, etc.

I am focusing on the article itself, which is if cryptocurrency is feasible to the unbanked, usually in Africa, and if cryptocurrency can solve it. I have explained in another comment why Africans usually can't use banks in genral, and why in my opinion cryptocurrency can't fully solve the problem (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28736411).

I personally want to understand from people who understands how they do function if they do have ideas to actually do it in a practical way. While the idea presented by the GP is indeed good in the long run, it still doesn't solve the problem that most unbanked people in those areas have only either a basic phone (i.e. purely calls and text) or even none, which precludes the habitual use of cryptocurrencies. I also acknowledged that for long-term storage away from often-opressive regimes, there are solutions available.

However, unless you can give everyone in Africa a smartphone and build the infrastructure necessary to have a reliable internet connection, I cannot say that, as of what I've read, have a realistic solution to everyday use of cryptocurrencies hold well.

Unfortunately, you've just stated something that is frankly unhelpful. I've read the article, I've read the comments and be very careful since that these types of discussions tends to catch fire quickly. I've just pointed out that for realistic use in this case, it is currently simply impossible in inner reaches of Africa. Even 3np acknowedges that costs on dedicated wallets should decrease (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28736599) if Africans will use it. As of now, it's not simply feasible.

If you wanted to understand how crypto can help, you should've asked a question - not declared something about crypto that was both incorrect and tangential to the point being made.

close to 50% of sub-sharan africa owns a cell-phone and internet quality is of little consequence to crypto as any short frame of connection can facilitate much of what was being described in your parents context (which is infrequent "savings account" type transactions)

crypto doesn't have to be the only system of currency and probably shouldn't be until things like cell phones are ubiquitous - this isn't a criticism against crypto it's simply a lack of infrastructure needed to aid crypto in solving every currency need.

Paper money suits people without internet much better than crypto for daily trading - that doesn't mean there is no place for crypto in securing peoples savings. If you want to start saving wealth, you'll probably not want to do that in a society where everyone has cash on hand (which promotes theft) but instead you'll want to make infrequent visits to someone with internet and purchase a cheap device to facilitate savings account types of transactions that you know you can secure easily even in the event your cheap device fails. This property is one of many properties that is extremely valuable for money. Something fiat achieves with large expensive bank infrastructure that even though the concept has existed for at least thousands of years, yet is too expensive to serve people in many many places as this article outlines.

> we already know that Chivo has more users than the banks have fiat accounts in El Salvador.[1]

We know no such thing. 2.7m users is flatly implausible. That is, in fact, the number of downloads.

Chivo has refused to release the number of actually signed-up users. The customer service call centres are ghost towns. The government small business advisory service is telling businesses to install one of the other wallets (Bitcoin Beach or Muun) so they can be technically in compliance with Art. 7 of the Bitcoin Law, to charge the unsubsidised fees to the customer and not hand over the goods until the transaction has gone through.

Local newspapers (Elsalvador.com, El Faro) have detailed at length public complaints about the failures and unreliability of the Chivo network. I urge you to talk to some non-coiner Salvadorans and keep track of local coverage of how it's gone. I've been following this story closely since June and have been doing so.

If you don't want to trust my opinions, read Marc Falzon, @marcfalzon on Twitter - an ardent libertarian bitcoiner who went to El Salvador to see how all of this was actually working out, and discovered an absolute shitshow.

edit: and Bukele just claimed 65,000 transactions in the air in the system every second. If each transaction takes "several seconds" as he says, that's still a claim that Chivo does more business than the entire worldwide Visa network. Someone's feeding him numbers that sound good to him, even though they fall apart under the slightest examination. https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1442624279028408321

>Inflation is theft by central bankers to pay for politician’s desires without openly increasing taxes on the people.

This is weird. Inflation can happen without any central bank activity. Regular banks can lend out money. People can spend their money faster. All of that creates inflation without benefiting the government at all.