First you acted like the unbanked argument was nonsense, and then I showed you a map with countries all over the earth with over 1.5 billion unbanked people. So you ignore the map and act like I'm just talking about Nigeria or El Salvador. Look at the orange dots and tell me if that's "a few basket case dysfunctional countries". Furthermore, I'm sure if you lived in Greece, Turkey, Argentina, or many other countries that have experienced collapsing currencies and corrupt governments, you'd probably have a different outlook. An unbanked person doesn't have to be broke or in a remote location. They could easily be someone that has money but no confidence to store their resources in their own country's financial system. Bitcoin represents hope for these people that their money won't just go poof and get stolen overnight.
https://decrypt.co/29949/crypto-blockchain-bitcoin-transaction-fees Average Bitcoin transaction fees up over 2,000% in 2020. The average cost of sending transactions on the Bitcoin network has increased by 2,213% since the turn of the year. That’s according to data from Bitinfocharts, which shows that average Bitcoin transaction fees climbed as high as $6.64 on May 20. That’s the highest average cost of a Bitoin transaction since July 2018—almost two years ago. At the turn of the year, average fees were as low as $0.28—marking a 2,213% spike since January 1. The fees I pay at my bank (for FIAT payments) are still ZERO for the last decades.
Totally valid argument. Now why would someone who lives in garbage currency country move to Bitcoin? Because it's a safer investment? Bitcoin swings 50% one way or another in matter of days and weeks and months. Is it because government can't reach it for tax purposes? That's precisely what Bitcoin shouldn't be if it wants to have legitimacy. Is it because it's safer from being stolen? Maybe but not really from a non tech savvy individual... So back to square 1, why would anyone, other than for speculative trading purpose, want to swap their hard earned currency for something that can't be used for daily expenses, is as volatile as their currency (albeit swings either way), is on everyone's radar for tax evasion, and could be scammed lost in a flash? I see no market. I see greatly profitable speculative trading ( I own Bitcoins) while it lasts.
It is not as simple as you describe. I have family in a corrupt country with a collapsing currency, and I see/saw the practical problems. Most people try to make some money and get paid in USD as that money is available in all banks. They keep USD in cash and go to banks when they need to exchange USD for local currency to by food and other essentials. If they want to change their USD for BTC, they need a wallet, mobile phone... For the huge majority not possible. As there are no shops where you can pay with BTC, you have to change BTC for the local currency and you need a bank account as they cannot change BTC at a ATM. The government will see (get noticed) if they see money coming in on that bank account. In many of these poor countries BTC is forbidden or they make at least trouble if they catch you. They want to protect the local currency. As most of the people in these countries are very poor, they have to be careful with their money. They cannot afford crashes like last week as they would not have enough money left to buy food. Their money would be worth 50% in 24 hours causing huge financial problems. With the USD they don't have that problem. And the USD is continuously rising against the weak local currency. The only people who can work with BTC are the rich people. They represent just a few % of the population. And they have almost all a multi currency account or an account abroad. No need for BTC. They do their business in EURO or USD and have no impact from the local weak currency.
Within the EU zone I pay ZERO. We speak about 99% of all my payments. I even put money in my trading account in the US (thru a bank in London) also with ZERO cost. Withdrawals cost me the fee the broker asks, but again ZERO cost for the transaction. My payments outside the EU zone represent on average maybe 1% of all my payments, so very small cost. And then take the BTC risk for this small amount of money? No, thanks. I guess that the average American even makes less than 1% of his payments by international wire transfer.
So all those poor Africans want to send money to their American cousins?? I don't mind a quick and cheap international crypto transfer vehicle, but Bitcoin failed at that. Why not use Litecoin for example?: Average tx fee: LTC 3 cents BTC $14 Slight difference... They try to fix Bitcoin when there are much better, faster, cheaper, less wasteful, etc. alternatives already. Consider the tx / seconds: "NEO can process 1000 transactions per second with an average confirmation time of 15 Seconds."
LTC is certainly a possibility. I definitely thought that XRP was going to be the commercial crypto vehicle to take that role before the SEC lawsuit screwed it up. But there's no doubt that eventually one of these cryptocurrencies is going to rise above the rest and become the global standard.
Quick question. If you don't have any interest in crypto whatsoever and you think it's all risky and worthless for much of anything, why do you keep participating in all these crypto threads?
I made a transfer last night and I'm generous with the fees as I want it to be in the next block or 2. It was less than $5 fees. A few hours before that was a different transfer and it was less than $4 I could have paid less The problem with getting your figures from other people is that you're relying on false information, Pekelo Actually do some transfers with bitcoin and tell us what your fees are instead of putting bogus numbers Fee: 0.00012326 BTC ( 87.4 sat/byte ) Fee: 0.00010179 BTC ( 91.7 sat/byte )