Hacker News Reader

Comment by SavantIdiot | Hacker News Reader

Good. No one is really using any cryptocurrency for anything other than gambling or illegal activities.

Prove me wrong: who in their right mind would spend any crypto any literally anything right now when the price is going up and down like crazy?

View on HN

I use crypto to do international transfers to Argentina. It's cheaper. I also get a way better rate that way. I try to do it as fast as possible due to the quickly changing rate you mentioned.

I'm genuinely curious if You find it cheaper including transferring from your currency, to crypto-currency-x, blockchain fee, crypto-currency-x to argentinian peso than transferwise or any of it's competitors? I think they're like $5 and 1.5% to transfer. If you remitted money early this week it probably wiped out any of the savings from the whole year I would guess?

The issue is that when I transfer via international bank transfer I'm subject to pretty steep taxes on the Argentinian bank account. Plus the cost of doing the transfer, which was not cheap (about 40 euro for the sender). Also, most transfer systems convert your currency using the official rate, which is fixed by the government.

On the other side, if I use crypto, the value of my bitcoins (well, my fraction of a bitcoin) is decided not by the government but by the market. That alone makes a difference of between 33% and 60% of the transfer amount.

For example, right now officially an euro is 115 ARS. But non-officially is 184 ARS.

Very interesting, thanks for the response!

Another thing, when I started I used bitcoin, but lately fees are pretty steep so I switched to litecoin which has way lower fees.

This is a very closed minded view. Just because you and most people in the USA don't see a use outside of speculation, there are many suffering countries that find great use in Bitcoin as an escape from their crumbling currencies. Check your privilege.

> Check your privilege.

You do not understand what privilege means. We are talking about cryptocurrency, not institutional racism or sexism, or other cases where power structures are used to oppress a minority group of people. That is the context for using the term privilege, and Bitcoin is nowhere near that context.

Plus if someone has the technological capability to access bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, they are most likely already privileged.

Putting aside your flippant attempts to weaponize wokeness (yes, I read your other posts), I'm open to understanding how Bitcoin is helping lift people out of poverty in developing nations. Care to cite some real world examples?

I am talking about "financial privilege", not the other versions of privilege you describe. Yes, it is a thing. Please, point out to me comments where I weaponize wokeness. With every comment I am trying to guide the discussion around crypto in a more rational direction, which on HN is nearly impossible these days.

Many critics don't see a use in Bitcoin and want to "shut it down" because of its energy use and volatility, and can't even imagine how useful it is to people whose currencies suffer from even more mismanagement and volatility/inflation.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/check-your-financial-pri...

I'm using skepticoin for something other than gambling or illegal activities... namely to prove that cryptocurrency is nonsense.

I’ve used crypto to donate to a few places, as well as buying a few other mundane things. I’m a tech worker in the U.S.

Taking of advantage of yield farms where 5-20% APY is the norm and a relatively safe place to hold stablecoins.

DeFi space is growing fast and has real-world applications. Compound, Curve, Synthetix, Maker, and Internet Computer are a few of the DeFi promising protocols.

Holding Bitcoin is not necessarily a bad store of value. https://casebitcoin.com/

I also hold USDC earning interest, but I also am very aware there are risks. However, risk should be obvious since I am earning 8.6% APY.

What's a "yield farm"? As far as I know yield is not farmed.

I accepted Bitcoin as payment for a service– I received $X at the current BTC-USD exchange rate.

> Prove me wrong

OK. I've edited Everipedia articles and got paid in IQ tokens for my contributions.

Privileged take. You probably get paid in or have access to the USD or EUR.

Consider majority of the world doesn't.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/check-your-financial-pri...

If you have the means to access bitcoin, and can withstand the radical swings in exchange rate, you are already privileged.

What privilege? Can't you be more explicit?

I mean, I think they were pretty clear: the privilege of having ready access to/being paid in USD or EUR.

(I don't particularly endorse their view, but I did think their statement was clear enough.)

I don't see how having access/being paid in USD or EUR is a "privilege", or the connection this supposed privilege has with crypto-currencies.

They were pretty clear - the privilege of having direct access to USD or EUR.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com