This is entirely personal and subjective, but I prefer the user experience of Aave and Yearn to traditional banking with e.g. Chase. I also would way rather make large purchases with crypto (e.g. down payment on a house) compared with wiring money.
I don’t participate in the community. So I’m not sure if the project maintainers have different visions than the investors or whatever.
It’s actually kinda crazy in a “voting yourself money” kinda way. Because as long as people believe that BTC should always increase in value then in the long run the returns should gravitate toward something like the weighted average worldwide inflation rate.
The downside of course is that unlike normal investments they don’t spur the real life economic growth necessary to sustain that inflation.
Wouldn't it indirectly, because people trade bitcoins for USD most of the time, and that USD you'd assume eventually goes to buy products or services?
If you cannot use Bitcoin to quickly pay for your groceries at your local supermarket then it is quite useless to use isn't it?
There are other cryptocurrencies which are more suitable to these very basic use-cases hence why Bitcoin is the easiest cryptocurrency to attack for most critics.
That makes it an official currency: low transaction rates, energy costs, and wild fluctuations relative to other national currencies aside.
Do you have a citation for this? The articles I found online suggest fees are almost universal, with only a single bank (Fidelity) offering true $0 wire transfer fees to all customers [0].
0 - https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/wire-transfers-wh...
HSBC offer free wires for Premier customers. [1]
IBKR offers the first domestic wire per month free, subsequent $10. [2]
Schwab also offers 1 free per month for qualified customers. [3]
Fidelity offers free wires. [4]
FTX offers free wires ("We are not currently charging for wire deposits or withdrawals.") [5]
Chase Premier Plus and Sapphire checking do not charge wire fees. [6]
TD Bank offers 1 free wire transfer per statement cycle. [7]
Citigold accounts offer free wires. [8]
CIT Bank depending on balance. [9]
They're not always free, to be sure - most of the low-end accounts charge for them, but then, those low-end accounts charge for practically everything. That said, TD Bank, Fidelity, Schwab, IBKR all offer at least 1 free wire per month for all customers.
If you have any meaningful balances or monthly income, you shouldn't ever pay for wires. Every retail bank offers free wires for qualifying customers to the best of my knowledge.
[1] https://www.us.hsbc.com/content/dam/hsbc/us/docs/pdf/deposit... p.3
[2] https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=14718
[3] https://www.schwab.com/legal/schwab-pricing-guide-for-indivi...
[4] https://www.fidelity.com/customer-service/choose-eft-or-bank...
[5] https://help.ftx.us/hc/en-us/articles/360043579273-Fees
[6] https://www.chase.com/content/dam/chase-ux/documents/persona...
[7] https://www.feeds.td.com/en/document/oao/pdf/1_fees.pdf
[8] https://online.citi.com/US/JRS/pands/detail.do?ID=WireTransf...
For arguments sake I will point out the downsides to using crypto in this case:
1. Most people don't want to manage their own wallet
2. USDC is centralized so there is some amount of risk
3. If you send it to the wrong wallet, RIP to your money
FWIW, I was just as scared of sending the wire transfer to the wrong place as I was when I send crypto. And with crypto you can quickly send a small test amount first. You can use something like DAI which is less centralized than USDC if that risk is a concern. Wallet UX will improve over time
When i bought my home in the UK six years ago, i phoned my bank, told them how much i wanted to send and to who, and they did it, with the money arriving straight away. If the amount had been less than 20k, i could have done it online rather than over the phone; the back-end payment machinery is the same, but i suppose the bank think there's less chance of a normal customer making a mistake with a large transfer if someone walks them through it. My bank is rather old-fashioned; more modern banks let you make large transfers online or through their app:
https://www.starlingbank.com/blog/high-value-payments/
That page mentions that "one of our team members may need to double check a few details before the payment can be made" - again, that's nothing to do with the machinery, that's in case you match some pattern looking for fraud or money laundering etc.
I have a US bank and I can send wires online. It's really not uncommon. I don't understand how or why the OP is banking with an outdated bank an hour away from his house when there are good options that can be accessed entirely online.
There are a lot of behind-the-times banks in the US, though. If you're stuck in one, considering switching.
You really need to switch to a modern bank that doesn't force you to go in person to do a wire. That's insanity.
Fidelity has free wire transfers, no need to go into a bank: https://www.fidelity.com/customer-service/choose-eft-or-bank...
Far easier and safer than anything crypto has to offer.
Not to mention that it’s a complete fantasy to expect all but the tiniest number of sellers to accept crypto today, so the comparison is between something that exists today and works very well, and something that is only imaginary.
After seeing the other comments I guess this wire transfer issue is specific to the US. I agree that a tiny number of sellers would accept crypto payment today, but what do you mean exactly when you say it is "only imaginary"? Transferring USDC is very real and exists today. I don't expect the average person to ever transfer USDC the way it is done today, it would be a terrible user experience. But I'm trying to figure out the disconnect between what I see as a powerful financial primitive and what you see as imaginary
Therefore the service you are comparing against is one that only exists in your imagination, and is not real today.
Which are all reasons why someone makes you drive to the nearest bank.
As others have pointed out, these issues are highly US centric, as sending money in the UK/EU can be done almost instantaneously. And so, if they can be done almost instantaneously in other countries it means the technology is not the barrier, but the politics. Thus crypto's only advantage is not a technology one, but a political/market/bureaucratic one.
One good thing about crypto is that if it does take off and becomes a legitimate threat to wire transfers, then banks will change their tune VERY quick, and then once that system is in place then we can have all of the nice things that help protect your money in a US bank accountant (FDIC insurance, access to financing, fraud protection, etc.) with the advantages of crypto.
There is a reason the Winkelvoss twins store their crypto wallet pass-phrases in bank vaults.
For the record - I have my own thoughts about how bad the US finance system is, but I think crypto advocates love to ignore why these systems exist in the first place.
It is. The moment any of those fictional tokens are used for anything other than meaningless exchanges with other fictional tokens, they are worthless. For now they are only perpetuating their perceived self-worth.
> It's like saying the stock market is worthless
Stock market is almost entirely worthless. It's the same speculation not rooted in objective reality.
Ah yes. The fictional thoughtful replies that are as rare as examples of projects where blockchains solve anything.
> or the gap between us is bigger than can be solved in this medium.
Or, perhaps, the reply wasn't as thoughtful as you thought it was. Or, perhaps, you could post it as a blogpost to narrow the gap.
But nope.
Why would you ever sell an appreciating asset when you can borrow USD against it and wire it free of charge?
For a purchase that large, I would rather make it in person. With a check. Which is way more secure than crypto or a wire transfer.
Bad checks have other ways of being dealt with through legal means. There's no reason to doubt the check held (and handed over) isn't good.
But everybody is happy with a _cashier's check_. Admittedly you have to go physically get those, which kinda sucks. Or wire the money to the title company instead, which I personally prefer over carrying around a piece of paper worth $75k (or whatever).
It’s incredible to me that you think a piece of paper and human contact is secure.
The security comes from the capacity of the banks to hold or reverse them, and the capacity of the legal system to jail people for check fraud.
Both parties have to be present in person and sign the documents in front of a notary that also collect copies of the checks emitted directly by the bank at the moment and write down their id number on the deeds
Asking because I don't know, and because I suspect it takes longer than I'd like if I'm trying to get my payment in first to secure the item (like I have had to do when buying used cars from private parties.)
Regardless, the reversibility aspect has both positives and negatives. It does allow you to reverse transactions, but with the added complexity of the transaction not really settling until after that reversibility period passes. If I receive a crypto transfer (ex: a stablecoin), I can know that the money is actually mine within a few minutes, and can't be taken back. There are major benefits to that.
On the other hand, if a crypto transaction has any errors, the money is instantly lost forever, and nobody can help you.
There is no upside to that at all.
Irreversibly transferring funds and having complete ownership of them once they are in your possession is a huge feature.
Someone defrauded you, and you were able to recover the money.
With crypto, when you get defrauded, you will never see the money again. If you think there is no fraud in crypto, I have some things to sell you.
Your argument amounts to the same as relying on the police to return your car after it has been stolen and then declaring that as security.
Your argument amounts to claiming you have a car that is impossible to steal, and yet becomes permanently inoperable if you press the wrong button on the dashboard.
Being able to recover stolen property is a good thing, you know?
Wiring even large amount of money in EU online banking was definitely easier than anything I have seen in crypto world.
Recently purchased a home with a loan from aave polygon and it was pretty painless.
You could scale all money numbers (not durations please) by a factor if you prefer.
I'm interested to see a real-life example
There are no repayment terms per say, just interest charged on the loaned amount.
Aave has variable interest on stables that varies between 7-4% and they offer an incentive bonus of about 3% MATIC, making the effective rate 1-4%.
My loan to value rate is around 35%, which gives me a very healthy liquidation buffer in case the market gets even more volatile.
My collateral is mostly BTC and ETH, with smaller holding of MATIC and AVAX.
It’s a really nice system, I get to keep my crypto holdings and extract real world value. Paying 1% interest on a loan backed by assets that are appreciating 100% a year feels really good.
As an additional safety precaution I wrote a smart contract to liquidate some of my other positions if I am ever at risk of being liquidated by Aave to avoid the liquidation penalty.