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Comment by xiphias2 | Hacker News Reader

I used it before, but it needs a bank account as far as I know. Right now I'm in Colombia, and most of the people here don't have a bank account, because they know people who were burned by huge late fees.

When I was in Costa Rica a person asked me if I know a bank that doesn't take his money away, because sometimes money just disappears from the bank accounts.

With Bitcoin you can get hacked, you can lose your password, but at least you can really own it, and no bank can just randomly take away your money.

Just a few weeks ago Russia did the same thing for international accounts of people there, which is in the news, but it's happening in lots of 3rd world countries every day.

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> I used it before, but it needs a bank account as far as I know.

Wise Multi-Currency does not, to my knowledge - it is a bank account and provides you banking details in many jurisdictions. The fact your bank charged you late fees isn't a reason not to have a bank, IMO, but to each their own.

> With Bitcoin you can get hacked, you can lose your password, but at least you can really own it, and no bank can just randomly take away your money.

Lots of people get their crypto seized by the government, all the time. At one point the biggest single Bitcoin wallet holders were the FBI and the Bulgarian FBI. It's time to let that narrative go.

> Lots of people get their crypto seized by the government, all the time. At one point the biggest single Bitcoin wallet holders were the FBI and the Bulgarian FBI. It's time to let that narrative go.

Cryptocurrencies are not "backdoored" like the banks as governments cannot order Bitcoin to hand over a specific person's money. While you can bug their keyboards or compromise their OSes etc., the best you can do is a $5 wrench attack if your target is not willing.

Doesn't the lack of a central authority increase the odds that coins, once seized, will be extremely difficult to recover? On par with trying to recover physical cash seized under civil asset forfeiture statutes, at least.

I don't have any direct experience here, but my understanding is that bank and credit accounts are typically frozen, not seized, so the process is easier to reverse.

Siezed by an exchange. When your coins are on an exchange you don't control them.

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