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Comment by pavlov | Hacker News Reader

Because there are no fees or middlemen in crypto.

Never mind that it costs $50 worth in fees to send a penny on Ethereum, and I need to convert my money to casino tokens on some scammy exchange first.

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You can use any other blockchain. Why pick Ethereum?

It doesn't matter, all blockchains work the same way. They all depend on middlemen to process transactions.

Not in the same sense. If I use Paypal for example, I can only spend my funds in whatever they decide I should be able to spend it on. They can freeze my account at any point in time, no questions asked.

With crypto, the blockchain is just the infrastructure and no one can stop me from using my money.

Sometimes I wonder if people defending this kind of financial services are actually users. Doesn't seem so.

Paypal is a legal entity and therefore subject to the same laws as you and me. They can't just do whatever they please. If they did prevent their customers from spending their own money or they freezed their accounts for no apparent reason, they wouldn't have any customers.

Transaction processors on blockchains are not infrastructure, they are businesses and they can absolutely choose to not process your transactions.

I regularly send Bitcoin txes for sub $1. I buy with 0 fees on strike. Strike supports lightning withdrawals, too so I can withdraw and spend with 0 in fees basically immediately.

Isn't strike a middle man?

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