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Comment by throwaway12245 | Hacker News Reader

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throwaway12245·

Cash, checks, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, barter.

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> Cash

Slowly being phased out.

> checks

Already spotty usage.

> Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover

Censorship possible.

> barter

Viable, but foolish considering it's cumbersome and we live in an age where perfectly viable technological solutions exist. It's like having an iron but pressing your shirts between books out in the sun.

> Crypto

Viable, but foolish considering it's cumbersome.

My definition of "cumbersome" above is tradeability. Bitcoin can be transferred to anyone in the world in a few minutes (w/ on-chain confirms in ~10-60m or lightning confirms instantly).

I've done business with people all of the world in places that have weak or non-existent banking thanks to Bitcoin. None of the above options made that possible.

Where can't you use cash?

The internet, with extremely few exceptions.

you can load a prepaid card at cvs/walgreens with cash, which can be used for most things

That 100% falls into the aforementioned category of Mastercard/Visa, where censorship is possible.

I see where you're coming from, but do these require you to register? Do they need a billing address? Whats stopping someone from just getting a new one?

Censorship need not be targeted at the consumer/buyer, it can be targeted at the merchant/seller too. Even though you can obtain such cards anonymously, the fact that they still utilize those corporate payment networks means those corporations can block all transactions being sent to targeted merchants without needing to know the identity of the customers.

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