Until someone comes up with a better solution for cross border payments ($150T market), I don't think bitcoin/crypto will go away
For 100 USD in goods, I could have to send AUD cross border to receive 100 USD and then definitely have to send 100 USD cross border to China - nominally triggering 200 USD in payment volume for 100 USD in GDP.
And then for companies using a Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich... well, the volume adds up.
Crypto still isn't the answer though.
I regularly ship 5-6 digits between countries. It's not even hard.
And I do it without gas fees (there's paying the spread, but if I'd use cryptocurrency then I'd have to pay the spread twice).
And I can do it without the fear of a mistake, or a hack (of me or the bank), taking away the deposit on my house.
The proposed cure is worse than the disease.
Maybe the average nonprivileged will succeed once or twice, but this is like going to Vegas and using the martingale system: It'll make you win consistently, right up to the point where you lose everything you have.
I've always found the "what about the third world" arguments bizarre. As if villages and huts are filled with technical geniuses who will never lose their passwords.
And if not wallet keys, then all the blockchain mini-banks who give you no recourse if you lose your second factor, and don't have to because they're not regulated.
And that's the mini-banks who aren't plain rugpulls, or get hacked.
The people who are privileged enough to successfully be able to use cryptocurrencies are also privileged enough to even more successfully use proper banking.
Please review the HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I will not engage further.
Is there current crypto solutions that work better than something like transferwise if i wanted to transfer USD to EUR for instance? (cheaper?, faster?, simpler?, reliable?)
Except in one aspect: Because cryptocurrency for these purposes at best use a loophole in AML/KYC laws, at worst just plain break them, if you do it right there's less risk of getting caught (guilty or innocently) in mandated money laundering tripwires.
I've had banks call me about source of funds, and sometimes require proof, for large "unusual" transactions. I was an innocent victim of these audits. It delayed my transactions by maybe minutes.
Yes, probably some percentage of people who've lost money, through no fault of their own, to these extra checks. But for every single one of those there are at least thousands who've lost cryptocurrency due to them not having these checks and audits.
And on top of that of course cryptocurrency transactions are much fewer and move less value.
It's not just faster on the front end. It settles pretty much instantly on the back end as well, so no counter party risk like in the case of using banks.