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Comment by r_hoods_ghost | Hacker News Reader

I live in the UK. I can send money instantly anywhere in the EU for nothing via SEPA and frequently do. That covers 28 countries. If I do want to send money to someone in another country I can use paypal, or for larger sums, one of the myriad international wire services that are regulated by the FCA and where I have recourse if something goes wrong.

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A common refrain I hear in these threads is "I live in $COUNTRY and I trust their banking system". Do you think that's equally true for everyone on earth? Because if not, you're only explaining why it's not useful for you personally, and not why it's not useful in general.

So why are all the crypto businesses advertising to $COUNTRY and not to the places with unreliable banking? I suspect a Willie Sutton -like answer.

Why do you think crypto businesses are not advertising in other countries?

Are you saying they are? Even if they are, it's beside the point; they are paying for massive amounts of advertising in countries that have functional banking systems.

I think everything crypto companies do is beside the point. Satoshi created a system where you can be self-sovereign and not have to trust anyone. And now these companies want you to forget about all that silly trustlessness, and trust them, so they can take a cut of your money. So you should, almost tautologically, ignore anything they say on TV. By a similar principle, you shouldn't base your opinion of gold's value on those cash4gold commercials.

I hate crypto as much as the next guy, but try sending some money to Iran and see how well that goes. There's a legitimate use there for people with families in tumultuous countries.

A legitimate, small use case.

More legitimate than pretty much the entirety of web advertising.

Really the only use case for crypto is breaking/avoiding the law in some way.

I've had domestic wires held up for days just to go through yet another KYC when wiring between two already KYC'd accounts. If the authorities decide to civil asset forfeiture it in the process, the recourse is to pour 10s of thousands in lawyers and just maybe get the money back after the legal process eats half of it and my life gets looked over by a fine tooth comb because some middle-aged fat belly government man who's entire self worth is how much he can seize without the decency of a criminal trial had his feelings hurt that the citizen had a minor win.

So I don't think wire is necessarily a perfect substitute. There are different ways to get fucked and you have to decide which risk looks most palatable for each individual transaction. It's sort of a pick between a traditional finance system set up to fuck the little guy or the crypto landscape which is a fraud fest wild-west of living at your own peril.

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