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Comment by noodlesUK | Hacker News Reader

I’m curious, what countries are you trying to send money between?

I’ve only ever really transacted with big countries’ currencies (EUR, USD, GBP, etc.), and I’ve found that the ordinary banking systems (especially with fintech like Wise) serve me quite well for this use case. I’d love to hear more about the flipside of that.

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What countries, you ask?? Try being an immigrant from a poor South American/African country and then try the traditional methods wiring money to your rural family who stayed behind. I despise the crypto hype, but sending money via cryptocurrencies is A LOT easier for the poorest people, since cellphones are so widespread now. I know plenty, plenty of poor people in my country who don't have bank accounts but have smartphones. If crypto payments were more widely accepted, a lot of them wouldn't come close to touching a bank.

Yeah with cryptocurrency they would rely on unregulated tech douchebag scum. And they'd still have to exchange those internet coins to real currency.

Sending from US to Ukraine. I tried Wise (and WU) but the UI presented generic errors when attempting payment that didn't indicate what the problem was or how to correct it. The chat assistant was equally vague as to what the problem was.

It could've been my fault, I don't frequently send internationally. But the experience sending crypto was far and away easier and is now my default choice.

There are nations where transferring money into and out of them with the standard systems is extremely expensive and/or can open you up to political persecution. There are other nations where it's just not realistically possible for the ordinary person.

Do you think that fact is due to a technical limitation of fiat? Amenable to a technical solution? Or, is it rather maybe because of rules and regulations (that are roundly ignored by crypto)?

Not the OP, but I've heard that legitimate businesses in Nigeria find it very difficult to carry out international transactions because pretty much every bank flags any transfer to Nigeria as potential fraud.

I live in the US but have family in Poland and Xoom used to work quickly, flawlessly and cheaply (for USD->PLN transfers), but the last few transfers have just never gone through. Had to send it via PayPal which is slower, more expensive, and has worse exchange rates.

Yeah. I work in crypto custody and I use Wise to send money in France.

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