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Comment by nostromo | Hacker News Reader

I don't find it convincing at all.

When I was in college, I hated banks. Once I bought a cup of coffee for $2 only to find I had racked up $40 worth of NSF fees accidentally. I'm sure this happens to poor folks all the time. Poor people often don't use banks because banks prey on the poor and often make them poorer.

Why didn't I just use cash? Because I wanted to buy things online, accept payments from others, and didn't want to carry cash around all the time.

If Bitcoin was less volatile, it would actually do a good job of solving some of the issues faced by poorer "underbanked" people.

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I'm with you on all the stuff about why banks are awful. They are awful.

The problem is that it is an incredibly difficult leap to even imagine a potential universe where Bitcoin is better for the people currently victimized by banks. At present, it is massively, catastrophically worse for them. The volatility is only one of a numerous set of problems that apply there.

I'm still interested to see how it will get used to solve real problems, but the protocol itself is at best a single tool that can be used to construct a system that actually helps the poor and the underbanked.

> At present, it is massively, catastrophically worse for them.

It has been less than four years since Bitcoin was invented. Looking at every major invention at age four, how many of them would be unequivocal successes for the group of people that eventually benefitted? Four years after the invention of computer networking, I'm sure computer networks were much worse than libraries for people doing research projects. Likewise with automobiles and travelers, airplanes and travelers, etc.

That sounds exactly like the kind of wishful thinking the OP is railing against. For "retail" folk who are having trouble navigating through regular life without getting screwed by their regular bank account, what does bitcoin offer? Less than nothing. Bitcoins may have their uses, but it is primarily an advantage to very sophisticated persons (or criminals).

>>If Bitcoin was less volatile, it would actually do a good job of solving some of the issues faced by poorer "underbanked" people.

Bitcoin won't help poor people _directly_, but when it stabilizes I can think of at least a few ways it can help them indirectly. Another start-up company with a bitcoin backend challenging Western Union. All the not-wealthy immigrants who want to send money home without western-union's fees. Or maybe even bitcoin credit cards? Avoid the whole Visa/MasterCard infrastructure and whatever fees/rules it has. Of course, I still don't know how to deal with fraud & chargebacks..... so....

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