Cryptocurrencies are definitely an “Innovator’s Dilema” situation when it comes to general use. It’s much worse than the established solutions. It’s confusing, error-prone, unreliable, cheap and janky. It’s also not a great business case for the establishment who are currently making billions and billions serving very rich customers.
But... it also brings financial service options to people who have no opinions or only truly awful options.
If you are a non-homeless American, you don’t need crypto. American banks are bending over backwards to serve you. But, if you are a homeless American. Or if you are one of the unbanked billions around the world. Or, if you are a Venezuelan, Nigerian, etc... then the establishment is either dismissing you or actively working to screw you.
Crypto can bring tremendous value to all of them while bringing very little to the establishment by simply acting as a PayPal alternative for the extreme poor. If it manages to survive that, it will get better and better. Eventually it will creep up to becoming useful for rich westerners.
> if you are one of the unbanked billions around the world.
I think I can buy that. The unbanked could become centrally-banked like all of us as their countries develop, but there is a competition between that and the cryptocurrency which could wedge itself in at this point and outcompete the local government simply because the government is small and lacks in experience (maybe corrupt too). Another contender here is WeChat and similar centralized payment technologies, but they too are hamstrung by their own current governments (I'm sure that Payapal is) giving breathing room to competition.
It is not obvious to me which one of the three will win among the unbanked.
Crypto is a pain to use even if you have a bank account, passport to scan and so on. I doubt many of the unbanked will use it to join the financial system. There is more promise from payment systems like M-Pesa, or new semi banks like Revolute I think.
In the long run I think banks will win amongst the unbanked.
You’re still thinking like a mainframe salesman scoffing at PC’s ;) Crypto doesn’t require a bank account, passport, etc... The establishment requires that. A hope is that like the third world skipped telephone lines straight to cellphones, they will skip being dicked around by The National Bank of Venezuela and JCMorgan Chase & Partners, Ltd. and go straight to self-sovereign value exchange.
But... it also brings financial service options to people who have no opinions or only truly awful options.
If you are a non-homeless American, you don’t need crypto. American banks are bending over backwards to serve you. But, if you are a homeless American. Or if you are one of the unbanked billions around the world. Or, if you are a Venezuelan, Nigerian, etc... then the establishment is either dismissing you or actively working to screw you.
Crypto can bring tremendous value to all of them while bringing very little to the establishment by simply acting as a PayPal alternative for the extreme poor. If it manages to survive that, it will get better and better. Eventually it will creep up to becoming useful for rich westerners.