hh on Nostr: One of the important reasons why I think BTC's main value proposition is as a store ...
One of the important reasons why I think BTC's main value proposition is as a store of value and not as a payment system is that it's simply not needed for that.
I get it -- migrants sending money through Western Union paying fees through their asses. But BTC is not required to fix that.
I use Wise and can transfer instantly between actual bank accounts in different currencies at insignificant cost. I get paid by my US clients by ACH. Instant and free. I switch to my local currency for virtually nothing and transfer to my own Wise and non-Wise accounts for free.
Most important, the transaction costs are fixed and knowable. They don't change depending on whether some prick is minting PepeCumInADogsAss memecoin tokens or China banning BTC mining again.
If the transfer is to another Wise user all I need is their email address and it's also instant.
I have transferred to accounts using ACH, SEPA, whatever it is called in Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Chile... and it's instant.
And traditional banks have caught up too. Instant and FREE transfers within the same bank have been a thing for many years now.
Now they're a thing between different banks too, at least where I am. I just paid a bill by instant SEPA to another bank. Instant and free -- under the "legal threshold" of €900 at least.
My point being, Bitcoin does NOT fix this particular thing, because that's just not what it does well.
What it does well is preserving the purchase power of my Argentinian family in a hyperinflationary context, and allowing me to move from country to country carrying (or really, not carrying) all my net worth with me without any predatory State thug being able to shake me down.
I get it -- migrants sending money through Western Union paying fees through their asses. But BTC is not required to fix that.
I use Wise and can transfer instantly between actual bank accounts in different currencies at insignificant cost. I get paid by my US clients by ACH. Instant and free. I switch to my local currency for virtually nothing and transfer to my own Wise and non-Wise accounts for free.
Most important, the transaction costs are fixed and knowable. They don't change depending on whether some prick is minting PepeCumInADogsAss memecoin tokens or China banning BTC mining again.
If the transfer is to another Wise user all I need is their email address and it's also instant.
I have transferred to accounts using ACH, SEPA, whatever it is called in Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Chile... and it's instant.
And traditional banks have caught up too. Instant and FREE transfers within the same bank have been a thing for many years now.
Now they're a thing between different banks too, at least where I am. I just paid a bill by instant SEPA to another bank. Instant and free -- under the "legal threshold" of €900 at least.
My point being, Bitcoin does NOT fix this particular thing, because that's just not what it does well.
What it does well is preserving the purchase power of my Argentinian family in a hyperinflationary context, and allowing me to move from country to country carrying (or really, not carrying) all my net worth with me without any predatory State thug being able to shake me down.