The point of crypto is not "breaking the rules." Bitcoin might be inefficient but its mostly used as a reserve currency these days. Crypto in general, however, is the first currency that is backed neither by its cult value (gold) nor the military and economic strength of the country that prints it (USD), but entirely by technological foundations itself. It is revolutionary, if also very power inefficient. It is effectively reducing the role of the state to an intermediary regulatory body as technology continues to advance to the point where such civil laws are not required. Of course the corporation, as an entity, will come to dominate the world, but that is the natural progression of history and can also be overcome through social and political movements. But not before the state itself, as a political entity, is effectively dissolved.
Every person I’ve ever met who espouses “crypto” sounds like they’re in a cult trying to recruit new members. I can’t recall meeting a person who uses crypto who when asked about it (if they didn’t bring it up first) treated it like “oh, yea, crypto, it’s whatever, you just use it or don’t”.
Have you tried doing an ACH to a friend or paid rent that way recently? Banks force you to Zelle (there are daily/weekly limits) they’re not enough to cover modern rents so you breakup payments. Meanwhile any stable coin transfer can be done in minutes and works better than any payment rail ever.
Edit: I got my landlord to open a Coinbase account because stablecoin payments are way easier (also got a signup bonus for referring a new account)
Yes and no. I can eTransfer in Canada... to a limit of $2,000 CAD daily. Rent is $2,100, so parent's point stands.
I could upgrade my cellphone and use Google Play Services, allowing up to $10,000 CAD daily, but I have no intention of doing so. I think it's messed up to tie my financial and digital sovereignty to a foreign corporation, I don't appreciate the hit to battery life, privacy, and the pre-requisite bump in hardware to run GApps, and I simply don't want to end up on the spending treadmill for new cellphones.
Canada "solved" this, but the limits haven't kept up with inflation or life in general
They kind of are, I'll immediately cop to that. I don't think it's that odd to say the constant upgrade treadmill is expensive though. I also don't appreciate gating features of our society behind smartphone ownership.
My specific concerns are odd. Not appreciating smartphone requirements for life feels more mainstream (if only marginally)
Europe just nixed the general €100K limit on SEPA instant transfers. Before that, you had to split it up or wait 1-2 days for the regular transfer to go through.
How is it not backed by its cult value? It's the same as gold, only valuable if enough people agree that it's valuable. The technical foundations make it cool to think about, but not valuable without a large community of like-minded people.
Crypto actually has all of the same fundamental flaws the person you are replying to claims it liberates people from, they just take slightly different forms.
As you mentioned, like any currency its worth whatever people collectively believe that its worth and nothing more.
And on top of that, while it may not be tied to a singular government like the USD, it is heavily tied to being used in a place with operational telecomm and electricity infrastructure, which requires a functional societal order that the "military and economic strength" the original reply was talking about provides.
