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    I wasted years of my life in crypto

    (twitter.com)
    681 points Anon84 | 17 comments | 07 Dec 25 12:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.283s | source | bottom
    1. donkeylazy456 ◴[08 Dec 25 08:34 UTC] No.46189825[source]▶
    My question is, which real-world problem is actually solved by crypto? All I know is transferring money over the border gets much easier than pre-bitcoin era.
    replies(12): >>46189904 #>>46189910 #>>46189932 #>>46189983 #>>46190034 #>>46190107 #>>46190108 #>>46190139 #>>46190320 #>>46190358 #>>46193307 #>>46193970 #
    2. prmoustache ◴[08 Dec 25 08:44 UTC] No.46189904[source]▶
    Does it really?
    3. pyrolistical ◴[08 Dec 25 08:45 UTC] No.46189910[source]▶
    Allows scammers to avoid money being returned by having no centralized platform.
    4. Imustaskforhelp ◴[08 Dec 25 08:48 UTC] No.46189932[source]▶
    The only real world problem is probably solved by low chain fees where I can hold usdc or gold coins and then pay or recieve payments without too much hassle

    But that again, is such a low niche and something that includes exchanges fees too

    Recently I wanted to get a domain name on black friday so I went to namecheap and paid them 10 $ in crypto, I had to pay 80 cents to an exchange to convert my usdc polygon to btc to then + some btc fees because namecheap just accepted that

    I am a teenager so technically buying this domain pseudo-anonymously (yes I know I can do things with monero too so thus anonymously too) is the only real use case

    I think stablecoins have potential to atleast remove this stripe/paypal/visa/mastercard etc.'s monopoly and allow cheap payments

    Honestly I wish UPI from India or Pix from brazil were implemented at a global scale, they are so good.

    My thoughts are nuanced but since I am a teen and yes I have a bank account but it cant be operated fully until I turn 18 by me, its all just complicated and crypto kinda solves some aspect of it

    But this whole field is niche too and most people who build on these primitives basically build gambling as the author said

    Here are my thoughts on crypto that one time I was on HackerNews on a similar thread and wanted to give a proper space to my thoguhts: https://justforhn.mataroa.blog/blog/most-crypto-is-doomed-to...

    replies(1): >>46192240 #
    5. sakompella ◴[08 Dec 25 08:56 UTC] No.46189983[source]▶
    Purchasing drugs
    6. endorphine ◴[08 Dec 25 09:03 UTC] No.46190034[source]▶
    The problem of not being able to conduct transactions (globally or not) due to state-level censorship. Also called "censorship resistance".
    7. KaiserPro ◴[08 Dec 25 09:13 UTC] No.46190107[source]▶
    In practice is sorta allows reasonably quick bank transfers.

    Something that outside of the US is solved by SWIFT, or the state equivalent of instant bank transfer. Most of the rest of the world has instant, or near instant bank transfers. The US doesn't, it has venmo or similar.

    8. littlecranky67 ◴[08 Dec 25 09:13 UTC] No.46190108[source]▶
    I only refer to bitcoin (and lightning as Layer2), not crypto. Real-world problems will become more relevant if you live in a 2nd or 3rd world country:

    - private (as in privacy) store of value without necesity to build a vault (or trust a 3rd party for storing)

    - Transfer of money by immigrants "back home". Good luck sending money to Cuba or Venezuela right now

    - Micropayments / Webpayments via Lightning (TradFi failed on this) - you can literally send 10cent right now to someone at the other end of the world - or pay for a news article.

    - Decentralized / Ad-free social media like Nostr. Pay with micropayments for everything (hosting, forwarding, micro-donation for content). If you look at how damaging the ad-based social media economy is fighting for engagement and attention, it is obvious society is better of without Instagram/Facebook/Youtube/Tiktok trying to get you to watch more, to get more ad revenue

    - Insurance against dictatorships taking over free democracies. If monetary policy is not done my the government, they can't use it to control the people. In Bitcoin, the people are deciding and voting on monetary policy independent of the government (miners, node runners/validators, acceptance of transfers etc.)

    - Insurance about fiat devaluation (governments printing money)

    9. lionkor ◴[08 Dec 25 09:17 UTC] No.46190139[source]▶
    That's the main legal use-case afaik. If you like travelling to a country that has no banking connection to your country, it might be more convenient to open a bank account or make friends in the target country and move money there via Bitcoin marketplaces. I've seen that plenty of times.
    replies(1): >>46191539 #
    10. balamatom ◴[08 Dec 25 09:41 UTC] No.46190320[source]▶
    Regulatory overreach, for one.
    11. pbkompasz ◴[08 Dec 25 09:47 UTC] No.46190358[source]▶
    There is a lot of money "wasted" on intermediaries due to the closed nature of the global financial system e.g. 3-5% fees for updating a row in a database. Besides those it allows other novel products that traditionally required trusted entities: - p2p lending - reputation systems - p2p insurance Also we have things like Open Banking i.e. sending money instantly for free which banks started implementing in 2015, one year after Ethereum mainnet went live which suddenly allowed people to send fiat money instantly and (almost) free. Banks and fintech companies having competition is a good thing for consumers.
    12. diath ◴[08 Dec 25 12:37 UTC] No.46191539[source]▶
    How does that work? You transfer the money in BTC, you exchange that into real money, you open a new bank account, you deposit that money, the bank's anti-money-laundering detection sees a large deposit to a newly open account and triggers an alert, the bank locks you out of the account and asks you for a proof of income/tax payment, you have no explanation of where that money came from legally, they freeze your account and report you to their local revenue services, you're SOL.
    replies(1): >>46192183 #
    13. lionkor ◴[08 Dec 25 13:49 UTC] No.46192183{3}[source]▶
    Oh yeah, this isn't about large sums, this is about "I need money to live there for a month".

    However, with a lot of BTC trading sites, you get money from real people's accounts, so its not that crazy as long as the amounts are low.

    14. pavlov ◴[08 Dec 25 13:54 UTC] No.46192240[source]▶
    > "buying this domain pseudo-anonymously (yes I know I can do things with monero too so thus anonymously too) is the only real use case"

    The domain registrar is required to have valid contact information for you. Sure, you could lie to them, but then you risk having your account terminated.

    So I'm not sure this is a real use case for crypto.

    replies(1): >>46192832 #
    15. Imustaskforhelp ◴[08 Dec 25 14:49 UTC] No.46192832{3}[source]▶
    I have given my real information to name cheap for what its worth, namely my valid phone number so yes in a way it isn't anonymous.

    Still, I would argue that crypto with things like njal.la and orangehosting etc. kind of allow it to be a real-use

    Personally,So this reduces the "use-case" to basically a bank account for teenagers with (no?) limits and less KYC overall

    16. dewey ◴[08 Dec 25 15:26 UTC] No.46193307[source]▶
    Donating to projects and websites who don't want their PayPal wallet to be locked and can't rely on a bank account.
    17. sowbug ◴[08 Dec 25 16:08 UTC] No.46193970[source]▶
    Digital currencies don't enforce any policy other than avoiding double-spending. (Set aside smart contracts for now.)

    Other online payment methods (Visa, PayPal, Stripe, your bank's ACH, etc.) do. These policies start by disallowing illegal transactions (crime). Then they disallow unfair transactions (buyer claims not to like the quality of the item, etc.). Then they disallow immoral transactions (gambling, pornography, etc.). Then they disallow anything... unseemly? (2022 Freedom Convoy protests, Stripe briefly banning certain legal, non-adult LGBTQ+ transactions in 2025, etc.).

    Is it a problem that your currency-transfer system enforces policy? Many people don't care, but to some, yes, it is a problem. They don't want PayPal telling them what they can and can't do with their hard-earned money, because that's the job of their government, their religion, and their conscience. They want their online cash to behave like offline cash.

    If you were designing a system architecture for value transfer, would your low-level primitives throw policy exceptions, or would you delegate that responsibility higher in the system?