> You could look up a stock quote right away instead of looking at an outdated quote in the paper, or calling a broker on the phone, or having a dedicated fancy service just for that. You could email a friend half way around the world. You could read the full text of a book for free, if it was from before 1923. In general, you could transmit information freely and cheaply across the world -- as long as both recipient and sender were on the internet somehow.
I'm skeptical of crypto as well...but when reading your post about the internet it actually reminded me more of crypto than not.
Although the internet looks revolutionary in retrospect, it may have felt incremental at the time -- because the telephone already existed. Sending an email vs. making a phone call. Driving 30 mins to the library vs. using an internet browser.
What about sending money to a friend in Germany today? Sure, it can be done. But it's going to take several days, involve currency conversions, fees, and likely some phone calls. With crypto they just need to message you an Ethereum address and it's done.
What about sending $20k from one US bank account to another? It still takes 3 days. Isn't the crypto speedup as significant as emailing a friend vs. making a phone call?
Actually, I can Venmo or Paypal people instantly, not in 3 days... and everyone I would want to send money to (people I know IRL in my country, or businesses worldwide who are legally able to sell to me in my country) is able to use it.
You make a fair point in theory, but this kind of superficial thinking is what crypto shills count on (no offense, I see this kind of argument a lot).
Here's the difference: With crypto, that speed comes at a huge and disturbing cost-- the inability to reverse a fraudulent transaction and appeal to the court system to fix other misunderstandings. Sorry, but it turns out that's essential to everyday business, not "silly" friction. There have been many cases demonstrating this by now, not to mention the huge enablement of ransomware, etc.
Crypto is never going to be able to solve that problem because if they do, they stop being crypto, by definition. The friction exists for legal and regulatory reasons. If the legal regime wants to make instant transfers possible, well they can, which is why you can now Venmo or PayPal people instantly. With the right treaties and such, it would be possible internationally too. The technology is there, but the political will isn't.
Crypto gets around needing that, which seems nice, but the cost is too great for anyone but hobbyists, criminals, and speculators. It's no different from a car company being able to undercut all other manufacturers by not including seat belts, air bags, or brakes. Cool proof of concept, but of limited utility except for niche applications like NASCAR.
If I actually need to send money to my friend in Germany, I will use Western Union (or whatever the modern cheaper quicker equivalent is -- a lot of movement in this space lately!). It will be same day, it will cost a small fee, and the small fee will probably be worth it to avoid the risk of scam, theft, and crypto volatility.
Idk about that. Some of the more mass appeal stuff of those days (you can look up stock quotes and movie times, etc blah blah) like I mentioned, was definitely more incremental.
But having access to such huge volumes of information that could not necessarily be found anywhere else was a big deal. You could download a long text file explaining how to hack the phone system. That would not be in any library or bookstore, at any price. Not to mention communities of people. You could discuss things that were very niche, something people take for granted today.
Crypto hasn't done anything qualitatively different like that. It just lets you send money instantly, and with no recourse if you made a mistake or got tricked or your counterparty fails to perform and isn't in your jurisdiction.
PS: Sorry for the double reply, not sure if that's a faux pas, but they were about very different aspects
I'm skeptical of crypto as well...but when reading your post about the internet it actually reminded me more of crypto than not.
Although the internet looks revolutionary in retrospect, it may have felt incremental at the time -- because the telephone already existed. Sending an email vs. making a phone call. Driving 30 mins to the library vs. using an internet browser.
What about sending money to a friend in Germany today? Sure, it can be done. But it's going to take several days, involve currency conversions, fees, and likely some phone calls. With crypto they just need to message you an Ethereum address and it's done.
What about sending $20k from one US bank account to another? It still takes 3 days. Isn't the crypto speedup as significant as emailing a friend vs. making a phone call?