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Crypto-currencies are faster and the cheaper narrative has collapsed, banks having adopted digital payments in recent years, thus enhancing the customer experience and usability. Of course, buying a beer with a QR code can give you a feeling of warmth and blur, but that's not the problem Bitcoin solves. It's much more than that.
Banks go digital
A few years ago, it was often said that Bitcoins (and other encrypted currencies) would be more competitive than Visa and Mastercard with faster and cheaper transactions.
"We do not think of traders" was a repeated argument in 2014-215 because credit card companies generally charge a service fee of about 3% for the processing of payments.
A few years later, the merchants did not move. They also do not skip over payment-oriented coins, such as Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, and so on. So why did not they stick to Visa and adopted the "crypto"?
Digital fiat payments have become not only more ubiquitous, but also much easier and cheaper. This last factor is partly due to the fact that the costs were offset by sale of customer information to advertisers (which is a topic for another article).
Banks have indeed improved their game in terms of usability with mobile applications, contactless payments, integration into applications, and so on. In fact, it has never been easier to separate from your money than it is today.
My credit card beats your favorite coin
My card, which was given by my bank, is linked to an application on my phone, which allows me to view my balance and track all my balance and history of my transactions. I was impressed when the BTC portfolios did it six years ago. But the banks quickly caught up and beat the crypto-currencies in this area.
The card / app works seamlessly, allowing for contactless payments in the store, on public transport and virtually anywhere Visa / Mastercard cards are accepted, which is literally everywhere.
Of course, discussing Bitcoin is fun and everything. But sometimes, I just want a quick coffee without proselytizing Bitcoin with a barista who is obviously not interested in consensus protocols on resistance to censorship and decentralization.
I should also mention that my bank has excellent customer support. He knows who I am and will prevent anyone from using my account by simply pressing a button on my smartphone. My bank will refund me any money lost due to fraud – which is very rebaduring, unlike this uncomfortable feeling of possibly sending BTC to the wrong address by fault.
Plus, I can send money instantly to my friends at no cost. And why would not it be nil? After all, my bank uses a good old database – not your blockchain that takes a few minutes to confirm.
In other words, big blocks, small blocks, medium-sized blocks – none of this can compete in terms of the speed and efficiency of a centralized database for payments.
My banking app even offers a QR code option for in-person payments if I feel stronger in Bitcoin.
The problem that Bitcoin solves
Bitcoin, however, was not intended to compete with Visa or Paypal. Digital payments were already gaining ground when Bitcoin was born out of the 2008 financial crisis.
Internet commerce has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions acting as trusted third parties to process electronic payments. Although the system works pretty well for most transactions, it still suffers from weaknesses inherent in the trust model.
– Satoshi Nakamoto, white paper on bitcoins
Bitcoin has instead been conceived as an alternative to the central bank system that has always abused public trust. All it takes is an episode of hyperinflationary and the money becomes less valuable than the paper on which it is printed.
Bitcoin's monetary policy, on the other hand, is completely transparent, its supply and rate of inflation are known, and this is the hardest form money to exist. Yes, even more than gold because the mathematical scarcity beats the perceived scarcity.
These attributes make it a monetary technology that did not exist before – and what's more, removes the need to trust any middleman.
In one article titled The problem that Bitcoin solves, economist and The Bitcoin standard the author, Saifedean Ammous, explains:
[Paul Krugman] It seems, incorrectly, to badume that Bitcoin is in competition with consumer payment networks such as Visa or PayPal … That's not why Bitcoin is best suited. Bitcoin is rather an international settlement network that competes with the central bank's settlement systems on which networks such as Visa or PayPal rely.
As a result, the talk about "payments for coffee in the blockchain" is dying because paying for things and accepting digital payments today is not a problem for people.
However, the public also understands slowly why Bitcoin will not go away. Especially in the form of publications like Time articles published in a magazine and entitledWhy Bitcoin is important for freedom » and places like Venezuela demonstrate how Bitcoin literally saves lives.
That's how one of my friends in Venezuela survives. #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/y2nxIualqu
– "Eduardo" (@Codiox) January 28, 2019
This does not mean that payments are not important. This use case, as well as others, will be designed as "applications" exploiting the trusted bitcoin blockchain (eg Lightning Network). But they are secondary to what is really at stake here in a Authoritarian fiat system without cash: financial sovereignty.
Do you think Bitcoin's main role is to preserve financial sovereignty? Share your thoughts below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock
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