this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
1643 points (96.4% liked)
Microblog Memes
5726 readers
1359 users here now
A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.
Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.
Rules:
- Please put at least one word relevant to the post in the post title.
- Be nice.
- No advertising, brand promotion or guerilla marketing.
- Posters are encouraged to link to the toot or tweet etc in the description of posts.
Related communities:
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
fake money for criminals is just money in general, at least some crypto currencies don't allow for tracking
The problem is that, as something that is used first and foremost as a speculation vehicle, crypto can't really be a true currency replacement. The amount of deflation, and instability, crypto see, due to the design, basically prevents it from ever being a true replacement for contemporary money.
Now, having a block chain credit system that's availability is not derived in the way that current crypto is could very well be one. Just not what we are being offered now.
Its been increasingly popular among the unbanked, as it grants a lot of the functions of the modern financial system at a marginally lower cost than check cashing companies and payday lenders without requiring the participant to be considered "credit worthy" by the transacting institution.
You can have a digital wallet and make digital transactions and you don't need to carry a giant wade of cash on you all the time, even if a traditional financial institution wouldn't touch you. That's a boon for crooks, sure. Its also a boon for people working in the gray market - migrant laborers sending money home to family, state-legal pot/mushroom dealers who don't have federal sanction and can't use normal banks, gig workers and other contractors, international workers and businesses needing a universal currency to trade against. And its a boon for the working poor, particularly folks who don't have a physical bank nearby.
Because the currency has material benefits for the unbanked (and therefore legally vulnerable) population, it becomes a popular place to ply scams and grifts and other dirty financial tricks precisely because you know the people you're fleecing will have no legal recourse after the fact. But that's the parasitic nature of second class citizenship.
You're not vulnerable because you're using crypto nearly so much as you're vulnerable because you're denied access to traditional banks and courts.
So it is a replacement for Western Union. Not a bad thing if it's helping people transfer money without a middle man taking too much.