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Re:Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later by jki275 on Sunday November 24, 2019 @12:44PM (#21621966)
You'd be surprised by the existence of m-pesa then, which has revolutionized finance among the unbanked in Africa.

m-pesa isn't a cryptocurrency in the same mold that bitcoin is, but it's electronic money for the unbanked that you're arguing can't exist.

Re:Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later by Nursie on Sunday November 24, 2019 @02:33PM (#21622715)
m-pesa fits virtually none of what the parent said about cryptocurrency.
Re:Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later by jki275 on Sunday November 24, 2019 @03:18PM (#21623050)
The point of the OP was that he believes electronic money cannot benefit the unbanked.

It's wrong. The exact details of bitcoin aren't the right thing for it, but there are many cryptocurrencies that are more like m-pesa in their use requiremnts than they are bitcoin.

Re:Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later by notahacker on Sunday November 24, 2019 @03:44PM (#21623244)
No, my point is that unlike M-Pesa, cryptocurrencies do not have a trained, regulated agent in every village who will reliably exchange them for local cash at a fixed rate. The centralisation is fundamental to its success - probably only the mobile providers or maybe a money transfer network like Western Union could have pulled it off.

M-Pesa would not have succeeded in helping the unbanked if people living in remote villages needed to set up a mining rig or navigate to Coinbase.com and enter debit card details to obtain it. There'd be no reliable way for most unbanked people to get it or get rid of it. And since the unbanked world needs the network of regulated agents offering cash conversion and really can't afford for their assets to be backed by speculator optimism rather than legal tender in a trusted party's bank account or vault, there's really not much advantage in building that trusted centralised entity's database in something as computationally expensive as a blockchain. Certainly it's not lack of blockchain technology that's been the obstacle to people from creating more electronic money transfer service for the unbanked.

Re:Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later by Nursie on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @02:38AM (#21636315)
> The point of the OP was that he believes electronic money cannot benefit the unbanked.

Not really, if you read what you replied to it says that none of the unbanked have cards to buy it with, and that they don't need to be risking what little they have on "unregulated, complicated and easily stolen intangible financial assets which wealthy foreigners invented to print themselves money."

That doesn't describe M-Pesa, but it does describe cryptocurrency.