A lot of that is more a failing of the US financial system than financial systems in general, of course.
In my country (Australia), our Government could deposit money into the bank account that paid their last tax return with in less than a day... We have no transfer fees and real-time transfers (you can link a phone number to your account too). For international, things like TransferWise are pretty compelling and have crazy low fees...
Re:Libra still needs more baking
by fidelramos on Sunday April 26, 2020 @06:13AM
(#22986029)
There are people who don't have and cannot open bank accounts, especially in third-world countries. Cryptocurrencies (I'm talking about Bitcoin and friends) give them a way to receive money from anywhere in the world and store it safely.
Re:Libra still needs more baking
by warkdarrior on Sunday April 26, 2020 @12:17AM
(#22984357)
A digital currency needs an infrastructure to run on, so there will be always fees of some sort. Credit cards have fees, Bitcoin has fees.
It would have the potential to cut a lot of the middlemen out. I always found it curious that with cash we basically take it for granted that there's a ubiquitous, legally guaranteed payment infrastructure but with digital currencies it's more like a splintered set of services that take a quite considerable cut.
Also a very practical, relevant case. In a situation like this corona crisis, there'd be a trivial way to send everyone their 1200 bucks.