but that only covers conversion, right? Or does IB also allow you to send to arbitrary accounts?
>therefore you need to pay a 1-2% fee at origin [...] and a 1-2% fee at destination.
That's only if you use the managed exchange service. If use the trading interface (ie. placing bids/asks manually), it's much lower. eg. 0.5% for coinbase pro[1], 0.25% for gemini activetrader[2]
[1] https://help.coinbase.com/en/pro/trading-and-funding/trading...
[2] https://gemini.com/fees/activetrader-fee-schedule#section-ac...
If you’re sending comparatively smaller quantities then the delta between that and TransferWise is negligible, and it is a one stop shop.
I am not trying to say that Bitcoin solves every problem. I agree with you that there are many problems it does not solve. The $399 number is disingenuous though, you're ignoring that there are situations where bitcoin really does have lower fees than the alternatives.
There may be times when it’s less expensive, although it is also riskier, just ask the dude who lost $400K to the Quadriaga collapse.
Hardware wallets and safe deposit boxes and multisig let you build a system which is far better than storing your money in an unsecured bank and far less vulnerable to theft/loss than the mattress strategy.
This is so disingenuous it's not even funny.
There are so many countries that US residents can't send to without going through a middleman, which takes a cut. Bitcoin isn't for sending money to CAD, which of course you can do. It really shines to sending money to places that don't have nearly as much financial infrastructure.
A regular wire transfer can take up to 3 days and cost 5-10%.
A bitcoin transaction that takes 1 day is cost 1 satoshi per byte. A satoshi is 1/100,000,000 of a bitcoin. Checking a realtime dashboard (https://bitbo.io), a satoshi is worth $0.00019225.
(2) the countries without infrastructure generally can’t afford to be spending even $6 on a transaction. Venezuela’s minimum wage is $2 per month.
(3) Bitcoin isn't for sending money to CAD, which of course you can do.
Funny how it’s always not for the thing I point out it doesn’t work for haha. Nobody can quite figure out what it is for except speculation and crime.
Bitcoin is a non-sovereign, hard-capped supply, global, immutable, decentralized digital store of value. It’s an insurance policy against monetary and fiscal policy irresponsibility from central banks and governments globally.
After all, Chuck-E-Cheese tokens fit a large part of the definition in part (1). After all they're non-sovereign, limited issuance, global, immutable and decentralized. But you'd be hard pressed to find someone who believes that implies Chuck-E-Cheese tokens are an insurance policy against monetary and fiscal policy irresponsibility from central banks and governments globally.
You’re also leaving out two steps in your calculus that really tilt the scales. You’re not paid in Bitcoin and your recipient cannot spent Bitcoin, therefore you need to pay a 1-2% fee at origin, $6 for a BTC TX, $90 in electricity socialized across the block reward and a 1-2% fee at destination.
Moving $10,000 USD to CAD on the blockchain is roughly $399 not $6.