Re:Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments
by vmception on Tuesday May 03, 2022 @10:54AM
(#31249110)
One of the flaws of policy circles is that they assume the unbanked are victims. The term, for that sector, is a proxy for the desire and recognition of people lacking access to capital and services, which is what the policy circle really wants to occur and being in the banking system had been the route to that for so long.
Now it is not necessary, with peer to peer digital cash operating in a parallel economy, that allows access to goods, services, investments, insurance, capital and more.
Re:Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments
by throwaway4good on Tuesday May 03, 2022 @10:21AM
(#31248637)
In crypto circles it is also code word for "criminals".
As in for example "banking the unbanked" which translates into "providing extremely expensive banking like services for criminals."
I'll be honest, I've never heard 'unbanked' used in relation to cryptocurrency or criminals before vmception used it above.
I know my drug dealer can't pay duffle bags full of cocaine-covered $100 bills into the bank - but he can still get a personal checking account and pay in $100 a week or so. So I would not describe him as 'unbanked' in the conventional sense.
For example undocumented migrants, homeless people, people fleeing abusive partners, people with a history of bankruptcy, and so on.
This can be politically important because if the state wants to pay all benefits by bank transfer to keep admin costs down, they've got to make sure even the most vulnerable people in our society can get a bank account.
Of course, usually the unbanked use cash.