For the first time in history, people, on such a massive scale, can access bank services without commissions and without requesting permission… no government.
If you wish to buy shoes in a store, the plastic card attached to your bank account is the easiest means of payment. But not the cheapest, because the shopkeeper will have to pay a commission to Visa and his bank. It has therefore passed on the cost to the selling price.
If you want to give money to an itinerant salesman, cash is the only way, as it’s unlikely to have POS.
If you want to buy an online service – hosting for example – then you need to use your Visa card, which will result in the charges we mentioned earlier. If you decide to pay via PayPal, the charges are even bigger. But if you pay with bitcoin, you eliminate that (Check this article for web hosting vendors who accept bitcoin as payment method https://bitnewsbot.com/buy-hosting-bitcoin/)
Can Bitcoin fit in all this? What needs does it serve? Let’s go see some of them:
When you’re in a hurry to send money abroad, because that’s where your brother and his family are and he’s robbed. Within minutes of the hour, the money is on his cell phone. With bank transfer it will take for the money one day to reach your brother – IF you are in a Eurozone country. If of course you don’t fall on a weekend or a holiday or the banks are closed due to a strike and if capital controls are not in place in your country.
Plus, it can’t be forged. A great advantage over banknotes or gold. If you’re abroad and they give you a coin you don’t know, how easy is it to be deceived? Not to mention how many have been run over in their own country, with banknotes familiar to them.
Let’s say you are an Argentine resident, not to mention the trivial example of Venezuela. You see the national currency eroding every day because of inflation. A few decades ago, your country was the fifth economic power in the world, but its currency over the last seven years has lost 95% of its value.
You’re a Syrian wealthy and you want to leave the country because you suspect there’s going to be a civil war. You manage to sell the 10 houses you own and manage to make them gold in time. What are you going to do about it? You’re going to put a gold rod in your pocket and leave?
You’re in Africa or India or Latin America, you have a mobile phone and internet access, but not access to the banking system. Why don’t you?
- Because you need to make a whole trip until you get to the nearest bank.
- Because you may not have official documents or you can’t fill out an application because you’re illiterate.
- Because you’re afraid you’ll be negatively evaluated and rejected by someone in a tie in his gleaming office with the air condition.
They’re not the ones who don’t have money, those who don’t have a bank partnership. This is a false impression.
For the first time in history, people on such a massive scale can have access to banking services. All the inhabitants of the planet – those who at least have access to the Internet – without asking for anyone’s permission. They don’t even need an ID or any other government document. Without belonging to any class or being educated to fill out applications that a bureaucrat might reject. Even if their government doesn’t want to. With a simple bitcoin wallet application that can be downloaded for free on its mobile.
Plus, you have the security that your property can’t be confiscated by any government if they consider you (you are, you’re not) dissident. Even the most authoritarian. It can’t be stolen from gang raids, where the police are unable to enforce the law.
Are there many who have been excluded or are not met by the current banking system? The answer is as you imagined: billions!
