You're just used to the stupidity, so it's easier to scrutinize the new things. But there are people out there who take those downsides seriously. And sure, you're always trading old problems for new, different problems, but it's nice to have the choice between those trade-offs for once.
There's a bajillion fintechs helping the banks sort out their UI issues and make it friendlier/better.
Bitcoin is still basically unusable for everyday transactions, and the endless stream of wallet provider hacks is not convincing anyone that it's secure. As TFA says, the hazards for normal folks playing in this pool are getting worse. If the miners are frontrunning your transaction every time you want to get paid, what's the point?
Virtually nobody wants to 'actually own' money or do whatever they want with it, they want to buy groceries, pay rent, or put it in their bank account.
If people wanted to actually own stuff they'd buy pinephones instead of samsung galaxies.
Why is this the acid test? Buying a coffee is a solved problem so why is blockchain tech expected to address this use case?
> the endless stream of wallet provider hacks is not convincing anyone that it's secure
Does the endless stream of point-of-sale and credit card hacks make you question the security of dollars, euros and yen?
No, because my credit card company gives me my money back when there is fraud.
Crypto promoters always paint the irreversibility of blockchains as a feature, but it always seems like a risk to me.
And most people don't store value in currency long term, they typically store value in assets such as precious metals, securities, or real estate. Cash has a purpose of exchanging value in the modern economy, nothing more. It is manipulated by design to bring stability to the economy to allow for a more favorable business environment.
I think crypto has a place in the world... but it's not as a general purpose currency. Using anything but a fiat currency for commerce is way too unstable for long term sustainability.
Wait. If everyday transactions are not the use-case, then (excluding speculation and money laundering), what exactly is it?
Does the endless theft of money through central banks' intentionally inflating the money supply increase your faith that government fiat is secure? Hacks against centralized wallet providers don't count as security weaknesses in decentralized protocols such as bitcoin.
Perhaps the current danger with Ethereum-based DeFi is that its far too centralized, and typically (but not necessarily) contracts deployed on it are also far to centralized in their design, governance, and security reviews before deployment.
It's not some moral pillar that crypto is taking a stand against at all, it's just removing all the processes that protect both sides of transactions and distributing those trust mechanisms to those parties instead.
What you need is a payment system that can handle transactions where the seller is honest and the buyer is flaky when the existing one is built around the opposite assumption. And if the banks can't provide that (or the existing regulatory environment doesn't allow them to) then it's good when something else fills the gap.
Those examples you listed are at least an explainable, understandable flavor of stupid. "Hello, bank? I'm disputing this charge" or "Yes, I really bought that stuff".
It's no accident that TFA has Cthulhu in the header -- we're crossing into a malevolent and incomprehensible dimension of stupid. "Hello, void? Robot monsters ate my contract" and you hear nothing but echoes in your marrow.
Ok, so you have some grief with how the banking system works
> These are nonstarters that would get laughed out of the room if pitched today.
How is this related? No one is pitching building a KYC government regulated financial banking system?
