Crypto vs Fiat Remittances

Yes, it is half-baked but still carries a kernel of truth. Most people don't need to transfer two billion dollars, but they still have issues with smaller amounts. It is possible to use alternative means, but they will often be more expensive and less flexible.It is true that you need to own BTC to send X dollars, but that is true with regards to any other means - you have to own bank dollars to wire dollars, to get them you have to convert from your local currency or to deposit your &qu

Well, it's good enough already.First, international transactions just don't matter that much for most people.Second, for small amounts of money use a Credit Card. The extra cost is negligible. Or if this is not possible, something like Western Union. This will cost 5%, but it doesn't really matter for amounts $10.000), you can send a cheque or for > $100.000 do a stock trade on two markets.Note that the

Have you ever tried sending money abroad?With BTC/ETH/USDC it takes seconds. The whole process is entirely transparent. It doesn't get blocked if you reach some threshold. And the fees are smaller than with the traditional banking system.And unlike with banks, anybody is allowed to open a new wallet. You don't have to get approval, which is difficult if you live in the streets or in a 3rd-world country.I'm not endorsing the rest of crypto but having a trusted an

Transferwise is both faster and cheaper than sending Bitcoin. And it doesn't require your poor African family to sign up for a probably poorly run poor African Bitcoin exchange.

Is it actually cheaper to send BTC than it is to wire money directly?

Western Union operates all over the world, you can send money instantly and the fees are lower than Bitcoin's network fees for transactions.

For some reason its hard to send money overseas. This seems to be universally true in "real" finance world. Not sure why, probably regulation? If you want to use things like Western Union et al. then you can expect (relatively) high per-tx fees. Crypto doesn't have this property.

My problem with bitcoin is the fees just to use it.Coinbase charges 4% plus a fee to exchange to another crypto currency, plus 1% for the buy/sell spread and then even more fees to put the money back in my bank.Western Union is much more competitive and is actually used.

How are Bitcoin fees lower than traditional fiat transfers?

As far as I know, nearly everyone uses Western Union (Transferwise etc. etc.) for that. Bitcoin is too costly* and complicated for most people.* Two set of fees to exchange crypto to fiat + transfer fee compared to one set of fiat currency exchange + transfer fee.