Looking at the responses to the comment Bill Gates made about cryptocurrencies, people are pushing forward issues of third party trust, and the merits and demerits of anonymity.
However, when I've spoken to people about cryptocurrency, (in detail on my blog ), the point that really seems to make them think of cryptocurrency as a good thing is the potential for saving on the bank and credit card fees which amounts to about a 3% savings on all purchases.
According to my credit card records, I used my credit cards for about 60,000 yen (roughly 560 USD, 460 EUR) worth of purchases last month. On average, 3% of that cost is built in to the prices because that's what the merchants are charged by the credit card companies for use of their card. It's invisible to the consumer because merchants don't make it a separate line item in any bill. It's there, though, this huge invisible and insidious way that banks make money off every transaction that has become so normalized we ignore it like fish ignore water.
So that's about 1800 yen that went to the banks. Over the year, that's 21,600 yen (200 USD, 165 EUR) that I'm paying. And that's not including the fact that even when I pay cash, the 3% that is built into the price for credit card use is usually still there. It's very rare that a store will offer a 3% discount for using cash (I've seen lower prices for cash, or separate costs for credit cards, but it's rare).
The current banking system is a 3% tax on everything you buy. People fight tooth and nail in political debates over 1% changes to consumption taxes (VAT and similar).
In a cryptocurrency world, assuming a sensibly run cryptocurrency system, each of my transactions would come with a fee of around a yen, sometimes less, maybe sometimes a little more. Assuming an average of 1 yen (1 cent or 1 whatever a Euro-cent is) per transaction, it looks like I would have paid somewhere between 30 to 50 yen last month.
So, even if cryptocurrencies did not have any volatility and no one made money through speculation, and completely regardless of how anonymous it was, and all other considerations aside, if cryptocurrency was just a mundane standard thing, everyone would be saving money. Which I think on it's own is justification for its existence. From there, you can get into the benefits of liquidity that come with less friction, like micropayments.
In my experience, talking to people about third party trust and anonymous usage is abstract and high concept philosophy. Tell them they could potentially be saving 3% on everything they buy, and they lean in. Merchants and consumers love hearing about saving money.
I don't know why this isn't given more focus, and I think it should be, so I thought I'd put it out there.
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from Bitcoin - The Internet of Money http://ift.tt/2F8mRG9
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