Not sure if this is legit but an interesting and disturbing read:
Definitely not trying to push her course 
It really wouldnât surprise me if crypto volume is predominantly artificial, generated by a network of whales to suck you in, so they can maintain and gain their investment. Redistribution of wealth is BS
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And my suspicions are why Iâm only sticking with stablecoin farming as well as a little bit of speculation in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The redistribution of wealth theory sounds interesting but itâs hard to prove since it only happens like once in a generation and kinda echoes of the Strauss-Howe Generational theory.
I think itâs all happening because of money. All these situations with pandemics make people look for some extra money income for their needs. Most of them take loans because they can get them even with bad credit. You are lucky if your relatives or friends can lend you some cash.
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Wow. Bar for PhDs these days must be really lowâŚ
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There is a case to be made that crypto can help the unbanked, which is a problem both in many urban areas of the US as well as certain rural areas where itâs more difficult to gain access to traditional banking, not to mention in many developing countries.
The CEO of OnRamp investing (Tyrone Ross Jr) is a professional acquaintance of mine who argues passionately for the potential for crypto to empower the unbanked, and is part of his companyâs mission. Coincidentally he was in a really good CFA webinar about 3 or 4 months ago in which he made this case. In theory I agree with this. However, weâre still a ways away from that being of practical benefit and this being a mainstream possibility. In the near term at least, if anything crypto is expanding wealth equality in aggregate, although a few young early adopters have fared well.
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This is patently untrue. Inequality in crypto is extreme (2% of wallets own +70% of all BTC for example, though itâs probably higher given this figure doesnât factor in whale accounts on exchanges and oddly excludes minors).
Many of the unbanked are, unfortunately, that way for a reason; they are high risk. Crypto doesnât magically solve this. The best it could do is reduce fees of holding an account and transactions. Many existing tech systems already do this and there are more under development; M-Pesa is a great example and there are several others (fun fact, Chiva app in El Salvador is actually centralizedâŚ). I see a lot of promise and hope, but nothing that seems to be better yet.
I guess youâve never heard of redlining, huh? Victim blaming (âthey are high riskâ) doesnât change the facts. The finance industry has an ugly past history that has long-term negative effects that persist to this day.
If you read my post I am saying that I donât think that crypto today helps the unbanked. I do think it has potential to do so, but itâs not there yet. So I donât think we disagree on that part. However, I do take strong exception to your victim-blaming. Being poor is way too expensive and we as a society need to find ways to help with that, and crypto is one avenue that has potential.
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Hate to see this sub get combativeâŚnever mind. Carry on, please.
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Lol, genuinely funny.
All good, I think crypto is just one of those issues that brings out strong opinions.
I apologise to all for my sharp elbows in that other thread as well, I felt a bit ganged up on and the Irish in me wonât back down. Youâre all welcome to you opinions and who knows, maybe time will prove you right.
looking weak technically. negative macd divergence on the weekly chart could be a bad sign
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Why does our industry get all the sh1tty credit for this kinda stuff? Iâll share a story, last month I decided I wanted a tablet device with a pen (yes I know, wife loves mocking me on this as well) to make my research process a little less desk orientated. Given that this really isnât a decent reason to squander some cash I went on the hunt for a bargain. Got in the car and went to my nearest pawn type shop who conviently had what I needed.
Hanging around while this guy went round back searching for the pen and making a call because this item was just in, I learned that being poor is indeed expensive.
Listening in on the phonecall, the tablet device I was about to purchase - which was effectively brand new, was previously owned by a dude that had put the device up as collateral for a cash loan and basically defaulted. Now this device is worth ÂŁ360 new and I didnât even pay half that. So Iâm happy but the other guy clearly got a shafting.
As I was trying out the tablet, a customer walked in to extend his short term small loan, he borrowed about ÂŁ80 from the convo they were having but couldnât pay up so to extend the loan for two weeks the repayment doubled 
. Lucky for this customer who looked like he was from struggle town, he actually had another week before payment was due so had a little more time to find some cash.
Long story short, I think this pawn shop loan shark type business is probably reflective of why being poor is actually expensive. I think it distills down to peopleâs behaviours, there are essentially plenty of self centered pieces of â â â â at the bottom of the totem pole and plenty at the top as well.
Coming from the UK we did a c10 year stint of austerity measures across all government budgets and Covid comes along and billions just get put out of someoneâs arse. I know how/why money was distributed, it needs payed back bla bla bla but lets be real, this really makes it obvious that itâs not a case of not being able to help, rather just not wanting to help.
And to neatly tie up this ramble, I donât anticipate crypto changing any of this. Itâs just another medium of exchange and I suspect itâs probably less convient than cash for the poor.
Interesting post @Tez4715 , I will resist the urge to tease you about your pen-tablet 
. But, your anecdote illustrates the high cost of being poor. Getting loans is difficult because of the âunbankedâ problem and because small $ amount loans at alternative places like pawn shops have high transaction fees as a % of transaction and high interest rates that make it super-hard to get out of the cycle you described. For another example, for immigrants who send remittances back to their families via Western Union, those transaction fees are also super-high as a % of transaction.
Then finally, for someone in the UK you would be shocked to see how much overdraft fees are in the US vs in Europe. Combine that with other issues such as the legacy of redlining, lack of fresh grocers, etc., and being poor is damn near impossible to escape for too many.
The finance industry does amazing things and has helped to power our super-economy but there is a shameful and dark side that is uncomfortable to contemplate but we should be mindful of especially since we are professionals who support the industry. Crypto can definitely help in areas such as remittances because transaction fees can be much lower. But for now itâs a mess.
Weâll letâs hope so! The tech is impressive but but not where it needs to be. The whole mining approach is ironically way more expensive a transaction fee Vs traditional costs, for bitcoin anyway.
Banks have a history of spanking folk with fees, there is a whole industry around undercutting bank FX fees but with a focus on small businesses. There is still plenty of profit margin as well even with a significantly tighter spread to the interbank rate.
I work in the pension & life field as a fund analyst and much like banks, this is an âold schoolâ business. By old school I mean ancient in their approach, resting on reputation and old processes to tide the business over. I mention this because I am shocked at how much we still charge clients for the most basic of funds, Iâm talking 1% on a money market fund
As long as clients are naive to this there is zero incentive to reduce the cost. Big businesses are expensive to run and alot of cash generation must come from this type practice.
I think tech disruption is the answer to alot but I canât see banks being keen to finance businesses that are effectively cutting down their margin
Iâve always thought that certain aspects of life shouldnât intertwine with a âbusinessâ approach/finance focus. Things like healthcare, education, charity support type stuff because its probably the source of most ethical conflicts. Fantasy talk of course 
Good post @Tez4715 , and I agree. Itâs not a coincidence that insurance commercials run non-stop during sporting events, there is massive, massive $$ and profit margins to be had, and largely locked-in customers.
Itâs not all the finance industryâs fault, regulations play a big part in it and add to costs & fees, add barriers to entry, and promote oligopolies and reduce competition. And donât get me started about the real estate racketeering that goes on. I thought that industry and its crazy fees and mysterious add-on services would be disrupted by technology long ago, but it persists.
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