For an example of this take a look at something like Strike Global using bitcoin's lightning network.
https://jimmymow.medium.com/announcing-strike-global-2392b90...
"Far more of than any other cryptocurrency" is kind of a moot point. Does "bitcoin" (the people converting it to cash) have enough reserves in any real currency to cover even 10% of its value? There's no federal government backing it, and as best I can tell nothing to prevent the proverbial "run on the bank".
I still struggle to see how bitcoin has anymore intrinsic value than collecting pokemon cards. It's worth something right up until it isn't without a major government supporting it.
The intrinsic value argument is old and tired at this point so I'm not even going to bother with it.
Yes, Bitcoin at this stage is extremely volatile and anyone buying it to hold as an investment should understand it can lose or gain a lot of value quickly. However, it does have multiple use cases at this point that clearly the market has determined have some type of value. We're still figuring that out.
As a side note, if you do some digging you can find some pretty good on-chain analytics that can theoretically put a sort of floor on the price based on how coins have moved over time. There are now quite a few sites like glassnode.com, cryptoquant.com, coinmentrics.io etc that provide this data or if you are technical enough set up your own node and verify it for yourself.
>Strike then takes the bitcoins and automatically converts them back into Euros using its real-time automated risk management and trading infrastructure.
Really, they convert Bitcoin into Euros with a "real-time automated risk management and trading infrastructure"? That explains literally nothing. Who owns the Euro currency that is willing to sell it for bitcoin? Where is the liquidity coming from?
You can easily look up the volume traded on these exchanges. There are still some shady exchanges out there so I’d mainly look at the more trusted/regulated ones like Coinbase Pro, Bitstamp, Gemini, Kraken etc.
Strike has already released a working app for US customers that I’ve been using without issue for payments to friends and family as an alternative to Venmo/PayPal.
That means Strike needs to have reserve currency to cover any fluctuations between the time they "instantly settle" your transaction, and when they actually are able to convert that into USD or Euro or insert currency at an exchange.
I keep getting downvotes and yet nobody can explain the magic handwaving to me with anything other than "but my transaction worked". It's great that's working when their transaction flow is probably measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but plenty of pyramid schemes churn along just fine until they grow.
What does using quotes mean? Why not just write Bitcoin?
Bank runs exist in a fractional reserve context -- because banks lend out their deposits (which stimulates growth), your listed balance is actually an IOU. That is, an obligation to "cover" deposit balances, which can be met or not.
Now think of people trading beanie babies. One person sells a beanie baby, the other person parts with $10k. What is there to "cover"? Who is keeping what in reserve? The answer is nothing and nobody --- in a world where beanie babies were currency, this would be perfectly fine.
tl;dr you actually need (fractional-reserve) banks for a "run on the bank"