Bitcoin has a use case for money laundering, tax evasion, evading China's exchange controls, and drugs. That market turned out to be larger than expected.
In some ways this was the extra profits banks made off illegal activities but that was largely held within the bank, not available to normies.
Few outside people get rich off the mafia.
Bitcoin is in contrast a pure fiat currency with very weak backing. Nobody has a need for it which can’t be satisfied at least as well by alternatives and it requires a very expensive always-on network to perform transactions. The floor is zero and liquidity is a very real concern.
Have you ever tried to send more than $5k, $10k or $20k before? You basically can't with your bank without having to go through a bunch of hurdles or time delays. I can easily do that with bitcoin.
Legit, real need for it that can't be satisfied with alternatives.
In addition the bank is often closed on weekends, and doesn't service you into the night. My bank site "shuts down" at night. Sorry, but my ability to use my money isn't limiting by your waking hours.
That is, of course, the flip side of that convenience: if you ever make a mistake with your Bitcoin wallet, it's gone with no recourse. Good luck!
I also dont know what bank you have but I can operate it any day through my app.
And your ability to use your "money" is still limited to having access to some wallet application, internet connection, your keys and chain fees.
Yup, I pay 0 to wire money, but I have fees for blockchains.
After that it was a matter of uploading the form and getting confirmation in a couple days, which I'm gladly willing to accept for peace of mind when it comes to large transfers.
> In addition the bank is often closed on weekends, and doesn't service you into the night. My bank site "shuts down" at night. Sorry, but my ability to use my money isn't limiting by your waking hours.
Odd, banking apps are open 24/7 here and if it's an in-bank transfer it's instantaneous.
Pay a third party like Venmo, Square, etc a fee, or use my banks (also horribly designed and bad UX system) to send the money slower than watching paint dry. I'd rather pay the Bitcoin Miners that fee than a third party or even by bank.
Don't forget giving them cash or a check, or a credit card, as billions of people do every day. Fees are a fair point but that's purely a cost and timeliness question: Bitcoin historically has been slower and more expensive but it certainly could be useful as a competitor to horrible companies like Paypal if it can keep the costs down and transaction times low, not to mention scaling the system by 7+ orders of magnitude.
The catch, of course, is that this is not the path to world domination which features prominently in the sales pitch. That caps the maximum value at the percentage Visa, Paypal, etc. charge and if Bitcoin ever matured into serious competition, the credit card companies have plenty of margin to cut.