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Comment by jotm | Hacker News Reader

Very nice article explaining SWIFT and some other things.

Being from a country no one gives a fuck about, I have experienced the sort of "discrimination" described many times. Banks, ISPs, stores, local ad users would just refuse to sell to me. It's a sad reality, but a reality nonetheless.

I still remember a needlessly lengthy email from an incorporation service explaining to me the difference between "lawyer" and "attorney". Seeing as I learned English from TV shows and the Internet... I still don't get why using the word "lawyer" got them so offended :D

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Fwiw, I'm born-and-raised in the USofA and I couldn't tell you the difference, I think that person was just an asshole.

(Though I suppose I also have learned most things from tv shows and the internet.)

I agree with them just being an asshole. A lawyer is someone with a JD. An attorney is someone licensed to practice law. For a lay person, I don't think it's at all inappropriate to conflate the two, and giving them crap about it is definitely an asshole move.

Fwiw, as married to someone awaiting character and fitness confirmation from 2nd department of New York State - you cannot declare or imply that you are a lawyer, attorney or otherwise able to practice law until duly licensed and sworn in. While Websters says a lawyer includes those that study law, putting that in your email footer is a great way to never be barred.

Thus the definitions are in usage synonyms.

To the GP comment, 100% someone being an asshole.

Well, you can have a 'power of attorney' without being a lawyer. I think there's some of the difference there.

IIRC the 'attorney' in 'power of attorney' is a one-off that doesn't really have any relationship to contemporary use of the term.

I think actually it does: the original meaning of "attorney" was someone who was appointed to act for you or on your behalf. An attorney at law does that when you need legal representation. Someone with a power of attorney does that in other areas, such as finances.

And if any one ever claims they haven't found any useful purpose for cryptocurrency, the answer is here. The most valuable use-case for cryptocurrency is to financially empower people in predicaments like yours.

A permissioned value transfer network, like the traditional financial system, poses problems that blockchain-based finance doesn't suffer from, and the trade-offs in using it are worth it for some people.

Huh, I honestly never looked at it that way. OK, let's say I accept crypto as payments... I still need to convert it to "real" currency if I want to pay for food, housing, insurance, parts, tools, pretty much anything...

I guess that's the biggest problem with it, there's not enough people using it for "real world" transactions.

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