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Comment by ggm | Hacker News Reader

If you amortise the kyc cost then wise or similar does this just as frictionless. Basically, crypto does not solve any real world problems that don't have other solutions.

Kyc exists for a reason, the same friction free transfer beneath your mental limit can be rerun 10000x by machine and achieve aml outcomes.

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Of course I've used Wise to send money. It was full of confusing KYC friction that took several days to resolve. Cost more than $0.05, took more than a few hours to complete, didn't allow me to use my own currency (crypto) and required my friend to also setup a Wise account and go through the same contortions on their end.

KYC exists to make life hard. It solves no real problems, just like the TSA at airports. Security theater at its finest. It is also easily circumvented too, making it questionable at best [0].

Lastly, saying something doesn't solve a real world problem, after I just explained to you that it does, is mind blowing absurd.

[0] https://twitter.com/josephfcox/status/1754514949995384996

You're criticizing GP for taking an absolutist position ("Crypto is useless") but then doing the same yourself ("KYC is useless").

Eh? You just made up the quote for the OP (and me for that matter), which implies that you're just inserting your own opinion.

Yeah I paraphrased. But was it really so wrong? (Btw I didn't downvote you if it matters)

"KYC is useless" is a reasonable summary of "KYC exists to make life hard. It solves no real problems".

And is there a big difference between "Crypto is useless" and "crypto does not solve any real world problems"?

Paraphrasing on absolutist positions seems pretty wrong to me if that is the point you're trying to make.

I could have left the KYC portion off of the original comment and thus this one point feels like a festering wound for a meth addict (anti-crypto HN) to pick at instead of being focused on the larger message.

Regardless, we are off in the weeds debating about the word "useless" (a word neither the OP nor I never used), when it really has nothing to do with my original post at this point. This isn't interesting to discuss, so I'll stop now. Thanks.

KYC exists to make life hard. It solves no real problems, just like the TSA at airports.

I love this analogy.

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