Quote:
Originally Posted by mafia_man
That's why we have bank wires and credit cards. Electronic money isn't anything new.  |
Credit cards - how many fees associated with accepting credit cards? - merchant accounts, gateway fees, monthly and annual fees, get a CB and who is paying for that? minimums/maximum limits, held up reserve balances. On consumer end - identity theft.
I love when as a startup business I talk to banks or payment processors and they ask "what's your monthly volume?" - this is a start up business I'm talking about for gods sake! and then they respond we can't process above or below such and such limits and it will cost you small fortune to setup and maintain your processing and if you don't reach certain limits we will impose some more fees or cut you off completely.
Wires - Have you dealt with international wires? they used to take 3-5 business days, thankfully most wires nowadays get posted within 24hr period. It takes $40 to send an international wire from US, on receiving side in some other countries it takes $20 + 1% to receive a wire. Most cases you have to get your ass to a bank branch to send an international wire and sometime you have to wait in line before speaking with customer representative.
Electronic money isn't anything new I will agree with that, but moving funds from one platform to another costs a good penny and many times takes a lot of time. Simple example: receive money in paypal (3% fee), move these funds to a bank - wait 3-4 business days, send international wire - pay $40, spend an hour to get to and from bank, wait another day for funds posted to beneficiary and have them pay for the wire too. IF receiving side can't for some reason accept wire and funds need to be loaded to another online wallet platform it can cost even more and take much more time.
EDIT: I must add that Bitcoin in comparison with other electronic money is completely new and unique technological approach, it's not just a online wallet platform, it is a currency on its own with its own unique characteristics and properties. Nothing like it has existed before.