[Cryptography] Banks are not all the same, My Identity definitely not Satoshi Nakamoto

[John Levine]

It appears that efc--- via cryptography <efc at disroot.org> said:
>> But more to the point, #2 is actually banking without KYC or AML. ...

>To give you some background. I'm a business owner, and my programmer I 
>hired was based in the US with a neo-bank. That made it impossible 
>(apparently) for my bank to transfer to his bank, and the cost was about 
>50 EUR as well. When the transfer didn't go through due to unspecified and 
>unexplained reasons, we resorted to crypto, and it worked like a charm.

I believe you, but you're overgeneralizing from "one bank is lousy."

The US is a large economy with, for historical reasons, a lot of small banks.
Most Americans never send or receive foreign payments, and our small banks, which
includes all the neobanks, are clueless about them. So don't ask a small US bank
to do international transactions.

It is not hard to find fast cheap international transfers. My current favorite
is Wise, formerly Transferwise. For example, I can send €1000 from an account in
France to my account in the US for €6. It typically clears the next day, and they
guarantee an exchange rate within a fraction of a percent of the wholesale rate.
This works to any US bank since they send the money with a domestic US ACH
transfer, and from any European bank that can do € IBAN transfers.

Wise is not alone here, competing with others like XE and CurrencyFair. If you
think you need crypto for this, you're not paying attention. (Well, you might if
you're in Russia or Iran, but that's a separate issue.)

>As for what he did when he received crypto, that's his business and not 
>mine (fortunately). I'm just happy I could pay him faster and at a 
>fraction of the cost of my bank.

You are fortunate that your employee was willing to accept the costs and risks
of turning the crypto back into money. I sure wouldn't.

R's,
John