Questions Regarding Cryptocurrencies

To my understanding, Cryptocurrencies are basically currencies that many hope will replace FIAT currencies in the future. Their major strength is that they can be transferred within minutes without having to pay fees by going through a mediator (banks, services like venmo etc.).

This has raised some questions and I ask here on Sythe first, because this is where I first learned of bitcoins and many altcoins.


1. Why do we "need" cryptocurrencies?

2. Let’s assume that fiat currencies can be sent as quickly as cryptos. Would this make them obsolete?

3. How are banks and money-transfer services reacting to such cryptocurrencies, which potentially pose a threat on their income through money-transfer fees?

4. Why do governments not just ban them in general, because they could potentially lead to tax evasion?

 

1.) The current currencies are being manipulated, they lose value year by year and people suffer at the hands of financial controls. And the fraudulent central banking system which prints money out of thin air without out asset to back it up.

2.) No it goes back to the first question. Regardless of the speed in which you send and receive garbage, you are in the end still receiving garbage. Fiat is garbage.

3.) Big financial institutions are jumping on the crypto train to create financial investment products for the mass public. Also they are accepting the underlying technology (block chain) with open arms. Look at ripple for example (not the coin but their tech).

4.) Governments don't ban them because it is the future. Secondly it is not tax evasion banks launder 2.8b billion dollars a day and only $9 million was laundered through an crypto exchange. Governments tax people with crypto, who trade crypto and have large sums. It's the same with fiat. If I have a $1 million in black money (cash) which the government doesn't know about then I am tax evading. Just like that if I have $1 million in bitcoin they don't know about same applies there as well. Also there is recently new technologies they are implementing which are back tracers which can locate the transactions back to the sender.

 

ehh your last point is kinda off. Those stats about the tax evasions on exchanges is fairly new data, and doesn't look at all exchanges over the world and the way in which they classify money laundering is very dicey at best. This also doesnt account for the millions and millions of cryptocurrencies that are in hardware wallets, offline wallets, or even someones personal mobile wallet ( a wallet is for the most part decentralized ), thus, there is no real way for us to track how much crypto is laundered, but I am quite certain it i more than $9 million

 

Yes it is recent data but crypto exchanges are put through more stringent compliance by the govt than a bank. As for how much crypto is unkown and known is similar to how much currency is being held both known (white money) and unkown (black money) in bank accounts off shore and under a mattress. Also crypto transactions require heavy vetting process, the individual needs to pass a KYC and AML. Even if they bring $1million dollars worth of bitcoin and want to cash it out through an exchange they would need to declare the source and prove it. Then only will the transaction move forward or their account will be frozen. Laundering through an exchange will be hard since everything is on record and using back tracers the Govt can find the origin.