Oddbean

I just tried to send an international wire between bank accounts that I've sent between before with no problem, and got denied this time. They didn't give a reason. People who say bitcoin is a solution in search of a problem generally don't have many international assets to deal with. International connections between fiat rails are slow, expense, ever-debasing, and at any time the rules change and block you. Fuck them. Accelerate.

Couple weeks ago it took me 4 days, 3 tries, 2 branch visits, and 1 email to get 1 basic international bank transfer done. The fact that 100% of the world doesn’t already see the value of bitcoin absolutely baffles me.

If that happens with US citizens. What can you expect with the third world 🫤. And to think that today I was helping a relative sending a remittance with Bitcoin to here in Venezuela. With a disgusting banking system that can't even use the SWIFT system in a normal way. And in the worst cases some banks can manage it. But the bureaucracy is absurd and with limits. Bitcoin the best #Money

i wonder how multi-national corporations survive with such antiquated technology as Fiat ... although in Bitcoin's defense it is also Fiat as it is quite literally backed by nothing, the literal definition of Fiat ...

::Tries to make a five-figure international payment between established accounts that have transferred before, to provide housing support for seven people in Egypt.” “Sorry. Blocked.” “What? Can you elaborate? Was it on your side or their side?” “No sorry, can’t elaborate.” Now we need to go in person and escalate; and/or use alternative remittance methods. Fucks banks.

Bitcoin : You never transfer from this to that before ? No problem ! Just check the mempool and wait for the confirmations. Banks : We’re sorry to notify that you’re no longer eligible to transfer from this to that anymore because of regulations and stuffs, please give us more biometric information to continue.

To be honest, I don’t think they can discuss that legally with you. As in, if they file a SAR report, telling you that they did so is illegal and can get the individual disclosing the information in very serious trouble. And you knowing what a SAR report is immediately makes you suspect. Yes, totally fucked up. Fuck them. Normies believe we live in the same financial system that people a century ago lived in, but that’s very far from the truth. The truth is that this situation where all significant money transfers must go through third parties and are proactively monitored is very new. I’m actually not convinced democracy can survive long term in such a set up.

Better than have it go through and then getting notified your account is being closed because of a “business decision”, but really it’ because the amount you sent was large enough to raise some flags in the system. Or maybe they didn’t like that I didn’t tell them what the money was for. In any case, fuck them indeed

Does your experience change your opinion of fiat-pegged-shitcoins? https://tether.to/en/following-investigations-by-tether-okx-and-the-us-department-of-justice-tether-voluntarily-freezes-225m-in-stolen-usdt-linked-to-international-crime-syndicate/

Oh not just international. I made the mistake of trying to open a local account for fiat. Just in case I need cash before I can get all the folk around me to switch to sound money (I'm not a #btc maxi I do Gold and BTC). I initiated an achievement transfer for just $12k from my out of state Credit Union to the local CU. They flagged it and froze account transactions at the local CU. I had to go in and prove I owned the funds being transfered. As I did that I was yelling at them...."this shit is why bitcoin is eating your lunch! Keep playing games you're gonna find yourself going out of business!"

That sucks. Hopefully your egyptian friends will embrace Bitcoin or even lightning to benefit from a more stable stream of funds. I have often wondered how can the banks get away with having such a poor system for international transfers. It's wild. I can't think of a worse standard of service in something people use every week.

That's why i got Bitcoin, and knowing that it will be wherever i am without any middleman or interference. That was incredible, so i got it, and asked questions later. it was a no brainer, even though that is all i knew about it at the time. As i starting looking more into it, I realized the incredible beauty of #Bitcoin, and I nodded with satisfaction and joy for humanity.

Mine wasn't necessarily blocked but effectively so. 3 trips and hopefully one more tomorrow to make a legacy wire between same established accounts won't go through...try again tomorrow. Good luck. I'm so ready to be done with banks. #bitcoin, bank on it! Pura vida

Me living in Russia being like... Hold my beer please dear friend, Id like to share a couple of thoughts with you all on that matter. This is going to be a bit of a rant, but heck a lot has happened recently : 1) In the last 400 days, the country where I lived in experienced (in a space of of 3 months) the following events :: - Visa and Mastercard Left the Country (I cant use my money anywhere in western companies) - The whole country (except one bank) was excluded from Swift. (People cant transact money abroad) - Google Stopped accepting payments (no google services, we lost our google drives) - Apple stopped accepting payments - Both google and apple managed to somehow find a loophole to still receive payments via mobile phone operators ((both with deep limitations)) - Companies from our countries got expelled from stock exchanges all over the world. - . . . and more (I only mentioned the ones related to financial / cloud services) 2) When member(s) of the G8 do not like you, there is a button to cancel you from the internet / financial system ready to be triggered at any time, and thats the future that awaits everyone in this planet unless we run our own personal servers. It is absolute bullshit. The current mainstream model of the internet and how users engage with the companies that hold their data is absolute bullshit and its leading us towards a future with questionable outcomes in some areas. All of this triggered a certain renaissance in my life and I went to a self hosted ((nextcloud)), grapheneOS mobile mostly (sadly not entirely) FOSS lifestyle. Anecdotes / Thoughts about the period we are living here :: - Lets start with a hot one... and put it as clear as I think it has to be ::: Binance (yes it with its non compliance that just blew the hole thing up) played a huge roll in giving us some sort of freedom to overcome that sort of censorship, and I personally applaud this. I understand that many here may have profound resentment with the Russian elites, but for a moment put yourself in the average citizens point of view (parents with sons studying abroad). Bitcoin / USDT / USDC played a key role in all of us stabilising our lives and feeling still members of the global economy and that was really great. - The market quickly produced solutions to absolutely all the problems presented before, we all adapted to it and we live a life that looks quite simmilar to our previous life looked except for the fact that Mcdonalds has a different name and there are LOADS ... LOADS (did I mentioned LOADS?) of chinese cars everywhere. - Yandex and other russian IT is one of the big winners of the whole thing, many migrated in mass to their services and they are growing / adapting quite fast. - I lost the capacity to renew my passwrod manager (when I used to have that garbage) paid account, so I had issues accesing my passwords - lost tons of data by using the useless system of backups provided by google when youre trying to leave, etc. Spent HOURS getting my data back and my wife and I have had to go to extreme pains to rebuild our google photos library. There is so much Id like to talk about this, but its late and I have to continue working. Much love, health, forces, inspiration and music to you all