- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
The U.S. Treasury Department said on Sunday it would not enforce an anti-money laundering law that obliges millions of business entities to disclose the identities of their real beneficial owners.
I’m just telling you what I know.
I got into crypto because the 2008 recession threw a wrench into my 18th birthday. It was difficult to find a reliable bank and have a debit or credit card. I was desperate for any kind of financial independence at that time in my life when I should be, and sought crypto as a last resort.
At 18 you certainly weren’t borrowing to buy real estate, nor were you a customer for wealth management services. These were the things that hit (and sometimes sunk) banks and bank customers at the time. Are you saying you couldn’t find any bank or credit union that would give you a checking account with a debit card attached to it?
How did having cryptocurrency enable you to have financial independence? Besides few places accepting crypto for promotional purposes (remember when you could buy a pizza with bitcoin?), you couldn’t spend cryptocurrency on any of life’s needs that would allow you to establish yourself financially.
FFS. Go lecture my 18yr old self. I’ve grown up since then. I didn’t say it was the correct or best option. All I said is that I was desperate.
My apologies, it sounded like you were still defending that choice as a correct one for an 18 year old. Certainly won’t hold you accountable for your 18 year old self. I did equally (if not worse) stupid stuff in my youth.
I’m now asking about what lead to that choice, and what the value proposition of that choice looked like to 18-year-old you. As in, if you got into crypto as a replacement for a bank account for …reasons. Did crypto accomplish anything you wanted out of a bank account? Or was it “a bank is a money place and crypto is a money place, therefore crypto is a replacement for a bank”?
This is kinda a dumb question, he said
So one of his goals is to have some sort of electronic payment method, and a way to receive money electronically.
You can’t buy stuff online with cash. You could potentially buy a visa gift card with crypto though.
How are you buying the crypto with your cash if you don’t have a bank account though?
I don’t know how common this is in other countries, but here you can go to just about any grocery store or discount store and buy a Visa gift card with cash. I would argue if you have cash the easiest way to make an online purchase (especially back then) was to buy a Visa gift card at a retail store.
Ok lol let’s second guess the guy’s teenage decision making when he’s already stated it wasn’t optimal
Like, this “seemed” like the best thing to do. An essay about how this dude was wrong 16 years ago isn’t interesting.
You have no idea where he lived, or what was going on, it might be in his neighborhood there was a Bitcoin ATM, or check cashing places cashed to BTC or something. He might have had a wet dream about BTC and that solidified his decision. It doesn’t matter.