The more I use crypto, the more I find the traditional financial system to be inefficient and overdue for an overhaul.
And I bet you will feel the same after reading this article and transacting with or investing in crypto.
Below, we will discuss six reasons why you should consider switching from fiat to crypto.
6 reasons you should choose crypto over fiat
- Instant payments: Make payments quickly and easily.
- Lower fees: Save money on transaction and remittance fees.
- Privacy: Keep your transactions private and avoid having to explain them to anyone.
- Security: Avoid carrying around large amounts of cash, which can be lost or stolen.
- Anonymity: Keep your identity hidden and protect your privacy.
- Investment opportunities: Access new investment opportunities and potential for increased value accrual.
Let’s discuss each of them below.
1. Instant Payments
Crypto allows you to send money to anyone anywhere in the world with an internet connection almost instantly.
You can send money to family members, friends, or business partners and associates abroad and they’ll receive it in seconds or minutes depending on the cryptocurrency you’re sending to them.
For example, you can send Bitcoin to anyone anywhere and they’ll receive it usually in 10 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the level of network congestion at the time.
Some other cryptocurrencies like Dash, Litecoin, Nano, Ripple, Stellar, BNB, etc, will deliver even faster, in seconds.
Compare this to Swift or Visa cross-border payments which can take up to 1 to 5 business days (excluding weekends) to reach the recipient, and you’ll see why crypto is better in this regard.
However, note that during periods of extreme network congestion, some major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc) may take an unusually long time to finalise transfers.
But you can always use a different and faster cryptocurrency network for your transactions and avoid congested ones.
2. Lower fees
The cost of sending money through cryptocurrencies is far lower than what you pay when using traditional payment networks like Visa or Swift.
It costs between fractions of a cent to a few dollars, for cryptocurrency transactions, depending on the crypto assets you’re sending.
Whereas, Visa and Swift charge between 0.1% to 1% of the transaction amount.
And that’s in addition to the foreign transaction fee for cross-border payments ranging from 1% to 3% of the transaction amount, which is charged by the card issuer.
You’re sharing your money with some greedy and hungry bankers.
This is too inefficient and unbearable, especially when there are hundreds of alternative cryptocurrencies that will get the job done in seconds and at a fraction of the cost.
You can literally send billions of dollars worth of any cryptocurrency for just pennies or a few dollars in transaction fees.
3. Privacy
In addition to the above-stated “financial abuses”, your bank can:
- freeze your money and require you to answer some questions regarding the source and destination of the money you want to send.
- limit the maximum amount of your own money you can send.
- restrict where you can send your own money to.
…etc.
All these are in the name of knowing your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws or “for your own protection”.
However, with crypto, you can send any amount of money to any wallet address at any time, without having to explain yourself to anyone.
4. Security
It’s difficult to travel with significant amounts of physical cash without attracting unwanted attention from law enforcement and risking losing it to theft or robbery.
However, with crypto, you can travel around with even trillions of dollars on your phone without anyone taking notice or attracting attention.
The funds could be stored in your hot or cold wallet on your phone or hardware device.
And even if you can’t move around with a phone or hardware device, you store the private key to your wallet in a secure cloud storage and access it or move it later when you reach your destination.
This was highlighted in a recent story of a Ukrainian refugee who escaped with his life savings in Bitcoin on a pen drive.
5. Anonymity
Cryptocurrency transactions are anonymous and in some cases, absolutely private because crypto assets are sent or received directly to wallet addresses.
Therefore, nobody can tie your transactions to your physical identity, except your counterparty or if you have previously publicly revealed your wallet address.
In fact, on some privacy chains like Monero and Zcash or using mixing services, you can hide your wallet address and balances from both your counterparty and the public’s view.
However, note that there are tools any interested party can attempt to use to deanonymise your crypto transactions and link them to your real-life identity.
But these tools are limited and in some cases ineffective, especially with privacy coins like Monero (XMR).
Therefore, to maintain your anonymity or privacy, you must never publicly reveal your wallet address(s) and use strong privacy coins like Monero if you want to be invisible.
5. Investment opportunities
Cryptocurrencies are volatile assets and have been shown to give better returns on investment (ROI) over sufficiently long periods.
Furthermore, there’re more lucrative investment opportunities with your crypto assets compared to fiat.
For example, staking and yield farming opportunities in crypto offer better ROI than the interest your bank pays on your fiat savings account.
Even with a stablecoin, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies like the USD, JPY, EUR, etc, the returns for staking or lending them in DeFi are better than what you get on your savings account in a traditional bank.
What are the risks?
It’s not all butter and bread in crypto as there are risks and drawbacks to the use of cryptocurrencies.
Chief among them are:
- Learning curve: Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain are new technology and not everyone knows how to use them or how they work. Thus you have some learning to do.
- Potential for fraud: As a result of the above, many people could easily fall victim to crypto fraud. For example, your wallet can be hacked and all your crypto assets drained through various crypto scams.
- Mistakes: Cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible and anonymous. So, if you send coins to the wrong wallet address, to a scammer, or lose your private keys, your money is gone forever. There’s no support or anybody to complain to.
- Extreme volatility: Crypto is extremely volatile. This is both a curse and a blessing, depending on how you leverage it. Your $100 Bitcoin could be worth $500 or $45 in a matter of hours or days. You can avoid this by using stablecoins only.
- Market manipulation and uncertainties: Being mostly unregulated, the crypto market is subject to extreme market manipulations and regulatory uncertainties. You need to be brave and vigilant to survive here, and if you do, the rewards can be massive.
Conclusion
Cryptocurrencies are better than fiat as a payment system and even as an investment opportunity.
Transactions are faster, cost less than sending fiat, provide you with better privacy and security, etc.
However, as discussed above, there’re many risks you must take into account before getting involved in crypto.
For example, it may be too technical for the average user, and there are also risks of fraud and costly mistakes, as well as risks of extreme volatility and market manipulations
Now over to you. What other reasons do you have to justify moving over from fiat to crypto? Share with us in the comments section below.
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