Why Trustless Transactions Are Important

At first glance, the average individual in America doesn’t think about trust in the monetary system. For the most part, the system serves them reasonably and they can go about their financial lives without much worry.

However, if you are ever a power user or have some unique problem that you’re often out of luck.

Need to transfer $100k to an untrusted person in the next hour? Sorry! Your standard American bank doesn’t support that.

Want to accept payments in a more risky industry like medicinal marijuana? Sorry, your banks and payment system will randomly stop working.

Want to be a journalist in an oppresive regime? Sorry, the government will seize your assets.

Want to run a company that accepts payments online? Sorry, your payment processor can randomly shut you out of your account.

Want to send money to your international friend? Hmmmm, your standard bank doesn’t support that easily.

The list goes on and on and this is in the US, with one of the most advanced financial systems in the world. Imagine being in another country with bad monetary policy and corrupt officials. That introduces a whole slew of additional problems.

When you keep diving deeper into why these systems are archaic and make your life more difficult you realize that it’s due to two reasons:

• The base settlement layer. Settling assets takes lots of time and some banks take many days before a transaction is even finished. They can also claw back repealed transactions. So, you never REALLY know how much money you have. Especially if the rest of your assets are in vulnerable positions due to the law or politics in your area.
• Not having ownership. Governments and other entities can seize your assets at a moment’s notice. So, when you’re selling things online you may get money pulled out of your account due to fraud. Or you may lose access to your accounts depending on a bureacrats opinions or your financial processor.

Overall, the legacy payment system is built on bad rails and the internet makes things much better. Cryptocurrency is the rails for the future financial services of the world.