An Ethical Look at Some Advantages of Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency is often touted as having several advantages over traditional currency. These include:

• Cheaper and faster money transfers
• Protection from inflation
• Self-governed and managed
• Secure and private
• Currency exchanges can be done easily
• Decentralized systems that do not collapse at a single point of failure
• Cost-effective mode of transaction
• A fast way to transfer funds

But first, you have to look at are all of these even true. (Remember, some people believe that the ends justify the means, and if there is an advantage overall, they may exaggerate it to get you to convert.)

Converting Bitcoin into cash generally costs between 1 and 5% of your amount. So to convert $10,000 it will cost between $10 and $50. However, an ETF (Electronic Funds Transfer) will often cost between $50 and $100, regardless of the amount. So if you are moving more money, it may not be cheaper. Additional converting between bitcoin and cash may take nearly a week to do so – not what most people will call fast.

Secondly, crypto is more of a wild investment, than a useful currency which doesn’t vary/protected by inflation.

However, if you look at the initial description of cryptocurrency, one of the things you have is cryptography. This really helps make sure your money cannot be stolen as easily as having your wallet picked like you could with cash. Keeping bad actors as bay is an important factor for me, especially as I have family getting to the age where people might try to swindle them.

That is not to say it is perfectly safe, but it is often considered safer.

Another huge advantage in my book is that is doesn’t have a single point of failure. Think back upon the idea of the German inflation of the 1920s. One central group made a decision, and everyone suffered because of it. I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turned out not to be the case.

But that is not even a failure per say… but a goal of the decentralization. A more perfect failure might be in looking at a dollar bill. What is it based off of? Well, the US dollar is often referred to as fiat money. That is money that is not based off of a precious metal like gold or silver, but rather, the trust in that government. Well what happens when the trust in that government goes away? Many said that couldn’t happen with the US dollar, but we’ve gotten close to defaults recently, and the faith in our government is at an all time low.

The privacy factor is part of why faith in our government is low, and why people often feel something like a cryptocurrency might be a good option to keep the government from snooping on you, and why some people in the government are against cryptocurrencies.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiatmoney.asp

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/06/06/public-trust-in-government-1958-2022/

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-says-government-spying-bank-records-further-abuse-power

An Ethical Look at Some Advantages of Cryptocurrencies was originally found on Access 2 Learn