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My husband is driving to the bank to try to sort out ongoing issues with wire transfers to our own account in Egypt.

We used to transfer with no issues but lately they have been blocked. And they don’t make it clear where it was blocked, so we have to talk to banks on both sides and triangulate where the issue is. It could be related to Egypt’s ongoing currency crisis since they’ve been doing some capital controls, but we don’t know yet.

And in the meantime we’ve been sending money via a remittance service instead, which is about 5x more expensive in terms of fees.

Fiat system is going great. Keep it up guys. Absolutely nothing to disrupt here.

Keith 1y ago

Hi Lyn, I’m a fan. Listened to you be interviewed several times, bought your book, etc.

In my experience, oftentimes highly intelligent and experienced people such as yourself have so much information that you end up hamstringing yourself. Go trade some fiat for Bitcoin and give it to someone who can trade bitcoin for EGP or whatever you need.

I don’t let my employees come to me with problems unless they also bring a solution and I’m holding you to the same standard.

I’m sorry you are having problems with bank wires. Now tell me how you fixed the problem using bitcoin.

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Discussion

Mr⚡2MB 🐇🏴‍☠️ 1y ago

Bitcoin is illegal in Egypt which will make many afraid to use it.

Keith 1y ago

This is exactly what I’m talking about. Don’t tell me why you can’t. Tell me how you can. Maybe there are more steps, idk.

Jamesy227 1y ago

"Don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions" is one of my least favourite corporate bullshit sayings. If I've got a solution, I wouldn't need to go to anyone at all!

Keith 1y ago

Some people are problem solvers and some are not. Generally speaking, those that can solve problems get farther in life than those that can only take direction.

Lyn Alden 1y ago

The point of my post is not to complain. We're doing workarounds and the fees are no problem for us personally. The point is to highlight the clunkiness of how things currently work.

Egypt doesn't have a lot of bitcoin liquidity yet (unlike say, Nigeria) so any fiat-BTC-fiat solution is likely to be expensive and with insufficient volumes.

I do venture funding for solutions to problems like this, but they take years to build and scale, and Egypt is not at the vanguard of them.

Keith 1y ago

1. Have you heard the argument that bitcoin is halal and that fiat is haram due to the fact that inflationary monetary policy is akin to paying interest? I don’t think that’s a stretch at all, but I’m not Muslim, so what do I know.

2. OMG Lyn Alden replied to my note on Nostr! I’m a giddy fan boy. I’m going to print this and put it in my office. 🤩

Lyn Alden 1y ago

Yes Saifedean and several others make that argument, and given my ties to the region I remain aware of it.

I think if someone fully understands bitcoin and fiat currency from first principals and also has a Muslim perspective, they would view bitcoin as halal and fiat as haram. It’s theologically consistent view, but it takes time to go against prior knee-jerk anti-bitcoin teachings and gain adoption.

People I know in Egypt literally stuff paper US dollars under their mattress as primary savings here in 2024.

AfroLucy 1y ago

@Financial education than financial advice It is not your fault and it is individual responsibility/decision not collective decision because 1 it is about property/money/asset than life/soul 2.there is difference among principles, law and theory 3 as human civilization history of money is more relevant than history of bitcoin/State before any religion due to long memory as correlated as long term Value not only in the form of material but also immaterial 4 Financial Abundance in-term of generational wealth from child fund up to retirement pension fund and which is blessing idea not only to build/construct on existing economy to digital economy from few to many billions people around the world in decentralized distributed people network than pyramid centralized elite network of government paper fiat money eats generation by false god belief system beyond moral hazard already manifested in economic struggle/depression in real world.

Paula 1y ago

Good point Lyn. Same in Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 which is where I’m from. Every few years, the gvnt here converts peoples US$ bank accounts into the local currency and they lose almost everything overnight. Friend told me this happened to her recently 17k gone…so mattress is a better storage 🤣

Dawlat Moustafa 1y ago

The part of Fiat that is wrong is usury. While the part of bitcoin that sounds wrong to me is mining, new bitcoins are generated out of math in a game-like process (like gambling) that is making users earn without giving a product or a service. Fiat and bitcoin are both okay if used for trade purposes without the involvement of usury or mining (gambling and playing to earn more bitcoins).

gotcha 1y ago

I do disagree that miners do not provide a service.

By selecting transactions in blocks, they create a chronological order that is important to avoid double spend.

Adding blocks to the chain also finalize the settlement of those transactions.

Dawlat Moustafa 1y ago

I’m not a miner (otherwise I could’ve been cool). Anyways, selecting and putting in order is more like being part of the game, not offering a service tho.

frphank 1y ago

The barriers you're experiencing in the fiat system are there to keep your shithole country at arm's length from our pristine civilized world. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

wymike 1y ago

I had a similar issue sending money to Sri Lanka. A transfer that used to take 2-3 days was missing for over 2 weeks which took multiple phone calls to find out where it was and why it wasn’t where it was supposed to be.

It’s easy to overlook the fact that there are a lot of places where the banking system doesn’t work as efficiently as it does in the US, UK etc if you don’t experience those frictions.

Keith 1y ago

I understand. One of my best employees lives in Pakistan. He’s been with me for 13 years. There has been a transfer from my bank to his every two weeks and we still have problems sometimes.