As for BTC, and XCR, the future of cryptocurrency has to evolve out of the "Tech heads" and to the "I turn the key and it goes" crowd, especially the unbanked. It is estimated that 80% of the world population is unbanked. A huge market for an alternative.
Did you know that there are billions of $ sent every month from first world countries to third world countries, and that many of the receivers do not have bank accounts. The money transfers are usually accomplished thru forex dealers located in ethnic markets, with the money hand delivered to the receiver...... at a very competitive rate of 15-20%.
However, many of those receivers have cell phones or even smart phones.
QR Codes are the future here. Immediate sending and receipt of cybercash, then spent locally thru merchants accepting the cybercash. The Philippines and Mexico alone are worth 2 billion a month. A SmartPhone APP for XCR will be the match on the fuse.
The one caveat here, is that the value of the cybercash has to be relatively stable. The 10% daily swings in BTC value that we have seen in the past will only serve to drive users away. Consumers that will drive across town to save 3 cents on a litre or gallon of gasoline, would not put up with a cybercoin that changes value so quickly. Would you shop in a grocery market where the price changed as much as 10% up or down in a day?
I assure you that Dell converts their BTC received in a sale immediately into USD, Reminbi, Euros or Krona. They need to avoid the price fluctuations. Likely they also treat the sale as happening in a tax haven country so as to divert the income away from the US tax collectors.
I had not thought about any of this before. The unbanked percentage is stunning and therefore what you say makes perfect sense.
Perhaps XCR is best placed to be a candidate solution, provided, as you point out, that there is price stability.
My thoughts drifted towards the idea (however currently unworkable it might seem) of a single currency such as XCR with two tier or multiple tier price fluctuation parameters. What I mean to say is that XCR, having a BTC linked value on the one hand (as traded on international forex) might also have a parallel domestic fluctuation capability on the other, wherein fluctuations of value in certain jurisdictions may take place only at predetermined increments...depending upon the gross GDP of the country in question (as identified by the smartphone hardware). So for example if the forex price of XRC were to fall (or rise) dramatically (versus BTC) by say 10%, smartphone hardware having established the geographical location of the user could nonetheless adapt (within that specific jurisdiction) to retard price fluctuations (keeping them as low as 1000th of actual forex fluctuations) in low GDP countries to create stability for poorer people which might otherwise arise from non-trivial forex fluctuations. Just thinking out loud. The idea in current form is unworthy of those here present not least as there will always be some who would seek to exploit systems aimed at ensuring price stability in low GDP countries.
You got me thinking Litoshi, though perhaps I should keep poorly formed ideas to myself.
Edit: Neo-classical monetary theory is relevant here, that is to say, so called 'trickle down economics' wherein all are supposed to benefit from quantitative easing, even those at the base of the champagne fountain...whereas the truth of the matter is that those at the base of the fountain do not benefit at all because the money (the purchasing power of the money) has continued to devalue on its journey downwards even as more money is poured into the top of the fountain.
Neo-classical monetary theory (still taught in some Ivy League Universities) is nonsense. The poor get poorer because the money that eventually trickles down to them following quantitative easing, is worth less...has less purchasing power due to effluxion of time and constant replenishing of newly created money. Real monetary stability (stable purchasing power) is theoretically possible using cryptocurrencies and the serious minds here present may wish to give the matter their attention.
