> I can't understand why anyone would want this to be optional.
If someone can make a living by selling e-books/blog posts/Photoshop paint brushes for cents on a dollar to hundreds or thousands of different people - all this person needs is to have people who are willing to take the risk of losing cents of a dollar. When these people pay for the person and actually get what they were expecting, the producer gets the money and the consumers got what they wanted and will then vouch for the producer's honesty.
And if the person is not honest, all it will take is for a few people to lose a small amount of money which is simply not worth fighting for, but it is enough to get those victims to warn others about the scam.
> the kind you see on prepaid cards in retail stores.
This includes middlemen and friction. It's a non-starter as a real alternative to simple payments via crypto.
> I'm not really interested to search around for every exchange I can find and make a comparison.
You really should, because that would be a huge lesson for you and everyone else that criticizes crypto without taking a look at the actual reality of a lot of people.
I specifically used Argentina for a reason: Argentina has strict capital controls and a handful of different exchange rates. If you are an exporter, the central bank converts USD/ARS at one rate. If you are importing, at another. If you are an investment bank at another. "Retail" does not even get to be able to convert money, so they all need to resort to the black market. The difference between the "official" rate and the black market is ~15%. So, someone that wants to receive ARS from someone sending USD (or GBP/EUR...) they will be facing a 15% cut just to be able to cash out.
If someone can make a living by selling e-books/blog posts/Photoshop paint brushes for cents on a dollar to hundreds or thousands of different people - all this person needs is to have people who are willing to take the risk of losing cents of a dollar. When these people pay for the person and actually get what they were expecting, the producer gets the money and the consumers got what they wanted and will then vouch for the producer's honesty.
And if the person is not honest, all it will take is for a few people to lose a small amount of money which is simply not worth fighting for, but it is enough to get those victims to warn others about the scam.
> the kind you see on prepaid cards in retail stores.
This includes middlemen and friction. It's a non-starter as a real alternative to simple payments via crypto.
> I'm not really interested to search around for every exchange I can find and make a comparison.
You really should, because that would be a huge lesson for you and everyone else that criticizes crypto without taking a look at the actual reality of a lot of people.
I specifically used Argentina for a reason: Argentina has strict capital controls and a handful of different exchange rates. If you are an exporter, the central bank converts USD/ARS at one rate. If you are importing, at another. If you are an investment bank at another. "Retail" does not even get to be able to convert money, so they all need to resort to the black market. The difference between the "official" rate and the black market is ~15%. So, someone that wants to receive ARS from someone sending USD (or GBP/EUR...) they will be facing a 15% cut just to be able to cash out.