“The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.”
– Lord Acton –
Proof of Concept - Mission Accomplished!
Today I exchanged a little Steem for a little fiat... It went well!
Who Needs Banks?
Image courtesy of Jimi Filipovski and http://unsplash.com
If you follow my blog,
you know that I've recently published a series of articles about actually using Steem for everyday purposes:
- "Be The (Ex)Change You Want To See In The World"
- Up To 1,000 STEEM Available... ~Will Exchange for Fiat~
- Putting My STEEM Where My Mouth Is - Up To 1,000 Steem To Exchange
As Steemit users, we have an amazing opportunity. We can start helping each other convert between STEEM and fiat. We can bypass banks and exchanges, we can "stick it to the man"—simply by trading STEEM among ourselves.
We don't need no stinkin' exchanges...
Exchanges charge exorbitant fees and want to know every detail of your life.
Why are they so intrusive? In a word, government, an entity that makes immoral and unjustifiable claims upon all of our lives and all of our private transactions. To hell with them. There is a better way. We can exchange Steem and fiat privately. I've done it, and it's no big deal.
The story of today's success.
A fellow Steemian responded to one of my earlier articles on the topic. I suspect his interest was sharpened by the recent drop in the general crypto market. Earlier discussions, plus a study of his Steemit blog and interactions, had already persuaded me that he would be trustworthy in an exchange.
We settled on some basics while chatting on Discord—the total amount of Steem, the transfer channel for the fiat (PayPal), the net amount of fiat, and so forth—and then we proceeded with the exchange.
All went smoothly. After agreeing on the details—Steem, fiat, initiator, timing, etc.—the actual exchange itself took place in a matter of only a minute or two.
My counterpart in the exchange and I are both satisfied, even though we are on different continents.
In a sense, this is a big deal...
The transfer of Steem is instantaneous, frictionless, incurs no fees, and requires no permission or direct interaction by any third party. Transferring Steem is strictly a peer-to-peer event, no different than meeting someone in the marketplace and exchanging goods and currency.
The very cool thing is that a transfer of Steem can occur in the same room, or anywhere on the same planet, either way in pretty much a comparable amount of time. That time is a matter of seconds, and the Steem network is able to scale up and maintain that speed as more users join.
Why Not Exchange Some Fiat for STEEM?
Image courtesy of Vitaly and http://unsplash.com
Speed is no idle boast for Steem,
as can readily be seen if you visit http://blocktivity.info. Presently, Steem is outstripping the activity of all other blockchains.
The transfer of fiat in the other direction was also quite expeditious, although it inevitably racked up transfer fees - foreign exchange fees, PayPal transfer fees, etc. We discussed the possibility of looking into other methods of doing the fiat transfer, but at least PayPal did work - at a cost.
A more ideal solution would be to "go local."
Humanity now has the power to bypass banks and governments by beginning to use cryptocurrency on a purely peer to peer basis. In order to expedite that, we need to begin on-boarding all of our friends, family, and local merchants to Steemit. Then we can simply do all our transacting in Steem and SBD.
Some practical tips for getting started.
- Start small - don't exchange more than you can afford to lose
- Clear communication matters - agree in advance on all details
- Communicate privately via Chat or email
- Agree on the total amount of Steem or SBD
- Agree on the total, final amount of fiat - after all fees and etc.
- Agree on the fiat channel - in person, PayPal, "speed" of exchange
- Agree on who will make the first move
- Evaluate your exchanger using available sources - friends, Steemit blog, reputation
Are you ready to do your part?
We don't need Coinbase, Bittrex, and etc. We don't need their fees. We don't need their government regulation and reporting. We can do this.
Your Cash for My STEEM...
Image courtesy of Pepi Stojanovski and http://unsplash.com
I have some more STEEM available.
Who's interested? Let me know in the comments...
FIN
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