Bianca is going to Brazil and her family has asked her to bring some stuff.
One of the things she is bringing is a breastmilk pump. I don’t know why breast milk pumps need to be so expensive in Brazil but they are. About 2.5x more than in the Netherlands.
So her family sent some money to my bank account with Transferwise. Around 500 BRL or 145 euro.
The fee on this transaction is not even bad. It's 2.5% wich is a lot cheaper than going through a regular bank. The whole experience via the website is also pleasant. It feels a bit like Shapeshift or Blocktrades but with regular currencies.
In fact, the whole experience is nice, compared to regular banking, but for a couple of things.
There is still a substantial fee (because there is a third party, that provides a good service but needs to earn money)
It's still extremely slow. It took up to 6 days to get the money to my account. In that period you have no idea where your money is and it creates a feeling of uneasiness.
Here you can see how money is saved on the transaction. It's pretty genius for its time.
Why are you promoting this ancient technology?
I'm not.
But I know a lot of families use regular banking to transfer money between countries and maybe this knowledge will help them save some percentage on their transactions.
Anything better than losing money to a bank.
My hope is of course that everything will be powered by blockchain technology in the future.
But I have to stay realistic for now.
Cryptocurrencies are superior.
Everyone that has used a cryptocurrency once knows that it's a far better way to move currencies between countries. To make the comparison with STEEM vs Transferwise.
With Transferwise her family sent me €145 in 6 days, with a 2,5% fee.
With STEEM her family could have sent me 145 STEEM dollars in 3 seconds, with no fee.
Every time I look at these numbers my mind blows.
Make a Steem account for your family in Brasil I asked Bianca
I asked Bianca to make a Steem account for her family when she's there so we can exchange Steemdollars around instead of going through a bank at all.
They don't have to blog but it's an instant 'bank' account for them to use.
While making the account is very easily done. I have not yet figured out how her family would go from Steem dollars to Brazilian Reais in a simple way and vice versa.
This last Step is crucial for this adaptation.
I do like these challenges because it makes me feel I'm sort of working on creating a better world in my own little bubble.
But it's not always easy. What I need is a Brazilian me :)
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