Bitcoin is the Next Skype

An anonymous comment was left on one of my posts, but vanished, for some reason. I'm going to re-post it here (I still have it in my email), because I think he/she made an excellent point:

"Everybody talks about PayPal...

'It's like PayPal, but free!' ...etc.

But I've come to realize that PayPal is a poor analogy.

Skype.

Why did Skype take off? It was because families sundered by borders could talk to each other for free. The largest percentage of Skype early adopters were South Americans with family members who immigrated to the U.S.

By the same token (and somewhat depreciating the silliness of Silk Road), I think cross-border and cross-currency transfer of funds is what will - sooner, rather than later - prove to be the killer app for Bitcoin.

Just as with Skype, there's nothing even remotely in the same ballpark. The technical know-how and hardware requirements for Bitcoin are really pretty analogous to what Skype was, at its beginning. The usefulness of Bitcoin is roughly the same as Skype.

There are certainly valid and important political uses for Bitcoin: donations to disapproved organizations (Wikileaks, OccupyWallStreet, etc.), donations in anonymity, cheat-proof donation recording, and many others.

But sending fifty bucks back to grandma in the old country (or vice versa) is where more effort should be applied. Because that's what people are going to be using."

-Anonymous

Posted in: cross-border transactions,developing countries,inevitability,potential