pull down to refresh
33 sats \ 0 replies \ @DiedOnTitan 3 Jun \ parent \ on: What should bitcoin be? bitcoin
I am going to pick this apart a bit because we are incredibly far from realistically attaining or even requiring this level of scale. What are the minimum requirements for opening a Lightning channel? I would say that would include:
- Literacy. Global average is 87%. (Developed countries: 99%, sub Saharan Africa like Mali and S. Sudan: 31-35%)
- Access to the Internet: 66.2% of global pop.
- A smartphone: 59.8%
- Money. We can argue that people earning less than $10 a day have concerns that outstrip the need for opening a Lightning channel. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs puts a Lightning Channel below Food, potable water, shelter, clothing, and so on. 71% of people earn less than $10 per day. 15% live on less than $2 per day.
The bottom line is that no form of money will ever reach "every single person on earth". I have read that India alone has > 100 million rural subsistence farmers who will never touch money of any form in their entire impoverished lives. They do barter, but if their crops fail, they starve.
The level of poverty in the world has radically improved, but remains far more extreme than I think many realize. I have yet to see how Bitcoin fixes this.