But seriously yeah, imaginary numbers (square root of -1) just so happens to be a key part of the definition of a sinusoidal waveform, which is what all electromagnetic radiation flows by. Especially power delivered by alternating current, but also digital stuff and general quantum particles and things. So it really affects everything.
Objectively, bitcoin is better for online transactions. It’s not even all that safe for buying drugs - every transaction is recorded permanently in an open ledger, so it’s actually much easier to trace (at least up to the end points where traditional currency is exchanged).
It might be less widely accepted, but that’s only because of how insidiously endemic MasterCard and VISA are.
My experience in the US is you pay fees whenever you withdraw from a bank that isn’t your own. In other countries, you don’t pay fees unless you withdraw from an independent machine, and even then many are free.
I dunno though, I had a cushy US bank with no branches of their own, so they didn’t charge fees anywhere. BoA were bastards though, and I’ve heard terrible things about Chase.
Bitcoin is objectively better based on the way it works. Subjectively, with the established infrastructure behind it, traditional card payments are artificially better - purely because of convenience. But on a level playing field bitcoin works better and is less susceptible to negative influences.
The grocery store is not typically an online transaction. I did specify online transactions. For buying groceries online, bitcoin would be better - there are no fees when trading bitcoin. When trading cash, there are no fees.
When putting cash into a business account, there are fees, and as almost all businesses put their money into an account they pay these fees. These cash deposit fees and card processing fees have grown in such a way as to entrap nearly all commercial transactions.
Objectively, it’s better if there aren’t fees, particularly when the fees are not proportional to the actual service the fees are supposed to represent.
Old SMS was free though, it used the spare bits in a regular phone call datastream. Meanwhile, the network provider charged you 10p a pop, and far more for any kind of data.
Block chain has become a buzz word, just like AI or NFT’s, but they sure as hell makes some people a chunk of money before everyone realises what it actually means.
Boston (lemmy.world)
A Critically Endangered Sumatran Rhino Successfully Gives Birth In Indonesia (www.sunnyskyz.com)
Apple being... Apple! (fanaticus.social)
Be a better pirate. (lemmy.world)
Corvids... (mander.xyz)
Japan is living in the future that the 1990s dreamed of. (startrek.website)