Nobody's using crypto for its intended purpose - its value proposition when it comes to payments is just as dubious as it ever was. The vast majority of the attention for crypto has been for its speculative aspect.
There are tons of people using it for its apolitical and censorship resistant nature. Afghanistan/Ukraine/Lebanon/Argentina/Venezuela/Nigeria/Turkey/Belarus/Mexico to name a few countries where it is very relevant and useful
Its really hard to get a good gauge on that. There is a lot of data but its all very piecemeal and hard to aggregate. Could spend a week trying to get an idea of it and still not be sure. Here is my couple minute version though.
For 2020 in Mexico alone from Bitso: "Frida Vargas, head of business sevelopment at Bitso, told CoinDesk the company processed about $1.2 billion in remittances between the U.S. to Mexico in 2020. “Our main users are remittance companies, who use crypto technology to improve and make the remittance sending and collecting process easier,” she said."[1]
In Argentina: "Cryptocurrency penetration was at 12% in
Argentina, vs. 29% credit card penetration,
indicating impressive crypto uptake in that
country"[2]
"There is high interest in receiving crypto
remittances in various LatAm markets, such
as Peru (33%), Argentina (19%), Mexico (15%),
and Brazil (8%)"[2]
>There are tons of people using it for its apolitical and censorship resistant nature.
bahahaha. the story never changes but bitcoin is always the proletariat fighting against the powers that be. Don't worry, El Salvador is accepting it as legal tender!
Also if the "purpose" of something is payments and that thing is an investment for you, then you're betting on a deflationary future which means that thing will be less useful as a payment.
I use it to receive money from another country and exchange for USD in a local exchange point.
It may sound like a boring case, but if you find yourself in a foreign country without working bank cards, it might save your ass
