I get the concept of bitcoin being cool because it has the “potential” to lift the dependency on big banks(insert Rothschild family conspiracy here) But that reality is still very far away. And completely unregulated. Zelle is nice for the opposite reasons. because it is the only p2p service backed by almost all the major banks it makes funds transfers and disputes a much simpler process.
The reality for lifting the dependence on big banks is definitely far away. I'm not sure that will ever happen to be honest, and that is not what I see as the value of cryptocurrency. A lot of people in the community get paid in Bitcoin and buy everything they need to survive with Bitcoin; I think that is novel but not adding value to their lives. However, I
do think that Bitcoin does some things much much better than the current system, it is in fact indisputable fact. One example is sending money internationally; the Internet has no borders, it is just as easy as sending an email. Another is sending very small amounts of money potentially very frequently. There are extremely useful applications for these characteristics which I believe ensure some form of cryptocurrency will be an every day part of all of our lives in the coming years, whether we directly interact with it or not.
However, today, one of the things it does really well is let you send money between people without all having to have the same app, the same bank, the same platform, a lot of coordination, and without anyone else getting involved and enforcing their agendas. Cigars are not as controversial as some things, but I would refer you here to examples such as
credit card processors refusing to process transactions for gun stores. Bitcoin is an open standard, while everything else named here so far is closed. Zelle might work fine now, and it might work fine forever, it probably will. But they could just as easily decide they don't like cigars, or guns, or people who make more than X per year, or anything else they want; no one can regulate Bitcoin and no one can change what you do with it. That is the appeal of it, today. Just my two
cents Bitcoin