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why would we need banks to back crypto? isn't the point of bitcoin to not have to rely on banks?
by tsukurimashou 6y ago
why would we need banks to back crypto? isn't the point of bitcoin to not have to rely on banks?
- Dobbs 6y agoAt somepoint someone is going to need to buy/sell bitcoin for $/€/£, when that happens you need to have some interface to the non-digital world. That requires banking services. Places to store the money, the ability to receive the money, and the ability to send the money.
- qubex 6y agoThat’s the entry point from whence you divine that ‘crypto’ has failed at becoming a payment system (as it was originally envisioned to be) and has instead become a mere asset class for speculation.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- woah 6y agoHuh? How would any envisioned use of Bitcoin work without the ability to trade it for dollars?
- qubex 6y agoThe cop-out snide answer is “anybody who lives outside the US and doesn’t use dollars as their main currency”. The answer that actually addresses the central question, however, would follow the lines of “if a scrip does not have institutions that use it natively across the board to address all functions of a currency, but rather depends on gateway institutions, then it isn’t a currency”. (A ‘scrip’ is a kind of quasi-money token system such as “Disney Dollars” at Disney’s amusement parks, vouchers used in company towns, and so forth.)
- DarthGhandi 6y agoThe moment you try to move any substantial amount outside of the traditional system you're basically under suspicion of terrorism or breaching trade sanctions. This might seem like hyperbole but it's true. And by substantial I mean a months pay for the average software engineer.
- stale2002 6y agoOnly the extremists believe that crypto will take over all financial transactions ever. Instead, most reasonable crypto supporters believe that crypto will be helpful for certain usecases, while the existing financial system will be useful for different usecases, and they will both survive together. These extremist arguments would be like if people were to argue, back in the day, that PayPal was going to get rid of all banks. That obviously didn't happen, but few people would say that PayPal has "failed". It is definitely still useful for many things.
- nullc 6y agoThe whole either/or is a false dichotomy for another reason as well: Established actors in financial services will adopt Bitcoin as demand exists for it.
- GoblinSlayer 6y agoWe wouldn't, it's for other people.
- treebornfrog 6y agoOn-off ramp, crypto to fiat.
- TimJRobinson 6y agoThe point is that you have choice, everyone can choose their risk/freedom trade-off while still participating in the same system.