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Funny this was like the day before this article about how banks have corrupted the governance of the world came out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=245352

by mudlus 6y ago

Funny this was like the day before this article about how banks have corrupted the governance of the world came out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24535241 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24535241 I thought banks were the enemy of Bitcoin? Guess it's market cap is high enough that it too must be corrupted by the powers at be.

simias 6y ago
Only some clueless cryptocurrency enthusiasts think that cryptocurrency is at odds with banking. Banks offer services that can't be replicated by cryptocurrencies and wouldn't really have a problem switching to them if necessary. You still need a bank to get a loan, you still need a bank to take care of your money if you don't want to be one hard drive failure away from losing access to the entirety of your funds. Banks and currencies are not the same thing. The funny part is that I've often seen crypto enthusiasts (including here on HN) claim that cryptocurrencies are the future and not as hard to use as people say, and then they go on to talk about their Coinbase provided Visa card how convenient it is. Good work guys, you've reinvented banks with extra steps.
- noxer 6y ago
  >You still need a bank to get a loan That is true today but it could change. DeFi is currently just hype and experiments but there is no reason why it would not mature in the next decade or two. > you still need a bank to take care of your money if you don't want to be one hard drive failure away from losing access to the entirety of your funds. That is just not true. Multi-sign with variable weights and quorum exists. Storage of the private key(s) also does not need to be digital at all. It's just a number often represented as string of chars and numbers or as mnemonic phrase usually just 24 words long. It is rather trivial to store multiple times in different places just make sure no one can find the full key or enough keys to sign a transaction.
- anm89 6y ago
  I think this will be true for the foreseeable future but is not true over the long term. Every one of the services a bank offers can be commoditized and offered as a service on a crypto based platform and over time new startups or existing crypto players will chip away at these pieces and build up an eco system. Existing banks could also integrate these services instead of competing with them. For the record i'm not particularly a crypto fan boy, I have a degree in economics, and I've worked in finance so I don't think I fall into your clueless crypto enthusiasts bucket.
vmception 6y ago
Bitcoin was and still is an enemy/ignorable-other-thing to many banks, who are incentivized not to care while also operating under an unclear regulatory environment. Wyoming passed new laws to address that. There were home grown laws in a state that routinely updates its business laws to be attractive. Wyoming is like the western US version of Delaware, but better in my opinion. Wyoming often passes laws for things other people are ignoring or don't respect yet because their business school didn't tell them to respect it yet. Instead of SPDI attracting existing banks, an existing cryptocurrency exchange decided to become a bank. This conveys full access to the US and international financial system: ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT.

by mudlus 6y ago

simias 6y ago

Only some clueless cryptocurrency enthusiasts think that cryptocurrency is at odds with banking. Banks offer services that can't be replicated by cryptocurrencies and wouldn't really have a problem switching to them if necessary. You still need a bank to get a loan, you still need a bank to take care of your money if you don't want to be one hard drive failure away from losing access to the entirety of your funds. Banks and currencies are not the same thing. The funny part is that I've often seen crypto enthusiasts (including here on HN) claim that cryptocurrencies are the future and not as hard to use as people say, and then they go on to talk about their Coinbase provided Visa card how convenient it is. Good work guys, you've reinvented banks with extra steps.

noxer 6y ago
>You still need a bank to get a loan That is true today but it could change. DeFi is currently just hype and experiments but there is no reason why it would not mature in the next decade or two. > you still need a bank to take care of your money if you don't want to be one hard drive failure away from losing access to the entirety of your funds. That is just not true. Multi-sign with variable weights and quorum exists. Storage of the private key(s) also does not need to be digital at all. It's just a number often represented as string of chars and numbers or as mnemonic phrase usually just 24 words long. It is rather trivial to store multiple times in different places just make sure no one can find the full key or enough keys to sign a transaction.
anm89 6y ago
I think this will be true for the foreseeable future but is not true over the long term. Every one of the services a bank offers can be commoditized and offered as a service on a crypto based platform and over time new startups or existing crypto players will chip away at these pieces and build up an eco system. Existing banks could also integrate these services instead of competing with them. For the record i'm not particularly a crypto fan boy, I have a degree in economics, and I've worked in finance so I don't think I fall into your clueless crypto enthusiasts bucket.

vmception 6y ago

Bitcoin was and still is an enemy/ignorable-other-thing to many banks, who are incentivized not to care while also operating under an unclear regulatory environment. Wyoming passed new laws to address that. There were home grown laws in a state that routinely updates its business laws to be attractive. Wyoming is like the western US version of Delaware, but better in my opinion. Wyoming often passes laws for things other people are ignoring or don't respect yet because their business school didn't tell them to respect it yet. Instead of SPDI attracting existing banks, an existing cryptocurrency exchange decided to become a bank. This conveys full access to the US and international financial system: ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT.