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Okay, so the obvious question is... crypto. Do these large institutions have any interest in opening up interfaces to the crypto ecosystem, are they skeptical

Okay, so the obvious question is... crypto. Do these large institutions have any interest in opening up interfaces to the crypto ecosystem, are they skeptical as hell about the concept generally, is the technology mature enough to start seeing integration with common tasks like sending money in these popular "instant" apps (e.g. Venmo uses a stablecoin to transfer money, without even showing the crypto part to the user)? I'm wondering if my local credit union wants to hold my BTC for me, if I wanted to do something like that.

handrous 5y ago
> I'm wondering if my local credit union wants to hold my BTC for me, if I wanted to do something like that. They'll do that now with a piece of paper in a safe deposit box, no? Other options for their holding your BTC, including ones that let them make money off it and so offer interest to depositors, seem like they'd open up the same risks as existing relatively-reputable exchanges.
- Meekro 5y ago
  A piece of paper in a safe deposit box is, unfortunately, not risk-free. There have been some incidents where, for example, the owner of box #1343 loses his key and asks the bank to drill the box, so they drill box #1434 and give him the contents (hopefully your paper wallet does not say "MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN UNTRACEABLE EASY-TO-STEAL CRYPTO" at the top!) Also, floods have resulted in box contents being destroyed (a bigger problem in some cities than others.)
  - kamarg 5y ago
    Not to mention most safe deposit boxes are insured for a few hundred dollars max unless you've specifically bought additional insurance. So if the bank does screw up and give your box contents to someone else, you can only recover a very minimal amount of the value.
    - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
      At that point you might as well buy insurance directly and skip a step
stevebmark 5y ago
You mean a system built on Proof of Waste where it takes minutes to confirm transactions using large amounts of energy purely to guess random numbers, that's literally designed to get harder and generate more waste the more it's used, and is full of scams and treated purely as a highly volatile commodity with limited realized practical use, where blockchain "technology" is so poor that you can only put a URL in a block, so NFTs aren't connected to anything (and used for many scams), and where each news article about smart contract failures is somehow more hilarious than the last? I sure hope banks don't navigate into this space.
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  I'm hardly a crypto-stan, but I get tired of the same recycled complaints. There's a move towards PoS, crypto is not synonymous with PoW. You'll be displeased to know that scams occur with fiat as well as crypto.
- throwaway98797 5y ago
  Buy a nft. See if that changes your perspective.

handrous 5y ago

> I'm wondering if my local credit union wants to hold my BTC for me, if I wanted to do something like that. They'll do that now with a piece of paper in a safe deposit box, no? Other options for their holding your BTC, including ones that let them make money off it and so offer interest to depositors, seem like they'd open up the same risks as existing relatively-reputable exchanges.

Meekro 5y ago
A piece of paper in a safe deposit box is, unfortunately, not risk-free. There have been some incidents where, for example, the owner of box #1343 loses his key and asks the bank to drill the box, so they drill box #1434 and give him the contents (hopefully your paper wallet does not say "MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN UNTRACEABLE EASY-TO-STEAL CRYPTO" at the top!) Also, floods have resulted in box contents being destroyed (a bigger problem in some cities than others.)
- kamarg 5y ago
  Not to mention most safe deposit boxes are insured for a few hundred dollars max unless you've specifically bought additional insurance. So if the bank does screw up and give your box contents to someone else, you can only recover a very minimal amount of the value.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    At that point you might as well buy insurance directly and skip a step

stevebmark 5y ago

You mean a system built on Proof of Waste where it takes minutes to confirm transactions using large amounts of energy purely to guess random numbers, that's literally designed to get harder and generate more waste the more it's used, and is full of scams and treated purely as a highly volatile commodity with limited realized practical use, where blockchain "technology" is so poor that you can only put a URL in a block, so NFTs aren't connected to anything (and used for many scams), and where each news article about smart contract failures is somehow more hilarious than the last? I sure hope banks don't navigate into this space.

whimsicalism 5y ago
I'm hardly a crypto-stan, but I get tired of the same recycled complaints. There's a move towards PoS, crypto is not synonymous with PoW. You'll be displeased to know that scams occur with fiat as well as crypto.
throwaway98797 5y ago
Buy a nft. See if that changes your perspective.