I think we could probably cut out the middleman and do this mostly peer-to-peer, without traditional banks This would be the utopian future. Traditional midd

I think we could probably cut out the middleman and do this mostly peer-to-peer, without traditional banks This would be the utopian future. Traditional middlemen make their money by leeching surplus from both a buyer and a seller. In economics it's called Producer's Surplus and Consumer's Surplus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_surplus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_surplus The wikipedia article mentions that if the government intervenes, the graph becomes more complicated as it must be modified to also include room for "governmental surplus," but in reality, any third-party that "intervenes" in the transaction eats away surplus from either party. This is how banks are allowed to charge people $ for overdrafting, yet still charge them "service fees" per month along with interest rates for whatever they fancy. One thing for sure: you're probably right in that now would be a great time to get this working!