Topic: Bitcoin & the Banks - page 3. (Read 5592 times)

True, but Mybitcoin.com is almost a bank already.  There will still be a role for bitcoin banks.

You'll just be able to go to the bitcoin ATM on the corner, put in cash, and get bitcoins. Or, meet your local dealer f2f and pay cash.

Today nature of banks migrated more to a services model : payrroll accounts, atm's, electronic banking.
All of that can be covered easily with btc, peer to peer lending included. 

The basic nature of a bank is bound to change somewhat, but the core concept of a bank as an institution that lends deposits out for interest is unlikely to change.

This is a peer to peer currency, is it too disruptive to think of a world without banks ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZEJ4OJTgg8

we are botcoin .... you will be assimilated .... RESISTANCE IS FUTILE .... your life as it has been is OVER



hahahahahaha!

And it doesn't really have to be an actual bank to start the trend.  If Wal-mart starts accepting Bitcoins, even just for their site-to-store purchases, then every one of their compeitors is going to have to follow suit quickly.  If Target does it first, Wal-mart might be able to resist for a while longer.  But once any major retailer such as these try it, resistance from the banking industry would be counter productive for their continued existance.

Not only are you being too negative, you don't seem to get it either ... perhaps some more time in the reading room before grandiose pontificating?

It will be in the economic interest for some banks to adopt bitcoin as just another currency they can act as an intermediary on (not enough people trust bitcoin to roll-their-own right now but if an early adopter trusted/regulated bank was offering bitcoin-based products they would be wildly successful for reasons too numerous to mention here) .... after the first one does it, it is all gravy from there on.

This ignores the simple fact that the parties that bitcoin relies upon to succeed have the most to loose from bitcoin's success.

I'm not saying bitcoin isn't going to be more successful than it is.

But for businesses (online and offline) to take it seriously, it needs to be supported by mainstream banks not just by backroom dealers. And I can't really see that happening any time soon.

Am I just being too negative?

Gavin picked an interesting number in one of the top 1000 banks.  Now this is interesting from a couple of interpretations.  Does he mean *currently* 1,000 biggest banks?  Or does he mean a bitcoin bank will grow so big it will be in the top 1,000?  I'd assume he's talking about a company that currently is a top 1,000 bank.  But even then, the banking industry is interesting.  The big players have so much influence and power and a lot of the little guys- not so much.  So the little guys might be tempted to adopt Bitcoin because it gives them protection against the big guys.

A brick and mortar (or even online) bank that supports Bitcoins would be great for casual users, and a point of sale instant network would also be quite good.  Hell, if this really caught on, maybe banks would be the only ones that actually were running the software and we all just had interfaces to it and they still had some transaction fees, although much smaller.

Because every electronic transaction that occurs in Bitcoins means less revenue for them, as they are not in the middle.

They might indeed gain from more FX conversions, and I guess they could charge fees for that, but I bet they stand to loose more from lets say "intermediatary fees" than they would gain from additional forex transactions.

Isn't that the whole point of bitcoin? That it frees users from the high fees embedded in the banking system?

Btw don't Bitcoins securely handle themselves? So there is no need for 3rd party security? Or are you saying that banks might offer to protect users' wallets for them?

I think there's a good chance (mmm... 65.3%) that within 4 years one or more of the largest 1,000 US banks will support currency exchange to/from bitcoin for their customers.

Why would bitcoin be a threat to banks?  They're really good at securely handling currency; that's a valuable service, whether the currency is dollars or euros or bitcoins.

Hi Guys

I have been doing a bit of thinking today and talking with a friend and wanted to express my view on Bitcoin, and ultimately get some feedback from you guys on it.

For this thing to really get popular, everyday users who know nothing about bitcoin and don't care about it either need to find it is cheaper for them to transact in bitcoins rather than normal currency.

That means that the benefit of bitcoin, ie. not having to go through 3rd parties, needs to be realised.

The reason why I think bitcoin has got potential to really do well is that businesses pay so much money to 3rd parties for transacting. Think about it: Every time a business accepts cards, it pays anywhere from 3-8% of the transaction value to the credit card company.

Businesses would kill to be able to avoid that.

However, here's the commercial problem with bitcoin.

(aside from the fact that governments probably won't like it for tax reasons).

Bitcoin is ultimately competing against some of the biggest and most interconnected institutions in the world: banks & credit card companies. Most of these companies are very closely connected.

Bitcoin unfortunately to work depends on banks. Why? Because users need to be able to convert their USDs/GBPs/EURs into bitcoin and then their bitcoins into USD/GBP/EUR. This can only happen if a bank is involved somewhere, either directly (through a bank transfer) or indirectly (through paypal/online payment processing).

Banks will not be happy about Bitcoin, due to the fact it competes with them.

Therefore they will not allow their customers to convert into Bitcoin. They will block the accounts of the biggest individuals or companies that are exchanging BTC to mainstream currencies. And yes there are a lot of different banks out there, but all the worlds banks are closely connected and I am sure they will ALL be in agreement that bitcoin is not in their collective best interests.

Not saying that Bitcoin will be extinguished: they will always be individuals who will convert BTC into currency via exchanges like MtGox. But there will never be one big company or institution that supports bitcoin conversion, and without that the currency cannot enter the mainstream. (ie. be used everyday for consumers, online or offline).

Bitcoin will always be useful for some things I believe, and it will still have value. But it is not going to change the world for this reason.

(BTW this ignores the fact that banks have huge political influence and will support any political attempts to block the advance of bitcoin.)

What do you guys think?