I made
two infamous
BTC700-
BTC799 trades last week. One was at gox, the other was OTC. Let's split the banking system effect:
- I sell at the casino -> receive internal gox money -> banking system not affected (practically impossible to withdraw
already but we've got used to it, no big deal if it is cut altogether)
- I buy at the casino -> receive btc -> problem solved, bitcoin transfer not affected
- I sell OTC to my local friend -> he pays cash, gold, silver -> banking system not affected (he is still short EUR 7k from the deal and will need to deposit it physically this week as he has some issue with the bank)
- I buy OTC from goat -> now this is a tricky one since he needs to be paid in the local currency -> I spend several hours trying to pay in multiple installments to minimize the risk of bank default. The staff in the bank make it so difficult that I end up deciding to pay all at once, without escrow; too difficult, not worth my time, I trust goat, he trusts me, I don't trust bank and I really have a problem if the banks fail on this.
But so do they, it will be their last fail to screw both of us in front of the bitcoinworld. Nobody can trust the banks any more if they fail in this one. (This does not mean that they won't, however, but I never play with more than I can afford to lose to prove a point...)
So, my conclusion:
To me it seems that the
banking system has already played itself out of this game. In only one of the 4 transactions was it involved at all, and even there they acted like jerks who had been doing it for too long and wanted to be out. If it was convenient to have .999 metric gold in Thailand (which it isn't; they have both different purity and different unit) I would have probably sent it over by Fedex rather than bothering to call the bank.
Not that it was not difficult to send gold. You run into all kinds of trouble.. but after bitcoin, all the trouble that the world system heaps on you, will act
to their own detriment, not yours. By playing nice or ignoring you, they make themselves unimportant, since bitcoin works better. By fighting you, they can eat up hours of your precious time and make themselves sound like jerks, and everyone will read about it in Bitcointalk and wise up.
Banks, according to my observation, you have a precious little share in bitcoin transactions right now, and about to lose it all. Bitcoin user won't even notice when the last cord is cut. Bears better buy in. It's gonna be a ride from now as people are understanding
this (read it all, just recently pruned with a steady hand!).