Bitcoin users don’t need the existing banking system. The currency is created in cyberspace, when so called "miners" use the power of their computers to solve complex algorithms that serve as verification for Bitcoin transactions. Their reward is payment with cyber currency, which is stored digitally and passed between buyers and sellers without the need for an intermediary. On a smaller scale, airlines reward miles function in a similar way, enabling travelers to purchase plane tickets, hotel rooms, and other items using airline miles as virtual currency.
If bitcoin or another cryptocurrency become widely adopted, the entire banking system could become irrelevant. While this may sound like a wonderful concept in light of the recent behavior of the banking industry, there are two sides to every story. Without banks, who will you call when your mortgage payment gets hacked? How will you earn interest on your savings? Who will provide assistance when a transfer of assets fails or a technical glitch occurs? While the financial crisis gave bankers an even worse reputation than they already had, there is something to be said for institutions that oversee timely, effective, and trustworthy asset transfers and their associated recordkeeping. There’s also the issue of the fees banks earn for the services they provide. Those fees generate a lot of revenue and a lot of jobs across the global banking industry. Without banks, those jobs disappear, as does the tax revenue those banks and their employees’ paychecks generate. Money transfer business would also disappear in a virtual world. Nobody needs Western Union or its competitors if everybody is using bitcoin.
True, the banks provide a valuable service in overseeing our safe usage of a currency for things on a micro level. When we use the money for our day-to-day needs, the bank should be there to provide us support in case something goes wrong, and they do it quite efficiently.
The thing that is erupting with globalization is the demand for affordable international transfers, and bitcoin is becoming a vehicle in that service. Western Union used to have a monopoly in that but now it can get as low as 1% from mid market rate depending on what service you use. Bitcoin can't quite beat that, but many people are willing to pay more for the features that bitcoin offers, such as anonymity (and therefore tax evasion). This is seen as a threat because not only the governments are losing out but the money lending institutions as well.