Banking is 10,000 years old. Since records of production began to be recorded on clay tablets and lending of grain with interest were agreed upon, banking in some form has been an integral part of society. And now a new chapter has been added to the history of banking; Bitcoins. The idea of bitcoins. The protocol. The technology. Records will show this as more than a fad.But what happens to institutional banks when we become our own, when all we need is a smartphone? This is a discussion that is currently spreading through the bitcoin atmosphere but feel the anwser is more positive and obvious for banks than I am reading in the news/blog reports.
I see a complete circle re: withdrawls/deposits of BTC. First removing the fiat currency and replacing it with more traditional and fundamental staples of wealth and of course new wealth. More of what a bank was when they first started accepting deposits. Safe houses. Protected temples that housed items like Gold, silver and in some cases, seed. Although a cryptocurrency is created online in a virtual world and is difficult to steal from a well protected online wallet some holders of the valuable asset want hard copies of their hard earned wealth and with that, security of said asset. This is where the banks, after being thoughly cleansed of all their toxic assets and fiat currencies (not back by a quantifiable resource), are again needed for safe keeping of hard cryptocurrency and precious metals etc..
The 3D printed coin, artifact or solid gold bar with private key engraved could be well served in a modern technological and fortified safe; A bank. So in a sentence; fiat money or the representation of them are withdrawn to purchase something tangible like physical manifestations of BTCs, gold and silver. These are then deposited in local banks for safe physical keeping. The idea may be simple and to some fundamental virtual investors redundant, but I believe that the bank need not die, simply grow and learn and adapt.
Follow @frankane
