Bitcoin Forum

BTCANKING ON BTCITCOIN

"EQIBank acquired its banking license in September 2018 to become the world’s first licensed and regulated bank to provide customers with a single banking relationship for their entire national currency, crypto and digital asset ecosystems. Instead of having to form multiple relationships with separate financial institutions, customers can access a comprehensive suite of services including clearing and settlement, trading, custody, lending, and banking." Pulled from https://www.financemagnates.com/thought-leadership/eqibank-the-first-licensed-bank-for-crypto-national-currencies/

As I look around and try to find the next biggest trend in crypto, I came across a company called EQI. I've been in the space for roughly 4 years and have seen it start from ICO's to Airdrops, Exchanges, and now Oracles and crypto-banking. I've looked over this project for some time and they seem to have their s%$! together as far as compliance, team, and vision.

Being in America, I think this would suit those best as we have to deal with these centralized giants like Wells Fargo, Chase, Suntrust, etc taking our funds and the fact we don't even own the money that we think we do- it's just what we are "owed".  I believe this can be the next wave of crypto trends and I hope to see others follow in the same path. We need to eliminate the disease of big banks we have now that are taking our money! What are your thoughts on EQI and the current banking system? Are we nearing a solution to this epidemic?

wow, I'm more interested in this Eqibank project, this project offers banking, exchange, borrowing, custody, and wallet

Hmmm, more like a token bank which will use its own token.
And the fees...god !!!!!...the feees !!!!

https://eqibank.com/fees/


I hope there are quite a few of extra zeros in that table or it's some sort of Aprils Fools Halloween joke !

Good. Not far from now everyone will be aware of crypto and would try to adapt it themselves. But I know that someday those people will try to create a coin for themselves and sell it to the customers for assurance.

do not forget to mention BOA ;D

I think this is a good innovation for expansion in financial transactions regarding security must be better than the manual bank and the guarantee for customers.

The time will tell if this will be successful project or not. It's good thing that such bank has appeared but the fees are horrible. With some competition that might appear in the future hope this will change too. And let's see how users will accept this new concept.

Lol yeah what are the tokens for if they already keep your cash and crypto for you? It makes much more sense to use those for whatever you might need. The memberships also feel like they just want you to buy tokens.

But yeah, the concept might be intriguing, but I can take care of my crypto myself so I probably won't be in the market for this kind of banking anytime soon. I can see this being quite polarizing.

All the while I thought crypto startups would try to deviate from traditional financial institutions and models, but here we are getting another product of greedy capitalism. With this so-called innovative crypto bank, we're just adding another currency and some services that already exist in a single institution--not much innovation there IMO. In signing up with their services, it's as if you're giving your money to a bank albeit a less reputable one. It's better to just use traditional banking services for storage of money and exchanges for trading rather than risking it both in a single service that has a huge risk of being hacked.


Ahh nope, maybe not. Traditional wire transfer fees start @ $25 from where I am and this one is too absurd to even happen.

For all I know we intend to back away from the banks and centralization but here we go again with such project that seem to put us back to where we had been before. Isn't history repeating itself again?

Crypto wallets are meant to act like a bank for ourselves, but this EQI isn't working like how wallets do. If its going to work like we still own the private keys then there is no different to it from decentralized exchanges which is almost enough.

Lol!! I though of some fresh ideas that may have been incorporated in this new crypto bank. But it seems like another rip-off like traditional banks.

Man, what bank takes €500 term deposit pre-mature withdrawal fees?? My bank don't even charge a single penny for such cases!! Good luck to the account holders!!

crypto-banking is a good step towards creating public trust in crypto and this will encourage more investors and new users to join crypto, if this continues and the more new crypto banks emerge then we will know what the future of crypto will be

who issued their license? they claim they are regulated by the commonwealth of dominica, but they are not listed here: http://fsu.gov.dm/registered-entities/offshore-banks

i don't think there's any situation where a single banking license would grant approval to operate across CARICOM, which is a supranational association of caribbean states (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Community). what institution is responsible for issuing banking licenses across all of CARICOM, and what authority do they have? the eastern caribbean central bank doesn't have jurisdiction over CARICOM.

given the above confusion (and possibly outright lies) this looks pretty shady to me. nobody should need a bank to hold their crypto anyway.

Probably the whole idea behind this token is another stable coin with a fixed value. I really can't find anything about it but it seems like this would be the only way to get licensed as a bank since there is no way they would allow a bank that would have their customers funds at risks with the volatility we experience.

But their entire website is so full of contradicting info and ....mistakes!!!

https://eqibank.com/eqi-token/


So you're targeting customers with at least 5 million but you can't double check a text for typing mistakes!


Seems like this is the new trend right now, we're replacing something bad with something ten times worse.
In the place of banks, we have those webwallets (inputs.io and many others), Karpeless replacing Madoff,  instead of the FED we have Ver and bitmain...

haha banks... Why would someone use this?

You losing your autonomy! you losing your control over money and probably you will need a bunch of documents...

And these fees are the best!

I will add this to my "funny watch list"  ;D

Really, the first licensed Bank on a centralize platform to enslave the world of cryptocurrency; this is never a good one coming from EQI to Crypto-community. Crypto (Digital currency) sole aim was to build a decentralize platform for freedom, but, now turning into a centralize platform for slavery from the political animals(Politicians). We the crypto-community reject their offer........'s.

Basically, it's just not what the Bitcoin's future intended.

As the 10 year anniversary of the Original Bitcoin is today, let me quote a part of the abstract of the study.

The Financial institution meaning

Bank Meaning

It's just what Bitcoin is preventing these are the thoughts that come up to mind.

sadly, most people don't enter this space for the autonomy. it's more about greed. there's plenty of people out there (including wall street institutions) that might want investment exposure to bitcoin, but don't want to secure coins themselves. it's not surprising when you consider there's still a lot of technophobia in our society. the older generations, legacy institutions, etc.

in 10-15 years, i bet bank of america and all the other major retail banks will expand their depository services to include crypto.

Let's give this crypto banking a chance considering this bank creates a regulated institution that bridges fiat money and cryptocurrency together with ease. This institution might bring comfort to introduce cryptocurrency to everyone. However, we need to take note the specifics such as transaction fees and insurance.

Has EQIbank been established and is operating or still in the project? if it is not already operational, then there is one more project that has obtained a license before EQIbank, it is World Bit Bank, they obtained a license in February 2018. You can see it on the website https://wbb.io

of course, with the regulating institution, it will add fees to support it. but for me this is not a significant problem, as long as the development of cryptocurrency is clear

They didn't obtain a banking license they've just obtained a license for running a web wallet and an exchange service.
Besides those are obtained in Estonia, and in Estonia, you can get a business up and running in a couple of hours online.

Ignoring the team, made out of guys that were running a fitness business in the past the whole roadmap is hilarious.


250 million for 9 banks? lols, Piraeus sold their crappy business with 100 000 clients in Serbia !!!!!! for 70 million and they want to buy 9 in the EU , US and Japan???

Let's see how this scam will end!

Not a chance! Do you know why I am in this business at the first place ?

To become my own bank, that is what bitcoin has promised me, to be my own bank. I do not like banks, I actually HATE banks and this is why I was interested in bitcoin early on as well, I have been around longer than most people because I was literally searching ways to live my life without having to worry about any banks.

Banks are deceitful and scammers and they will do anything and everything in their power to make even a single cent from you. Banks like HSBC is literally the reason why people are suffering today. They go out and make deals with drug dealers to make their money legit however at the same time they call you and tell you to pay your 1.13 dollar "debt". That is not a freaking debt thats chump change and if you do not pay (who cares about 1.13 dollars) than they will call every single family member telling them to tell you to pay.

I mean sure, banks are the antithesis of what we're trying to achieve, but that doesn't automatically/magically makes them dissappear, we need people to be able to take their funds away from banks and make it easy as most people don't care to learn the intricacies of how the tech world is run. With that said, I think EqiBank is precisely that, a mean to this goal, we can't just impose a different economic system without laying the proper foundations for transitioning away from the banking system.

Or that's at least the way I see it.

I fully agree with you, but we're not the only one in this space.

Crypto related services with a banking license means more money that will flow into this ecosystem, where on top of that, now these services are a bank themselves, they don't have to deal with other shitty banks out of nothing freezing their bank accounts. Just look at how exchanges currently suffer from how stupid and paranoid banks are; they freeze bank accounts left and right for no reason.

Coinbase is working on its license as well, and it will be granted to them for sure, and when that happens, it will significantly increase investor's confidence in that platform, and it might even attract more fiat than ever before.

If there is one thing we need, it's more fiat flowing into this system, and like it or not, the far majority of the people here buy themselves into Bitcoin through a centralized service.

From what i know, cryptocurrency created because not trust on banking system. Cryptocurrency eliminate third party like banks. When we creating bitcoin wallet, we like opening bank account, but i think its good idea if cryptocurrency bank will created and we will see the bussiness model

EQIBank is definitely proud to get The first crypto-BANK license, I saw a lot of Cryptocurrency competition that was prestigious and getting hotter, and to be honest I wanted to know the end result of crypto competition in the future.

Bank or not, I rather stick to the traditional banks than to use a newbie in the space only out to further extort their users. People value service at low cost, which isn't something EQI can provide.

It's waiting for the traditional banks to add support for people to buy and sell crypto from within their online banking portal. I am of believe that we'll see the first legacy bank doing that pop up before the end of 2019.

I'm not saying it's good or bad with how that's against what people here believe in, but it will happen anyway with how much there is to gain in fee income during active market phases.

I think so. This is really a new business. They do not go through trading floors to make money from investors. Banks are the most practical and investors can control their money at a real office. This will help many investors trust and use EQI. Hope it will succeed and contribute more to the Crypto market.

Crypto Banking, Why? The driving force behind this interest isn’t so much the cryptocurrencies themselves, as it is the technology that the industry is built on – Blockchain!
And also, EQI is going to have an built-in exchange, so you would have everything on one place, check this out
https://nulltx.com/are-banks-really-using-blockchain/

The fees are quite high. What's with that? It almost costs more than a bank would pull out of your account when your wire transfer money to be made by them. That's just another 'licensed platform' who's gonna milk out their potential customers some fees. Lol and that just killed the very concept of why blockchain technology exists.

I am really hoping it is actually a Halloween joke. But if this is for real, and looking at the fees, that is pretty typical of banks. It is actually absurd to even see some people seeing this as a great innovation and then probably there is every chance that the banks already know that there are some people who do not actually understand any concept at all.

Banking will always be banking and as far as I am concerned, it is something I have made my decision to not see as anything I even want to have much to do with in the long run. Right now, it is basically because I don't see any means to do so yet, but as time goes on and I get to see bitcoin being used in real life or cryptocurrency attaining some height of usefulness in the real world, banks will suck to me. Like jseverson said, it actually does not make any sense, when I can be my own bank.

The massive fees that they are charging, will be the barrier to entry that Satoshi wanted to get rid of, when he created this technology. Satoshi did not want people to pay $500 to use Bitcoin, so why should we pay this to a centralized Bank?

The unprofessional website will also raise some eyebrows, when people visit the site for the fist time. We do not need another fly-by-night operation like this to use Bitcoin, because they are a dime a dozen these days.  ::)   

Give us a legit Bank that are not afraid to operate under presure from governments and who would be willing to open their doors to Crypto currency users, who wants to link their Bank to their Crypto exchange. <Give other Banks competition, when they close Crypto currency users accounts.>  ;)

I really do feel your pain bro, and I totally agree with you that banks have been a huge pain in our asses, but one way or the other, I still see them as a necessary evil. In as much as we may not like them, their policies or how they have done things over the years, they still basically serve a purpose and I do not think that purpose is something that can easily go away.

Moreover, what I am seeing here is more like a service which I believe will be channeled to some faction of people who really cannot do things on their own but would like to participate in the cryptocurrency space, and in that case, it is a mutual benefit, but apparently, no one is imposing anything on anyone, but we all know banks will never stop with their extortions one way or the other.

no chance for this idea, banks and crypto can not work together, we need choose between them and take only one option  :-[

I believe Eqibank is already licensed as per the claim on their website. However, I am unable to see any proof as such! On the other hand, I see WBB ICO is still running and the license number is mentioned in their website! While investigating further on the given license numbers, I see the WBB is not at all licensed as a Banking organization!

Instead they are licensed as a "virtual currency wallet service" and "Virtual currency exchange service", but not as as Banks! Check the below links,

https://mtr.mkm.ee/taotluse_tulemus/478892
https://mtr.mkm.ee/taotluse_tulemus/478888

So I doubt the legitimacy of the claim where they say that WBB is the "First Licensed Legal Cryptocurrency Bank"! There is difference in claim and reality!

A bitcoin bank is a contradiction in terms, since the blockchain is already a bank. In addition, in this operation there are many obscure points, so it seems to me a good and good scam. We'll see how it turns out.

100 euros? Only for transferring fee? It is too high. I don't want to say that it is good in the part of cryptocurrency people but it does not mean that it will become assurance of price hiking. Well, I thought that banks never want crypto to exist so I assume also that this is a token bank. Well, a lot of ICO's I saw that are related in crypto banking which are scam.

This is new news in my encyclopedia and before it, I had known that Venezuela is going to officially open a crypto bank for the revival of their economy that will help them tackle the challenges they have been facing in the form of hyperinflation and inflation. So this is not bad because ultimately it helps you transform things into a digital format and the more people use the banking facility, the more the demand for the coins will rise plus the knowledge about cryptocurrency will spread.

Seriously, what are you talking about?
Venezuela? Who mentioned Venezuela?

And it is not bad? it's 100$ fee for a transfer, do I have to spell it for you what it means?
It means increased cost of services > inflation!!!!!! , exactly the stuff you were so afraid of.


I'm turning day by day into a pessimist and when I read my posts I sometimes think I'm exaggerating stuff a bit but that's just till the next piece of news makes me think I'm right.

What have we done with cryptos to change the flawed system into something better? Almost nothing!
We have almost centralized currencies whose characteristics are determined by some team nobody elected, a lot of web wallets
 replacing banks with crappier security and 10x more exit scams and ICOs...no  need to add more here.

And those crappy services that have the nerve to come with a bunch of lies and astonishing fees are actually getting applauded by people here!!  It might be that they are only sig spammers who don't bother to read but still...

At this point webpage is not working for me, i cant tell how legit they are but as far as i can tell from linkedin page, it seems far fetched- account opening in the end of 2018.
Since cryptos at large are not regualted yet, i dont see how this could be a legitmate venture, at least not now. Maybe they can do regualr finances while being crypto friendly..till regulation is in place.

Establishing a cryptobank is good innovative in the financial world, I hope the transaction charge of the cryptobank will not be more than the traditional banking system we are running from because most of the cryptocurrency to fiat exchanging  platform charges even more than bank.

in essence all people want transactions that are fast and inexpensive and safe. many people with conditions like now they do not argue about fees, but there are also those who question it, depending on personal viewpoints

The conventional banks are restricted by so many regulations it is practically impossible to engage in crpto banking. Therefore the idea of crypto banking is a good one. It will be focused and not encumbered with that much regulations as the conventional banks.

Isnt this exactly why cryptobanking is not possible at this point of time? Because in order to do cryptobanking + FIAT you need licenses, but crypto would deny the license..?

The time will tell if this will be successful project or not. It's good thing that such bank has appeared but the fees are horrible. With some competition that might appear in the future hope this will change too. And let's see how users will accept this new concept.

Oh! You think bank really knows what they want? What they are just basically after is to keep trying as much as possible to want to at least keep milking those they can milk and as long as there is potential for profit when it comes to a new thing, I am sure they will always find a way to blend in.

We always know how banks have always operated for their own selfish reasons, so I see no doubt in seeing them trying to at least take advantage of some set of people who want to be a part of this space, but don't just know how to go about it and as long as they are benefiting from it, they will just shut up eventually. Have you not noticed that banks are the biggest hypocrites the world can ever have?

It seems to me like this is going to be the new trend we are going to be seeing very soon, considering how banks are beginning to find every single means to at least be a part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem and benefit from it.
It is not a bad idea, as this would generate some awareness at least, and even though I have never been a good fan of the bank, and now that there is an alternative with cryptocurrency with which I can easily be my own bank, they can go screw themselves.

Nonetheless, we need to accept that not everyone will be able to think or act the same way we do, and some will find it a bit hard to make some decisions on their own, and if banks decides to fill this gap, in as much as they know they will be gaining a lot from it, but still, it would help increase adoption the more in a way and won't restrict it to just the internet savvies.

Certainly no doubt it is a huge contradiction, considering the fact that as a cryptocurrency user, you are meant to be your own bank without the involvement of a third party, but we still have to realize that in as much as it could be easy for some of us, there is still a chance that some will really find it hard, so in that way, if banks want to be involved in the space, to at least service the latter, then I guess there is a lot of room for everyone and then a chance for the space to grow further.

However, at this stage, I really do not expect any smart person who is a tech savvy to obviously trust the banks over their own judgment to keep their funds for them.

Yes, I agree with you, crypto- banking is a first step that will open a new world for cryptocurrency. hopefully there will be more crypto-bank in near future.

Yeah, banks have a simple plan. They want to make money, just like any damn business out there.
I doubt there is a single person here that is going to say, forget about money I will do it for free 8 hours a day, 30 days a month just because I feel like working for free brings me close to Walhalla.

Banks have investors, you can buy shares, even in those new shady crypto banks, you can buy their tokens, its business nothing special.
And what would be your plane once you're a shareholder? Not getting as many dividends as the bank can deliver?

Talking about being hypocrites.
I know a guy that was cursing the major oil company in our country day and night till he realizes that one investment fund he put about 10k down was having a big stock in that company, and most of his plan growth came from the exact guys he was screaming are making tons of money stealing from his pocket. Whenever I start talking about that subject he tries desperately to change the discussion ...probably if I continue doing this he will get out of that investment plan ...but the scent of money is too strong.

What good reasons do you have that makes you think anyone would agree to make use of this Bank? 🤔And btw, no one ever said that their bank is owing them or whatever it is you’re trying to say. Bank is all about safety and everything they do is due to security reasons. I will rather have my money saved in banks than putting it online in a cryptocurrency bank. If tomorrow my bank mess up with me I know where to find them but not you people.

Most of these are exchanges pretending to be banks. There is nothing useful about them, so I don’t know why people are killing themselves over this matter. Blockchain is not meant to have any bank, if we get bank for Blockchain then it will be the same as the physical (original) banks we’re using, cause you won’t the complete control over your money and you can’t make transaction without them authorizing or without having them as the middleman. It’s clear that some people don’t even know anything about Cryptocurrency and that’s how they keep falling for scam.

This is a happy news that there will be more banks and cryptocurrencies in the future. Nowadays, because cryptocurrency has just begun, many targeted technologies cannot be popularized. But the future blockchain will change humanity.

Oh man it is so hard. People have put trust in bitcoin after contrasting services by bitcoin for so long eight years. Now, people start thinking of some investing or trading with bitcoin. So, these crypto banks wouldn’t be so easy. They need big effort to grasp the trust of users. They must make their foot hard in market and to develop enormous trust of users.

It is very good news for crypto traders and users. Some crypto bank are definitely need for online currency revolution. I think this bank will help every crypto traders and investors. I'm personally happy for established EQIBank. Everybody hope, in future many banks will work for cryptocurrency.

The thread topic should be changed from "First licensed crypto-BANK!" to "Another Centralized Crypto Entity" that may decide to hold on to your crypto assets whenever it pleases them, or maybe run away with them. Crypto banking is akin to scamming simples, and defeats the main principle behind crypto.

Well it is far more relief to invest and use the crypto side rather than using the bank. I do agree and detain this fact that banks have been exploiting all the costumers who use the services in the form of many hidden charges. In addition, they restrict you to use all the features and you might need to pay additional charge for having the benefits of that particular service. So in my opinion, since nothing like this exists in the crypto, it is far better to use crypto than Banks.

I agree, I also think that every individual has his own opinion about crypto so I don't feel queer if someday there will be a difference of opinion about crypto in the future, maybe this is like a election vote, so if the opinion is much the most he wins

I think bitcoin created by satoshi because we can transfer without using third party like banks. I think many project like this and hopely the project will offering more feature than just a bank for cryptocurrency

I agree. Just a crypto bank is not interesting. Need something more.

Hmm.. pretty interesting project, I'll keep an eye on it, but I don't really recognize centralized platforms like this, but the idea is nice

Well i think bitcoin is made to avoid banks and send as it is via his blockchain technology and network, and we shouldn't combine this two, and who want will use banks and others crypto, or both but not combined.

If there really are such fees in this cryptobank, then we do not need such banks. What is the point of such services with such prices? How would this bank be different from the greedy ordinary banks that we criticize?
The very need for crypto banks will still be time tested. It is still difficult to say whether cryptobank services in cryptocurrency will be in demand.

This services is looks more percentage of money so better peoples are maintain our near by Bank. Because this is not a world Bank so peoples are want to security of this bank and performance of the last services then easy to arrive this place. Now only I check this bank it was available in Dominica so it is a Island, I think better peoples are maintain the previous Exchanges because it is not attract to me.

Cryptocurrency banks are already starting to work, and we will not get anywhere. Different ways of interacting with each other cryptocurrencies and banks are inevitable. The whole question is whether the services of such banks will be in demand and whether such activities will be beneficial to the banks themselves. If the demand for specific services in cryptocurrency, such as lending in cryptocurrency, is, then such banks will exist and develop. I do not see anything bad for cryptocurrency.

right, both of them should not be like the competition itself. but the government must be able to sort out by giving policies between the bank and cryptocurrency to be able to run both of them, without dropping each other

in the future, many countries follow crypto bank concept  Switzerland and malta also crypto friendly to launch banking service even binance have plans to launch their own crypto bank

I got into crypto to run away from greed of banks, I don't know how this crypto bank will be but in the end banks to tend to make money in ways I do not support and that is why as long as this is not a totally different type of bank I will not be liking it.

I think banks should not get into crypto since the reason why crypto was started in 2008-2009 was because of the 2008 banking crisis, those dudes made horrible mistakes with mortgages and put all those toxic ones into a bond and sold that and even made those bond together and then sold that leveraging their already horrible positions to a spike and then they crashed, what happened afterwards? None of them got punished for it and they even got bonuses for job well done and everyone in the world paid for it, I am sorry but if crypto becomes a bank like that I will start using fiat instead of crypto.

So how does this bank works especially in securing cryptocurrencies or for different fiat currencies all over the world? Is is ready for volume of transactions and does it can cater the possible clients without getting delay basing on the possible promises? The problems in banking and cryptocurrency in the near future should be overlook so as to avoid any possible dissatisfaction from its clients.

It's not about whether you think they should get into crypto or not, it's just about them considering it a viable move, and it definitely is. If you support freedom, you also should support the fact that ANY entity can enter and use crypto. We may not like them, but the good thing is that we don't have to deal with them if we don't want to.

As long as you have your private keys securely stored offline, they can't do anything to cheat on you or take your coins away from you. We just have to accept that there are a lot of people who don't want the responsibility of storing their own wealth. They either think they can't do it because it's too difficult (which it can be in case of crypto), or they don't trust themselves for whatever reason.

Let people do as they please. Don't like a specific service then don't use them.

Those familiar with setting up offshore entities and tax-friendly jurisdictions know how to use their services.

Your fee structure is also entirely wrong and there is no token associated with the bank.