Bitcoin Forum

Recently, a famous German Bank (Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken, Bayern Mitte) has announced to consider offering Bitcoin services. It happened a few days ago already but it’s a very bullish news if you look at 2 facts:


1. All Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken in Germany will be likely to follow and have around 30 millions of customers.


2. How it was announced:

• All employees will be educated in workshops about Bitcoin, including the most important topics.
• Andreas Streb, board director, said „sooner or later, Bitcoin will be important for every Bank and every company“, so he suggested to start adopting it as soon as possible because it’s important for him to stay ahead of foreign players or even local startups. In addition he wants to offer a safe, established environment for his customers to avoid the risk to get scammed by shady foreign exchanges or getting hacked.
• Only Bitcoin will be offered:
  „We will only offer Bitcoin, not other Crypto assets. Quite simply because only Bitcoin is really a decentralized blockchain application and from our point of view only Bitcoin offers sufficient security against manipulation. All other crypto assets are not comparable to Bitcoin. Above all, they are not decentralized, but there are companies or business models behind influencing the respective Crypto value.“
• Most important point: it’s important to own your Bitcoins:
  „The most important topic when trading or storing Bitcoin is to be owner of your so-called private key, (secret key allowing access to your Bitcoin). This is where our first considerations were made.
  Which trustworthy solutions can we offer for our customers? Many crypto platforms only give limited or no access to private keys because all Bitcoins are centrally stored on behalf of the customer.
  […] Bitcoin centrally stored by platforms is of course an interesting target for hackers. This also counteracts the decentralized storage in the Bitcoin blockchain. That's why we were looking for solutions in which the customer keeps his private key himself and can therefore own his Bitcoin himself.“

It’s a very bullish signal if a board director of a German bank points out what’s important about Bitcoin (education about Bitcoin’s tech, supporting a really decentralized coin (no shitcoins), not your keys not your coins).
We would expect such statements from most long-time forum members, but it’s surprising to hear it from a board director of a German bank.
100% bullish.

It was published here (German), very recommended read (if you translate it): https://www.profil.bayern/12-2021/praxis/bitcoin-wir-lassen-unsere-kunden-nicht-alleine/

It's very refreshing to see a banking institution with such an attitude towards digital currency. Bitcoin in particular.



Reading this puts a smile on my face. Not only are they advocating for bitcoin, they are educating people that owning your private key is important. Very pleased to see a bank take this angle.

I have always said that the struggle isn't against banks or Fiat the struggle is to educate as much people as the possible the benefits of adopting Bitcoin and crypto-currency, I think am in support of a free would, and a world where also banks can give it's customer the legit permission to deal in crypto-currency or fait according to their preference. If this happens from this German bank I think it would lead to a healthy coexistence between Fiat and crypto-currency, but after a while I think everyone one would know which should be more preferred my best bet is crypto-currency.

The first point is definitely an important one to allow the bank to educate customers on the features of bitcoin (such as the fact it can't be charged back).

I feel, though, that banks will initially start offering this service on request and won't point its customers in the direction of it explicitly (so it'll take quite a few years to be fully adopted).

4 is very interesting too but for usability the bank may also want to control (or at the very least) store backups of the private keys they issue their customers.

I read the article completely. It seems that they won't store users private keys and will let them to be the only and the real owner of their fund.

From the translated version of the article shared by 1miau (done by google translator):


They even encourage people to use cold wallets.

This can cause a chain reaction. Banks from other countries will also join this game in order to keep up with pioneers like German bank. That's when the fun begins when other bank start making such statements at the distillation.

German bank is not a bank from some 3rd world country with a weak economy and opportunities. This event could be the reason for a very serious surprise in the coming year.

In fact, such a statement from a bank representative seems to me very unexpected. Are the previous stages of Grief completed and bank's "accepance" stage started?   :)

I don't think the vast majority of Bitcoin holders understand how important this concept is. Any coin to which you do not hold ownership of the private keys are not your coins, it's merely an agreement between you and the true owner of the private key that the coin is yours, subject to change on a whim by the private key's owner. The number of crypto investors that store their crypto on exchanges or 3rd party apps is palpable. Seeing a bank take this approach is refreshing.

A good question is:  Why would a bank want to give the option to their customers to hold bitcoin themselves? Isn't it against the whole point of a bank? I mean it's fine if they announce that they keep reserves in bitcoin, but why promoting it as a currency if it makes your business poorer?

The thing I like the most from their policy is this:

You have already mentioned the strict regulatory requirements. Does your offer fall under the crypto custody business and thus under the BaFin authorization requirement?

Streb: No. That is the jumping point. Because the customer manages his private key himself, we have no way of accessing his Bitcoin, and so we do not store it. So we don't fall under the crypto custody business either. With our offer, we focus on educating our customers about Bitcoin and supporting them in choosing and setting up their Bitcoin wallet. The fact that we don't need a BaFin license makes a lot of things easier.

translation by Google

I'm really not suprised, because Bitcoin is not a full replacement for banks, so it was always a possibility that banks would offer Bitcoin services and earn money with them. For example, you can't lend Bitcoin in a decentralized way, so a bank would be needed for that.

Also, I'm really glad to see that Bitcoin maximalism is represented among the high-profile adopters, the world is starting to realize that blockchain technology and altcoins are not even 1% as useful as they claim to be/

I'm only surprised by the way they're going about it; providing education to their employees, announcing only Bitcoin, and not any other Altcoin, and pushing the fact that owning a private key is important. Technically, they could offer their services without suggesting to own the private key, which speaks tenfold about their trustworthiness. Hopefully, they'll incorporate into their services that the client will be required to own the private key, and not just suggest it. I guess, if a client wanted too they could opt out, but by default it should be that way I think.

I understand that not everyone wants to be completely responsible for their money, and therefore banks or some sort of third party is likely forever going to be needed. Although, I think by default at the very least the client should be offered what they want to do by default, and be explained without bias on what that exactly means.

When bank started considering bitcoin then I think they have knocked on the door of a lot of institutional investors to get more involved in this investment. I don't wonder why they are willing to only support bitcoin "not altcoin" because I think they have studied it well and know all the innovation that exist in bitcoin.

From the way they teach bitcoin to many people, I'm sure they have studied it for a long time and compared how bitcoin is the only one among thousands of other cryptocurrencies. Yes it's only about bitcoin, not altcoin.

Streb: One thing first: We deal exclusively with Bitcoin, not with other crypto values. Quite simply for the reason that Bitcoin is the only real decentralized blockchain application and, from our point of view, only this offers sufficient security against manipulation. All other crypto values are not comparable to Bitcoin. Above all, they are not structured in a decentralized manner, but rather there are companies or business models behind them that can theoretically or also very practically influence the respective crypto value.

translation by Google


In short:
Bitcoin is the only real decentralized one, others can be manipulated.

That's also my impression from their description so far, that only the customer has access to his BTC but I don't know because it's not finalized yet and how it'll be implemented in detail.

Especially how it will look like when people buy BTC, there needs to be some centralized wallet and after that, the bought BTC will be sent to the address owned by the customer.
At least such a procedure would be normal.

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It's not uncommon for Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken / Sparkasse in Germany because their business model is indeed very decentralized. It's called Genossenschaftsbank in Germany, somehow comparable to Cooperative banking. And in Germany, there are many partially independant, local branches (like for that Example Bayern Mitte (middle Bavaria)) and such banks are very customer friendly.

By selling / converting BTC, the bank would still make a profit and the article also mentions to sell education-courses for customers interested in Bitcoin (most likely inlcuding informational material).

After all, it's possible, that the bank and the customer end up having a profit.

As far as banks can be concerned, in my own opinion, this is going to be one of the best good news we can be hearing for a long time...or maybe not if other banks of the same nature and stature can be following the same path this bank is taking on Bitcoin. What is impressive is that this is not just a plan but there is a definite actions that are being and will be be taken - and central to that is educating their own employees and most probably their millions of customers on cryptocurrency and other related matters. And not to complicate things, the bank is not going to be the custody of the Bitcoin which their customers may choose to buy through them. Am I correct, that this German bank is acting like a broker for their many customers who can be enticed to invest with Bitcoin?

I can agree that a chain reaction might happen but our expected chain reaction aren't going to happen because some EU countries are definitely going to resist this one unless all or the most influential banks in each EU country would adopt bitcoin but if they're the big opposers then they will probably have a hard time.

Hopefully, that can reach more people in Germany and increase awareness about bitcoin. If the banks finally realize the benefits of bitcoin, that will just be a matter of time to see bitcoin will grow fast in Germany. Yes, it is a bullish signal for bitcoin and that can help the price lift and break the highest price.

If more and more workshops are available in many places in Germany, people can learn it easily and understand how to use bitcoin. It is enough if they only learn about bitcoin as the main course of cryptocurrency as they can learn about altcoin later after they know what bitcoin is.

Does this mean that this bank is going to start buying bitcoin so that they can sell it to customers who want it or does it mean that the bank is going to act like a centralized exchange and only receive commission for letting people trade in their platform?

 I too was having a hard time understanding why a bank would want to shoot itself in the foot (from a traditional banking point of view) until I read this:


Apart from that:


What you say is very unlikely. What we are seeing here is the exception and not the norm. This is a special kind of bank, but big banking if it adopts Bitcoin is going to be to offer custodial services, Bitcoin-backed loans, etc. Precisely the Bitcoin originated against big banking, who, in addition to central banks, can also create money out of thin air thanks to the fractional reserve system.

It's only beginning. Bitcoin first and if they see that it is good, they will expand to other cryptocurrency. In the end, banks must maintain their customer and transaction activities because it affects bank income. They can not simply ignore Bitcoin or cryptocurrency if in future, people change to become more prefer Bitcoin and crypto for transactions.

It sounds good but I don't believe it if it is given by banks. Banks are related to governments so they will do want to ask KYC and trace customer capital flows. If they don't store private keys of users, it will be like DEX. DEX with KYC and run by government-backed banks, it is something wrong.

Anyway, the adoption is great as a very promising beginning.

It's very rare to see a bank acknowledging bitcoin's benefits towards the common folk, because normally they would promote their service and their own products rather than other things that could potentially shadow what they are offering. Perhaps, banks in Germany really have a somewhat different business model that allows them to do things like this and still be on the safe side of things. Nevertheless, it's cool that a bank believes that bitcoin is a part of the future that we're all marching forward to.

Unfortunately, only a small portion of that number would probably convert or rather purchase BTCitcoin in the first few years ^{[I hope I'm wrong]}.

Amen to that!

I think I'm missing something here... How could any of the traditional banks, help you in lending your BTCitcoin in a decentralized way?

After reading that article twice, I'm convinced they're not a type of bank that would tarnish their reputation just to earn slightly more from other shitcoins!

That's interesting!

The only part that I didn't like from reading that article ^{[I guess that's bound to happen at some point]}...

Hundreds of years ago banks were dealing with gold and other precious metal money, there's nothing that says that banks can't deal with Bitcoin. Bitcoin can't replace all financial services, it can only offer transferring and storing of money.


You don't have to store all coins yourself or put all coins in bank, you might want to put some portion of your Bitcoin stash into bank and maybe earn interest on it or have it there in case something happens to your primary storage, or for easier inheritance and so on.

I've seen a few banks having an interest in bitcoin but if this German bank is very popular and they're supporting bitcoin with millions of customers, it's truly good news that they're into it and have to educate their customers first. But what will be the reaction of their customers if they get to know that they can be their own bank instead of using banking service if it's just about deposits.

Some banks are already getting on board with crypto because they are realizing that people are getting into crypto even if banks have warnings of going into crypto market. So it is like, if you can't beat them, join them type scenario. So what they can do is face what is inevitable and just educate their customers about it. Some people will still use the banking system even if they learn how to be their own bank because they want third party security. Some of them don't want to hold their assets and they are just happy that someone is taking care of their funds.

Yeah, that's the logic. They're seeing that crypto is already in the mainstream and it's just a matter of time until everyone knows and have their own crypto portfolios.
Honestly, we still need the banks for some reasons like if you need to save your cash and you don't want to spend them and you have no vault in your house. But, it's really worth noting about their service which is centralized and bitcoin as decentralized.

the bank has realized that the biggest asset in the future is bitcoin. To avoid the occurrence of a bank operational stoppage as a result of the transfer of transactions from fiat money to digital money, of course, the latest innovations from banks are needed, however, they must have a system that can adopt bitcoin through the bank center. I think that's the good thing about German banks, before the government actually enforces digital money as a legal exchange, it must educate its customers first.

Wow that sounds like a weird kind of news to me. Banks allowing people to actually own their private keys is a really, really big thing. Germany seems to be very ahead of the times when it comes to crypto, but I wonder how many actually own Bitcoin there. Germans I bet all know about Bitcoin but how many actually have real coins and only them control their own private keys, that could be a pointer for the rest of Europe to consider.

So it's a business. May I assume they'll open up some sort of exchange in a subdomain of their webpage for buying and selling with crazy fees?

Sure, but people were handing out their gold to banks. Not the opposite.

The attitude of many people who understand Bitcoin is that we don't need banks and that Bitcoin was created just to get around them when we do transactions. But given that banks exist for profit, we could have known that things like this would start happening sooner or later and that none of us could do anything to prevent it. If banks had a modus operandi introduced in the OP, then they would do minimal damage, while at the same time helping to promote and adopt Bitcoin - because it is an indisputable fact that most people still fully trust the banks.

Consequently, the question arises as to whether Bitcoin can use banks as a Trojan horse to spread among a population that still has a completely wrong notion of what Bitcoin really is?

Wow, how I almost missed this news! It's wonderful!
It's not only that the board director tells about the correct moves, but education is very important. And Germany is a powerful trend setter in Europe, and German banks are spread all over Europe. I wish it work out. It can be the thing, the big change. I'm impressed.

Of course, from the beginning, the Bank was always challenged with Bitcoin, but here we are facing a moment that is quite strange. German banks break the concept of banking. We don't know what is the meaning behind all this. But it becomes a turning point for anyone who is dealing with Bitcoin will eventually succumb little by little. Whatever the German Bank is doing. Hopefully, it will provide good service and provide benefits for the welfare of the community in terms of Bitcoin ownership.

Not bad news. If I am not mistaken, Germany has some more or less lenient views on taxing crypto income (Crypto that's been held for 2 years or more is not taxable).  Banks offering crypto services in business operations is a smart move, it might even push other banks in the EU to do the same.

More banking institutions getting on board could actually be a signal for governments support for cryptocurrencies but of course having legislation which dictates the governments position will take time but this on its own is a win win for everyone! Hope more banks join this crypto journey.

Most governments support bitcoin, but certainly not as a currency or mean of payment. Government support for bitcoin has so far been limited to trading and investment assets although some countries have legalized it as a means of payment but the majority have not. The ban on bitcoin is only carried out by a small number of countries in the world because most have been legalized by statutory provisions as a tradable asset. Only china bans all bitcoin activity and all altcoin, I won't talk about them here.

Banks actually know what they can get if they want to have a service for bitcoin, yes that's an advantage. Bank can generate profit from bitcoin transaction where it is the thing they are most likely to get from users, this support is of course for various reason because banks and bitcoin are rivals in the financial system. But what is surprising is, they educate people on how to have good security when someone has bitcoin in their wallet.

Really admirable step towards the upcoming future of the Crypto world. These are not only admirable but also appreciable steps and every country must have to follow them.

Nowadays banks are taking it for granted as digital assets in many countries, but soon it will become mainstream for payment or mode of exchange for goods and services in many countries as more and more users are getting into the digital economy.

Adoption of such an innovative and revolutionary concept is a bit harder for many countries, but as we all know Bitcoin is completely decentralized, no one control it. It is an open-source, transparent, and peer-to-peer network that keeps a record on the ledger for every transaction made within the network. Along with no one control Bitcoins price.

So in such specific conditions, no country or government has control over Bitcoins production, No control over Bitcoins distribution, even no control over its price volatility so, how can any government make law for it.

Better to adopt it and make the legal framework for taxation is the only way for many countries to regulate it.

This is very interesting news and forum is the first place I heard about it, it's even more interesting when we know that Raiffeisenbank is operating in my other European countries and not only in Germany.
It's true that banks can't do anything on their own but in reality we know they are all supporting politicians that can speed up adoption of Bitcoin.
Question I am asking myself is why would a bank do such a big deal related with Bitcoin if they don't have some benefit and profit from this deal, there must be some hidden agenda I can't see right now.
Looks like a step in a good direction but let's wait and see what happens in next few months.
 

From their announcement, I would say yes to the bold part. But we have already a model in Germany, different from a trading platform: Bitcoin.de (https://www.bitcoin.de/en). It's like an open marketplace.
Could also be an option for Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken maybe...

But the procedure isn't clear yet.

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We don't know much yet about their business model but I expect higher fees similar to ATMs.

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It's only 1 year, so if you HODL your coins 1 year, it's tax free profits.  :)
But I'm not sure how long it will stay that way.
I'm very surprised that it hasn't been chanced already.  :D

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Banks like Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken are a bit different from what we know about Americans banks, so profits are important but not that important.
We discussed profits here:

Maybe, they have invested big in Bitcoin  :)

Banks only exist because of profits and control of money, so it sounds a bit suspicious they would allow customers to own bitcoin on their own wallets.
I am thinking how they are planning to make their own centralized wallets, something like it was done in El Salvador with Chivo wallet, but that is just my speculation.
I also doubt bank would allow anyone to hold Bitcoin without revealing kyc customer information, maybe even worse than some centralized exchanges are doing now.

It's possible, but this would be major news in Germany and worldwide, and I didn't hear anything about this.
However, some of their board members and investors probably invested in Bitcoin as part of their portfolio.

Even if that's the reason, they could have greater gains if they promoted an altcoin instead, which is far more centralized and easier to manipulate. Even if they enforced their users to use it custodially, they don't have much to gain and they're against its purpose. Zoom out and see that the existence of it is against its purpose.

We shouldn't expect from the banks to spread the usage of bitcoin, it's ironic. Bitcoiners, remember your moto! Bitcoin = Liberty ≠ Subjugation = Banks!

That's not really bullish... Most of people are not interested in Bitcoin because it is too slow and too expensive to be used in real life then I'm not sure they will convince many customers if they only offer Bitcoin.

I'm curious to see what they will offer to their customers? A new hardware wallet like trezor/ledger branded "Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Bayern Mitte" or something like opendime/tangem?

My point was, if you can't lend or take a loan in decentralized way, you would need to do it in centralized way, so banks are needed for that. Of course you could make a private contract without intermediaries, but it would be too risky, so it's better to put your coins in a bank if you want to earn interest.

They don't want to custody the bitcoin of their customers to avoid the german cryptocurrency regulations. So they won't ask additional KYC procedures for these services according to what they claim in the article.

https://www.profil.bayern/12-2021/praxis/bitcoin-wir-lassen-unsere-kunden-nicht-alleine/

Why suspicious?  :D
In Germany it's a bit different, it's not wallstreet here.  ;)

There was a story about a little bank in a small town, a Raiffeisenbank. There was one employee, the bank didn't had internet until 2009. Founded as a traditional Raiffeisenbank, it was important for the saving of the village.
There's a small story in German: https://www.genonachrichten.de/2021/02/16/fritz-vogt-und-die-raiffeisenbank-gammesfeld/

Things have changed a bit ofcourse but the story is very inspirational.
Not all banks are greedy but "free market" competition has made bigger banks more profitable driving out Banks like described in the article.




From what the board director said, that's not what Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken are planning. It's completely the opposite.
Owning private keys and self-custody is very important and will part of their Bitcoin education.


 
Buy / sell will require KYC but as customers are already KYCed for their bank accounts, no additional KYC will be needed.
At least a different German Bank (Sparkasse) will handle it like that.

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While Bitcoin remains at 40% Bitcoin-dominance, it's quite a big part.
And I like the idea of only offering Bitcoin for now, because it's a fact that most Altcoins are Shitcoins and a risky investment. The Shitcoin manufacturers have still much power; Shitcoins are not really decetralized.
We only need to look at CMC: Top 10 coins have changed very often, Bitcoin always stays number one.

People who want Altcoins might get informational material about it too. But we don't know yet.


Quite possible.

At least, those of us who think Bitcoin will be the death of fiat will have a rethink now. As time goes on, certain misconceptions of our hearts are brought to the fore and corrected. This is why we should objectively (and not subjectively) access all situations at all times.

The growth of cryptocurrency should be a synergy between it and the bank. I believe the expectations that one will lead to the extermination of the other is a misplaced thought.

I expect more banks to join in the imitation of what Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken has done.

A great explanation so far to adopt Bitcoin. This is what I was thought exactly how Bank should adopt Bitcoin. It doesn't matter Bitcoin is decentralized, it could use by a centralized organization. German Bank just realized the importance of Bitcoin and they don't like to stay back. Though it's the beginning more central Banks should take a lesson from here. We would see someday the central Bank consider Bitcoin as reserve money. To be honest, explanations are enough to adapt Bitcoin and open for Citizens to deal with it rather than deal illegally. Seems German banks going to start with Good practice especially about storing Bitcoin. It's the most important thing they highlighted.

A good move by the german banks to adopt the future payment system and provide people Direct exposure to bitcoin through it's services.The thing which makes it different from others is they are educating people at first about bitcoin so they come to know about what actually it is and how it works and all other trading aspects also as well the term shitcoins aslo mentioned in this which clearly indicates they are bullish on bitcoin only and beleive it to be true currency.Overall nice explanation and appreciate the director of this German bank who come up with this nice decision.

gradually I think some big countries are finally starting to open up with the adoption of bitcoin and the importance of blockchain technology that can be developed for banking in the country.
if more positive news like the German Bank does, I'm sure all countries in the world can start considering bitcoin for the future of world finance. some may have been pessimistic when El Salvador announced their adoption. because there are so many contradictions. but when more and more big countries give positive opinions of course it becomes a big hope for bitcoin adoption that will be even greater in the future.

I read somewhere that this only applies to coins stored in custody wallets, is that correct? I am of the opinion that Germany is not a country that changes laws just like that, despite the fact that this particular law seems rather strange from the perspective of those in power, and incredibly good for every investor.

Croatia also has an identical model, with the difference that this period is 2 years, and that all crypto assets acquired before January 1, 2016 are tax-free. I think that such things will change only if a common agreement is reached at the level of the whole EU, which is completely unrealistic at the moment.

After this German announcement we can expect some more from big countries in Europe because they are now having some better view about this, and they can adopt this all very easily with having very strong market already and Blockchain Technology is also developed in these countries. After El Salvador adoption many countries already studying about this all even very big community is still unable to have benefit from this because of very slow work and corrupt system is still not ready to accept all this blockchain and crypto for better way and fair for all, but we all know this could be change even take some good time.

If coins are stored centrally (exchange), it's also 1 year HODL until it's tax free but what's not tax free are derivatives (also including stocks).
But profits from real coins are tax free after 1 year, no matter if people own these coins or coins are stored on an exchange account (Binance, Coinbase etc.).

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It's in place for Gold ounces for example and called "private Veräußerungsgeschäfte" (private sale transactions) in Germany: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/estg/__23.html

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Yes, sounds reasonable but as far as I know, Austria has written new laws (reform) about crypto taxation recently.
Experts have said, it's a very crypto-friendly reform.

Raffaisen is also going to sell hardware wallets on their branches!

@Stadicus300 informs us about this one initiative:

https://i.ibb.co/sv7zjRC/59927444.jpg (https://twitter.com/Stadicus3000/status/1517119883527471104?s=20&t=ZAYjs-k8A-dHC04q03mvXg)

Probably nothing.

Having a bank sell something is beyond my understanding. In my nation they only deal with financials and usually work with papers and digitally and never really sell an item. To have a bank to create a product and then sell that is not something I have seen before. But in any case, this is the first bank I know of that is doing this and I believe that it should mean something bigger than people expect it to mean.

Maybe not as much as they think it would, but it is certainly something that we should all be considering at this point as a wonderful start, it could grow from here and become something usual and if all banks start to offer crypto services it would only mean good things for us.

It is evident that this German bank made a strategic and evolutionary decision; instructing your employees about bitcoin and all the technology it encompasses will give them favorable results, since they will know how to manipulate the information and take the necessary measures in the face of any inconvenience, which will allow greater efficiency when carrying out the work. Bitcoin is a currency that will possibly dominate the financial part in a few years, and it is in itself the main currency, it has no comparison, so orienting yourself on this path is the ideal way to guarantee a significant position in the world  in a future not too distant .

Raffaisen Volksbank Bayern Mitte is moving in the right direction.

https://i.ibb.co/nRn2279/60008768.jpg (https://twitter.com/btc_archive/status/1520026532391043073?s=21&t=1ltRLNFJwGab0nek69fH-A)

They are selling Hardware wallet, but also letting their customers deposit the Bitcoin in their cold storage.
Not everyone has the possibility, or the knowledge to self-custody.
The choice is theirs.

This will give Bitcoin a long-term push because of the German bank’s support about it alone and not other cryptocurrencies. It’s very bullish for me in my opinion. Hopefully in a slow but surely, other crypto-friendly banks would also do the same thing.

Here in the Philippines, there are only a few banks who are friendly to Bitcoin (and there’s even one bank named UnionBank of the Philippines who had its own government-regulated Bitcoin ATM). Hopefully more banks would embrace and accept Bitcoin in open arms, but it’s not going to be easy and swift.

bitcoin is indeed very difficult to hack has a very strong private key so it is very rare for hacking by irresponsible people if indeed one of the banks in Germany announces the adoption of bitcoin will certainly be a very good thing for the survival of bitcoin in the future considering that bitcoin is currently in dire need of adoption from several companies and various groups if this is really realized what one German bank said where they announced they would adopt bitcoin, and we as miners really hope that this process can be realized soon

Germany is all over the news.
just read an article which read "Germany Drops Plan To Extend Mortgage Term For Tax-Free Sales Of Crypto To 10 Yrs"

This is actually an improvement in the world banking where I wouldn't really expect it to be at this time. I mean maybe in 10 years we could see this becoming a bit more common, but in today's world I would have expected banks to be quite against bitcoin instead of being supportive of it.

I am not a German so I do not know what will happen or how it will happen, but I know for sure that this is a good news for bitcoin and Germans who uses bitcoin. Let's hope that they do it much better than any other exchange out there so that people would start to use it more and get the exchanges hear about their shortcomings. Exchanges have been monopoly for too long, they needed competition.

I am also not German but we have a Raiffeisen bank in my country as well. Good news indeed, and I hope to see a similar service being offered at our branch in the future. Besides providing safer storage options for Bitcoin cold wallets, this will also make Bitcoin more accessible to anyone, regardless of where they are or who they are.

Sadly, I guess that product offering in various EU countries is subject to local regulators. So different criterium must be followed for the same product sold to different European countries. This is a mess often preventing the same service or products being offered to every European customer. Yet another example of politics-induced subpar treatment of the European customer.

This is good news about the development of bitcoin even though the bitcoin market is currently down, but this news illustrates that bitcoin is getting more and more in demand and expected among the public.
But on the other hand, bitcoin type is growing and alive and easy to access here and there, maybe the government will also implement regulations for every user who uses bitcoin in their lives.

WOOOOOW!!!!

It's amazing man! Recently, with all the news about the war in Ukraine, we've seen many CEOs of exchanges talking about the importance of customers not keeping all founders on exchanges, in regards to concerns about government censorship. It was very nice behavior and good advisers. He showed how the ethical and rational side can prevail over business interests.

Seeing this same perspective and behavior of German bank is super interesting. I really hope they are examples to be followed.

Indeed it's amazing and refreshing at the same time to see a news like this because we all know that banks are always allergic to cryptocurrencies and they even created their own version of cryptos but only it's centralized.

I didn't know that there is still a hope for those banks to change their perspective and accept cryptos the way it was. Banks supporting cryptos is already a big thing to us, much more if they educate the people about the importance of having their own private keys. That's a generous offer but I am not sure if other banks on other countries will follow the same path because for them, their local currencies are still more important.

To educate people about the cryptocurrencies and the process involved it is good to have their own support centers similar to banks at specific locations. This will bring more common people towards cryptocurrency and the user-friendly applications will make cryptocurrencies reach the low bottom of the people with ease.

It is unfortunate, but it is true. A couple of days ago, I visited one of the Raiffeisen offices in my city and the staff there did not know that anything like this was planned in our branch.
Normally they get information a few months before the launch of any new service. However, they haven't received anything regarding cryptocurrency yet.

This is weird. I guess that given the supposedly high reputation al risk involved with cryptocurrencies any product related procedure to be extra cautiously tested. And this involves sales team training, or at least indication to escalate toward more specialised desk.
Not being able to answer basic client request doesn’t fit very well into this.