Bitcoin Forum

I always wanted to open my own crypto bank , finaly i m ready to do it , if you have 382 bitcoin and your only dream its to open your own bank what will be your ideas? Is it possible to build  a decentralized bank?

Well a "bank" in its true sense offers a range of products and services. There are also significant cost drivers in doing so.
If you could think of a few niche ways of doing the above then perhaps your 382 BTC might be a start.
Bear in mind though that a large part (if not the largest) of revenue generated by a bank is through service/transaction fees.
Your homework: How would you achieve the same and what would a suitable business model entail?

My advice to you is loaning your BTC - much like what other members here are doing quite successfully.
You can charge reasonable interest rates, entrust the exchange to a reputed escrow and expect collateral in lieu of the loaned BTC.

Think of it as an "informal" bank - or at least a functional unit of one.

Good luck.

The Bank is the place where people who have money want to lend it for poorest with profit. That's the book definition of it, but your idea is much wider. With 400 BTC you can do a lot of things, even make a decentralized bank :)

Hi Allen,

If you want to create your own financial institution there is quite a bit of work involved.  Fortunately, there are consultants that do this type of work full-time.  The regulations and capital requirements of chartering a financial institution vary depending on the country and type of institution.

You should seek the advice of legal counsel before attempting an undertaking of this kind.

Best of luck with your venture!

Best regards,
Ben

EDIT: I missed the key word "crypto" in your question, I thought you wanted to start a traditional bank or credit union using your BTC as capital.  Again, lending regulations vary based on your legal jurisdiction but many people have successful crypto lending operations.  The regulations in this area are somewhat unclear, so you can look for a location to form a business that has favorable regulations.

with 382 BTC you can easily get a bank in Latin america,give account holder the possibility to Trade all crypto in your bank.

That's clearly enough though if course you need to consider the scale. If your opening a bank that is too huge of what a 382 BTC can do then you might as well struggle.

This is too risky. You need to know who you will loan and not. If you can do that then might as well try it.

---

Here is my suggestion: open a local wallet which they can pay their bills, convert their fiats to BTC and vice versa, deposit and withdraw through a lot of banks and remittance centers. There really is difference with the actual bank that we're talking and a wallet.

Hi Mr. Cooper , I saw your post, in my personal opinion opening a Bank will take you a lot of complications, and I really think 382 will not be enough, as others said here perhaps will be better if you loan the money here with an escrow system.

However, I am going to risk to post this here, we are business men who have and seek projects in North, Central and South America that require investors, and after the signing of a LOI (Letters of intent) and a NDA (Non-disclosure agreements) and an IMFPA (Irrevocable master fee protection agreement) We make a real Due diligence of the aspects of the projects and investors. To see the risks and opportunities of the project, and also the proof of funds of the investors, and the legally of the funds to protect the investors and the owners of the project.

My business associate and I right now have access to buy 12 solar photovoltaic plants that are already running, and for example the small one of them produces monthly 70.000 USD that can be seen in the month invoices.

We want to start to see if we can join our projects to the cryptocurrency world  and for that we want to launch and energy ICO, but if you really have the 382 bitcoins we can make you a good offer, and in less than a month you will be operating one solar plant that already produces 70.000 USD in FIAT and is located in a part of the planet which receive a lot of solar radiation. The contract with the government is for 25 years with the opportunity to extend it for another 25 years.

If you are interested on this this we can talk in a PM to see the opportunities, we offer to you all the transparency and real proof of what I am talking. And all the contracts we should sign, we can do it in the embassy of your nationality located in my country to protect you and we on the agreement.

Feel free to contact me, and I hope you can visit our office and see the installations of the project

Regards

Daniel Roman

People are already offering some services very near to banking services but their range is very limited. For example margin trading, or lending somebody/firm some crypto amount for fixed return while they trade with it. But a fixed platform with brand name that offers full range of banking services in crypto is a very good idea and should be implemented if you could manage it. It is possible with this amount but needs a great effort. Go for this new initiative as its always beneficial for you and the public.

@OP: I would also advise you to explore the legal implications and regulations, not only locally but on a global scale (that is, if you intend to scale to this level anyway).
Due diligence is imperative and best left to consultation with experts in the field. Having the funds is one thing - ensuring that you operate within the law is another.
Remember it is imperative for any form of bank or financial institution to conduct KYC - this is no easy feat. Banks have been fined billions for negligence on this aspect alone.

Now in retrospect - you mentioned a "decentralized bank"...this is probably the holy grail for crypto as the above hinderance would probably be eliminated, but the question here is - how would you generate funds?
Understand that "decentralized" means that there isn't an entity which owns/controls the system - if you expect to somehow generate profits..it means that it is owned/controlled and effectively centralized.

Consider your options - I'm not trying to dissuade you from achieving your dream but encouraging you to weigh the pros and cons.

Yes,it Is possible to build  a decentralized crypto currency bank but the bank must different to normal bank in terms of banking, investing and payment. However, the bank should be back with gold or diamond due to the volatility in nature of crypto currency.

Im not sure what you mean using the word "bank", if you mean real bank... it's a long and complicated process, but you can establish & get "Financial Institution" license covering the whole EU easily with that amount, providing that you have some people in your team with the banking expertise. It allows almost all traditional banking operations. Process takes about six months, and requires about one million eur capital.

yes its enough to get your own bank with this amount, but you said decentralized Bank this is not possible in the real world. GoV controls all Banks . you can get a decentralized Exchange but its impossible to get a decentralized Bank.

which countries in europe you can get Financial institution licence? one million eur capital?

It's likely enough, you are going to need good consulting with highly educated lawyers who can educate you on how to ensure you can operate legally in the various areas you want to do business in.

you could help and develop crypto currency going mass adoption with 382 BTC by offering a lot of good services and taking fees on them ;)

Everywhere...even though most picked jurisdiction are UK, Cyprus, Lithuania, Estonia. And you don't even need 1M any longer!
Check "Mistertango"....thanks to the PSD2 regulation, they do provide "typical banking services", account opening, payment processing in both fiat and crypto, and they only had to comply with a minimum "capital requirement" of 125K euros for its licensing as "Payment Initiation Service Provider".

We can work together because we have the same idea, how about to tell us where you going to incorporate?  also this idea decentralized bank is not possible in country like usa .

For banking, not sure how your country regulations are but may be you might require to have license or some regulations in place and need to clear this from your government. If their is no regulation require it is fine else you can start a lending business as you have 382 btc you can lend to people who require on this forum.

Ok....let's clarify some concepts here.
Having the "money", either crypto or fiat, it's of course the best option and you can run the show on your own if you wish to do so.
However, regardless the name you wanna use, bank, financial institution, payment processor, initial payment processor, gateway....well, the basic requirement it's common to all of 'em: you need a LICENSE!
What differs, it's the amount of "paperwork" (read manuals) and minimium capital requirement you have to satisfy.
The fact you don't wanna look into a brick and mortar bank, it's ok...you'll save a lot of money in infrastructure.
And the fact you wanna, eventually, consider a different type of license, let say the Panama FSC one just as an example, it's ok as well since you'll be investing between 25 and 100K, depending you wanna have the SWIFT access as well.
Therefore, way below the required millions of euro/usd for a traditional institution.
However....this is just the beginning of your proecess and the easiest issue to be solved.
The real problems will arise in the moment you'll be looking around for a "nostro conto" at any given place in the globe for your "crypto bank".
Without one or more correspondent bank, how would you guarantee the payments and the flow of transactions for your customers located in different part of the globe or just in two contiguous countries?
The problem for setting up such type of institution, regardless their magnitude, is always the same....relationships.
Beside the small or big amount of bitcoins/altcoins you're sitting on...do ho have this type of relationships????
If the answer is yes....well, why waiting? Just toss a smal portion of crypto and get the less expensive license you can achieve and keep the rest as liquidity.
Your network would do the rest for you either you'll have a call A bank license issued in any major country or a license granted in Vanuatu.
If the answer is no....well, you better start thinking about a plan B and eventually be supported by somebody, law firm but not necessarily even though at the end they'll be needed, that knows the "how to" in few jurisdictions where your dream can become reality.
Remember....everybody, nowaday, is looking for crypto friendly banks or an exchange that can guarantee liquidity between crypto and fiat.
Succeeding in this goal, means tons of money!!
Something is doable by using the blockchain and can become a REALLY interesting project for a lot of reason.
But again, you and your advisors should know where to put the hands.
Should you be REAL, as a base for discussions, and should your interest be 100% in this project, contact me if you want.
We don't have those bitcoin you have but we know the "how to".
But please...don't waste your and my time...no need for both of us.
Only suggestion, move before you treasure would deplets as a consequence of value depreciation.
Best wishes

I don't think so.. you must have customers lined up ready to take loans off your hands and have customers depositing money into your bank to stay cash flow safe.

do you already have a team?

Decentralized Bank, two opposite words, is like talk about cold fire... Let's define a bank:

A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates credit. Lending activities can be performed either directly or indirectly through capital markets. Due to their importance in the financial stability of a country, banks are highly regulated in most countries. Most nations have institutionalized a system known as fractional reserve banking under which banks hold liquid assets equal to only a portion of their current liabilities. In addition to other regulations intended to ensure liquidity, banks are generally subject to minimum capital requirements based on an international set of capital standards, known as the Basel Accords.

So, a bank can't be decentralized while it's regulated by authorities.

And Talking about the capital you need to open a bank, from this article https://www.huffingtonpost.com.mx/entry/how-to-start-your-own-ban_n_497261 you can find:


So, while 382btc is equal to $3.2M then the answer is "Not Now". For that you need bitcoin at $32,000 to open a bank with that amount.

The good news is you can run other big projects with that amount, like an exchanger or a casino.  ;)

At this stage of industry development, even banks can´t offer cryptobanking.  The interface architecture and jurisdictional agreements are not in place yet.  That´s why you see Exchanges, Trading and Lending Platforms, or a combination of these three operating, but not banks.  You have sufficient funds to develop and/or invest with a development group.  Many have posted...some show in-depth knowledge and experience, but your best bet is to develop locally and personally.  Its too easy to cheat Online.  Besides, you have already revealed your secret.  Transparency is good, but not up front.  My suggestion is you go to a local tech startup accelerator, present yourself as an angel investor, and request vetted offers ready to launch in need of capital.  In the meantime, try to diversify your cryptocurrecies, there are plenty of excellent projects launching ICOs to chose from.  Good luck and keep growing.

Check out www.bitcoinblack.cash
Do you want to be involved or anything you would like to see?

You could own the distribution of bitcoin black cards and take fees and yearly subscriptions on them!
Have standard and metal versions with different withdrawal limits.
You could even embed diamonds into some.

A traditional bank makes money by acting as an intermediary between savers (who make deposits) and borrowers. The model is such that as long as the bank maintains enough liquidity to meet withdrawal demand they can lend out the rest and earn more interest than what they pay savers for deposits (interest spread). This traditional model is likely to deteriorate in the digital economy because savers won't need the deposit services banks offer (checking accounts in particular). For instance, a modified Nano S hardware wallet with a NFC chip could replace a checking account and debit card and even things like Apple Pay.

So if consumers don't need deposit accounts, a bank can't lend out those people's money and profit from an interest spread. This is where decentralized lending platforms come on the scene because the demand for loans won't go away. I think there is opportunity however for a modified banking model where maybe you charge a fee for managing a portfolio of loans users fund in return for a management fee. You could also charge a fee for liquidity services so people could access cash prior to a loan maturing. There's a number of ways that could work but one would be to make them a low interest loan, using their outstanding loans/cash flow as collateral.

Regardless, 400 BTC is quite a bit and you could def start a business with that, but if you want to start a bank, try to think about how fin institutions will be different in the new economy. Maybe you don't think it looks like what I've described above, but that's just a scenario to get you thinking about how to model something in anticipation of changes to the market's structure.

Best of luck!

Hi, there are 2 important questions in what region are going to have a 'bank' and what type of services you would like to offer?
For example, to manage consumer funds you must have a license, in UK this type of license is PI, if your turnover is less them 3,000,000 GBP, you may apply for authorized PI.

Its "neobank" license, you can do a lot but not LENDNING or BROKERAGE, its good for fintech startups.

The second part - working with crypto you must have valid partner to arrange exchange issues and KYC, if not going to handle exchange part internally.

Then you must have a VISA or Mastercard membership to be able to issue cards by your own  ±200-400k.

To get correspondent account in USD is quite harder, mind that.

Dont forget about back office and marketing expenses, risks, taxes.

It should be legal business only.


Take care.

Hi Marcus,
if you mean in terms of developing team, the answer is yes...we are an IBM blockchain business partner and we already develop banks/financial institutions dedicated blockchain products. If you meant for the banking side, we are a licensd financial company already but for this type of project, should a SERIOUS partner arises out, we're definitely open to integrate other stakeholders.

i see your sign but i cant site a website ? why not provide a website   cz75
thanks

The most important question for what exactly do you need the bank, what will it do, how to earn, how to manage risks, where you will attract additional financing, etc.
I think that only after this analysis you can decided how much money you need.

First of all you need to define what does it mean 'bank' for you.Banking system is a very difficult and its not as easy as it seems,you need good  plan and another investors,employees,If i were in your place I would understand every institutional and financial regulations about it...
Its also important to define your financial activity in detail and create business plan,read more about norms promulgated by your country's national/federal bank.For example in my country if you want to create bank you must buy special licence which costs million dollar if not more.
But it sounds a bit antagonistic because as I know if you want to start this job you must create firm like joint-stock company or LLC how would it be decentralized when you will have legal duty to send your financial statistics and documents to the central bank, so I don't know maybe I'm wrong...

count me in

you must have a great community to realize your dreams.
I think your money is enough to build a bank.

The question is why ?

Running a bank is a pain in the behind - lots of reasons why above.

If you're in it to grow your wealth, there are better businesses. I can't imagine you want to do it for the "goodness" of running a bank - 'cos there's none

It takes more than a month to established a business in bitcoin system banking.
There's a lot of things you have to prepare first.
here is the list of the things I think you need to look in consideration.

• Place

Is the place a capital city? You need to make a lot of audience to make your bank well known.

• Lawyer

legal consent and other jurisdictional issue regarding Bitcoin

• Programmer

A developer need to put heart in your system.


You can start with the programmer first as the foundation of the system so there will be no issue before you execute your banking system to masses.

P.S You can start a centralized bank and accept payments in decentralize currency ;)

I like This idea

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It sounds like you could be doing something a lot more stable and promising than a decentralized crypto bank. I don’t want to knock your entrepreneurial spirit; it does take huge risks to make considerable gain. It just seems that with the amount you have and the position you are in (asking for advice here) isn’t in line with your idea. The right person to do this would be someone who wouldn’t even flinch if they lost that amount, and probably easily willing to invest more than that in such a volatile project. If you would be in a bad place after the strong possibility of losing it all, I would seriously rethink your investment choices. 

huge money to open a bank

I was think you need something like bankera ?

I like the fact that of all things you could do with 382BTC, which is a whole lot of money, you've decided to open a crypto bank. I believe it's Avery good initiative.
However, opening a bank requires a lot. I'd suggest you consider how the now bank works only in this case there will be no deposit of funds.
I think the best thing to do as others as said is to give your btc out as loans with a reasonable interest rate. Then, you will need an escrow services to help collect collateral from the beneficiaries of the loan incase of payment deficit.

Actually, I think that 382 bitcoin is an acceptable amount of money to do many successful projects and business, I agree with your idea or dream (bank), but believe me, only with great value of money or budget , you cannot achieve this project in reality, So you must have a great knowledge in this field, and also you need helpers or professional partners to facilitate the realization of this project.

Furthermore, you can achieve any dream in reality, and you should give great effort, and you may fail in the first attempts, but you must have the determination, you should keep trying, until your goal will be achieved. And a decentralized bank is a good choice, just believe in yourself.

Best regard,

Why would you need a bank when there's an available hardware wallet already?


Bitcoin is made against the banks centralization system which will help all of the users to properly circulate the digital money worldwide through the use of internet. A hardware wallet is likely a decentralized bank where you can carry it in you all around.

I think you should reword your question to can I open a Crytpo bank with $3 Million since that's about what 382 BTC are worth at current exchange rates ($8200 BTC price * 382 equals $3,132.400)

The main question you should ask is who exactly do you want to lend your money to? 

Are you lending BTC directly to people?

Most 'banks' lend money to people to either purchase houses, cars or to start their own businesses.  Lending BTC would largely be a financially speculative activity which I think you would have a hard time measuring.  To mitigate your risk, you could require people to use BTC funds to create BTC-backed businesses in which case you would need to evaluate the business and its potential for success (and your potential to be paid back)

Another factor is reserving requirements.

How much money do you have to hold in reserve?

Since you are talking about a 'crypto-bank' this is likely going to be higher than a traditional bank.  This will protect you but also result in lower returns

In order to start something similiar to a bank you would need to have people with significant risk management experience as well as much higher capital in order to protect the public should you misjudge the risk and go insolvent. This happens with regular banks so would be a real possiblity in this case. 

On a related note, I'm including an article about a former Hedge Fund manager creating a Crypto Merchant Bank:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-07/novogratz-is-said-to-raise-250-million-for-crypto-merchant-bank

He raised $250 million so I'm assuming you are a bit light to get started on a bank

I'm not sure you're even on this thread anymore, but I wanted to also suggest an alternative which is to charter a federal credit union.  The good thing about credit unions is that they're owned by members (every account holder).  By having accountholders as members, it opens some interesting possibilities with respect to business account holders that need services such as fiat/crypto conversion.  It's a project my organization is going to pursue, starting with conducting a survey across the crypto community to determine if there is sufficient interest in people/businesses using an FCU if it existed.  This is the first step that NCUA typically looks for in charter applications, a favorable survey of the prospective field of membership.

Best regards,
Ben

lending bitcoin to scammers its not a best option .

OP got his bank?

Banks should be insured; I don't know if that's possible for a crypto-bank without a lot of work/lengthy legal process.

In order for a crypto bank to be insured, they would have to have very tight security and monitoring tools.  The insurance company will want to make sure the funds aren't stolen by the most likely source - internal.

Bank? Sometimes the definition and the interpretation that is given to bank makes it seems something easy and all about money. Having a bank goes beyond the money part. Even in the fiat world with a lot or model to learn from, industry experts to kick things running, already functioning software both for security and operations, an established connectivity to the network grid in a short period of time, its still not a child's play because of the amount of effort needed not to talk of bitcoin bank where all of those factors listed are practically nonexistent.

Personally, I won't keep my coins in a "bitcoin bank" not because of it will scam but because of two things

1. I can't bring myself to trust someone with my money, and someone so far away to decide what to do with it and when to assess it.

2. The idea of "bitcoin bank" itself negates the bitcoin itself as part of it is giving one absolute control over his resources and banks are known to not be fully aligned with that simple objective.

Those 2 keypoints are exactly why bitcoin bank wont really be an effective idea not only having lots of factors and considerations but also i dont think people would really use such service since we do know the main purpose why bitcoin is being created on the very first place which is on having the full control of our funds which means why create banks if we can able to make ourselves our own banks.
Trusting out other services acts as a storage of our bitcoin holdings is already being done by most wallets existing on the net.

This is possible and really can open crypto bank.
Ok, it's good idea..
Question to you :) Where will you get 382 Bitcoin? or you have BTC?

382 bitcoin is not enough to open a bank, you also need brain, and people to trust you

This is why I never think a bitcoin bank would work.
It is against what it stands for about it being decentralized and moving people away from using their current banking ecosystem which is primarily centralized.

I see exchanges starting becoming centralized and people do not use those certain exchanges because of this.
I do not blame them one bit.

agreed , Poloniex ,coinbase and many more exchanges start losing clients because they are too centralized but the gov will never shut down them.

with your 382 Bitcoin you can get a real exchange with bank connection .

bitcoin bank as an individual?
an idea bound to fail,if you look at the successful bankin systems,they exist because they are 1.making money out of the thin air with fractional reserve and loaning/borrowing money at different rates,vigorish goes into their pockets
2.are able to enforce the seizure of the collateral if the client cannot pay or is bankrupt etc.
3.have a good security,analytical teams that can research the markets and/or companies/individuals (credit scores etc.)
besides bitcoins and banking are not really made to be together,the transactions are irreversible,blockchain is pseudo-anonymous and so on
you can call a "lending service" where you can use your 382 bitcoins to either lend them or participate in some project financially
but I cannot see it as abank in the full sense of this word,sorry

Banking is so difficult to join or to build, whether it is a decentralized bank….
You need a very cautious planning and development. You need to clarify these questions before you can open up:
-   Reason/s why are you opening up a bank, centralized or decentralized.
-   You need to have employees and members, you cannot do it by yourself.
-   You need some capital (which is obvious that 382 BTC can now run).
-   Planning. You can’t run a business without planning.
A lot more to be consider in planning a bank, so have nice luck for your future.