Bitcoin Forum

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/woman-holds-up-lebanese-bank-13000-her-own-money-advocacy-group-says-2022-09-14/

" One woman with a gun and some associates briefly held hostages at a branch of BLOM Bank (BLOM.BY) in the capital Beirut, before leaving with more than $13,000 in cash from her account.... "

" Lebanon's banks have locked most depositors out of their savings since an economic crisis took hold three years ago, leaving much of the population unable to pay for basics. "

Let's just imagine this scenario where you have to "rob" a Bank to get access to your own money that you deposited with them. We think these things are impossible, but it is happening and this is a reminder that it does still happen.  >:(

Bitcoin allows you to be your OWN Bank .....and it allows you to have access to your own money, without any intermediary having the power to block it. Just make sure that you have sole access to your Private keys.  ;)

Bitcoin doesn't remove the risks of you getting mugged. If anything, it's potentially worse with bitcoin/crypto. They just hit you with a wrench at your home until you give up access to your wallet. Hence why being private/secretive about your holdings is very important!

https://cryptosec.info/wrench-attack/

I think that is related to this viral video in social media posted by @yazher - Well! Bitcoin doesn't have this problem (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5413534.0)

But again, using the same argument, people still needs to convert bitcoin into their local currency in which they will withdraw thru banks particularly if an establishment does not accept bitcoin and the country does not recognize bitcoin as legal tender.

Well, it's the same for anything that holds value : Your car .... your cellphone.... your Fiat wallet or even the pincode for your debit card. You are not going to stop thieves and criminals from taking wealth from you, but when you trust a financial entity from securing your wealth ...and they start denying you access to your wealth... well that is something different all together.  ::)

Also remember.... people getting robbed are isolated incidents... but a whole nation being prohibited to have access to their wealth, is something that needs to be highlighted.  >:(

Very true! But in this case we're talking about armed criminals though.

Also, getting your bitcoin/crypto stolen is far more of a complicated situation than getting your car/phone/wallet/debitcard stolen.

This is one of the freedom bitcoin gives, you do not have to depend on anybody, organization or central authority before you can buy, store and use bitcoin. But people will always remain being people, they like centralization, that is why it is not surprising that people uses centralized exchanges to hold bitcoin, which gives power to another central authorities. But you are not wrong, bitcoin helps in so many ways, just like this that you created this opening post about. Bitcoin makes it possible for not to fall victim of such central authority control over your own money.

Quite frankly what I was thinking about. In my local community, none of the shops or even the much bigger shopping malls accept Bitcoin payment so what can I still do with my Bitcoin? I believe even when we still understand the beauty and usefulness of HODLing Bitcoin there is still this limitation now in many locations.

In my country, no shop, shopping mall, or big shopping malls accepts bitcoin or other crypto payment, but I can still be able to convert to fiat and spend. Peer-to-peer makes this very easy, which is one of the reason bitcoin was created. Not only because of central authorities, bit also because of continuous high inflation rate in my country, I prefer to just leave my money in bitcoin and other crypto. Which is better.

The only limitation would be from countries that totally banned bitcoin, and there are less than 15 countries among hundreds of countries in the world that totally banned bitcoin. Most countries make bitcoin legal, mute about it or just placed an implicit ban on it in a way citizens can still be able to trade bitcoin.

Even about the ban, I was surprised that China that totally banned bitcoin still ranked 10th in crypto adoption index, according to Chainanalysis:

https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2022-global-crypto-adoption-index/ report.

You're forget if most of people who currently hold Bitcoin are using centralized exchanges e.g. Binance, Coinbase etc, they're not using Bitcoin as their own bank, but they're still trusting other centralized party about their coins. Non custodial wallet are very underrated because most people doesn't get enough knowledge and there's no promotion that will make people know those non custodial wallet. Don't forget you need to use Bisq in order to make your Bitcoin is untouchable against governments.

Not when they know their banks will deny them access to their funds. How will i go ahead to covert from Bitcoin to fiat when i know i will not access the funds afterwards. Humans finds a way to adapt to new developments be it positive or negative. The case of Lebanese Citizens Bitcoin is their only way around and by so i mean the p2p feature originally proposed by Satoshi. CEX shouldn't even be an option because it can be used against the citizens as well.

Okay but this is bad and this might not be the best analogy to spread adoption in my opinion. I mean holding a living as a hostage because you weren't allowed to have access to money with a gun on bank premises is a big offence. Banks can be so frustrating and I can talk from experience but you don't want to get locked up just to get your $13k by threatening the lives of others, you may end up spending all of that in court or probably end up in prisons if the bank terms and conditions don't qualify you to have access to that money.

However, this can be avoided in the first place if you don't keep money in the bank, you can switch to bitcoin as an alternative to protect your assets but it comes with its own merit and demerit, volatility has been the reason why it discourages some people to keep their emergency money or savings in bitcoin. Let's say, for example, the woman bought $13k worth of bitcoin when the price was at $40k, that will be a loss to her with half of the value right now and now that the sister is sick and in need of money for treatments, she will have to sell because they can't hold while another life is at stake. Each of its own with its advantages and disadvantages.

It was only some months ago when a man in the same country was treated as a hero after robbing a bank for his very own money. Lebanon is indeed facing a severe form of economic meltdown. Banks cannot anymore meet the demands of its depositors.

In this case, Bitcoin is indeed the better alternative. It is volatile, yes, but at least it could be accessed anytime.

On another note, things would rather become worse when CBDCs finally replace cash. Freezing on spending would be a lot easier.

Holding money in a bank becomes a joke at this point. You don't get any interest, you have to pay fees to hold funds in a bank account and the bank can block your funds at any time. Inflation eating away your savings adds more salt to the injury. It's way better to hold fiat money under your bed, instead of a bank. Of course, somebody could steal your money, but there will always be risks involved.
Bitcoin/crypto seems like an alternative, but only a minority of tech savvy open-minded people would use BTC/crypto. The majority of the non-tech savvy people would always use the banks, because they don't know any better.

This is something that we should count on when we talk about the possibility of being our own bank, because our BTC bank mostly depends on that centralized bank when we want to convert Bitcoin to fiat. If a person has Bitcoin and cannot pay anything with it, and cannot sell it for fiat because the bank has blocked his account, then it is a difficult situation, but there is always a way to sell face to face (risky), or buy something online in international trade.

However, I think it is good to remind people that they should be their own bank when it comes to Bitcoin, at least to understand that storing coins on centralized crypto exchanges is nothing but a risk that can be avoided.

Just as it had been popularly spoken, not your keys not your coins, infact using a cryptocurrency centralized exchanges could be as worse than using banks sometimes because you can't have a fiat account without having access to your private keys which are the passwords, why should we now think of going centralized in a decentralized arena with bitcoin, this means we undermine the capacity of the bitcoin network under the power of centralized exchanges to have more superior access and use of authority over our coins, it's either you're decentralized or colonized with your funds and the decision lies in your hands on which means to choose in savings your coins.

It's been happening in many countries that are tightening the procedure of the withdrawals of their depositors. This can also happen but for those that don't hold their own private keys, their bitcoins.

Those bitcoins that are deposited in the exchanges and even how hard we're campaigning that everyone should hold their keys. There are still people that are leaving their bitcoins in exchanges.

These incidents are eye openers for those people that have a lot of money in the bank, no one's money is safe there anymore.

People tend to forget that fiat money is basically IOU papers and they're usually the property of the central bank.

Money in the bank account is just a number. And a bank is a private business, hence they care about their business, not about you. While in EU there are now laws protecting the funds under certain limits, this is rather new, this is only in EU and even there... laws can change. Plus I will not even start with the crap they're doing lately because of crypto, hiding under the "in the name of KYC" blanket.

But as said, Bitcoin is also not perfect, since it's easy to steal and hide. This being said, being your own bank is, sadly, not for everybody.

However, with a bit of carefulness, Bitcoin is clearly superior. And being your own bank certainly gives a nice feeling :)

If the money is available to be rubbed why not give access to it through the right means? You can't put people's life savings under lock and key and expect them to be happy about it, a revolt is bound to happen.
Hopefully, these unpleasant and unsolicited financial hardships will force people to start looking for alternative ways to preserve their money. Nobody wants to be in this type of situation with this high rate of inflation.

You kinda have it spot on with your mention of Bitcoin being the alternative option. We have seen several incidents in other countries, like Greece... where the government instructed the Banks to close their doors. In these countries, people could not get access to their own money or the supply of the money were restricted at the ATMs.  ::)

Bitcoin will always be the "alternative" currency, when the shit hits the fan in the Banking industry. It will find it very difficult to be the primary or reserve currency, because the governments are blocking that privilege.  ::)

Indeed this seems impossible. We thought only robbers can do this but maybe some of the robbers on the past are also a victim of this? This is why they are taking their revenge. Well, that's good for the banks. If only they are fair and do cares a lot with their customers, it should not lead into this tragic event.

It's only sad that some people on the scene are going to be affected when they are innocent. They can be customers of the bank or workers inside it while the one that manages or owns the bank are away from there, relaxing on the comfort of their own home or at the beach doing a vacation. They are the ones who must pay big for this.

There are few countries in the world that prohibit the use of Bitcoin as a means of payment in public use, and most do not prohibit it in any way - but you still do not see large companies and small sellers deciding to accept Bitcoin as a payment currency. The reason is more than clear to me, and that is the volatility of the Bitcoin price - although most people are not aware that they can bypass this with payment processors that will enable them to receive fiat on their account.

Let's face it, it's not an ideal solution, but it's still better than nothing. Another way is to use LN, which provides instant transactions, but this is still too much of an unknown for most of those who would like to pay something with Bitcoin.

This type of story always makes me laugh. She literally had to "rob" the bank to get her own money, and like she could have asked for more, she could have asked for everyone’s money, the bank was probably willing after seeing her with the gun, and that means she purposely didn't want anyone’s money, she just wanted her own money and that is a wonderful thing.

I know that we shouldn't glorize these type of gun related stuff, it is traumatizing to so many people who were in the bank that day, and the teller has no say in this, banks decide this and the one you point the gun to is a teller, not the bank CEO, but still, getting out with only her money is a good move.

Unfortunately, banks these days are not reliable anymore. They can be very entertaining at the time when we are depositing, but when we decide to suddenly withdraw our funds, most likely they will make it hard for us. I'm not pertaining to all the banks, but there are really few banks who are acting like this. Im just saddened with what the woman go through just to get her own money. If its in bitcoin, this won't be happening to her as bitcoin serves as our own bank and that's why its fully decentralized.

This news is an absolute tragedy. I was truly saddened listening to the poor woman's explanations. Moreover, the money that the woman wants to get back is only $13,000. :( A similar situation was experienced by people who could not buy plane tickets during the Venezuelan economic crisis...

I don't think of such extreme situations most of the time, but there are bad times when Bitcoin -exactly- comes to the position of the savior. In such chaotic times, we need to protect our lives first and then our material assets. Our life is entrusted to God, our money is entrusted to Bitcoin. :)

Ordinary saver are the one to suffer here the most while the banks are just using our money to continue their business. This is indeed a sad story and a reality that even with the banks, we can’t totally control our money. It’s good now that we have Bitcoin as an option or a crypto wallet, I hope many will start to learn how to use cryptocurrency, this is for the benefit of everyone especially ordinary people.

Bitcoining or Banking all have their respective risks, though I agree with you that it is time people start learning to become their own bank, but then, you must agree with me that we mustn't all be our own banks... We all should buy and hold bitcoin, but I think the banking system should still be there as an alternative to those who are not well educated enough to cope or understand the operability in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies - this is in respect to our grand parents and great grand parents that are still alive today, this group of persons or individuals will never want to go out of their traditional means of transacting, hence, they never can get involved in bitcoin no matter how you try to convince them.

I agree and believe that responsible people should have a portion of their savings in BTC. Not all of it, because today it has many drawbacks, including the wrench attack, as discussed later, but part in the bank and part in BTC. That way, if you find that the bank has frozen your funds, it has not frozen them all and you can use BTC.

I imagine in the future, we all have bitcoins in our wallets and don't keep our money in the bank because the government gives us the option to save money.
If we want to buy something, we can pay using bitcoin or exchange our bitcoins to a local exchange and then they send the money to our bank and we just need to withdraw the money through an ATM.
If the government can do that to the people, I think it will give us a choice so we can be free to save our money and not be tied to the bank.
The news that circulated was very sad. People could not withdraw their money from the bank even though the government told them to keep their money in the bank.

You are confusing.

If in the future we can easily pay using Bitcoin, there is no need to convert them into fiat. Why would we when Bitcoin is already an acceptable currency? People would rather pay in Bitcoin directly.

Bitcoin makes us our own bank, why would we need to open bank accounts? And for all we know, even cash in ATMs could be frozen. It's not just over-the-counter transactions that could be halted.

My view There are many possible reasons - security, anonymity, and awareness of what a digital currency is. The fact that Bitcoin doesn't require a central server may be far in the future when you want to create or store coins beyond the reach of banks and governments.

I don't believe that bitcoin will ever replace banks, but I think it can help people become more independent in their financial decisions and choices. The idea of starting a bitcoin-only bank is a great idea, one that I believe will be able to attract users from all over the world, and it will be as big as the current largest bank in the world. The idea of having your own bank and bitcoin wallet on your phone and computer is a great idea!

I commented for the bank. $13,000 isn't a lot for a bank. We see banks that can't even pay $13,000, events like this should put our perspective on Bitcoin on a more solid foundation. When the fragile structure of the current financial system falters for a moment, we encounter problems that create a domino effect. We are experiencing all the environmental conditions necessary for us to question everything. Beyond theory, there is an experimental environment open to practice. These are the events where the perspective on Bitcoin can receive positive feedback from all humanity.

Wondering why banks need to freeze the account of many just to prevent any economic crisis but in general, people are already suffering and them without access to their money it will really be hard because expenses doesn't stop at all. I cannot blame that lady for doing this but maybe she overdone it and whatever here excuse is, she still did a crime and probably will suffer more. This is an eye opener, we should not put too much money on a bank because it is beyond our control and we should start anticipating now for the worst case scenario, especially with a threat of WW3 because that can affect all of us. Having your crypto wallet might help, but don't overconfident about that you still need a backup for cash.

This may be one of the advantages of Bitcoin. Through Bitcoin, we can have our own wallet and keys so that only we who are able to access it without any permissions. We are available to access and manage our Bitcoin 24/7wihtout any limitations. However, this is individual and more privacy. We hold our own money in our hand, not likein banks in which we seem like leave our money to the bank, moreover they also ask for our identity, and sometimes complex regulations to access and ask for our own money.

Well said.

AFAIK, most of the banks have their limits and will guarantee a protection and insurance for the depositors but that's not a lot. But for small time depositors, that's already big.

It's better to have that hold of your own money these days. Although no doubt that we still need cash but, don't save all of your money in the bank because this can happen at anytime that they won't allow depositors to withdraw due to economic and business reasons.

But sadly, even the innocent ones are being held and stopped for their withdrawals. This is what centralization is all about, even how badly you need the money, your money.

If they have some procedures to be done and for some reasons, they're halting everyone's withdrawal, you can't skip it even you have no issues against them.

Honestly, I enjoy having my money on my personal computer without it being able to be traced back to me. It works as a savings account, your own personal bank, as you mentioned. It's such a shame that Lebanon is facing this. Your money is simply being held hostage. We had something similar in Greece a few years ago, with capital controls. You were unable to withdraw large amounts of money, and it was only possible to withdraw specific amounts every week, till the restrictions were lifted. They lasted over 2-3 years, if I remember correctly. However, as the following user suggested, it doesn't protect you from being mugged.
A general rule when it comes to moneymaking is to be silent about it. Either with Bitcoin, assets, or fiat currencies, it's best that people do not know that you're wealthy. I've heard quite a few instances here where people were mugged right after withdrawing from their bank accounts. If you are not cautious, you may be forced to give up your Bitcoin wallet as well. The same rule applies to everything. Let me remind you that in the past, they used to hide money inside mattresses.

And in fact, this happens a lot more than people think: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/economy/china-bank-runs-protests-intl-mic-hnk/index.html



You are at the bank's mercy when you declare your funds to be an asset of a centralized financial institution. Banks should be viewed as nothing more than a business. You put money into the solvency of a business, collect interest payments, and do not guarantee to yourself that your funds should be there the next day. If a bank goes under for whatever reason, what are the chances you'll receive your funds? You don't have recourse.

People simply decide to ignore these warning signals, they believe this isn't something which will ever happen to them until it does, but by the time they realize the truth absolutely nothing can be done to remedy this situation, banks are one of the worst places in which we can put our money, you receive a very low interest rate, if any, they can do whatever they want with your money, and in the case of an economic crisis they could even keep your money legally with the backing of the government, in that case even keeping your money under your mattress seems like a better option than most banks.

Viewed objectively, both have advantages and disadvantages, banks should not be completely eliminated, they are still a part of us that we will still use in our lives. Bitcoin is your own bank but there is also the risk that if you cannot operate or store it well your bank can also be hacked by others, internet attacks are increasingly unpredictable. As you say, old people like our parents, grandparents won't be able to use bitcoin, using bitcoin is very difficult let alone storing private key.

Bitcoin holdings are not always profitable or maintain stable value. If you need money while we are in bear season and your assets are depreciating 50-70%, are you willing to use them? Of course not.

If replacing a hardware wallet is cost-prohibitive, then I'd guess that you don't have a whole lot of crypto stored on it--or that you seriously don't have enough reserve cash or crypto to spend on such a contingency.  The cost of buying a new Ledger or Trezor or whatever HW wallet you use is kind of a minor issue when we're talking about "being your own bank" on a grand scale.

Also, keeping your seed phrase or other form of backup safe is also kind of a small, if not trivial, problem.  A seed phrase engraved or stamped on a piece of metal just needs a safe place to be kept in, no?

If we compare a bank to Bitcoin, it is quite a big difference because first of all Bitcoin is not a company while a bank is a company. But if we also look at banks and Bitcoin, there is also a risk when we invest our money.

But the percentage of risk in the bank is higher because it can be robbed by exploitative people like thieves or the bank suddenly closes without us knowing that it is a bankrupt bank. Whereas with Bitcoin there is also risk so it is not as high as a regulated bank. Because the only risk that I see with bitcoin is that if you misplace the private key, seed phrase, or password, you will not be able to recover your balance from your bitcoin address, but if you can hide it correctly and it will be good at any time. is that you can withdraw your bitcoin to exchange it for the fiat currency of your country. And the percentage is also a big chance that you will get depending on the future movement of the cryptocurrency market.

It's really terrible that Beirut's citizens don't have access to their money because they don't have complete control over it; it resembles a dictatorship where you are forced to follow instructions on when and how to spend your money.


Even if you already own bitcoins, you might be unable to use them without first exchanging them for fiat, particularly if you live in a nation that does not recognize bitcoin as legal tender. However, compared to a bank, the security associated with storing your money in bitcoin is superior.

But that won’t change the fact that what she did is still against the law, threatening a lot of people intentionally. Although she has her own reasons, but I guess the bank itself has its certain reason too why they did that. But apparently, if the woman trusted bitcoin instead, it would be very impossible to happen. I hope this will be a wake up call for everyone to be responsible on managing their own finances, even without the presence of centralized banks.

Without doubt what she did is inexcusable, but at the same time this shows how little banks care about their customers, after all it is easy to guess from the situation that she most likely had an emergency and she needed that money desperately and the banks are simply not going to give you your money back if their policies state that they should not do it, so if you are creating an emergency fund you must remember to at least keep it in cash form as you do not know how long it could take you to get that money out of the bank of your choice.

This is the risk of saving your money in bank. Even it's your hard-earned money, you dont have full control over it and it's up to the bank if they will allow you to withdraw your money because they can come up for many reasonings to stop you for doing so. Like this situation of Beirut citizens, a woman were coerced to do this act in order to get money from her account. Worse case that can happen to anyone who's desperate.

Indeed. You still need centralized platforms (bank, exchanges etc.) to cash out your Bitcoin. However saving your money in Bitcoin is much safer because you're the one in control and you can keep it for long period without worries that your account might get freeze or stolen. As long as you're using a non-custodial wallet and you're holding your keys then you would be at ease.

Nevertheless we still need banks but dont be complacent that your money is safe.

Bitcoin is increasingly popular and now many countries have opened a tender to pass Bitcoin, the best thing from Bitcoin is that we have fully control with the assets that we save, in contrast to banks which if we transactions then need banks services so that we are like those who do not have money .

We still need them because they run the economy of a country and we have that in our minds that we should still save in the bank for some purpose.

Even though we own bitcoin and other cryptos as sign of our investments. It can't be removed that we'll live completely without them. There's a way for crypto and the bank to co-exist and most people won't be into crypto and that's a fact.

The good thing about us, we understand these two sectors where we can use at the same time if we want to. But mostly, our funds would be kept stored and held by us in the form of bitcoin which we think is way better because we have it on our possession.

The risk is always there no matter if you are talking about bitcoin or any other asset when you are walking on the street there is a chance for your phone to be mugged and there is the same situation for many other things such as the car and physical wallet but regarding bitcoin, since you can save your assets on the wallet you have better chance to hide your private keys or recovery seeds to access your account, and is you leave in bitcoin security you know none can have access to your wallet unless you share your private keys with them which can bring higher security.

Lol it's useless, the fraudster who robbed your phone already have full access about the wallet inside your phone, how hiding private keys or recovery seeds is the way to prevent that's attack? It's just prevent from anything except $5 wrench attack.

Do you think if the fraudster holding a gun and ask you about your private key, you will just shut up your mouth and not tell it to them? you will get torture by them and would force you to tell your private key in order to make your life safe.

Being your own bank is the best feeling in the world. There are several benefits. For instance, you would be absolutely certain that no one could access your money after you had taken the necessary security precautions, knew precisely how much you had, and knew how to get to it. Additionally, it is hassle-free to transfer and receive it anywhere in the globe. Another argument is that, in contrast to banking institutions, bitcoin transactions are quite open. Think about the Russian-Ukrainian situation as well. What do you suppose happened to those who had money in their bank accounts and also those who had bitcoin. And then suddenly they needed to get up and seek safety? With bitcoin, you can carry your "bank" around.

Having control over our money is a must. No bank assure it, whereas bitcoin gives assurance of the same. For different purpose we're in need of the banks, but it is always good to know our limits and make use of the banks. Another thing, all of the sudden banks won't close. We will come to know about the situation of the bank, if something is bad just withdraw entire funds. Very few exceptions happen same as that happened in Ukraine and Russia due to war.

All of what you said is true, however we must recognize that not everyone is ready to be their own bank, in fact that is the very reason why banks exist at all, people were not ready to take care of their gold and to protect it, and as such at the beginning banks were created with the idea of helping people to protect their savings, but since then the idea of banks has been completely distorted and now they manage the money that you deposit with them as it was their own money to the point they can even steal your money legally, and with this in mind it is not surprising that people like us have done our best effort to try to look for alternatives.

For now, it looks like we still need a bank because many of us cannot use bitcoin directly as a means of payment. We also need bitcoin as an investment tool and our own bank because by storing bitcoins, we don't have to pay various fees like we do when we deposit money in a bank.

And we also cannot immediately withdraw funds from the bank if something bad happens to the bank because we have seen several cases where the bank asked for time to provide the funds. So we should have our own "bank". In this case, the presence of bitcoin has helped us a lot in having our own "bank".

Being your own bank is just one side of it, the other side which can not be ignored is still there, that is, exchange that btc into cash for spending, btc is not widely accepted and so the need to exchange to fiat through the bank still very much needed.
For now bank is the necessary evil which we have to deal with until such time btc becomes acceptable in all part of the world.

My dad still puts his money into saving accounts when he has any, that should tell you what it means to have some people using banks.

I have been in crypto but there are a lot of things that you could with your money between investing into a savings account with a very low interest rate that will lose your moneys value, and bitcoin, and he doesn't do any of them neither, he just puts it in a bank. That’s why I believe that we should be focusing on something that would be more profitable, and banks will not give you that. Look at what banks do with your money, that will surely be more profitable for you in the long run as well and that’s how you should use it.

Yes, we cannot deny that banks still have a big role in our life. In my country, we cannot pay for goods or services with Bitcoin or other crypto coins, it must be using money printed by banks. Bitcoin or any other crypto coins are illegal to use for payment purposes here, they are only used for digital assets. Considering this matter, banks' role is still irreplaceable. For now, Bitcoin is still good for investment, it is legal already here.

This story is kind of joke but totally regretting to know that we become the victim of our own money because of some bank’s dirty manipulation. The woman might be so depressed already that she never think anymore the consequence of her own actions. Hopefully, this will give a lesson to everyone that not all banks can be trusted. Unlike with bitcoin, we can be on our own bank as long as we always keep the private keys completely safe.

Therefore maybe we can use bitcoin as an investment and later if we already get profit in fiat form, we can withdraw it to the bank and use it for our lives. At least, we can save crypto and turn it into fiat so we can use crypto and bank at the same time. And even though later in our country, we can use crypto to buy something, we should save crypto and cash it into fiat. It makes us have investments that can grow and provide benefits for us.

I acknowledge the importance of privacy with your holdings and
investments, I believe it is a matter of great importance to do so.
I think banks and bitcoins have different significance in storage
and accumulated wealth. Banks are safekeeping monetary
institutions, traditional in a sense if you think much about it.
However in today’s trend and computing advancements, the
emergence and rise of Bitcoins and cryptocurrency has given a
new kind of capability and control to peoples investment and money.
It’s a matter of preference since both are essentially vital in our modern 
financial framework. I think large amounts of money is safe in
banks, there are new and improved safeguards that keep things
that way, bitcoins are great investments options that has been
promising and competent throughout the years, That in fact if you
don’t mind the volatile nature and component bundled with it.

In other words, bitcoin for now is only just an alternative to the real banks or to the fiats. Or maybe it will remain this way forever? Since, it's almost impossible to use your btc in most of the common services that we know locally to the fact that bitcoin is digital and there are some things which can work perfectly without having the need of internet, computers, mobile phones and other gadgets.

You can always try to use your btc for buying dry goods online since there are many shops now are accepting a bitcoin. In terms of exchanging our btc into fiat. There are places that you can do it without needing to go to an actual bank, if you are allergic with their presence.

Bitcoin is one of the cryptos that we can trust 100% compared to others. Bitcoin is not controlled by anyone. But we can't make it a currency, because if we hold today at $20k, it's possible that tomorrow it will be $100k, or vice versa it will be $10k. This means that we can only make Bitcoin an asset. So that the authorities cannot confiscate or lock up our assets. This is 100% we control. In other words, instead of buying a building, it would be better to buy Bitcoin. Of course we are not willing to sell Bitcoin below the purchase price.

Maybe we can use stable coins as a substitute for fiat which does deal with banks. However I'm not sure it's 100% decentralized. As long as stable coins can still be sued by the authorities, of course, they also have long-term risks. So, what are we more likely to use today as a replacement for Fiat? Is that a steble coin? or a more decentralized Bitcoin?

Most people are like that, anything other than putting the money in a bank is something they think is too risky, and who has pushed for such behavior for a very long time? Banks of course, as this plays in their favor, however anyone that knows enough about the economy to understand how inflation works will probably never do something like this, as your wealth is eroded by the government as they print more and more money.

It is true that Bitcoin or crypto currency has saved us from being controlled by banks.  Moreover, in the era of technology, there is no respite without crypto currency. But you have to keep in mind that there are risks like Bitcoin's highly volatilities is a big reason, but there are ways to use stable coins for this, moreover you can make stable coins usdt or busd savings at 8% APR on Binance Exchange.

I would say that if you are using binance exchange for stablecoin staking then you are going to be doing similar to what you do with fiat as well. I am not saying that it would be a smart idea to keep your money in fiat, on contrary I am saying keeping it in fiat is so silly and foolish that you shouldn't even consider BUSD or USDT neither, because they are one to one pegged to fiat as well.

It's much better to keep it in bitcoin, because it might be volatile and looking bearish right now, but look at the potential of it and how high it could get. That should show you that it could end up with a much higher price and get you out of poverty and put you into wealth.

I think it is undeniable that there is a big risk involved for anyone thinking on investing in bitcoin for the short term, however I think the risk is worth taking, after all what other options do we have available? Remaining in fiat is not an option due to the high inflation, the stock market and the real estate market are overvalued as well, gold has not performed well either, so it is not like we have a lot of options in which we can invest our money and get good profits during the next years.

Getting out of bank control is clearly still very possible for anyone in this modern era. But cryptocurrency and Bitcoin activists still have to be close to the bank and also have to have a bank account when they want to withdraw money for the needs in their respective lives. Because Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies still cannot be used for everything in all countries (except only countries that have fully legalized Bitcoin) only those who can distance themselves from the Bank.

And that is the main reason why we wanted to invest on bitcoin, the big risk involved For some maybe they can't stomach it especially when we are in bear market. But everything chances when we goes on bull run. Of course the old adage of be your own bank is with bitcoin since the beginning. And it's up to us how to make it and used it to our advantage. Keep your private key, do not let everyone know. As long as you have security hygiene and good practice, then continue to accumulate and buy bitcoin in your wallet.

Agree with what you said, Actually in this case we can not rule out the bank in any case because indeed we still need it.
Apart from some of the rules that are there, it doesn't actually make us lose that we need a bank even if we hold crypto in hand.
In this case, regardless of whether the country is already running crypto or not, we still cannot rule out banks because the purpose of Crypto, especially bitcoin, is not to get rid of it.

Its still relevant, we cant just run solely on total decentralized aspect or system where we do really need up services which are centralized and having that organized manner.
Both things could co-exist and i dont know on why there are people who are really that too optimistic on eradicating banking system or the current fiat one
which we know that it would really exist no matter what.As long government do exist then it is something an impossible thing to happen.
Good thing that on crypto or Bitcoins existence then we do have at least a choice on making ourselves seperate on too much centralization.

We live in a very strange period of time, through history getting a loan was something that very few people did and most of the time those loans were for productive activities like starting a business, but since the fiat system has been implemented there has been a huge change in the way people approach loans, now been indebted through most of your life is something very common, and now people care about something like their credit score, which is nothing more but a number which represents their ability to repay their loans back, which in my opinion is a useless number because what we should do is to try to never live beyond our means and avoid borrowing money as much as possible.

The importance of Bitcoin cannot be neglected in the current ERA, but it cannot completely rule out the importance of FIAT and the banks. The main key factor is decentralized and unregulated status. The majority of people still hesitate to invest in bitcoin. Hence, replacing bitcoin with the conventional system would be much farther away.