[2016-11-09]Major Korean Bank to launch bitcoin-backed remittance service

[WishICanTurnBackTime]

Major Korean Bank to launch bitcoin-backed remittance service

 One of Korea’s biggest financial institutions, Shinhan Bank, recently announced that they will be providing bitcoin remittance services for the Korea-China corridor starting in December. The development marks the first time that any major bank has announced a Bitcoin value transfer system.
Seoul based Shinhan has over 8,531 employees at 723 branches, and assets of over 285 trillion Korean won, or US$251 billion, spread across 140 overseas networks in 19 countries around the world. The bank has won numerous awards in the Asian banking sector, including last year’s Best retail bank.

http://bravenewcoin.com/news/major-korean-bank-to-launch-bitcoin-backed-remittance-service/

[yayayo]

They use the "Blockchain remittance middleware" Streami - what an idiotic branding. While it's nice to have Bitcoin remittance services in place, the fact that most use Bitcoin or its blockchain only as medium of transfer is worrying. Using an intermediary and doing fiat conversion before and after the transfer is basically eliminating all advantages of Bitcoin. People surrender control of funds to a third party and associated total costs are higher than they should be.

Bitcoin's true potential can only unfold if people make direct Bitcoin-only transactions without any third parties or fiat conversion involved. For this to happen we need a closed loop Bitcoin economy, where recipients of Bitcoin remittances can use Bitcoin for direct purchases of their daily necessities in their home country without needing to convert it to fiat.

ya.ya.yo!