Quiet approval, hah, do you take anything that lizard says at face value. Either he didn't realize the threat before or he lied.
I think they're overconfident as they truly believe there could not possibly be a threat to their monopoly.
when someone deposits dollars into an exchange. it sits in an american bank .. meaning america has not lost a dime. when someone wishes to withdraw their dollar. the dollar travels from one america account to another.
again the banks have not lost a dime its still circulating in their banking system.
the old age sticking banknotes into an envelop to send to foreign countries, that was where banks lost out. as the money was not in local circulation anymore, thus bitcoin is better for banks.. not worse.
now to the point. bitcoin is not harmful to bankers. but exchanges run by basement dwelling teenagers that don't wish to follow the FIAT regulations, are the ones that will find their banks not so helpful, especially those exchanges that claim their business plan is 'selling advert space' which later is revealed as a fraudulent claim, when its looked into as being bitcoin related.
Short-term, you're right. But thinking long-term, don't you think this technology (decentralized cryptocurrencies) is the greatest threat to the central bankers' monopoly they will ever have faced? Cryptocurrencies render obsolete their source of power (centralized control of a nation-state's currency), giving the power to the people who actually use the currency and no one else. No enforced compliance (under threat of violence), no fractional reserve banking, no debt-based issuance necessitating exponential growth, no ridiculously flawed financial instruments, minimal service fees, etc.
