Bitcoin is better than your bank!

[Artemis3]

"Banks! That's all we've known as "the only option". Ask someone how you can send money to someone and the response will be "use the bank!".

I actually disagree with this, at least among millenials this definitely isn't the main way people send money anymore.

If you ask people how they send money these days, it's through payment processor apps like Venmo, Paypal, Square etc. The bank is only used by professionals and businesses.

That said, I also don't agree that BTC is necessarily better than the bank either, at least not in its current iteration. The publicly available blockchain is far too intrusive for my liking, we need some way of obfuscating this data.

Once that's added, BTC stomps banks.

It must be nice to live in a country with economic freedoms for you to make a comment like this. There are places with millions of people where access to foreign currencies is heavily restricted. Paypal doesn't work without a credit card, and to get that you need a bank account in a foreign country (a country whose fiat can be freely exchanged into USD) with significant movement to warrant issuing a credit card with the smallest of credits tolerable to the bank.

Everywhere in the world access to bitcoin is possible, but not foreign currencies. Have you ever faced the difficulties a foreigner must face just to open a bank account in America, so he/she could then start getting access to all those fabled services you mention? And that is before the American government starts forbidden companies from dealing with said country.

Did you even notice all those steps, and often expensive and slow procedures all go away with Bitcoin?

Yes it is easy when you live in the land of freedom, but stop to think what happens when you do not. Ever paid attention to the list of countries service X is not allowed? No because you don't live there, why would you care?

Let me "try" to give you a tale.

I live in a country where the average monthly wage is $5 (as in FIVE US dollars). A visa to ENTER the United States costs at least $150 per attempt to get, they mostly deny it. No, we cannot enter without it, 3 month non visa required tourism is a benefit for the "nice" countries only. Also the US Embassy was closed, so if you wanted to obtain one you would have to travel to a neighbor country. Unlike in "nice" Europe, where such a deal would take under $100 for a plane ticket, around here getting to the neighbor country means at least $400 USD, AND many countries now require a visa simply to enter, which in turn costs more money and paperwork demonstrating "somehow" that you are totally not going to overstay working there...

And that's even before putting a step in the destination, now suppose you did (and the immigration officer didn't turn you back because he/she didn't like you); you now go to the bank and face a new wall of difficulty just to open a bank account. Things like having, i don't know 10k USD lying around (hope you could declare those without looking suspicious) AND all the paperwork KYC, etc. Its often simply not allowed and you better have a friend making you look like you live there (ie. utility bill) etc. And then the bank has fees if you don't move certain amount. Yes there are services that give you a virtual address and re-mailing from the States, but that is even more money most normal people simply can't afford.

All this mess and we still haven't gotten to your fabled services. Paypal requires a credit card, now you might get those in your place by shopping at the grocery store or something, but that is not how it is elsewhere. Convince your foreign bank that you are "Worth" getting a $500 USD credit card or whatever the smallest valid amount it, who cares you deposited 5k...

All this wall of text and i have not even began describing the mountain of hurdle all of this is, compare to Bitcoin where all you need is download a wallet, and often not even that (but its best).

You cannot naively use Western Union or the likes when you live in a place with restriction to foreign currencies, at best you'd get absurd taxes and at worst you won't get anything (or the service is forbidden).

Do note that a country where Bitcoin is banned cannot stop Bitcoin, but you would need to be smarter like using Tails with Electrum, etc. However a country where the USD is banned, is a whole different ball game. Think drug dealer like life, when foreign currency trading becomes a black market. Of course you haven't lived that in your nice place.

Just because politicians have the power to ruin your life, doesn't mean they would... Or would they? Said anyone who lived prior hyperinflation.

Public blockchain records are not an issue if you don't let them associate your real person to your address and only make a single transaction per address. You can go to an altcoin if that makes you feel better, but Bitcoin holds its value better than any other, while being completely free from the State.

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[FaithInCrypto]

Well for me everything depends on the situation. In some cases, Bitcoin is better (as we believe in it) but others do not, so we can't force them to believe and act as we do. Banks had been present in human lives since the 1400s or 1600s so we can't really remove it from the system easily. They already had established their names and have an outstanding performance in the community which people prefer to believe than in cryptocurrency which only is operational for a decade or so. What I mean is, we can't fully use Bitcoin as of the moment because out fiat is often stored in the bank.

[thesmallgod]

You cannot achieve all the things you can achieve with fiat currency. This is because crypto has not been widely accepted for payment of most of the things you purchase using fiat currencies, especially for domestic uses. However, despite the fact that a lot of people are working towards making crypto a universal currency, there are still many that have stopped to accept it because of the volatility and which I think it is part of the drawback associated with the coin. Having a currency that you can use to pay for something abroad which cannot be achieved using fiat and local fiat dominated card due to government policies is one major obstacle that crypto has taken care of in many cases.

[Baoo]

Actually, there is a huge difference between Bitcoin or digital currencies in general and Banks in all the ways, Bitcoin's characteristics give you  a feeling of comfort and safety through the low value of fee in trasntactions, the security, no exploitation.. and more but unfortunately, the opposite is true for all the banks, they just want to control and exploit their clients,  that's definitely unacceptable. Plus, I don't really expect that the bank will disappear especially in next few years because the world economy linked to FIAT ( like, Euro, Dollars, Yen..ect )

[LUCKMCFLY]

The conception of a bank with respect to Bitcoin is usually very subjective, if we go to the benefits of Bitcoin with respect to banks there are many advantages, since no third party permission is needed, in addition, the fact that bitcoin is totally Decentralized says a lot because it does not depend on any regulation made in its development by any government.

The advantage of the bank over Bitcoin is that it is accepted, legally has jurisdiction in any country in the world, has a "backing" especially given by governments. In countries with crisis, bitcoin is a completely safe refuge, especially if it is high inflation, with respect to this, both banks and bitcoin can coexist.

[gundala]

As you mentioned in the article:

However, bitcoin is obviously a better, quicker, and private means of sending money across different countries.

Bitcoin is better, but not all countries legalize transactions with BTC, so there are still drawbacks. In addition, the same as transactions that fail if the bank is off, then transactions using bitcoin can also fail if there is no internet network, and besides, payments using BTC are still very limited.
It would be wise if we did not compare too much because banks and BTC both have advantages and disadvantages of each. the most appropriate is to combine the two, it is more useful than comparing them to determine which is the best, just wasting energy.

[btcholder]

Many people are just ignorant about bitcoin and I believe that writing an article (as a writer I am) is worth it for bitcoin. Therefore, I decided to write this article to help elaborate (https://link.medium.com/X934BlPLW3).
Please endeavour to READ! and share it too.
Tho some people just don't want to use bitcoin because of its volatile/unpredictable nature, there are also others who don't even know what we are talking of.

I keep telling us that little things matters a lot. Sharing this article would help get to someone out there who hasn't heard about bitcoin and needs to know about it. Also, don't forget to use your skills to promote bitcoin.

Ignoring bitcoin is not new thing actually. It's always happen science bitcoin arrived as a digital asset. Most people afraid about bitcoin or blockchain technology because they don't know well about it. Bitcoin arrived couple of years ago so in my opinion it need more times to understand for people what is it and why people need bitcoin in their life. And you can see that everyday bitcoin popularity are increasing. Many school/college teach their lesson about bitcoin.

We are know about bank or FIAT money after we born in this world. But about bitcoin just couple of years. So It's totally pointless if we compare between bank and bitcoin. There is no doubt that in near future people will denial Bank and use bitcoin or blockchain technology for their financial life.

[bearexin]

Bitcoin gives us more freedom with faster transactions and is not subject to the strict management of banks and governments.  But the drawback of Bitcoin is that there are no other banking functions like lending money or saving deposits to receive passive interest rates.  We can actually deposit money in a bank but we will have a more stable interest rate.  Pouring money into Bitcoin is not really good because based on what happened, Bitcoin peaked at 20k in 2017 and soon dropped sharply in late 2018. If anyone has invested in Bitcoin at the end of 2017, it will  Big losses in 2018.

Let's be honest here and while I too love bitcoin and that's why I am here but below are the reasons I feel bitcoin still is behind banks in terms of ease :

1- Acceptance: Not everyone accepts bitcoins while everyone who accepts bitcoins surely accepts bank cards

2- Trust: Bitcoins being decentralized it always has been a pleasure but at the same time there is no guarantee, I mean the money in your bank is protected by your government while bitcoins you cannot say anything to anyone if tomorrow you hear bitcoin is 0. The area where I see bitcoins superior to bank is that bitcoins give you the control over your money while banks take control over your money.

[Artemis3]

Let's be honest here and while I too love bitcoin and that's why I am here but below are the reasons I feel bitcoin still is behind banks in terms of ease :

1- Acceptance: Not everyone accepts bitcoins while everyone who accepts bitcoins surely accepts bank cards

2- Trust: Bitcoins being decentralized it always has been a pleasure but at the same time there is no guarantee, I mean the money in your bank is protected by your government while bitcoins you cannot say anything to anyone if tomorrow you hear bitcoin is 0. The area where I see bitcoins superior to bank is that bitcoins give you the control over your money while banks take control over your money.

If you come to my country right now your credit card is useless. The Trump administration ordered Visa and Mastercard out, they cannot process payments here. Even before that, there were many places where credit card were not accepted for various reasons.

Bitcoin's price is based on the market, that is the amount of people who find it useful overpower the ones that consider it not useful. The tendency not only has not regressed, it keeps increasing over time, albeit slower and slower as it should be for a coin that does not lose value because its production is limited in code and cannot be changed on a whim of a select few. Bitcoin is valuable because of the made its made, and because of its distinct features. The proof is the market price. It cannot go zero over night like you imply, because the market is backing it up. Any attempts of dumping it will find and equal and probably stronger force of pumping it.

If you still do not understand this, you do not understand the value of things. The value of things depends on the usefulness to both the seller and the buyer. It is useful to millions of people, this is why it has the value it has.

Things that go zero overnight are things that can be destroyed, like companies, governments of countries. There is nothing in particular you can do to destroy Bitcoin, short of destroying electricity generation and communications worldwide. It is easier to see the US dollar or the Euro disappear than Bitcoin. Even gold is weaker. Each Bitcoin (satoshi) is unique and its intangible, it can be exchanged across borders at the speed of light (confirmation takes minutes but thats another matter). Bitcoin is so useful the number of people wanting it is slightly increasing over the amount of coins that are and will ever be available, which is why its price keeps climbing. Well that, and the fact that all fiat coins have infinite production, which makes them lose value intentionally over time.

Once you understand this and the rest of the features that make Bitcoin secure and reliable, you get to understand while the demand keeps even after 11 years and counting.

[finaleshot2016]

When it comes to transactions, obviously bitcoin will win for being decentralized but banks have also it's a unique way of transaction. I think it's very non-sense to compare both 'cause for me, this both things are important. We shouldn't always rely on having decentralized transactions. How will you get your money from a decentralized transaction? Probably it will still go through your bank or any payment options to receive it.

An increase in the market is not always a good thing, if you think widely, whales are the ones who really benefit here not us. Therefore, control in this kind of situation is needed sometimes so having centralized platforms like banks are needed in our country. So basically, they're different and shouldn't be compared to each other.

[Gumpfire]

Bitcoin is known since it is the first crypto currency, the problem though is that it is popular for us but for them, it is not. With the scam all over our country relating to crypto currencies, bitcoin and other cryptos are labeled as a scam by these people that has no idea of what they are talking about. With the creation of bitcoin, a lot of people have their freedom and that is the reason why some take advantage of it. Even with the legalization of crypto currencies in our country, using it is still limited and we have no other choice but to use an exchange to be able to transact it. We are still not paying directly bitcoin since these exchanges convert that into fiat.

This is actually true, for now, we really can't avoid not-so-good things that are happening in the cryptoworld, so a lot of people who don't use cryptocurrencies conclude that cryptos are scam. In order for them to understand how it really goes, we should explain to them, like the author of this thread, and share this to your friends and relatives so that they may accept cryptocurrency.

[rossashriel_17]

In my opinion both bitcoin/crypto currencies have their own advantage and disadvantage, there is no better to one another because it has both weakness and strength  bitcoin gives us more freedom of our crypto  since that the government have  no holds to it , we have all the authority of our digital money, but  it still have fault in it , we have no security (well according to my knowledge I still need to do some readings about it) and since that crypto are still not accepted in some countries  it is really hard to keep it and rely on it. While banks is your money is secured yes  your money is safe and  it us easy access on a daily basis  but  lets all be real non of us dont really trust  banks when it comes in putting all our money on it that us why we all are here  investing our money  not all but some of our money so we can maximize the potential of  growing it not keeping it stagnant.

[sisule]

Many people are just ignorant about bitcoin and I believe that writing an article (as a writer I am) is worth it for bitcoin. Therefore, I decided to write this article to help elaborate (https://link.medium.com/X934BlPLW3).
Please endeavour to READ! and share it too.
Tho some people just don't want to use bitcoin because of its volatile/unpredictable nature, there are also others who don't even know what we are talking of.

I keep telling us that little things matters a lot. Sharing this article would help get to someone out there who hasn't heard about bitcoin and needs to know about it. Also, don't forget to use your skills to promote bitcoin.

Better than bank if saving bitcoin in the right place and have higher price next time but how come if your bitcoin assets save in bad exchange and then bitcoin down with lower price, still you can say bitcoin is better than  your bank? I think always have possibility for bank and bitcoin get benefit and weakness each other.

[BlackFor3st]

Many people are just ignorant about bitcoin and I believe that writing an article (as a writer I am) is worth it for bitcoin. Therefore, I decided to write this article to help elaborate (https://link.medium.com/X934BlPLW3).
Please endeavour to READ! and share it too.
Tho some people just don't want to use bitcoin because of its volatile/unpredictable nature, there are also others who don't even know what we are talking of.

I keep telling us that little things matters a lot. Sharing this article would help get to someone out there who hasn't heard about bitcoin and needs to know about it. Also, don't forget to use your skills to promote bitcoin.

Upon learning what is bitcoin and it's advantages compare to the current bank system I can fully say that banks are no match to how bitcoin works and what type of services it provides to it's users.

The transaction fees of bitcoin is much lower compare to banks and even if you send millions of bitcoin bitcoin system will process it right away unlike in banks. The freedom that it also gives to the users as it doesn't ask any documents before you can use bitcoin system.

[sheenshane]

You don't understand. I agree that Bitcoin is a very good cryptocurrency but it doesn't need to be compared to a bank. The two have different roles. In saving and investment, Bitcoin has the best role but when it comes to financing, probably bank has a great role than the cryptocurrency. Let's just accept the fact that cryptocurrency is always good for an alternative way than banks.

What we need to understand is we need to learn how to use these financial instruments as advantages to achieve our financial success. Each and every finance instruments have different roles and you must utilize each and everything of them.

[wozzek23]

I would say that anyone who invests in Bitcoin without knowing that it is volatile would probably think that it is a scam if the price should fall and they lose their money.

I have seen a lot of people that didn't know anything about Bitcoin and just jumped into it because of what they were told by their friends and when they ended up losing money they started saying that Bitcoin is a scam. And yes there are people who are afraid to use Bitcoin due to the volatile nature, they are afraid that they may lose their money if they save it in a crypto wallet. And there are also people who are ready to take that risk, everyone's not the same.

[Shasha80]

It's not easy to convince others to choose investments in bitcoin compared to saving at a bank. Thank you for sharing the article,
hopefully the article can help convince others to understand the excess investment in bitcoin. Actually, the cause of people
not interested in investing in bitcoin, because many people lack information about bitcoin, because it's our job to educate other
people to better understand the benefits of investing in bitcoin.

[tvplus006]

The conception of a bank with respect to Bitcoin is usually very subjective, if we go to the benefits of Bitcoin with respect to banks there are many advantages, since no third party permission is needed, in addition, the fact that bitcoin is totally Decentralized says a lot because it does not depend on any regulation made in its development by any government.

The advantage of the bank over Bitcoin is that it is accepted, legally has jurisdiction in any country in the world, has a "backing" especially given by governments. In countries with crisis, bitcoin is a completely safe refuge, especially if it is high inflation, with respect to this, both banks and bitcoin can coexist.

We know the positive aspects of investing in bitcoin, but we should not forget about the negative side associated with its volatility. Therefore, each person must keep part of their funds in the Bank to reduce risks. And this will allow you to quickly resolve your problems in the event of an unexpected financial situation.

[abel1337]

The conception of a bank with respect to Bitcoin is usually very subjective, if we go to the benefits of Bitcoin with respect to banks there are many advantages, since no third party permission is needed, in addition, the fact that bitcoin is totally Decentralized says a lot because it does not depend on any regulation made in its development by any government.

The advantage of the bank over Bitcoin is that it is accepted, legally has jurisdiction in any country in the world, has a "backing" especially given by governments. In countries with crisis, bitcoin is a completely safe refuge, especially if it is high inflation, with respect to this, both banks and bitcoin can coexist.

We know the positive aspects of investing in bitcoin, but we should not forget about the negative side associated with its volatility. Therefore, each person must keep part of their funds in the Bank to reduce risks. And this will allow you to quickly resolve your problems in the event of an unexpected financial situation.

I agree with you, I myself have a bank account for my personal transactions but I really don't store many funds into my bank account, It goes to my bitcoin wallet. I don't really hate banks because it is the one I use at the time that I don't have any idea or before I discover cryptocurrency. The reason I use bitcoin is because of it's volatility and it is better than stocks, So I personally see bitcoin as an investment and not a place to keep my funds. But don't get me wrong, I do store funds that I hold and waiting for the price to go up.

[Kelvinid]

They just ignore Bitcoin it is just because of uncomfortable situation which they don't want to understand and don't want to take the risk.
And we are glad enough to see its futuristic features that everyone had enjoy more than of fiat money can do. However, its volatility seems to be closing some minds into their ignorance and not knowing how Bitcoin and cryptocurrency make a better life. In fact, Banks seems to be helpless we are totally engaged in crypto and used bitcoin for our daily transactions.