Big decision by the OCC - Banks can now hodl Bitcoins.

[electronicash]

good for adoption. they are turning to Coinbase and BitGo.

Custody is important in the world of crypto since currencies like Bitcoin are entirely digital, making them easy to steal. Being a custodian entails storing the so-called private key that provides access to a given digital wallet.

they wanna make it appear to the public that is hard to keep digital currency for yourself and that it need to be in their custody?  nice plan there.

but what's stopping people from withdrawing their money from banks and buy BTC on LBC and other services that exclude banks. one has to really learn it from the guys who wil advice them to keep the private key to themselves and have the custody as well.

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[wozzek23]

It’s not a must that you’re going to use banks to hold your bitcoin, it’s all about your choice, so don’t complain about the fees yet when you have no idea of what it’s going to be. When it’s time and banks are ready to start offering that service, they will make proper announcement to the public and their customers, and if your bank is offering the service you will get to know what the fees are and decide for yourself whether to let the bank hold cryptocurrency for you.

If the fees are too much for you, you can continue making use of the method you’re using now to store. Banks are going to charge fees for sure, they are not going to be offering this kind of service or free, they are taking risk holding it for you and there will be more better features added.

[Wawa2013]

Related to the big decision from the OCC is positive news should be, because the government has begun to open with Bitcoin.
And this can be a trigger for mass adoption, because ordinary people don't consider Bitcoin illegal anymore. But it certainly has
positive and negative effects, we must be able to behave wisely.

[n0ne]

Wonder what's the real motive behind this. To increase their surveillance over individual wealth? Hmm. I won't use this nor support people to do this, you could hold bitcoin on your own wallet and cash out without giving stuff like KYC. Why do I feel that banks are gonna compete with exchanges now.

Yes, the first thing that comes in mind is the data gathering. Almost every bank operating around the globe has got the entire details of its customers. This means the financial data is recorded, now through the banks holding bitcoin services more people opt for it as it gives more trust than exchanges. But, as in the above quote, it is pure surveillance over the individual wealth.

[imstillthebest]

yikes  . i thought this was a good news not until i read that they charged a fee  . we know that banks dont charge a small fee when we use thier service like when you withdraw on an atm and others   .

the only pro is that this introduce crypto to non crypto users  because almost 90 percent of bank users dont have any idea or not involved on the crypto , thats why they only trust banks  .  this concept is a plus point to the banks and they will look like a good guy here

[goinmerry]

Those people that skeptical about bitcoin will somehow realize the crypto is not that bad as they think. Because of this news, I'm expecting a newcomers that will consider the use of bitcoin whether for business or investment purposes.

I also don't believe that banks will ask for whole documentation anytime they will receive deposits of bitcoin or a client that will move their bitcoin to their account. Just like how fiat was moved or deposit to the bank, I think it will just be requested to customer once they detect a whole bunch of bitcoins sent in the account at once as it will trigger the alarm under the money laundering law.

[kawetsriyanto]

The good news, it means that their country really support the existence of BTC and also other cryptocurrencies. this can be a leading ways so far moreover the USA is a big country with high power to influence the other countries around the world.

However I’m skeptical of this news too because banks may charge higher fees, and try and profit from each and every transaction their clients make.

I think they will. They know how precious Bitcoin is, although they also know that BTC is volatile, they may charge the high fees because of this value and precise. however, they must have certain indicators of the fees that will be also announced to the citizen in the country. So, there will be not kind of one-side solution. Additionally, if it is legalized and available on banks, will it also charge the taxes? I'm curious also about it.

[dothebeats]

This brings us closer to mainstream adoption, but no thank you, I can handle my coins on my own. Basically, people who would avail of such a service give up their privacy and their private keys to a third-party entity that could lose these things in a hack. Add to the fact that this might even get your crypto holding details to the authorities to check on you every now and then, which is kinda annoying since they can literally pin you down on anything they want to just because you have something on your crypto pockets.

This defeats the purpose of 'being your own bank' presented by crypto. For legal purposes, this would work, but for personal reasons /use cases, better to have the coins on you than to entrust it to someone else.

[stompix]

~

Of course I don't want it either, hence I hold my coins in self-custody. But then again, there are A LOT of other people out there outside our tech-savvy cryptocurrency bubble group that might want to take advantage of bitcoin's market characteristics(not necessarily the privacy and sovereignty characteristics).

The point here is freedom of choice. If they want to go let the banks hold their bitcoin knowing the risks, then let them. Doesn't mean that we also should follow suit.

I was disagreeing with you one different thing, the raid on those accounts, I don't think that those bitcoins accounts will be even 0.001% safe than a normal fiat account in case the government wants a Cyprus style shave over a certain limit.

As for the choice they make, yeah, people are free to choose what they want, although I am not going to recommend anybody to store their coins like that unless I know he is completely incapable of storing by himself safely, you've got to respect that it's their money, they can do whatever they want, store it in a bank or blow them on hookers, forcing them to do otherwise would make us look  just as bad  
Oh, and I'm certain that if banks start offering this service with normal maintenance fees, not outrageous stuff like 2-5% or 100+$ per year we will soon have way more bitcoins store in banks than in web wallets which will also clearly outrank private wallets. I' will certainly not be happy with this outcome but I will have to live with it.

I also don't believe that banks will ask for whole documentation anytime they will receive deposits of bitcoin or a client that will move their bitcoin to their account. Just like how fiat was moved or deposit to the bank, I think it will just be requested to customer once they detect a whole bunch of bitcoins sent in the account at once as it will trigger the alarm under the money laundering law.

Oh yeah, they will not do that, how could they do it.../s
Just wait for it, I'm pretty sure they will come with something like white-labeled addresses where you can send your coins and a lot more blacklisted.
Coinbase did it in the twitter hack, you think banks won't do it also?

And it's going to be pretty interesting to try to explain the bank why the coins with which you purchased something over the net ended up in a casino's address in the next tx.

[kryptqnick]

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (USA) has allowed banks to hodl bitcoins on behalf of their clients, and this is a big news because banks will now be able to offer crypto related service’s for their clients. However I’m skeptical of this news too because banks may charge higher fees, and try and profit from each and every transaction their clients make. Lastly what do you’ll think of this move, will it actually help bitcoins in the long run or not?.

Big banks have long held precious objects on behalf of their customers—from jewels in safe-deposit boxes to shares of stock. Now, thanks to a new policy by a federal banking regulator, they will be able to hold cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin too.

The new policy is set out in a letter published on Wednesday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The letter, addressed to an unnamed bank, stated that national banks and savings associations can engage in so-called custody services for their clients.

The news is significant because regulatory uncertainty has until now led major banks to avoid Bitcoin.

Source:

https://fortune.com/2020/07/22/bitcoin-big-banks-can-hold-occ-letter/

This can be viewed from different perspectives. One is from within the community of crypto users. Here there's this famous 'not your keys, not your coins' kind of thing that does not endorse banks holding cryptos on behalf of their clients. Another is the perspective of higher adoption. So we're talking about people who are not crypto users yet and are generally comfortable with banks. But they might be curious about Bitcoin and consider it a good idea to have some just in case. For these people, it would be great news that it's possible to put Bitcoin into their bank similar to how people put gold in a bank safe. So all in all, I think it's good news that there'll be more options for people and for banks who want to deal with cryptos.

[jpnl0006]

banks shouldtake startegic positions in the blockchain space so as to remain effective in the financial world. If the world goes digital and complete alternative to banks are presented by innovators then it poses a threat to the traditional banking and can entirely eliminate her.

[Killrbit]

3. Banks will control your crypto holding so you will essentially loose the control over your own money that you used to enjoy earlier with your own private key

So i had a question here couldn't you as a crypto currency holder make a multi signature wallet which could then be linked to your bank account instead of just giving them them full custodianship of your Bitcoins. Shouldn't this theoretically allow you to still maintain control over your funds since the bank would be unable to move your money without your permission, while at the same time it could help dealing with issues related to crypto inheritance.

[todiefor17]

A decentralized asset is managed by a centralized body, a bank. Interestingly enough, Switzerland has stored cryptocurrencies for its customers and now to banks across the US.
Who will give my assets to the holding banks? Perhaps the rich people or corporations are putting bitcoins in their reserves.
I wish they would accept bitcoin as a means of payment between banks and a means of paying people's debts more.

[RokokGudangGaram]

While this may have good impact for mass adoption of Bitcoin, I am also after the privacy and still having full control with your decentralized assets if these were to be kept in the bank. Nevertheless this has been a good news, maybe a more concrete and specific concept should be mapped out, out of this complex situation.

[ILuckyGuyI]

This move can help Bitcoin increase its credibility and increase its usage much more than before. On the other hand, Bitcoin is decentralized like any other cryptocurrencies. By doing this, banks will gain control and they will be able to monitor transactions of their customers. This is opposite to the nature of cryptos. 

[Argoo]

Own bitcoins and entrust their storage to banks? I do not get the point of it. The main attraction of cryptocurrency is precisely to get out of the financial control of banks and governments in general. I definitely will not use such services.
Besides, I have a poor understanding of the mechanism of this service. In order to be responsible for storing cryptocurrency, the bank must transfer it to its cryptocurrency wallets and we, it turns out, will not know their private keys? Are we going to instruct banks to conduct a specific transaction? I personally don't like it.

[Findingnemo]

Bitcoin was created to eliminate the third party but many of us are claiming that it will help the bitcoin to get main stream.Why people need to use banks to hold bitcoin its became burder to keep it on their own?