Why Bitcoin cannot be a Bank?

[Artem Sereda]

Banks is a more elaborate system, at this point. You can't make installments, loans, and more. So bitcoin won't be able to replace banks for a long time to come.

[BTCBroker2016]

If it will stop being so volatile maybe it have chance to become a bank

[karmamiu]

"Be your own bank" is a nonsense slogan from blockchain.info; you can "be your own bank" with 50 kg of platinum, gold, or silver.

Trolls who haven't even finished primary school are spreading the idea of Bitcoin as a bank on Twitter and other American social networks.

It's just absurd how they got this idea on how to promote crypto.

I'll share a little bit of story here; In my country there is this famous online game/casino that is currently being promoted by most of local influencers we have here, but the thing is the site is not 100% trusted at the same time the people behind the project is shady yet influencers try to promote it without a care that there are so many that are now complaining that they couldn't cash-out their money. This is the story I remembered when I first saw this post.

[bitterguy28]

I don't actually care about what he says  , instead what I care is my Believe in Bitcoin that I considered as my Own Banking system.

I store my Money in Bitcoin(with safe wallet of course) and for me that is what Banking means .

Not allowing us to pay mortgage, rent or anything that he mention cares and affect me nothing because I can convert my Bitcoin to pay all those and I have my own way of gathering money to pay my bills .

If it will stop being so volatile maybe it have chance to become a bank

and that is far from happening lol.

[Alpha Marine]

The world at some point would move on front paper money. I don't know when, hell it might be a century or a millennial I don't know but I do know it will stop using paper money at some point. I am very optimistic about bitcoin but I don't believe it would ever replace fiat, I believe they would coexist. For bitcoin to replace fiat globally then the world needs to be at a point digitally where you no longer need to pay for anything with cash. While this may be possible in some countries, it's not even an idea in some countries, especially developing countries.
Assuming governments of the world don't constantly fight bitcoin I would very much prefer bitcoin and fiat to coexist despite the fact that Bitcoin is superior to fiat.

[thecodebear]

The idea of bitcoin being your own bank is the fact that you can store your own money. Most people just use a bank to store their money and buy things (through credit/debit cards or fintech, all layers built on top of banks). And that's what you can do with Bitcoin, without needing the bank.


Of course there are actual business services that banks provide that Bitcoin can't really do, like lending money and insurance. But the basic purpose of a bank, to hold money and let you spend it, is accomplished by bitcoin without any need for anything else being built (other than of course merchant acceptance).

In a Bitcoin world we'd still need lending services and insurance services and all that, we just wouldn't need banks. Though of course plenty of people would choose to keep their Bitcoin with custodians for ease of use and so those custodians would end up just being banks. But the key thing is we wouldn't NEED them. It would be a choice to bank or not bank, a choice that isn't possible with fiat.

[fuguebtc]

The world at some point would move on front paper money. I don't know when, hell it might be a century or a millennial I don't know but I do know it will stop using paper money at some point. I am very optimistic about bitcoin but I don't believe it would ever replace fiat, I believe they would coexist. For bitcoin to replace fiat globally then the world needs to be at a point digitally where you no longer need to pay for anything with cash. While this may be possible in some countries, it's not even an idea in some countries, especially developing countries.
Assuming governments of the world don't constantly fight bitcoin I would very much prefer bitcoin and fiat to coexist despite the fact that Bitcoin is superior to fiat.

A cashless world is possible, but that won't happen anytime soon, and when it does, I don't believe bitcoin will replace it but a digital solution from the government.

Honestly, I don't have the same mindset as many people here want fiat or banks gone forever, instead, I prefer to use both, both co-exist is better. I prefer having many options in life than having a single solution. While bitcoin is great in many respects, fiat also has its benefits in some cases.

[Nrcewker]

We can do everything and anything in Bitcoins. But the questions that you have asked in the OP, can only be fulfilled if Bitcoins are served as a legal tender in that particular country. Bitcoins cannot be served or treated as a bank because, in order to be a bank, you need to comply with the government’s rule. You need to also work under the government following all orders. But Bitcoins have this decentralised nature, that is you cannot find out how many Bitcoins an individual has, for this reason government don’t like Bitcoins and hence the things that you have asked in the OP, cannot be done.

[Plaguedeath]

A cashless world is possible, but that won't happen anytime soon, and when it does, I don't believe bitcoin will replace it but a digital solution from the government.

Honestly, I don't have the same mindset as many people here want fiat or banks gone forever, instead, I prefer to use both, both co-exist is better. I prefer having many options in life than having a single solution. While bitcoin is great in many respects, fiat also has its benefits in some cases.

It can be solved by stable coin, fiat doesn't have any benefit except the government is back up and force every people to use it, if fiat doesn't supported by a government, no one will use fiat because they're tend to choose a barter system to trade what they're need.

The disadvantage of using Bitcoin to buy anything is the stores need to update their prices very often, because if a burger cost for 0.0005 BTC now, in the next 10 years no one will buy a burger for 0.0005 BTC again, because it's too expensive to spend 0.0005 BTC for a burger.

[Japinat]

Bitcoin cannot function as a bank due to its volatile nature and therefore cannot replace the existing banking system. Owning a bitcoin is considered risky because of its fluctuating value. While it's possible to conduct banking using bitcoin and blockchain as our ledger, it's unrealistic to replace the current banking system entirely with it.

In my opinion, it would be more practical to treat bitcoin as an alternative currency for online transactions.

[Patrol69]

Although Bitcoin is a very popular digital currency, Bitcoin has not yet taken the place of banking. At such a stage we cannot transact anything through Bitcoin. That is, through other digital banking services, we can pay electricity bills, pay internet bills, pay water bills, and other bills through Bitcoin, but that is not possible. The main reason for this is that governments of various countries do not accept Bitcoin as a means of transaction. If governments of different countries had given permission to Bitcoin as a digital banking service then I think more people would have transacted through Bitcoin. But as time changes, I think Bitcoin will be considered as one of the medium of transactions.

[Asuspawer09]

I read this tweet by Michael Saylor and I think it is not practical. I believe this guy was pretty high when he started comparing Bitcoin with Bank. Let's compare most of what he tweeted and then let's discuss the real problem. We all know the positive aspect of Bitcoin and to an extent, I agree with what he tweeted. I still would like to ask in general:

• Can you pay your Mortgage with Bitcoin?
• Can you pay your house rent with Bitcoin?
• Can you pay all your bills with Bitcoin?
• Can you pay your medical bills with Bitcoin?

Deceiving newbies with such a statement won't get Bitcoin the required recognition. It would only lead to more confusion and uncertainty as Banks have done for so long. Such a statement from a Bitcoin influencer would only tarnish the image of Bitcoin. Mcafee was known for such statements.

I agree at this moment this is a lot of things that bitcoin cannot do compared to fiat money since it is our country's currency a lot of us still do not know bitcoin and recognized it as a payment method so it makes sense that bitcoin is not acceptable in a lot of platforms. That is why I used bitcoin as an investment not something like a payment method or a bank that I can use in all of my transactions since bitcoin cannot really do that unless you convert your bitcoin into fiat. For me, bitcoin is the best for investment only at this point because the market price was volatile so selling it for fiat or using it as payment would probably result in a loss since you are forced to sell your bitcoin and not wait for the right timing for profit. Also with a volatile market price, you need to update its price in real-time when your accepting bitcoin on your business. Unless in the future when bitcoin gets a stable market price it might be suitable to become a currency or something that we can use for payment.

[Mauser]

• Can you pay your Mortgage with Bitcoin?
• Can you pay your house rent with Bitcoin?
• Can you pay all your bills with Bitcoin?
• Can you pay your medical bills with Bitcoin?

Of course you can make all these payments with bitcoins. There are basically two options, the first would be that in your country bitcoins are accepted as form of payment. That would be the best solution as you can directly make payments in BTC and send the coins without needing to exchange them first. The second option would be that only FIAT money is accepted, then you would first need to exchange your BTC to FIAT and then pay all the bills. So as long as there is an active market for bitcoins you should be fine getting around with your coins. But in both cases bitcoins aren't really a bank, because a bank offers a wider range of services. To me bitcoin is a currency, we can't get a loan alone from bitcoins, as there needs to be a person that actually lends us the coins. Bitcoin is a decentralised currency that requires us to interact with other people, we still need a platform to engage in the services that banks would offer us directly. Making transfers isn't really the definition of being a bank alone. The main question is however how much do we still need a bank with all their services in the futures? Wouldn't it be much cheaper if we find a peer to peer solution without the whole banking expenses behind it.

[nullama]

Although Bitcoin is a very popular digital currency, Bitcoin has not yet taken the place of banking. At such a stage we cannot transact anything through Bitcoin. That is, through other digital banking services, we can pay electricity bills, pay internet bills, pay water bills, and other bills through Bitcoin, but that is not possible. The main reason for this is that governments of various countries do not accept Bitcoin as a means of transaction. If governments of different countries had given permission to Bitcoin as a digital banking service then I think more people would have transacted through Bitcoin. But as time changes, I think Bitcoin will be considered as one of the medium of transactions.

You can buy and sell goods and services with Bitcoin.

Also, you can buy and sell fiat with Bitcoin, and then use that fiat for goods and services.

There are companies around the world in different countries that facilitate this for you. This means you send them Bitcoin and they pay your bills with it. You never touch fiat.

[S A KHAIR]

Bitcoin cannot function as a bank due to its volatile nature and therefore cannot replace the existing banking system. Owning a bitcoin is considered risky because of its fluctuating value. While it's possible to conduct banking using bitcoin and blockchain as our ledger, it's unrealistic to replace the current banking system entirely with it.

In my opinion, it would be more practical to treat bitcoin as an alternative currency for online transactions.

Banking is a collection of many services, while bitcoin is just a P2P payment method, so it will never be able to replace banking even if it becomes stable. You can't borrow money from the bitcoin network, you can't use insurance services from bitcoin, it can't provide those. The bank has a lot of things that we need.

[GeorgeJohn]

Banks is a more elaborate system, at this point. You can't make installments, loans, and more. So bitcoin won't be able to replace banks for a long time to come.

Sometimes people exaggerates concerning bitcoin and its relevance in future, bitcoin is a technology, and the technology is not up to thirty years in existence, so let us keep the comparison of bitcoin domination and banking system of fiat currency apart, because having the mindset that bitcoin will replace banking system in future time is an exaggeration of personal, before existence of bitcoin bank is in the existence and fiat currency is already on the ground.

So I will not advice people to concur in such speculation of bitcoin taking banking system, from my perspective, bitcoin can come to end any time and any minute because it's currency it's not generally accepted across the nation's, so base on such principle I don't think we should consider bitcoin that much as a currency that will dominate fiat or banking system in future time.

[kelechi]

Volatility is the main reason why it can't be bank

[so98nn]

Volatility is the main reason why it can't be bank

Volatility is the main reason bitcoin is bitcoin and that’s how it should be all the time. Anyways, if we see the math Satoshi planned, the volatility will go down as time passes, more bitcoin is mined, and as we reach to lower ends of whole mining thing, demand would be at its peak. Imagine we only have few million peeps using bitcoin. We have limited supply of bitcoin. With the time we will have ultimate demand of bitcoin thus volatile ratio will also go down steeply. This supposed to raise the prices for bitcoin. However, consider any math, we are not going get bitcoin as part of banking system nor it should be!!

[elevates]

I did check all those reasons that do not allow Bitcoin to be a bank. In simple words, it is Bitcoin volatility. Just imagine you want to pay a bill considering the actual scenario of a hospital. The first obstacle would be transferring Bitcoin in this unexpected volatility of fees. I would flicker around but in the end, you would be able to transfer the amount. Did the transfer make it on time or it takes more than you expected? No one can give you the correct answer about fees as it is still not understood. 

[paid2]

Technically there is nothing you can't pay in Bitcoin, as long as both parties accept BTC as a way of exchange. BTC is even more convenient than traditional bank transactions, no borders, no delay except for the time it takes to confirm the transaction, no restrictions, no matter what country your satoshis will go to without asking questions, it will arrive in the wallet you want.
But is the goal really to replace banks completely? I'm not sure personally. Bitcoin is for me a storage of value, which has exceptional qualities but remains only a storage of value. Personally, I lived for a while with most of my money coming from BTC, but I clearly blessed the BTC ATMs and the low fees of that time, because today, between the ATM fees and the transaction fees, it would not be more convenient than using cash. Maybe I really should to try the Lightning Network...