Can Bitcoin eliminate local banks?

[Happy Annie]

Some dude asked me if Bitcoin could eliminate local banks, I thought of it,
I told him that no
From my own point of view, banks have alot to give more than just money transfers, they offer loans and mortgage, business banking services, costumer service and dispute resolution. So this banks are really doing a good job and I don't think they can be eliminated soon. Bitcoin is not widely used for dally payments yet, so volatile prices makes it difficult to use as a stable currency
I hope I made a good point there

In my opinion, Bitcoin cannot replace banks.

[Churchillvv]

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~~~

Well, anyone who takes the time to read the bitcoin's whitepaper. We will learn that satoshi's purpose in creating bitcoin was simply to be an alternative for those who lost faith in the traditional monetary system. He never mentioned that it would replace or compete with the traditional monetary and banking system.

The idea that bitcoin can eliminate or replace banks and fiat money is an idea that over-excited bitcoin investors came up with and spread, not Satoshi's. That inadvertently creates misconceptions and misunderstandings for the community later on, even creating unnecessary hostility between bitcoin and banks.

The problem is that some of us wants to overly do everything, even though I’m impressed with bitcoin and don’t like the idea of control that far and it’s system has been made to turn the everyday man to yet it has its own row with it places I the life of people including those who are pressing on the bitcoin should override fiat, considering the places where bitcoin are still lacking I don’t think the possibility of bitcoin becoming a bank of its own and not even everyone likes the idea of taking care of their wealth themselves, we can take example from those who didn’t buy bitcoin in the US until the ETF and they bought through some companies just to hold it for them or not to take responsibility of their assets so their will still be people who will need the bank to hold their bitcoin for them when the time comes.

[Josefjix]

I personally keep my money in Bitcoin or cash. I don't keep more than a thousand dollars in banks. The banks are terrible when it comes to cash withdrawals. You have to tell them why are you withdrawing your own money, which is totally bullshit. So I mostly use ATM to withdraw cash.

In my country, banks are selling cash for business, so users cannot withdraw more than $15 worth Fiat from a bank in a day. Those that aren't aware of crypto are really suffering and and that they are missing out a lot. The only time my money reaches in the bank is when I trade my BTC via p2p transactions, nothing makes me store money in the bank at all.

[BALIK]

I don’t think we should be in a haste of wanting bitcoin eliminate local banking services because satoshi didn’t intend that and I stand corrected but I think bitcoin was created to serve as an alternate currency which would help enhance privacy without a third party intervention but in recent times, people have chosen to make bitcoin more of a store of value than it’s actual purpose of decentralization and believe me, that would also make it very difficult for bitcoin to replace the banking system if there’s any possibility to that.

Even if people don't turn bitcoin into an investment, a store of value and use it for its original purpose. That doesn't change the fact that it won't replace banks. Because a bank is a large financial institution that is run and managed by thousands of people to be able to operate smoothly and provide many services to the economy. Meanwhile, bitcoin is just a currency like fiat or a store of value like gold, all of them are just tools. How can it compare and replace the role of banks?

I do not even think the top government officials would easily want to see bitcoin replace the local banking systems because most of their looting and corruption stealing are done through the local banking systems and it is more easier to cover their tracks through paper money than cryptocurrency which could be monitor through a blockchain.

This is partly true but I think the main reason is that adopting a decentralized currency would cause the economy to collapse faster. It is no coincidence that the world agreed to abandon the gold standard and replace it with fiat. The economy would face many limitations and challenges if it used a decentralized and limited supply currency like gold and bitcoin.

[God Of Thunder]

In my country, banks are selling cash for business, so users cannot withdraw more than $15 worth Fiat from a bank in a day. Those that aren't aware of crypto are really suffering and and that they are missing out a lot. The only time my money reaches in the bank is when I trade my BTC via p2p transactions, nothing makes me store money in the bank at all.

What the fuck?
$15 a day? I cannot believe this man. If a bank doesn't allow its customers to withdraw more than $15 a day, they are already bankrupt. My country faced a huge liquidity crisis back in 2024. Only one bank, named "Islami Bank Bangladesh", limited its customers to withdrawing $200 per transaction. All other banks were okay during that time. Everything became normal again after a few months, and now people can withdraw ten thousand dollars in a single transaction if they want. I am doing some work and I recently used Banks to receive funds and I withdraw $5K in a single transaction without any documents. Just went to the bank and withdraw my money using fingerprint and OTP.

[melinoe]

In my country, banks are selling cash for business, so users cannot withdraw more than $15 worth Fiat from a bank in a day. Those that aren't aware of crypto are really suffering and and that they are missing out a lot. The only time my money reaches in the bank is when I trade my BTC via p2p transactions, nothing makes me store money in the bank at all.

What the fuck?
$15 a day? I cannot believe this man. If a bank doesn't allow its customers to withdraw more than $15 a day, they are already bankrupt. My country faced a huge liquidity crisis back in 2024. Only one bank, named "Islami Bank Bangladesh", limited its customers to withdrawing $200 per transaction. All other banks were okay during that time. Everything became normal again after a few months, and now people can withdraw ten thousand dollars in a single transaction if they want. I am doing some work and I recently used Banks to receive funds and I withdraw $5K in a single transaction without any documents. Just went to the bank and withdraw my money using fingerprint and OTP.

For banks like that, we are fortunate enough to know the other ways of doing things, because, clearly, 15$ a day is a nightmare fuel... For us, that is, and for the OP, because clearly, that's just straight up robbery of time and effort.

[BitBakerr1]

It is impossible for bitcoin to eliminate bank because Banks are one of the places the issue any countries currency, except the country has no currency anymore but if the country still has their own currency it is impossible for bitcoin to eliminate bank we still need currency of each country it helps to determine the growth of each economy different currency has different rate and value in the world market, a lot of countries that their currency has value in the world market will not allow Bitcoin to replace their currency because if it happens it means even the underdeveloped countries we have the same value in money as they do, this was even the reason why some Nations especially the develop Nations that has good currency were fighting and trying to stop Bitcoin when it was created because they knew that Bitcoin can grow one day to become the world currency and exchange will be done using Bitcoin and not their currency especially when it is between two or three countries.
Banks will keep serving their purpose and bitcoin is not here to eliminate bank.

[WatChe]

Even if people don't turn bitcoin into an investment, a store of value and use it for its original purpose. That doesn't change the fact that it won't replace banks. Because a bank is a large financial institution that is run and managed by thousands of people to be able to operate smoothly and provide many services to the economy. Meanwhile, bitcoin is just a currency like fiat or a store of value like gold, all of them are just tools. How can it compare and replace the role of banks?

Bitcoin has its own goals and use cases, it's not created to replace the traditional banking system. Banks are part of every central government's that gives them authority to control the financial system of the country. So far no central government has surrendered its financial authority to bitcoin. The countries that have adopted Bitcoin have in actual regulated its use in the country and that regulation has given the central government control over the Bitcoin. For me Bitcoin will continue to exist beside central banks and fiat currency.

[God Of Thunder]

For banks like that, we are fortunate enough to know the other ways of doing things, because, clearly, 15$ a day is a nightmare fuel... For us, that is, and for the OP, because clearly, that's just straight up robbery of time and effort.

I find it hard to believe a bank would limit its customers to withdrawing $15 a day. If this happens, people won't deposit a single dollar in that bank, and it will eventually go bankrupt. People will only deposit to a bank if they know that they can withdraw any amount from the bank anytime without any limitation. I am curious how people from this country use their credit/debit cards when they are abroad. The credit card or debit card is of no use if they cannot spend more than $15 a day. They cannot even pay for coffee in a luxurious restaurant. People have to carry cash all the time. So, why would people use banks if they cannot get any benefit?

[Smack That Ace]

In my country, banks are selling cash for business, so users cannot withdraw more than $15 worth Fiat from a bank in a day. Those that aren't aware of crypto are really suffering and and that they are missing out a lot. The only time my money reaches in the bank is when I trade my BTC via p2p transactions, nothing makes me store money in the bank at all.

What the fuck?
$15 a day? I cannot believe this man. If a bank doesn't allow its customers to withdraw more than $15 a day, they are already bankrupt. My country faced a huge liquidity crisis back in 2024. Only one bank, named "Islami Bank Bangladesh", limited its customers to withdrawing $200 per transaction. All other banks were okay during that time. Everything became normal again after a few months, and now people can withdraw ten thousand dollars in a single transaction if they want. I am doing some work and I recently used Banks to receive funds and I withdraw $5K in a single transaction without any documents. Just went to the bank and withdraw my money using fingerprint and OTP.

I think what he said is true because if I remember correctly, there was a lot of news about banks in Nigeria restricting cash withdrawals from ATMs and over the counters in 2022. According to the central bank of Nigeria, CBN has set a limit of 20,000 naira/day for individuals and 500,000 naira/week for businesses. The purpose of restricting the use of cash is to promote the use of CBDC domestically.

At the current exchange rate, 20,000 naira is equivalent to about $13-15. But the thing is I don't know if CBN has removed that harsh rule or still maintains it till now because it's been more than 3 years.


https://moniepoint.com/blog/naira-redesign-policy-revised-cash-withdrawal-limits
https://topeadebayolp.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/71_cash-withdrawal-JOURNAL.pdf

[Promocodeudo]

To be frankly speaking I don't think bitcoin can be able to eliminate local banks. Just like what the op has outlined here , banks there functions isn't just for sending and receiving money. There are lots more of services being carried out in the banks. Aside that volatility is also one thing that will make it impossible for bitcoin to be used as fiat. There are countries, especially under developed countries it will be difficult to eliminate local banks in such countries since those countries are not that technically inclined. There transacting with bitcoin will be difficult. Finally transaction fees is also one factor that will impede bitcoin from eliminate local banks.

Come to think of it, was that the reason for Bitcoin creation, I think we should think beyond that, Bitcoin was created to solve many financial issues like creating and easy avenue for us to transact easily anywhere we are to anyone elsewhere and again as an investment just as we can see how valued it has become today, so for me, eliminating local banks was never part of the plan but we can say that those individuals that keep all their funds lieing idle in the bank which in turn benefits the banks can decide to use a larger part of the point in the bank to buy Bitcoin at least to invest for the future not leaving the money in the bank lieing low their doing nothing, we can actually have bank account for our personal use that's understandable but as for investment we do that in Bitcoin, transaction fee is not really a problem, personally I think that even though we all agree to invest in Bitcoin, there will definitely be skeptical minds that won't think towards Bitcoin investment and there's nothing anyone can do about them.

[God Of Thunder]

I think what he said is true because if I remember correctly, there was a lot of news about banks in Nigeria restricting cash withdrawals from ATMs and over the counters in 2022. According to the central bank of Nigeria, CBN has set a limit of 20,000 naira/day for individuals and 500,000 naira/week for businesses. The purpose of restricting the use of cash is to promote the use of CBDC domestically.

At the current exchange rate, 20,000 naira is equivalent to about $13-15. But the thing is I don't know if CBN has removed that harsh rule or still maintains it till now because it's been more than 3 years.

This is insane. This is a suicidal decision by their government/banks. As I mentioned in my previous post, if banks put limitations like this, people won't keep their money in banks anymore, and the banks won't have liquidity to do business. If they keep doing this for a while, the banks will eventually go bankrupt. Customers can make a bank bankrupt, and customers can make their business profitable as well.

You mentioned that the limit is for cash withdrawals from ATMs. What about cash withdrawals from Bank branches? If the limitation is just for ATM withdrawals, it is kind of acceptable. But if this limitation applies to Cash withdrawal from banks as well, then this is ridiculous.

[AprilioMP]

Some dude asked me if Bitcoin could eliminate local banks, I thought of it,
I told him that no
From my own point of view, banks have alot to give more than just money transfers, they offer loans and mortgage, business banking services, costumer service and dispute resolution. So this banks are really doing a good job and I don't think they can be eliminated soon. Bitcoin is not widely used for dally payments yet, so volatile prices makes it difficult to use as a stable currency
I hope I made a good point there

I don't think it's to eliminate local banks because that's not Satoshi's goal.
Local banks will continue to operate as they were intended while Bitcoin will continue to function as it was intended.
Bitcoin provides ease of transactions for its users without having to require complicated requirements.

If the question is whether Bitcoin can eliminate local banks, then it seems that the presence of Bitcoin is too bad behind its purpose.
Bitcoin is just a currency that does not want to destabilize the rest of the financial system.

[yamin_galib]

Some dude asked me if Bitcoin could eliminate local banks, I thought of it,
I told him that no
From my own point of view, banks have alot to give more than just money transfers, they offer loans and mortgage, business banking services, costumer service and dispute resolution. So this banks are really doing a good job and I don't think they can be eliminated soon. Bitcoin is not widely used for dally payments yet, so volatile prices makes it difficult to use as a stable currency
I hope I made a good point there

I don't think it is possible to replace banks because a Bitcoin cannot do the work that a bank can do. Suppose you go to a bank and ask for a loan from there, the bank can give you a loan. But in the case of Bitcoin, the matter is a little complicated because here you have to ask someone else and then take a loan. Here the possibility of not getting a loan is very high. However, if you go to a bank, it can be taken very quickly and if you want, you can withdraw money directly through a bank, but with Bitcoin, you cannot withdraw money directly, you cannot make payments through Bitcoin, in this case you will need a Bitcoin-supported business or a gateway. And the price of Bitcoin is not fixed, it fluctuates all the time, as a result, for us, the common people, banks are better.

[Moreno233]

In my country, banks are selling cash for business, so users cannot withdraw more than $15 worth Fiat from a bank in a day. Those that aren't aware of crypto are really suffering and and that they are missing out a lot. The only time my money reaches in the bank is when I trade my BTC via p2p transactions, nothing makes me store money in the bank at all.

What the fuck?
$15 a day? I cannot believe this man. If a bank doesn't allow its customers to withdraw more than $15 a day, they are already bankrupt. My country faced a huge liquidity crisis back in 2024. Only one bank, named "Islami Bank Bangladesh", limited its customers to withdrawing $200 per transaction. All other banks were okay during that time. Everything became normal again after a few months, and now people can withdraw ten thousand dollars in a single transaction if they want. I am doing some work and I recently used Banks to receive funds and I withdraw $5K in a single transaction without any documents. Just went to the bank and withdraw my money using fingerprint and OTP.

I'm from Nigeria and it is the same thing here, you cannot withdraw more than $15 physical cash in a day and there is also restriction on how much cash you can withdraw from the banks in a week and even in a month. These policies, they claim, is to encourage people to use electronic transactions so that government will generate VAT and other revenues and they also claim it will reduce cash mutilation, physical assault and other crimes. The traditional banks are doing their best to discourage people from enjoying enough freedom with their money and its unfortunate that Bitcoin does not have widespread acceptance yet, else that would have been a better alternative.

[Smack That Ace]

You mentioned that the limit is for cash withdrawals from ATMs. What about cash withdrawals from Bank branches? If the limitation is just for ATM withdrawals, it is kind of acceptable. But if this limitation applies to Cash withdrawal from banks as well, then this is ridiculous.

I am not Nigerian so I don't know the situation there but in my opinion if they are restricting ATM cash withdrawals and the purpose is to promote CBDC usage, they will also restrict bank branch cash withdrawals. If they had not restricted direct cash withdrawals at branches, the ATM restrictions would have been meaningless and would not have caused such great public outrage at the time.

Furthermore, this is a decision of the central bank and the government, commercial banks are only following instructions and not their own decisions. So I don't think banks will go bankrupt or have trouble doing business because people and businesses seem to have no better choice than to adapt.

[Cointxz]

Even if people don't turn bitcoin into an investment, a store of value and use it for its original purpose. That doesn't change the fact that it won't replace banks. Because a bank is a large financial institution that is run and managed by thousands of people to be able to operate smoothly and provide many services to the economy. Meanwhile, bitcoin is just a currency like fiat or a store of value like gold, all of them are just tools. How can it compare and replace the role of banks?

Bitcoin has its own goals and use cases, it's not created to replace the traditional banking system. Banks are part of every central government's that gives them authority to control the financial system of the country. So far no central government has surrendered its financial authority to bitcoin. The countries that have adopted Bitcoin have in actual regulated its use in the country and that regulation has given the central government control over the Bitcoin. For me Bitcoin will continue to exist beside central banks and fiat currency.

Bitcoin initial purpose is to remove 3rd party to have a decentralized P2P transaction. However, this is just a theoretical purpose that doesn’t applicable in reality since bank is in control to our financial system.

Country can print unlimited fiat money so there’s no way they will let Bitcoin take over to fiat system which the bank use to distribute money to people.

But who knows what will happened in the future.

[Minor Miner]

But who knows what will happened in the future.

Anything is possible but honestly I don't think anything magical will happen with bitcoin. The scenario of bitcoin replacing the fiat currency system is almost zero, if we are realistic. As you said, the government will never let that happen and don't forget, the government is the ruler of the world. They are the ones who will decide the future of bitcoin, not the other way around.

Even though in the early days Bitcoin survived and thrived without their help, they didn't like it but at least they weren't too harsh on it. Just think, if from the very beginning, the US and EU governments were determined, and many other governments were tough in preventing and eliminating bitcoin with bans and heavy penalties for those who own it. I don't think bitcoin will ever have a large user base, let alone become popular.

After all, our world is a centralized entity and is governed and controlled by governments. Bitcoin is just a small part of this world, and it cannot change anything without their permission and consent.

[God Of Thunder]

Furthermore, this is a decision of the central bank and the government, commercial banks are only following instructions and not their own decisions. So I don't think banks will go bankrupt or have trouble doing business because people and businesses seem to have no better choice than to adapt.

Understandable. If this is the case, I cannot think of myself making a deposit at a bank knowing I won't be able to withdraw more than $15 a day. I believe most people in that country would think this way and stop using banks. I would always prefer having cash instead. If banks do not get deposits, they won't have enough liquidity unless the central banks decide to print more money and provide liquidity for them.

This is a terrible situation for them. In such cases, Bitcoin could play a big role. I have worked with a couple of Nigerians before, but I never knew the situation of their bank. The funny thing is, most of them never admits that they are from Nigeria. They always mention "London Time" and it's correct.

[Leahized]

From my own point of view, banks have alot to give more than just money transfers, they offer loans and mortgage, business banking services, costumer service and dispute resolution. So this banks are really doing a good job and I don't think they can be eliminated soon. Bitcoin is not widely used for dally payments yet, so volatile prices makes it difficult to use as a stable currency
I hope I made a good point there

You are right, that Bitcoin is one of the best coins to increase its popular day by day, but the bank will never disappear for Bitcoin. Yes, it is very natural to say because Bitcoin is constantly being legalized, all people can tell if Bitcoin can be extinct. You have given some good examples and I think it is possible to exchange different dollars from lends to banks. That is why citizens of the country will be able to easily convert FIAT from work to different countries through banks. Moreover, since we have a bank account, we can easily buy Bitcoin through the bank and make transactions. However, there are many people who can lose their stored Bitcoin or to be deceived to others.