Wells Fargo and Bitcoin

[redhawk979]

No bull, my mother went to her local Wells Fargo branch and spoke with a 28 year old teller and he was informing her about Fargo's advancing technology when my mother blurts out, "have you ever heard of Bitcoin?"...he looked back at her in astonishment and said "yes, why yes I have". She goes on to inform him that her son owns some to which he admittedly owned some as well and agreed that it is the future.

Obviously, there will be disbelief here but that doesn't change the fact that the discussion happened at a local Wells Fargo branch in NJ on Saturday afternoon.

[Bitcoin_CFO]

Most people who work within the banks and have been exposed to Bitcoin see the potential.  I can only imagine the daily bounced checks or questions on waiting business days for transactions to clear

[olloman]

two days ago I went to my local pizzeria to get some slices to take home for dinner. The owner was speaking with another dude, who is the owner of another shop in my town. I overheard their discussion, and they were talking about bitcoin, and wondering where to find info on the web...at that point I stepped in and answered all their questions, they were truly interested (btw, one was around 30 and the other around 60 years old, both fairly tech friendly but in a very mainstream way)! In my town there are already a hotel and a couple of places accepting bitcoin, but it still is just a very small town in the North of Italy...I remember the old story: "when even the baker in your neighbourhood starts wondering about bitcoin, something big is about to happen"...in my opinion something huge is brewing atm, the last bubble and the decline we are experiencing nowadays are just a super big floor for a rally of a magnitude bitcoin has never seen, with even more incredible heights. I guess it will start as soon as all the startups working to bring an intuitive interface for the general public to buy bitcoin start to release their projects, I would say this or next year.

[Q7]

that must be really something because for a banker who works in and out daily with the current system, and practically a slave to fiat... to acknowledge bitcoin as the future sure comes as a surprise.

[fryarminer]

two days ago I went to my local pizzeria to get some slices to take home for dinner. The owner was speaking with another dude, who is the owner of another shop in my town. I overheard their discussion, and they were talking about bitcoin, and wondering where to find info on the web...at that point I stepped in and answered all their questions, they were truly interested (btw, one was around 30 and the other around 60 years old, both fairly tech friendly but in a very mainstream way)! In my town there are already a hotel and a couple of places accepting bitcoin, but it still is just a very small town in the North of Italy...I remember the old story: "when even the baker in your neighbourhood starts wondering about bitcoin, something big is about to happen"...in my opinion something huge is brewing atm, the last bubble and the decline we are experiencing nowadays are just a super big floor for a rally of a magnitude bitcoin has never seen, with even more incredible heights. I guess it will start as soon as all the startups working to bring an intuitive interface for the general public to buy bitcoin start to release their projects, I would say this or next year.

There's a tradition between pizza and bitcoin

[knight22]

that must be really something because for a banker who works in and out daily with the current system, and practically a slave to fiat... to acknowledge bitcoin as the future sure comes as a surprise.

A bank teller is not the same thing than a bank owner / profit taker.

[homeless hacker]

No bull, my mother went to her local Wells Fargo branch and spoke with a 28 year old teller and he was informing her about Fargo's advancing technology when my mother blurts out, "have you ever heard of Bitcoin?"...he looked back at her in astonishment and said "yes, why yes I have". She goes on to inform him that her son owns some to which he admittedly owned some as well and agreed that it is the future.

Obviously, there will be disbelief here but that doesn't change the fact that the discussion happened at a local Wells Fargo branch in NJ on Saturday afternoon.

That is awesome news. I love hearing things of this nature.

[Alty]

Can confirm something similar happened to me the other week with my bank in France.

When explaining some recent transactions (because the asked what they were for, for security purposes) was to purchase Bitcoin I was surprised to hear them say "we'd been talking about Bitcoin recently and it could be the future of money".

No criticism of it (at least to my face) at all.

[olloman]

...

There's a tradition between pizza and bitcoin

haha definitely

by the way banks interest and/or even optimism shouldn't be a surprise...Bitcoin is a major problem only for central banks, even though you can be your own storage bank with bitcoin many people will still feel safer leaving their funds in a private bank, also for gaining interests. In addition, for private banks it makes little difference to invest and lend money in fiat, bitcoin, seashells, pizza slices or even shiny rocks. They just use money as a medium, and bitcoin is indeed an excellent financial medium thanks to its fast and secure transactions, so it could even be a step forward for private banks.

[tvbcof]

I just made an update to my Bitcoin/Wells-Fargo saga if anyone is interested:

  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=577378

As I've probably outlined, I never had any unpleasant experiences with any of the workers on the floor.  Even the guy I spoke to in their high-risk department (which seems to be just a handful people somewhere in their HQ offices) seemed decent.

Everyone in the local branch knows me and knows my story, but they pretty much avoid talking about 'the incident', and my one-time personal banker has been unavailable for a year now.  Didn't help that she broke her hip and is working part-time now, but even before that she was remarkably busy whenever I wished to chat.

Recently I was chatting with a manager and ran the idea of using my account one more time for Circle since I consider it a throw-away account at this point.  That was distinctly unwelcome.  She said that they don't recommend their customers use Bitcoin.  I LOL'd and said "of course!"  I didn't have to say I've made a ton of money off it...everyone at the bank knew that.

I got interested in Bitcoin in the first place because it is my personal belief that Wikileaks is doing a great service to my country and wished to support them.  There is nothing illegal about that, but the mainstream financial institutions were effectively making my political decisions for me.  That pissed me off.  Now there is nothing illegal about using Bitcoin but the same institutions are doing the same.  Bitcoin is, to me, as much as anything about giving me control of my financial activities and more and more there is a very legitimate reason for that to be necessary in our 'free' society here in the 'free world.'

When I (or you) have money deposited in a bank account, the banks use it as 'high powered money' deposited at the central bank.  This allows them create out of thin air many times the deposit to make loans to debt slaves.  They then take interest on this much inflated amount of newly invented money.  It's a great scam and it is why bankers are rich.  I'm not inclined to do the banks the favor of loaning them the high-powered money they need to balance their books AND let them make my ethical and political decisions for me as well.  They need us more than we need them as far as I'm concerned.

Probably the only individuals in the bank who understand banking in a comprehensive way are the managers, and even that is not a given.  Very few of the tellers are going to really know or care about how banking really works.  They are sheep just like their customers are.  Just like in any industry, everyone making a living off it no matter what their understandings has at least fooled themselves into thinking they on balance are doing 'God's work' and doing society a favor.  The medical profession is another great example of this.  As with anything, there is some truth and some falsehood to such a belief.  At the end of the day almost everyone working for Wells Fargo (and the local hospital and countless other such industries) are just sheep like the rest of us and they are individually exploited in the same ways as everyone else.  The exceptions would be those in the very highest levels of management and they who actually own the institution in significant fractions.

 - edit: slight.  then last para

[haploid23]

She goes on to inform him that her son owns some to which he admittedly owned some as well and agreed that it is the future.

...but that doesn't change the fact that the discussion happened at a local Wells Fargo branch in NJ on Saturday afternoon.

You know that tellers are just normal people too right? Why is this so surprising that they've heard of bitcoin and own some? Just because they're employed by a bank doesn't mean they must share antibitcoin ideology.

[doggieTattoo]

She goes on to inform him that her son owns some to which he admittedly owned some as well and agreed that it is the future.

...but that doesn't change the fact that the discussion happened at a local Wells Fargo branch in NJ on Saturday afternoon.

You know that tellers are just normal people too right? Why is this so surprising that they've heard of bitcoin and own some? Just because they're employed by a bank doesn't mean they must share antibitcoin ideology.

Not only that but tellers are more or less the most low level employees that work in a bank. They are the least likely to have any meaningful amount of time(career)/money invested in the bank

[CoinRocka]

No bull, my mother went to her local Wells Fargo branch and spoke with a 28 year old teller and he was informing her about Fargo's advancing technology when my mother blurts out, "have you ever heard of Bitcoin?"...he looked back at her in astonishment and said "yes, why yes I have". She goes on to inform him that her son owns some to which he admittedly owned some as well and agreed that it is the future.

Obviously, there will be disbelief here but that doesn't change the fact that the discussion happened at a local Wells Fargo branch in NJ on Saturday Wednesday afternoon.

Why are you posting my reddit reply?  Seems quite lame...no?

PS- it was a Wednesday afternoon...FTFY

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2v0u9d/the_mom_indicator_has_switched_to_bullish/codn62f?context=3

[doof]

National Australia Bank tellers *all* know about bitcoin, esp CoinJar.com

*all == most tellers I speak to.

[axel2078]

So a teller that works at a Wells Fargo has heard of bitcoin. Mkay. Carry on.

[Bit_Happy]

No bull, my mother went to her local Wells Fargo branch and spoke with a 28 year old teller and he was informing her about Fargo's advancing technology when my mother blurts out, "have you ever heard of Bitcoin?"...he looked back at her in astonishment and said "yes, why yes I have". She goes on to inform him that her son owns some to which he admittedly owned some as well and agreed that it is the future.

Obviously, there will be disbelief here but that doesn't change the fact that the discussion happened at a local Wells Fargo branch in NJ on Saturday Wednesday afternoon.

Why are you posting my reddit reply?  Seems quite lame...no?

PS- it was a Wednesday afternoon...FTFY

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2v0u9d/the_mom_indicator_has_switched_to_bullish/codn62f?context=3

Caught red-handed doing the copy/paste!
What happened to "No bull"?

[CoinRocka]

No bull, my mother went to her local Wells Fargo branch and spoke with a 28 year old teller and he was informing her about Fargo's advancing technology when my mother blurts out, "have you ever heard of Bitcoin?"...he looked back at her in astonishment and said "yes, why yes I have". She goes on to inform him that her son owns some to which he admittedly owned some as well and agreed that it is the future.

Obviously, there will be disbelief here but that doesn't change the fact that the discussion happened at a local Wells Fargo branch in NJ on Saturday Wednesday afternoon.

Why are you posting my reddit reply?  Seems quite lame...no?

PS- it was a Wednesday afternoon...FTFY

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2v0u9d/the_mom_indicator_has_switched_to_bullish/codn62f?context=3

Caught red-handed doing the copy/paste!

What happened to "No bull"?

   Not exactly a large community at the moment.

[BADecker]

The problem isn't that Bitcoin will not be accepted. The problem has to do with regulation of the people and businesses who use Bitcoin.

Suppose that you want to pay your employees in Bitcoin. Okay, do it. But the IRS will want a full value reckoning, even if it doesn't include Bitcoin addresses. This means that the employees will have to pay taxes, the employer will have to withhold, and of course there is Social Security.

It will take awhile to get around the regulation of the people, not the Bitcoin regulation.

Study Karl Lentz. Youtube search "Karl Lentz common law" and take the time to learn.

[krigger]

The problem isn't that Bitcoin will not be accepted. The problem has to do with regulation of the people and businesses who use Bitcoin.

Suppose that you want to pay your employees in Bitcoin. Okay, do it. But the IRS will want a full value reckoning, even if it doesn't include Bitcoin addresses. This means that the employees will have to pay taxes, the employer will have to withhold, and of course there is Social Security.

It will take awhile to get around the regulation of the people, not the Bitcoin regulation.

Study Karl Lentz. Youtube search "Karl Lentz common law" and take the time to learn.

No. Why do you think that way?
Employees should be paid as they are paid in past.
Bank to bank can be good for Bitcoin transfers. It's instant and it can be calculated instant too. Fast and secured. Why not?
But, even you (him/they) pay employees with (in) Bitcoin, there should be tax-free, as people have to get a full amount payoff.
Social security may be a problem, but dev's should working on it already.

[ForexTE]

A banker is (or was) the first to create money out of thin, invisible air. Bitcoin did the same centuries later. So if a bank employee believes in it, that is natural.