Being on Hive for this long has taught me a lot of things about the world of finance. One of them is the slavery that the traditional banking system had put us through for the longest years now. This made all of us reach for the decentralized system once it showed up. It was a breath of fresh air to discover that we can finally have control over our money.
And that we no longer needed anyone's permission to move money around the world. Imagine being able to send money to @nhaji01 &
@depressedfuckup without needing to pass through certain restrictions or KYC to get the money to them in Ghana, that's an experience that is worth grabbing without hesitation.
Yes, I have bank accounts, lots of them if I must confess, but, I love the savings that comes with decentralization. It puts me in charge of my funds, and I don't always have to worry about inflation eating deep into my earnings nor do I have to worry about the various data bridges that exist in a typical centralized saving platform.
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I'll choose a crypto wallet for my savings any day, any time because I can see all of the transactions and other people can too, so verification is possible through transaction histories and no one will play a fast one on us for any reason. Unlike the centralized saving platforms where we barely know how much they are charging for certain transactions but we keep getting debit alerts hours after a transaction has gone through. We barely understand the hidden cost of our savings or loans because none of these is publicly present for us to see.
I'll still choose to save in a crypto wallet because there's always a high potential for great returns. We have attractive interest rates like our HBD is offering 20% for saving on the chain. The traditional system of banking does not offer such juicy returns instead their interest rates are often so drastic that we risk letting inflation affect our savings and leave us in losses by the end of the saving duration.
The idea that crypto is an hedge against inflation is not far-fetched because the supply of Bitcoin for instance is limited, whereas, centralized banking constantly prints more money which defeats the purpose of supply and demand. We now have a lot of money chasing after fewer goods and the value keeps dwindling as the day goes by.
The centralized saving platforms might be there for us to save a small portion of the money we need for daily routines, but in the long term, it's not an ideal model for anyone looking to create wealth for themselves. Even though it's a convenient and widely accepted mode of transactions, they do need a lot of reshuffling to lure me to take saving with them seriously.
They can start by being transparent and accountable, the annoying part of always getting charged by my bank without understanding the reason should be stopped or reduced. Their interest rates should be higher, their lending practices should be looked into and all of those hidden fees should be curtailed.
The mere fact that we can send money all over the world without restrictions or limitations is a plus to crypto. So if the centralized saving platforms are looking for more customers like me they should try to lift those boundaries that stop us from catering to our loved ones in distant places. Location, income, or even identification should be scrapped out of the requirements for successful access to the banking system and savings.
Most importantly, they should stop messing with our data. Our privacy is very important especially when it has to do with our money. They should invest in better cyber security methods so that our data can be protected from attacks and breaches. The decentralized platforms protect our data and are never exposed to danger the way the centralized saving platforms do.
There are more things they should look into such as transaction speed and costs. Cryptocurrency transaction is fast and not costly. But the fiat currency transactions are slow and extremely costly especially when the transfers are meant to cross borders. Why would I want to send fiat currency to @yahuzah when I could just transfer Hive to him at the speed of light?
Finally, banks give lower interest rates than the rates at which inflation is eating out the value of our earnings. if they improve on the rates, I'll consider them, because I can't be using them when I know that I'll be losing my purchasing power over time. Keeping up with inflation is something that will interest me and anyone who understands the role of financial stability out there so they have a lot of work to do.