ENGAGE ON HIVE- Banks vs bitcoin/cyrpto - my stream of thoughts
Banks in Ireland have frozen my accounts for no good reason (+ similar for friends in the UK) and you have to prove you did nothing wrong instead of them having to prove you did something wrong. and make a song and dance about reporting them to the ombudsman before they act.
They don't just hand you back your money and close your account. they seize it and you have to prove why they should give it back to you. Which is insane when you think about it!
I've had times where primary bank accounts have been frozen without any warning. When I call them up they say we're were going to send a notice in the mail about it, meanwhile, I had no access to money to buy food etc. And I would likely only have found out after a week if I hadn't noticed.
I got it resolved but it is naive to think that the person with the control over the software that says whether you have money or not isn't the person in control.
There are countless errors of balances on ATMs + software errors not depositing wages on time
Countless news stories of governments seizing assets as suspected proceeds of crime. hell if you walk into an airport with over 10k cash in the EU you have to have some documentation about how that isn't the proceeds or going to be used for the purposes of crime. Even when it is perfectly legit, which is mad. It's not up to them to prove you are a criminal, they just take your monies unless they believe your story.
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/individuals/cash-controls_en
The counterpoint to this is crypto may not be stable enough to live off unless you are lucky enough to catch a moon. If you convert fiat to alts or bitcoin and lose your keys you are fucked, if you lose your bank card there is a safety net or if someone robs your bank account you can often get the money back. If someone takes you bitcoin, it's gone. and stable coins not backed by anything aren't safe enough to ensure a consistent wealth if you wanted to budget for the future based on not putting cash under your mattress of holding cash in a bank.
Like if someone has 10k or 100k and wants to take it out of a bank and put it in crypto is it possible to reasonably expect to maintain that value over time? (without trusting a stable coin that is likely printing money like a central bank with no control).
And even if you catch a moon if you don't realise the gains in fiat, the moon will come crashing down at least to a certain degree.