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mrbluze writes:
"An interesting blog post by Charles Hugh Smith on Why Banks Are Doomed: Technology and Risk.:
The funny thing about technology is that those threatened by fundamental improvements in technology attempt to harness it to save their industry from extinction. For example, overpriced colleges now charge thousands of dollars for nearly costless massively open online courses (MOOCs) because they retain a monopoly on accreditation (diplomas). Once students are accredited directly--an advancement enabled by technology--colleges' monopoly disappears and so does their raison d'etre.
The same is true of banks. Now that accounting and risk assessment are automated, and borrowers and owners of capital can exchange funds in transparent digital marketplaces, there is no need for banks. But according to banks, only they have the expertise to create riskless debt.
...
One last happy thought: technology cannot be put back in the bottle. The financial/banking sector wants to use technology to increase its middleman skim, but the technology that is already out of the bottle will dismantle the sector as a function of what technology enables: faster, better, cheaper, with greater transparency, fairness and the proper distribution of risk.
There may well be a place for credit unions and community banks in the spectrum of exchanges, but these localized, decentralized enterprises would be unable to amass dangerous concentrations of risk and political influence in a truly transparent and decentralized system of exchanges.
It's still early days, but can new electronic currencies such as Bitcoin become mainstream without the assent of governments?"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Desler on Monday February 24 2014, @12:12PM
Haha what? There's no way in hell I'd trust my money to places like Mt Gox or any bitcoin exchange. Banks and bankers are universally slimy but these amateur-run bitcoin exchanges are a complete joke. You might as well just flush your money down the drain since you'll accomplish the same thing.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by bill_mcgonigle on Monday February 24 2014, @12:24PM
Banks and bankers are universally slimy but these amateur-run bitcoin exchanges are a complete joke. You might as well just flush your money down the drain since you'll accomplish the same thing.
So if JP Morgan ran a bitcoin exchange, you'd use it?
These sorts of things will happen eventually - I'm curious where your line of discrimination is.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Desler on Monday February 24 2014, @12:31PM
Without FDIC insurance, heavy regulation, etc.? Hell no.
(Score: 1) by Desler on Monday February 24 2014, @12:35PM
I should append to that, I'd still not use anything from JP Morgan even with those conditions in place, but those would be the only conditions under which I'd even remotely consider using some bitcoin exchange.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Buck Feta on Monday February 24 2014, @12:34PM
>> flush your money down the drain
So you investing in DrainCoins then?