In the last few months, I've had to deal with banks and fiat transfers a bit more than I usually do. This is a result of selling up a house and doing lots of costs involved in moving from one side of the planet to the other... and now, we are tying up a house purchase, which involves a whole bunch of new and faintly annoying interactions with the banks on this end!
After a number of years of playing around with crypto... I've come to realise that the distributed ledger has some great advantages over the current financial system. Of course, it comes with its own problems... but in dealing with the banks, I've really noticed the cracks and inefficiencies in the legacy system.
First up, the lack of composibility... wouldn't it be nice if you could just easily transfer a mortgage and bank balances... from one house to another, in the same way that you can move around DeFi locked pool tokens. But no... you have to close up and zero everything... move it all, and then start it all up again with a completely different bank. Let me tell you, that is supremely annoying... and it can be really nerve racking whilst your funds are being shunted around the planet by other people (I still prefer to use Wise for cross-border fiat transfers... saves a poop load of bank fees by matching you against a counterparty, and if I have to be perfectly honest... crypto is still not ready for this, especially if you need to exit to fiat). The weirdest part was that whilst using Wise, there was no way to view the transfer progress! Where is that block explorer?
It would also be really handy someone could easily view and confirm the amount left on your mortgage... without having to pay a lawyer a nice fee for checking... really, when you are buying/selling a house... you are getting charged lots of little bits and pieces for things that would be easily confirmed if they were stored on a distributed ledger. Privacy could be preserved by having viewing keys... much like how Monero has.
Then there is the hilarious conversation that I had today... with a bank in Australia, about making a transfer to another bank IN AUSTRALIA. Well... there were two options, an International Money Transfer in the bank to another bank (IN THE SAME #$%$$#^@%^ COUNTRY...)... well, obviously they had meant that they were using the SWIFT system, so it sounds more complicated than it actually is...
... or to draw up a PHYSICAL bank cheque... PHYSICALLY walk to the other bank... and PHYSICALLY deposit it! It is clear that the digital era that we currently experience is just an electronic facade over a hideously out of date back-end. However, most people don't realise it. It doesn't just apply here... but also to stock markets and many other fields.
Anyway... I have to say that it is incredibly funny that I'm so comfortable slinging magic internet money around the place these days... and yet, when I have to move money with the legacy banking system, I crazily nervous as I can't track anything publicly, and there is such a long clearing time and all of that mess.... plus, the accountability of the banks is made to be incredibly minimal, thus negating that particular advantage of the banking system!
I really can't wait until the banks are properly equipped with a digital back end... that would also mean that for the more adventurous, we could also just dispense with their services... although, I do suspect that many people will still prefer to stick with middle-men in order to devolve responsibility and liability. If you don't think that that is the case, think about how crypto-exchanges still are seen as "wallets" by many budding crypto users.
... anyway, wish me luck for the coming week. I have to finish up the settlement on this house purchase, and I'm hoping that everything runs smoothly on the bank end of things. 3 days clearance time... sigh, and people complain about the Bitcoin block ties...
I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x
Handy Crypto Tools
Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
FTX: Regulated US-based exchange with some pretty interesting and useful discounts on trading and withdrawal fees for FTT holders. Decent fiat on-ramp as well!
MXC: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
Huobi: One of the largest exchanges in the world, some very interesting listings and early access sales through Primelist.
Gate.io: If you are after some of the weirdest and strangest tokens, this is one of the easiest off-chain places to get them!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
Stoic: A USD maximisation bot trading on Binance using long-term long strategies, powered by the AI/human system of Cindicator.
StakeDAO: Decentralised pooled staking of PoS assets.
Poloniex: One of the older regulated exchanges that has come into new ownership. I used to use it quite a lot, but have since stopped.
Bitfinex: Ahhh... another oldie, but a goodie exchange. Most noted for the close affiliation with USDT and the Basic "no-KYC" tier!
