The idealists among us would say that the "great Crypto dream" is for us to ultimately unbank ourselves and move the financial model from a centralised banking system to one of direct interactions between vested interests.

If Fred needs to make a payment to Charles he should be able to do so directly without going through a bank (in someways this mirrors the finance of yesteryear when it was all about cash changing hands).

The dream of such a decentralised system does present its challenges which are primarily regulatory, but also offer a threat to the banks on which most economies are dependent. This is without thinking about gas fees which still need addressing.

However, there are few institutions that need more regulation than banks who frequently break their own rules and pay hefty fines for doing so (it is more profitable for them to pay the fines than to comply) and frankly they get in the way and interfere too much in both our personal lives and our financial affairs in the name of "protecting us"

F**k them they are money making machines that don't give a flying f**k!

You may have noticed I am a little irritated today.

Over the last five years my bank has repeated blocked reasonable transactions that I have attempted to carry out with relatively low numbers (more on this below in The Final Straw). Just before my (now) three year old was born I made a number of transactions to purchase "baby" stuff and guess what? - my bank cynically used it as an opportunity to market a children's bank account. Within the EU this transgresses GDPR practice and when I challenged them about it they said it was a coincidence.

Bulls**t!

It was blatantly capitalistic and profiteering - they didn't even attempt to say it was their CRM bot (which is the most probable explanation).

My private life and my babies are my concern unless I choose otherwise.

The Final Straw.

I am planning to fly in about two months and booked on my regular airline - my bank have paid them on at least 30 different occasions over the last 20 years. Only I suddenly realised that my credit card had expired and had to finish the transaction through a bank transfer. My new credit card is currently inaccessible before you ask, but that is the reality of the life I live and actually I will be able to collect it in about two months. With it being a bank transfer the airline state very clearly (and transparently) that they can hold a booking for no more than 24 hours.

I duly moved some money from my savings to my current (checking in US) account and then completed the transaction. All well and good and it seemed to go through. Please bear in mind that I had to go through the security protocols, including 2FA to both log in and then send the payment and the amount was not astronomical - about 260GBP.

Then I waited for final confirmation from the airline and nothing came. One day... Two days... Three days...

So I logged into my account on the airline website and saw that my flights were still on hold (as they are today) but they could disappear any moment - not the airlines fault. So I logged into my online banking and saw that the transaction had not been completed.

So to summarise

• They have f**ked up my flight booking and I will almost certainly have to rebook and that almost certainly means I will not get such a good price.
• It may be a small amount but by moving money from my savings to cover the cost of the tickets I am losing interest (which would have been fair had they actually sent the payment)

If only a world existed where I could simply send to the airline directly and f**k the banks.

It might be idealistic and naive but surely that is where we need to go.

Sorry for venting but I feel a bit better for it now. As always stay safe and stay well my friends.