The banking system is broken.

You’ve already been suspecting this for a long time, but it has been confirmed with the recent banking failures like SVB, Silvergate, and Credit Suisse. 

You know they are not trustworthy, but what choices do you have? After all, we all need financial services, right?

First, let’s unveil seven reasons why traditional banking is on the way out. 

Corruption

Most banks are regularly fined for illegal activities like money laundering, criminal financing, tax evasion, and bribery.

JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Credit Suisse pay several billion dollars every year in fines.

Yet, they keep operating as if nothing happens and no one ever goes to jail.

Isn’t it time we have a system that can’t be corrupted, manipulated, and milked by the elite that gets away with murder while you are forced to use their services and provide liquidity for their crimes?

Bank Run

Is your money safe? Are you sure you’ll be covered by the deposit guarantee schemes when things go awry?

When a small bank fails, the government usually steps in and reimburses the creditors, but what will happen when a big bank or a systemic default occurs?

People in Cyprus and Greece only got a fraction of their deposits after the last financial turmoil. There is no guarantee that you will get your money back. No one can provide infinite liquidity in a destruction scenario.

Only hold small amounts of money in the bank. The system is based on trust, and they are not trustworthy.

KYC AML guidelines

There is a whole list of issues with the global financial system. But usually, those that are the least examined are the most dangerous. Know-your-client (KYC) guidelines and Investor Protection programs are more damaging than the problems they are trying to solve. 

What do I mean exactly? 

KYC regulations are more damaging than the problems they are trying to solve. 

Here’s why.

Governments, through banks, are collecting billions of data points on people and organizations to prevent or solve crimes. Unfortunately, it’s been repeatedly proven that your data is unsafe in the government’s hands. 

In case you missed it, governments and financial institutions have created a global surveillance apparatus that keeps billions in poverty. But the biggest issue with the regulations is in their social cost. Entire communities like immigrants, people with low incomes, and young people are almost fully left out of the formal financial sector.

Obsolete technologies

Try to send money from your bank to another branch just 20 yards away. It could take days.

And if you want to transfer internationally, brace yourself since it could take weeks and cost you a small fortune.

In the 21st century, moving money electronically should take milliseconds, not days. Transferring gold in the 18th century by horse was faster than moving digital assets a few miles away. Ridiculous.

Bureaucracy 

To do any banking transaction, you need permission.

Permission to open a bank account, send money abroad, receive funds, get a mortgage, buy shares and even make a deposit.

I have been refused several times to open a bank account despite having cash, a regular job, and living in the developed world. I have also been denied to withdraw my own money from the account.

If this happens to me, imagine what is like for a citizen in Zimbabwe to access financial services.

They have the last word. They can say no. Your money is not yours; it belongs to them. 

Read the fine print.

Don’t you think you should be in charge of your money?

Opening Hours

Monday to Friday, 9 to 3.

You are stuffed if you need to do an urgent transaction on Christmas day at 3 am.

In this time and age, electronic money should be available 24/7/ 365. 

No excuses. 

Sovereignty

Little by little, the government, banks, corporations, and other institutions keep chipping away at your freedom, independence, and sovereignty.

You don’t notice it at first but realize that you have become the proverbial frog in the tepid water when you need to change your life.

Wouldn’t it be nice to own something that is yours? 

Would you like to decide what you want to do with your assets? 

Do you want to save, invest, borrow, and lend in a permissionless, censorship-resistant way without ever explaining anything to anyone?

Unless you own your money nanny state will take care of you (in the wrong way), and you’ll become dependent on the system trying to milk you.

What’s the alternative?

As you’ve probably gathered by now, only one asset can fix all the problems created by the banking system, and its name begins with B.

Bitcoin is a decentralized, censorship-resistant, fixed supply, immutable, and transparent protocol that lets you instantly send money directly to anyone on the planet, instantly, at almost zero cost, permissionless, and anonymously.

With bitcoin, you become your own bank, you become sovereign, you protect your privacy, and you eliminate the intermediaries that exploit their position to extract wealth from the system.

Put your money in a place where no one but you have access, no permission is needed, and no corrupt banker can get his greedy fingers in.

You can keep trusting a broken, corrupt, and obsolete system or be free.

Bitcoin is your bank.