Banks
Daily Ramble
Yesterday’s Sobriety Lessons was long-winded. I’ll try to keep it short today by explaining why I despise traditional banking. Let me sincerely caveat my rant beforehand: a bank’s regulatory burden makes it difficult to provide a good customer experience.
This morning, I ran to the local bank to access a safety deposit box. As much as I avoid contact with banks, storing cryptographic private keys in safety deposit boxes is one of the services that I begrudgingly pay for. At some point, I suspect there will be businesses built around vaulting services for private crypto keys, but at present, the banks are still the best option for secure storage — at least here in Portugal. So I went early this foggy morning to try and slip in ahead of John Q Public. That part of my plan worked.
Portuguese banking hours are not like the US’s. Banks typically open around 9 AM, close for lunch around noon, and open an hour later, only to close down to the public again at 3 PM. If you’re trying to get to the bank, you’ve got almost five hours each weekday to do it, excluding all public Portuguese holidays — and there are a lot. Five hours a day, five days a week, compared to Bitcoin’s 24 hours a day, every day, even holidays, accessibility. Is there a glimmering of my frustration appearing on the horizon? Possibly, though, I could live with the banking hours if the service was there.
There were no other customers at the bank when I arrived. Isabel, the teller who’d arranged my safety deposit box, was there and recognized me. She ushered me to the receptionist at the front of the bank and handed me over. He asked for my ID and then spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out how to use his computer. I suspected he wasn’t fluent with safety deposit box protocol but assumed he’d sorted it out when the printer spat out a couple of mostly blank pages. He flagged down Isabel and showed her the pages. Muttering, she came over and helped him re-sort out his computer, re-print the pages — now with markings — which I dutifully signed acknowledging my access to the safety deposit box and the €5 it would cost. I was then led to a seat while the vault door was opened.
Several minutes later, the receptionist said I could enter. Within a minute, I’d completed dropping off my private key and asked if anything else was needed of me. Nope. I checked my clock. More than 20 minutes to access a bank vault with no other customers in the banks. In that same amount of time, I could have sent billions of euros worth of Bitcoin to South Africa and New Zealand at the same cost as accessing my vault. You got me; I’m being dramatic to make a point. But sending any sum of money to anyone, anywhere in the world, takes about 10 minutes on the Bitcoin network and can be done for under €2.50.
While at the bank, I also asked Isabel how my wife and I could manage banking needs while abroad in Peru. Anytime we want to make a transfer, which is one of the primary uses for our bank since very few people accept Bitcoin, we need to prove our identity through an SMS code. Due to excessive roaming charges, Ana and I won’t have access to our Portuguese numbers in Peru, so making payments from our Portuguese bank will be a problem. Isabel’s answer: come back with your Peruvian number and we’ll connect it to your bank account.
Let me get this straight…before going to Peru, I need to get a Peruvian telephone number somehow, physically go to my local Portuguese bank, wait in line to repeat the situation to someone new, provide the new Peruvian number, somehow receive text messages on my Peruvian number to connect my Portuguese bank account AND then I can send €100 to pay for our water bill once we’re in Peru?
I’m sorry, banks, 98% of you are not going to make it.
“Can’t Look Away” Things on the Interwebs
Bitcoin Price Prediction
Yesterday: $37k - $42k
Today: $37.4k - $41k
Tomorrow: $37.4k - $42k
Bitcoin’s price movement since the weekend has been a bit like watching the grass grow. By next week, we may need to mow the lawn, but lawn chair life is too dull to move at present. We had a short pullback yesterday during Jerome Powell’s FOMC board meeting, but the price has since found a floor and is attempting a very clean pivot for bullish continuation. I anticipate we’ll see the price bounce around $38k-$40k for a couple of days before we see a more decisive move north. As long as $37.4k holds daily, I will continue to believe the bottom is in, and we’re beginning to head back towards $65k again in the coming weeks and months.
Bitcoin Q & A
Q: Does Bitcoin obey the laws of physics?
A: Yes.
Because each Bitcoin is created through the mining process, which uses energy, each Bitcoin is backed by energy. Being backed by energy is another way of saying that Bitcoin obeys thermodynamic laws, stating that energy is neither created nor destroyed. Thermodynamics is a branch of physics. Therefore, we can say quite assuredly that Bitcoin, though digitally represented, is rooted in physical reality.
Thanks for reading,
Kent
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