Bitcoin Q&A: The end of vampire-squid financing

We all know that banks are very powerful and they’re not going down very easily. What will happen to banks in the next 5-10 years? Are they going to fight disruption? The caricature of banks as being entirely filled with “evil people” is not true. The banking industry has institutional inertia, where even if tens of thousands of people in are good, minute everyday actions sum up to an empire which engages in racial profiling, illegal foreclosures, and robbery through socialised losses. During organizational crisis, they are very slow to respond; the very architecture of that business model and culture is embedded so deeply. They will be affected by cryptocurrency just as the media industry was affected by the internet. Bankers ask me if they should get a “blockchain consultant.” I say, “No, get a former newspaper editor and ask them 1) when did you know the internet would eat your business 2) what did you do to prevent it 3) now that you’ve failed, what would you do differently?” Because software is coming to eat our industry for the first time. The banks will still be here, they’ll just be very different and offer services that have to be there (ex. fractional reserve lending). Customer service / interpersonal relationship management is considered a lost business right now because it’s less profitable than underwriting a loan for a war dictator. Maybe they can reform their operations. There is no “right to maintain a business” or “right to guarantee a profit.” If banks are terrified of competition in a free market, then something seriously wrong has happened to banking. If your last resort is a government decree that will prevent competition, you’ve already lost. Banks will be fine – as long as their business model is in building productive relationships that serve the community and not vampire-squid financing of war dealers and dictators (if that’s you, good riddance). What’s going to happen to the dinosaurs? They’re still here; I had one of their eggs for breakfast. Chickens are the closest descendant of those once mighty beasts, and we are the descendants of the furry things they crushed underfoot.

This is part of a talk which took place on May 8th 2017 at The Blockchain.NZ Conference in Auckland, New Zealand: https://antonopoulos.com/event/the-blockchain-new-zealand-conference/

RELATED:
The Stories We Tell About Money – https://youtu.be/ONvg9SbauMg
Fake News, Fake Money – https://youtu.be/i_wOEL6dprg
Blockchain vs. Bullshit: Thoughts on the Future of Money -https://youtu.be/SMEOKDVXlUo
Bitcoin and the Banks – Five Stages of Grief – https://youtu.be/43Ucj6_Erb0
How do banks react to Bitcoin? The Five Stages of Grief – https://youtu.be/3mgw5rbgOMY
Can banks still offer services for Bitcoin? – https://youtu.be/H8Si5OIOMv8
Will banks, which are software companies at heart, adapt to digital currencies? – https://youtu.be/j1aBI5a6RSQ
Why Bitcoin is the poison pill of global finance – https://youtu.be/UOfRIaJICgI
How will the currency war affect companies? – https://youtu.be/c9MIM2vZUZc

Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and well-respected figures in bitcoin.

Follow on Twitter: @aantonop https://twitter.com/aantonop
Website: https://antonopoulos.com/

He is the author of two books: “Mastering Bitcoin,” published by O’Reilly Media and considered the best technical guide to bitcoin; “The Internet of Money,” a book about why bitcoin matters.

THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v1: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Internet-Money-collection-Andreas-Antonopoulos/dp/1537000454/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

MASTERING BITCOIN: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Bitcoin-Unlocking-Digital-Cryptocurrencies/dp/1449374042

[NEW] MASTERING BITCOIN, 2nd Edition: https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Bitcoin-Programming-Open-Blockchain/dp/1491954388

Subscribe to the channel to learn more about Bitcoin & open blockchains!

Outro Music: “Unbounded” by Orfan (https://www.facebook.com/Orfan/)
Outro Graphics: Phneep (http://www.phneep.com/)
Outro Art: Rock Barcellos (http://www.rockincomics.com.br/)

source