There’s no indication I’m aware of that Bitcoin is removing any labor or equipment from the banking system. So far all I’ve seen is traditional banking layering crypto on top.
There's nothing fundamental about this state of affairs. We're simply early in the adoption curve: the network of services around fiat is larger than the one around cryptocurrency, so to use cryptocurrency effectively you have to connect with fiat.
The infrastructure required for functional cryptocurrency usage in society is far smaller than for traditional money, so with enough adoption to supersede fiat, there would be efficiency gains.
Remember, we used to need the phone network to connect to the internet. 30 years later, the trend is reversed and it's telephone that we layer on top of the internet.
it's cheaper to transfer Bitcoin and immediately convert to fiat than to do a wire transfer from overseas. Then you're using the home banking system like ACH in the US and SEPA in Europe
Wires cost me $50+ because of intermediary banks, even if I don't pay anything at my own bank, someone is getting a big cut.
Don’t companies like TransferWise already do international payments electronically without the need for a blockchain? I definitely support lowering the amount of human labor required for payments, but I don’t see the need for many coal plants worth of computers randomly hashing a bunch of junk over and over again when a normal efficient server can do it.
Every bitcoin exchange I’ve used required me to physically write something on paper and show it to a human, so it seems like the human labor in the banking system is a regulatory issue, not a technical one.
Sure, but why do I need a blockchain for that? Can’t the service trusted by the government to enforce KYC regulation also run a normal commodity server to process transactions, without burning the earth?
It is only cheaper today because the price of those traditional transfers are set artificially high. Make no mistake if banks had real competition for inter-bank transfers you’d see the price drop to near zero.
The infrastructure required for functional cryptocurrency usage in society is far smaller than for traditional money, so with enough adoption to supersede fiat, there would be efficiency gains.
Remember, we used to need the phone network to connect to the internet. 30 years later, the trend is reversed and it's telephone that we layer on top of the internet.