[tinco]

Banks are service providers. They are the middlemen between entities that have money and entities that need money. They make the deal (a loan/mortgage) and then skim some off the top. There is real economic benefits derived from banks.

There are some real economic benefits to Bitcoin as well, but I don't believe they justify the valuation though that's neither here nor there.

[RippingMadMan]

> They make the deal (a loan/mortgage) and then skim some off the top.

Thanks to fractional reserve banking (i.e. institutionalized fraud), they also create new money along the way (i.e. debase the existing currency).

Thus, the amount they're skimming off is even more than one would originally think, since they're charging interest on something they didn't entirely have in the first place (second-order fraud).

That is quite the service being provided. How fortunate we all are!

[sdvsfqe]

> How fortunate we all are!

I think so.

As someone who makes things, they solve a really important chicken-and-egg problem for me.

i.e. Where does the money needed to make a thing come from before you make it so that you can sell it and make money from selling the thing?

I suppose technically I could risk my money, assuming I have some. But I'd much rather risk the bank's, and I understand that they will charge me for that.

[oblio]

Creating new money helped propel economies since a long time ago. It has downsides but almost universally countries have agreed that the positives are worth the downsides.