Blockchain making Banks the new Blockbuster
With the rise and rampant proliferation of blockchain technology(specifically cryptocurrencies), comes the realization that archaic-era of banking and what we perceive as financial structure is swiftly being challenged. This immediately brings to mind what has happened to other industries with the advent and employment of new technologies; especially what Netflix did to Blockbuster.
Traditional checkbooks, 9-5 banking hours, bank tellers, all these things are being phased out of the actual necessity of transactions. Tellers are replaced with ATMs, checkbooks replaced with debit cards, 24hr ATMs allowing round-the-clock access to your money, banking practices of antiquity are collecting dust and being decommissioned slowly but surely.
Where will ACTUAL bank buildings be in 20 years?
Many of us can remember movie rental shops in every town. They were businesses with a singular purpose. And once that purpose was made entirely obsolete, so were the businesses running them. Vacant movie rental stores were absorbed by the surrounding economy, giving rise to other business ventures. Banks are facing the same evolution.
Technology is becoming increasingly mobile, increasingly seamless. Payments can be made directly with devices without any interaction with service staff at all. With growing access to powerful technology, and the development of applicable tech that allows people to conveniently pay for products and services, the actual role of banks is shrinking. And with extensive records of elitism, corruption, and breaches in security that leaves customer data compromised, what leg is left for banks to stand on?
What do banks really have left to offer the public?
Even the loan and mortgage element of banks are being challenged by ever-solidifying developments in decentralized algorithm based software. Smart contracts offer the potential ability for common citizens to conduct legal and kosher complex transactions, such as a brokerage on a house without either party having a vast deal of knowledge in real estate or finance. With pre-programmed tech bonded to the individual parties involved, transactions that would normally require expensive fees doled out by financial facilitators would suddenly be null and void. Reducing cost, and complexity of the transaction.
Aside from an actual steel vault, banks are steadily finding themselves scrambling to offer the public anything they actually NEED. And with the increasing trend of money being digitized, do you actually need a steel vault? Or do you need a highly encrypted and secured digital wallet? The changing of the times are indicating that the latter is where we are progressing. But, only time will truly tell; whether cryptocurrencies are a proverbial nail in the coffin for banks, or something they will adapt to.
The only thing I ever use a traditional bank for anymore is temporarily holding my paychecks until I can transfer the money to someplace where it can actually be useful. Even then, if the company I work for was comfortable with it I'd just have my pay deposited straight into Paypal like everything I ever make on the side.
The banks in Minnesota, USA, have steadily grown more and more useless as they've "locked down" on security to help the steadily aging population here feel safer. Purchases outside the country are declined across the board thanks to these security measures and every time I buy something online from a company that's not located in MN I get a call from the fraud department asking if it was a valid transaction and if I can't answer at the moment they lock out my account until I call them. I wonder if they even realize they're making themselves obsolete?
That's kind of the question I've been asking everyone lately. "What do I actually need a bank for anyway?"
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