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At it’s core, I think that cryptocurrency asks some very important questions about who has power and who gets control… questions whose answers will impact the financial industry greatly.
One of the most remarkable things about Bitcoin that we still don’t fully appreciate is how BTC is controlled at the individual level. You don’t need a big organization tracking how BTC is shared among the population, it’s all held in the public ledger. This is crazy, not just because this hasn’t existed before, but because the power of the financial institutions comes, in part, from being this authoritative ledger.
This is a massive shift in power. If you don’t need to trust a bank to keep an authoritative record, then you don’t have to rely so heavily on a bank account. If you don’t have to rely on a bank account, there will be less money that will circulate through banks. This means that banks have less funds for things like mortgages and other financial vehicles, which cuts directly into their profits.
I can’t tell you where this is going, but I know that the current power structure doesn’t make sense with this capabilities. Financial institutions won’t be powerless in this transition, but it will be a time of reflection and disruption.
Brian Schuster is a developer and writer in the blockchain industry. His content has been viewed over 5 million times since January 2017. You can view more of his content on his pateron page, where he is producing content to help his audience find their place in this emerging industry.