Comment by mgfist

17 days ago

This is a big part of my problem with crypto and why I'm bearish on it breaking through to normies. Traditional financial institutions just seem so much safer all in all, not to mention having far better UX.

30 comments

mgfist

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bluGill  17 days ago

The big thing traditional institutions give you is logs of everything. Sure if I get your account number I can take all your money - but there are traces of that and so it is easy to arrest me after the fact.

Don't give out your account numbers, there will be a lot of hassle should an evil person get it. However you have a reasonable change of getting your money back in a couple years. (this is also why you get warning about some countries - a few will not cooperate with traces and so the money is lost)

  • FabHK  16 days ago

    > Don't give out your account numbers

    Is that a US thing? In Europe, companies have their account numbers on their letter heads and websites, and people are quite comfortable giving out their account numbers.

    https://www.quelle.de/service-hilfe/bezahlung-finanzierung/k...

    • mitxela  16 days ago

      That's strange because all you need for direct debit authorisation is the account number and name, and a PNG image of a physical signature.

      9 replies →

    • martin-  16 days ago

      Surely just knowing someone's account number can't be enough? Sweden's biggest bank uses your national identification number (equivalent to social security number) as your checking account number, and Sweden's national identification numbers are public information.

      1 reply →

  • 27183  17 days ago

    There's also the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (in the US).

    • nradov  16 days ago

      FDIC is great but it really only protects against bank insolvency. It doesn't come into play if money is fraudulently transferred out of your account.

throwaway2037  16 days ago

The reason why traditional works is the fraud can be reversed. If money is stolen from your accounts, as long as you are not the cause, in most cases the institution or govt will make you whole.

  • mw888  16 days ago

    It is reinvented by 'crypto' in the form of 'subjectivity' (as opposed to the hard objectivity of 'your keys your coins' and the absolute acceptance of all objectively (though perhaps fraudulent or thieving) valid transactions.

    One example of subjectivity is if, and this happens, a bug is found which can drastically increase the supply of coins beyond the intent of the creators; everyone comes together and removes those state transitions manually despite their objective validity. A more practical notion would be some type of "this transaction was fraud, someone has authority to reverse it." Of course, this is a hard tradeoff, but users should be able to make it.

iammrpayments  16 days ago

The traditional banks are not better than crypto for receiving and sending money, specially when it comes to international transactions.

The only thing they are better is providing security in an easier way.

  • throwaway2037  16 days ago

    Is Wise considered traditional or not? Also, Revolut? Those two come to mind when I think about easier/cheaper international transfers.

    • iammrpayments  15 days ago

      They are considered fintechs, this usually comes with some drawbacks such as higher chance of unexplained account closure.

Terr_  17 days ago

I think it also encourages us to rethink specialized and hardened advices versus general ones.

The same attack on every desktop and laptop would be... significantly harder.

Hendrikto  16 days ago

> not to mention having far better UX

Yeah, it is totally great to have to set up a different account for every service, then having to do AML and KYC, and then having your account suspended for no apparent reason. So great that international transfers takes days and tens of dollars in fees, if they succeed at all. So great how a large part of the world‘s populace is denied access to the global financial system. Great as well how centralized it is, so things go down when there are technical problems at your bank. Absolutely awesome how Canada was able to freeze bank accounts of people who donated to the ”wrong“ cause.

They totally have it figured out, we should stop looking for alternatives. We already have the perfect system for the ages. Anybody who even tries is delusional.

intrasight  16 days ago

I'd argue that if used properly that crypto is more secure than most banks.