David Yermack, professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, states that in 10 years the numbers of banks have been halved. It’s hard to imagine that a technology can have such a large impact in such a short time, so how serious must we take this statement? I think pretty serious. Yermack is considered one of the leading experts in the field of Bitcoin and Blockchain. Not only Yermack, but also the consultancy firm McKinsey predicts the same fate for the traditional banks.
Ever since the introduction of Bitcoin banks are looking into this technology. One of the main problems of the image of traditional banks is the word trust, especially since the crisis of 2008. Blockchain could take all the trust issues away, making banks reliable again. No wonder every bank in the world is investigating this technology. But how far are they exactly, because we still haven’t seen a bank introducing a payment system based on Blockchain. Recently I read an article about the Bank of England testing a Blockchain based system and expect to use this by 2020.
So we’ve got an expert and leading consultancy firm predicting banks will eventually disappear, while banks are testing the same technology. I believe that the banks finally realize the threat that Blockchain is to their existence. If every transaction can be done with an intermediary, banks are nog longer needed for this. They can still provide extra services as a rate on your savings or a mortgage, but in order to be able to do all this they need the money on all the saving accounts. The whole idea of Blockchain is a decentralized system, which not applies in the case of the Bank of England. It’s also a big question whether governments will allow the Blockchain to happen. Bitcoin still isn’t recognized as an official currency. I’m very curious to see which way this interesting technique will go.
https://fd.nl/beurs/1170837/banken-verdwijnen-door-opkomst-blockchain
Blockchain is so important the Bank of England is future-proofing its payments system
