The two-hander between @Recchan and @Eden has been interesting to read though!
Must admit, from the perspective of a customer being locked out of accessing their assets by their bank when they themselves have done nothing that is illegal, I’d want the bank investigated and banned too! That wouldn’t feel like fair treatment to me.
People get scammed, and that’s bad, maybe @danw could shed some light on how bad or frequent crypto scams are compared to others, but anecdotally, I’ve not been exposed to any significant instances that would justify this level of action.
I get a lot of spam through some of my inboxes. Many of them attempts to scam money out of me. Few of them involving crypto. In fact, I’ve gotten more scam emails involving the use of Starling and Monzo. By the same logic used to tackle crypto, shouldn’t these banks ban transfers into and out of Monzo too? How about HSBC?
The biggest differentiator here, is the so called lack of accountability when it comes to crypto. Making it harder to trace or recover. But we know that’s not entirely the truth. Blockchain is a decentralised technology yes, but that doesn’t mean there’s no accountability.
If I dare tread into tinfoil hat territory a little bit, and discuss where I’m a bit sus, is that crypto is a big challenger to the status quo and centralisation; A system much of our capitalist society relies upon. A lot of people with power right now, have a good motive for wanting to impede blockchain’s progress, less it render them irrelevant.
The war on crypto is tied into the war on Privacy too. I value my privacy, and if blockchain technology could pave the way for a digital currency that can replace our very non-privacy friendly methods of spending our physical currency electronically, then I 100% back the idea.
So my view on banks blocking this to protect some customers from scammers is similar to the government’s continued efforts to peruse mass surveillance, demolish privacy and security, in the name of protecting children from the risk of terrorists. In other words, banks are being allowed to act with an Orwellian like authority over something I believe should be left to education and user decision, like the gambling block. Especially when it may not work. Scammers will find creative ways around these things. Law abiding crypto users just get screwed over, and their life made more difficult.
Have a toggle. If a user doesn’t play with crypto and is concerned about being scammed, let them disable crypto, rather than a blanket ban, which I believe is only likely to affect those among us who are law abiding, than those who use it for criminality.
My message might have got a little lost or sidetracked as I ranted on there. So to be clear, my stance on crypto is one of indifference. My stance on what banks think of it is equally one of indifference. What I care about is the underlying technology, and the privacy implications of blanket bans.
If I’m using crypto for something, it’s likely because I don’t want anyone to know what I’m using it for. Not necessarily something illegal. Same as cash. Just like not wanting companies and governments to be able to read my messages doesn’t meant I’m discussing illegal things or plotting to shoot the prime minister (with my iPhone)!
side note for mods: could we get a spoiler tag implemented on here pls?