August 7th 2015, I was in my home and then I saw a ridiculous amount deducted from my bank account. I was really furious and in minutes, I was at the bank. I got to a cashier and demanded to see the manager. The cashier tried her best to calm me but I was furious, I just wanted to pour out my spleen. She immediately directed me to the customer service unit but I wasn’t interested in seeing a customer service representative, I wasn’t ready for a ‘one minute please why I check’ talk, after which they won’t find a solution to it. When I got to the customer care representative, he asked what the problem was and I responded “I want to see the manager”. I was ready to bring down the roof of the bank branch I was, if I didn’t see the bank branch manager. Why will a bank that is supposedly believed to keep money, now take money from my account with no prior message? Furiously my voice went louder, and my hands hitting the table of the customer care representative. The entire banking hall became silent and all attention was on me. The bank branch manager ran down from his office to my place and said with a straight but frightened voice “please follow me to my office”. Now I got what I wanted, to speak to the manager.
At the manager’s office, I made it clear that the bank had debited 75% of the entire money in my account and there was not message stating the reason for the debit. The manager immediately went through his system and I could see in his face disbelieve. I could tell he did not know what to tell me, so he picked his phone and called the technical department to explain the reason for the debit. I waited patiently for the manager to give me a reason for the debit but when he ended the call, he said “I can’t categorically tell you why your funds were debited but it is either for fees or it was an error. Why will the bank debit 75% of my funds for fees? How any fees do bank charge customers, why is the banking system not transparent and why can they twist customers account ledger?
How I found out about Bitcoin
The Bank eventually refunded my money but they did not have any clear reason for the debit. Immediately, I lost trust in the banking system and went online to search for transparent method of banking. While surfing the internet thoroughly, I found out about Bitcoin. I read the whitepaper Satoshi Nakamoto published and I read through how he created the Bitcoin blockchain anonymously. One very thing that caught my attention was no duplicate transaction and transparency. I had been looking for this all day.
What Bitcoin Has Solved
Irrelevant Fees
Have you ever taken time to check the numbers of fees that bank charges people for keeping their money with them? Fees range from checking account fees, minimum balance charge fees, return deposit fees, overdraft fees, ATM maintenance fee, ATM withdrawal charges fees, Hard Copy Statement fees, Local Deposit fees, Local withdrawal fees, Foreign Transaction Charge, Inactivity Fees, Account Opening Fees, Account Closing Fees and so on. The fees are numerous but thanks to the Blockchain, The fees paid when withdrawing BTC is often regarded as Network/miners fee. With Bitcoin, you are not charged for keeping your coins in your wallet, you are not asked to pay maintenance fee and so on.Transparency
One beauty of the blockchain is transparency. Anyone can see any transaction or wallet from anywhere around the globe. Unlike bank ledgers which are only opened to them in the bank and not to the public, Bitcoin is public and every transaction around it is publicly displayed.
- Inflation
Money is anything of value that can be traded generally and since Bitcoin is an asset of value which can be traded as an option and could make up the portfolio of a person, then it is regarded as money. Bitcoin unlike other fiats have a fixed inflation rate and it cannot be minted indefinitely the way governments print paper money. Only 21 million Bitcoin can ever be printed, the amount of Bitcoin that can be mined is often halved every four years thereby reducing the supply of the coins. Currently, there are about 18 million BTC in circulation. This shows that inflation with BTC is very low and the total amount of BTC that can ever be mined is already known but the government can’t account for the number of paper money in circulation as the government keeps printing more money into circulation so as to solve problems which at the end of the day leads to another problem which is hyperinflation.
Bitcoin has proven to be a currency that can be trusted and the blockchain has proven beyond doubt that it is far better than banks. Ever since I got to know Bitcoin and understand the blockchain, I have been leaving only funds I can spend in my bank account so as to prevent charges that are uncalled for.
To Be Continued...