Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America, seems like a pretty smart guy. He has a law degree from Notre Dame and has held leadership positions at BofA for the past 7 years. That kind of thing doesn't just happen by accident. The guy must be sharp.
So, if that is the case, then how could a man as smart as he is be on TV today saying that Bitcoin is "nothing new" because banks have been using "digital currencies" for years?
Let's break down his appearance on CNBC today sentence by sentence, because it really is quite fascinating. If you'd like to watch it first, here's the clip:
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/10/26/bofa-ceo-moynihan-anonymous-part-of-bitcoin-causes-debate.html
Moynihan: "I think that the question of anonymous currencies is a question that has got to be thought through from a policy decision. The inability to track massive amounts of money moving is tricky."
Right off the bat, we encounter fallacies. Bitcoin is far from anonymous. In fact, thanks to government imposition of KYC (Know Your Customer) laws on cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitcoin is now more easily tracked than the U.S. Dollar. From the moment that you purchase Bitcoin, the federal government is able to track its movement through the blockchain. Anonymity simply is not a thing when it comes to Bitcoin in the U.S.
Aside from that, isn't cash anonymous? Do I need to show identification to give $10,000 in cash to another person? Of course not. Paper cash is far more of an "anonymous currency" than Bitcoin.
Moynihan: "The idea of digital currency is nothing new. We'll send out half of our consumer payments, which is $2 trillion per year today, are digital. So this isn't something new or different."
Saying that Bitcoin is no different from what banks are doing currently shows that Moynihan is either completely ignorant as to what Bitcoin actually is, or he is knowingly trying to deceive the public. I'm going to with deceit, because I just can't fathom that the CEO of one of America's largest banks could be that uninformed as to his company's largest competitor.
Bitcoin is a stateless global currency that exists on top of a completely decentralized infrastructure that cannot be controlled by any individual, company or government. Bitcoin knows no middlemen - it enables the world's first trustworthy, uncensorable peer-to-peer financial transactions.
A digital bank payment is quite literally the opposite of Bitcoin on nearly every level. The bank is a middleman which Americans are forced to use to send government currency from one party to another, if the bank chooses to allow the transaction.
Moynihan: "It's the anonymous thing that causes debate from an operational perspective. From the speculation, I'll let you and your colleagues talk about what it's worth. But, there oughta be a hard look at the policy of anonymous currencies because the ability to track information and the money flowing is one of the things that we use to seriously...against terrorism and against improper, illegal behavior. That's the reason that there's only $100 bills in the U.S. economy. You don't want large amounts of money to travel without attribution. And that's what our banking system does for this country and the world, is that we track all of this money, and the data can be found, and you can do things to find people, bad activities, etc."
So, the CEO of Bank of America just admitted to the world that he is an agent for the U.S. government. It's nothing that we didn't already know, but it's good to hear him being honest for once.
And, wow, all this time you thought it was only at the airport that you were being treated like a terrorist. Little did you know that it's at the bank as well! Apparently you can't be trusted with anything larger than a $100 bill because, well, "terrorism".
The more we hear Moynihan talk, the more he makes it sound like he doesn't think that your money is actually your money any more once it goes into his bank. After you deposit your hard-earned money, BofA's policy seems to be that they'll scrutinize your transactions and decide if they'll let you have it back. But come on, they'd never keep your money from you for no good reason, would they?
Interviewer: "So Bitcoin is currently used for crime?"
Moynihan: "Well, you can read the stories, as I can."
Obviously, the insinuation here is that Bitcoin is being used for crime and must be stopped.
Isn't the U.S. Dollar used for crime too? How about the Euro? The Australian Dollar? The South African Rand? Are any of those currencies not used for crime?
Let's sum this up.
According to Moynihan, Bitcoin isn't a threat to banks - it's a threat to the safety of the American people that must be stopped.
However, in reality, Moynihan knows very well that Bitcoin is the biggest threat that banks have ever faced.
Bitcoin completely eliminates the need for banks by using the power of the Internet to enable a new protocol for how money can work.
Neither Moynihan nor Jamie Dimon are ever going to come out and say "Bitcoin is about to destroy us. We need to stop it from eating our business." The only way that they can try to fight back against this new technology is to spread lies about it.
But, shouldn't that be illegal? How can they do this? Well, Bitcoin isn't a company that can sue them. At its core, Bitcoin is an internet protocol that is quickly evolving into a decentralized global currency. There is no CEO of Bitcoin that can fight back against these banksters or file a libel lawsuit against them. And they are well aware of that.
So, what can the rest of us do as we watch people like Brian Moynihan and Jamie Dimon use their bully pulpits to straight-up lie about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies? We can fight back from the grassroots. I'm no one special. I'm just a guy who understands and sees the revolutionary power of Bitcoin. I have a keyboard and I have the Internet, so I can write this article. I can send it to my friends and family so that they can know what is really happening out there.
You can share this article, or you can write one yourself. Whatever you do, don't sit silently while these bank CEOs try to wage an unfair battle against a leaderless movement.
Take solace in the fact that technology is undefeated in its long-standing battle against business. That's not going to change any time soon.
And a final message to the banks: adapt or get eaten. Your lies may slow the inevitable, but it won't change the way that this story ends.