Could we be gearing up for a time when Big Tech and the major banks start to compete? If that is the case, which is worse for the general public?

By now, most are aware that banks are really little more than gatekeepers. They extract enormous value from the system for providing services that are, overall, simplistic in nature. This is compounded by the fact that they are regulated, allowing for regulatory capture.

For the most part, banks operated under a monopoly system established by the government. Since they engage in enormous amounts of lobbying (in the developed world), they wield great power.

The only crime Sam Bankman-Fried committed was that he wasn't a banker. If he were part of that club, he likely avoids jail.

While the loss of the banks might be a good thing to many, the question is what replaces them?

We will dive into this and see if the potential system is any better or are we facing something worse.

Big Tech or Banks: Who Is Worse?

The elephant in the room is Big Tech.

No matter how we break it down, this is the epicenter of the future. Over the last decade, we saw many of the walls (barriers) that companies enjoyed collapsing.

For example, a non-broadcast company is leading the streaming wars. Google, one of the poster children for Big Tech, is outdoing everyone. Like most doing with the digital world, their lead just keeps growing.

The social media platforms are expanding in different directions.

Elon Musk is bringing out Grokipedia. Zuckerberg went after Musk with his own microblogging platform. Speaking of Meta, it is still diving deep into the headset world, investing billions into a future world of AR/VR.

The GENIUS Act protects banks in that Big Tech requires a waiver to release a stablecoin. If this happens, these entities will be in the money game. Musk, with X, is exempt since it is a private company. The same is true for other non-public platforms.

Of course, there is always the option of purchasing a company. While that might be blocked at this time, as we proceed further from the signing of the bill, the forgetter that people have starts to take hold. This is why many governments tend to rubber stamp mergers. The previous damage is long gone and they buy into the benefits that are being sold by the merger participants.

Big Tech Is As Bad

For those who think the banks are bad, there is not a great deal of comfort in the thought of a future run by Big Tech. We see how these entities operate, now entering the 4th decade of their reign.

Google. Meta. Amazon. These are legendary companies. They are also known for their predatory practices (something not uncommon with the banks). We know how they are with data. However, their treatment of the marketplace is more telling.

The word that comes to mind is ruthless. While that is the norm in big business, these firms take it to another level. Look at Apple and their app store. Talk about tyranny.

Naturally, let us not forget these platforms closing accounts on a whim. Then we have the destruction of businesses by simply changing an algorithm We have an endless list of products that people created and sold, only to have the platform steal the idea, reproduce it, and push its own version.

What do you think they will do if they have control over your money?

Size Matters

Does size really matter? We will answer this age old question as it pertains to company size.

The answer is certainly yes.

Here is a list of the top companies by market cap:

Notice Apple, Google, Amazon, and Meta are numbers 3-6. Of course, we would be remiss if we didn't mention the number 2 company, Microsoft. That is not exactly the haven of openness and freedom either.

To contrast, the largest banks, JPMorgan, is less than half the market cap of Meta, coming in at $850 billion.

Another way to frame this, OpenAI just received a valuation of $500 billion. How long until Sam Altman's company passes JPM?

The point here is we are rapidly heading towards the age of a $10 trillion company. We will not see just one. There are going to be a handful that achieve this, all related to technology (mostly AI).

Ultimately, with hundreds of millions of users (or billions), the ability to monetize is enormous. The banks simply cannot compete.

Therefore, it is best for people to decide what future they want. If Big Tech is indeed taking over, we are looking at a world where the banks are gone. On the surface, that might be a positive. Unfortunately, the replacement might be worse.