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Re:U.S. FDIC tells Signature crypto clients to close account... by vkou on Wednesday March 29, 2023 @12:33AM (#35352625)
> I think where we disagree here is on whether it should be the bank's business how and when their depositors deposit and withdraw their money.

A bank's entire business model consists of borrowing money for variable-length terms from depositors, and lending it out at fixed-length terms to borrowers.

This question is absolutely the bank's business. In fact, it is the most critical question that a bank needs to be asking itself every single day, if it wants to stay solvent, and actually be able to honor customer withdrawals.

SVB, and its shareholders have been wiped out because it didn't have a good answer to that question.

Re:U.S. FDIC tells Signature crypto clients to close account... by chatmasta on Wednesday March 29, 2023 @12:43AM (#35352710)
Yeah, I get that. But I do wonder, if we were designing the economy from first principles, whether we would not only invent such a ridiculous idea as fractional reserve banking, but if we would also decide it should be the central engine for economic growth.

Alas, the people who dared to think from those first principles are now becoming unbanked from, or denigrated as criminals by, the very system they sought to replace. Perhaps they were onto something.

Re:U.S. FDIC tells Signature crypto clients to close account... by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday March 29, 2023 @02:01AM (#35353227)
> the people who dared to think from those first principles are now becoming unbanked

Folks doing honest research are fine. Those scaling glorified slot machines are having a tougher time.

Re:U.S. FDIC tells Signature crypto clients to close account... by vkou on Wednesday March 29, 2023 @03:32AM (#35353826)
> if we were designing the economy from first principles, whether we would not only invent such a ridiculous idea as fractional reserve banking, but if we would also decide it should be the central engine for economic growth.

I think it's quite likely that any society that wouldn't adopt it would be overtaken in economic productivity by a society that did.

> Alas, the people who dared to think from those first principles are now becoming unbanked from, or denigrated as criminals by, the very system they sought to replace. Perhaps they were onto something.

They are generally onto entrusting their money into organizations and investments ran by, or successfully attacked by criminals, which is why crypto money has a disturbingly frequent tendency to go poof.

The moral of the story, here, is that if you have an ideological reason to... Somehow stick it to the man and stay out of the insured banking system, you're going to be in real bad company.

(Also, isn't it kind of weird how quick crypto was to re-invent sub-prime lending, through coin staking, and how quick exchanges are to gamble with and lose customer funds?)