A new era of banking is upon us. Long gone are the days of customers sucking it up while banking fat cats make massive returns on your funding while only giving you a sliver. Today’s bankers understand their clients have options and they aren’t scared to seek these alternatives out. Here’s some insight into the new era of banking.
Why Do People Keep Looking for Alternatives
There are many reasons why people continue to flee the centralized banking sector. The average person has expressed concerns over centralization, high fees, low rewards, exclusivity, and discrimination. Additionally, the centralized banking sector is very exclusive which means that there’s no way you’re going to access the best options unless you’re part of the inner circle.
Another reason why people continue to explore outside the sector is that the common knowledge of alternatives is at an all-time high. People understand that they have options now and aren’t forced to continue to be bank customers without any satisfaction. Today’s clients know about online banking, third-party financial service providers, and now high-performance DeFi banks.
This raised awareness has made it possible for all of these sectors to expand. Notably, each style of banking has its advantages and disadvantages. Online banks have far fewer fees than local branches but they lack the in-person touch of speaking with a clerk or loan officer.
Reversely, DeFi networks are pure code that isn’t subject to discrimination or human errors. These systems provide faster access to funding and are open to the entire world. As such, they are now one of the premier options for savers and those seeking access to financial services globally.
What are the Effects of Inflation on the Centralized Banking System
Inflation has wreaked havoc on the centralized financial system. Think of inflation as a silent thief that steals your future buying power directly from your account without a trace. The only time you realize the effects of inflation is when you go to spend your money and you get far fewer products.
Inflation has hit a 40-year high recently in nations such as the US. This high inflation rate has squeezed funding from the hands of families and those most in need. It has also led many people to seek out inflationary-resistant alternatives such as gold or blockchain assets.
There are some serious issues that inflation causes. For one, it disproportionately affects savers and lenders. If you lend out $100,000 and the value of that same $100,000 halves during the repayment period, you have wiped all the gains off and are losing. Inflation means that your savings aren’t going to last as long as you predicted,
Worst of all, inflation can lead to hyperinflation which decimates entire economies. In most of the Western world, hyperinflation isn’t a problem but there are many economies where it’s normal to see price fluctuations in products in real-time. These areas are the most likely to embrace store of value blockchain assets like META 1 Coin.
DeFi developers have taken their time to figure out ways to combat inflation from the inside out. The best options use a predictive issuance and limited supply. By making the supply limited, it improves long-term demand. Also by keeping the issuance predictive, it prevents one of the biggest causes of inflation, over-printing.
What are the Main Risks to Today’s Banks
There are a lot of risks that today’s banks have to face that may have not been a concern to past generations. In the early 1920s the US went into the great depression. This time was the lowest point in the US economic history with sky-high inflation and double-digit unemployment.
To solve this issue, regulators introduced some protections such as FDIC-approved accounts. These measures were designed to prevent bank runs. A bank run occurs when a bank owes more than it has in its reserves. This causes the bank to shutter and all those clients that didn’t make the withdrawal lose funding in the past. FDIC insurance solved that issue but it was only one step.
In 2008, the banking sector experienced a great recession. This massive lull in economic activity was brought on by greed and predatory lending practices in the housing market and other sectors. After lobbying to relieve restrictions on lending, the same bankers began introducing confusing and often skewed financial instruments.
The loose lending led to house prices skyrocketing as people were able to bid over market value to obtain the properties they desired. The House of Cards came crashing down when these loans began to default. Eventually, the damage became so bad that a cascade of banks failed and regulators had to step in and bail the market out.
This time around, banks are failing for another reason, people want more from their financial institutions. DeFi platforms can provide more transparency, higher payouts, and are more available to the public. As such, there have been more people migrating towards the decentralized banking sector in recent years.
How Has Banking Improved Over the Last Decade?
Notably, the banking sector has evolved considerably over the last decade. The introduction of online banking services has changed the way the average person interacts with their financial system. Today, most people conduct their banking activities directly from their Smartphones.
This move toward the mobile market has left many banks struggling to keep local branches open or to justify their overhead. Reports show that more than half of bankers today feel comfortable conducting their banking from their smart devices. This shift in customer demand has led to more mobile banks becoming popular options.
Mobile banks have lower fees and can provide higher ROIs to users versus local branches. However, they are still centralized and rely on fiat currency which suffers from ongoing inflation. The introduction of DeFi banking upped the ante by providing individuals the opportunity to be the bank.
In a DeFi network, individuals called network nodes handle the approval of transactions. These networks don’t rely on internal personnel to complete vital tasks. Instead, protocols called smart contracts handle these tasks which improve efficiency, transaction times, and lowers fees.
What Will Tomorrow’s Banks Look Like
There is no way to predict with full confidence what the future of banking will look like. However, there are some trends and indicators that can help you to piece together the most likely outcome. For one, the centralized nature of the industry is going to become increasingly hard to justify.
Centralized networks cost more to operate so from the start the system is less efficient. Efficiency adds to the bottom meaning that bankers are going to have to consider their decentralized alternatives and how to integrate them into their systems without giving up the lion’s share of returns.
You can expect to see more traditional financial institutions offering support from blockchain assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and META 1 Coin. These institutions have already felt pressure from clients who desire exposure to digital assets. Despite a massive media smear campaign. People are aware that decentralized banking is a better option to consider.
CBDCs
Banks have already begun to try and accomplish the task of integrating blockchain assets but not sharing the profits with the community. The introduction of CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) into the market will have a resounding impact on how banks operate and interact with their clientele.
China has the lead in terms of this technology as the nation’s central bank has already issued a blockchain version of the Yen. This digital Yen was distributed to citizens and has proven to be a great way for banks to lower costs and improve monitoring capabilities. For banks the upsides of blockchain assets are obvious.
Blockchains can be monitored in real-time for free. Additionally, CBDCs aren’t decentralized meaning that they are more like blockchain versions of fiat currency rather than true digital assets. As such, they were made to supplement rather than compete with other fiat currencies.
CBDCs save banks on issuance costs and monitoring. Think about the stimulus checks that were issued during the pandemic. Had there been a blockchain alternative, those funds could be issued immediately and directly in a p2p manner. It would have saved nations billions in funding and provided relief to the people who needed it faster.
Lots of Downsides to Consider
The downsides of CBDCs are enough to make anyone step back and reconsider if they are worth it. For one, they provide the bank with almost God-like monitoring capabilities over your finances. For nations like China, where the government already has a stronghold on the population in terms of personal freedom, the assets are going to be easier to integrate.
CBDCs raise privacy and censorship concerns. If the age of digital currencies comes about and CBDCs are the main form of currency, then everything you do will need to get approved in real-time by the banking overlords. The chances of the world achieving this dystopian state is low because whenever you take a decentralized asset and make it centralized such as CBDCs, you open the door for hackers and attackers.
One of the main advantages of a blockchain network is that there is no administrator or centralized group to alter the network. Most blockchains are immutable and open. Banking CBDC blockchains will need to be centralized and have administrative accounts that could potentially become compromised.
It’s one thing when a hacker attacks a small blockchain project. It would be an entirely different story if a hacker can alter the national currency by hacking a CBDC administrative account. For these reasons and many more, CBDCs are seen as a double-edged sword by many.
DeFi Banks Pay ROIs
At the end of the day, people need to be able to put their money to work for them. DeFi banks make it possible to take your crypto savings and secure rewards without risking your primary asset. These networks leverage new features such as staking, farming, p2p lending, and high-yield savings accounts to get the job done.
It’s easy to see the difference in APYs when you compare the national average APY for fiat savings accounts versus DeFi accounts. Fiat accounts pay out 0.03% of your savings. This rate is far less than the inflation rate which means you’re losing money daily. In comparison, the META VAULT High Yield savings account pays out 10%.
Notably, there are DeFi banking options that promise ridiculous returns to their clients. The main thing to understand is that DeFi is unregulated. You need to stick to a reputable platform that has reasonable returns to ensure the longevity and security of your savings.
How to Combat Volatility when Using DeFi Banks
The crypto market is a volatile sector that sees tokens lose and gain value in minutes. For traders this activity is ideal but for long-term savers, these fluctuations are an issue. They are also not helping vendors who have been reluctant to accept cryptocurrencies in the past due to volatility and delays.
Today’s advanced DeFi networks introduce a new level of performance and stability to the market. The META 1 Coin decouples from the market volatility through the use of a basket of gold-related assets. This structure provides the benefits of gold in terms of self-appreciation and store-for-value characteristics. It also enables you to leverage your funding to generate additional rewards.
The META 1 Coin is the ideal blockchain asset for savers because of its store of value protections. The token has an Oracle sensor network that cross-references trades against the asset value to prevent market dumps. This protection adds confidence to the project and demonstrates the developer’s desire to create a blockchain asset with superior store-of-value characteristics compared to fiat.
Banking for Tomorrow Begins Today
There is no need to wait. The DeFi movement is in full swing and those seeking relief from inflation and centralization should migrate to these advanced protocols. The bank of the future will be flexible, profitable, and most likely decentralized. As such, DeFi banks are on the rise with more features entering service weekly.