Modern Economic Nonsense — Banks are seeking shelter in cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies have grown in popularity over the past few years. With this rise, so has the use of these digital assets by major retail financial institutions and investment firms to store value or trade. And it isn’t just small credit unions that are getting involved either. Big name institutions such as Citibank and J.P. Morgan Chase have announced plans to offer their own cryptocurrency services offerings to customers, which gives us a better look at how cryptocurrencies might become more accepted in the future. Cryptocurrencies are generally seen as a faster and more secure way to store value than traditional bank accounts or government-backed fiat currency. The main appeal is anonymity — your money is stored in an online wallet which cannot be accessed by anyone other than you without permission from the company itself, so they can’t be used for criminal activity or tax evasion like traditional banking services can be. But because of this anonymity, it also means there is no regulation on cryptocurrencies similar to that imposed on banks and other financial institutions by governments around the world for security and anti-money laundering (AML) purposes. Until now, most cryptos have been relatively niche but with growing interest from mainstream financial institutions, there’s every chance that we could soon see more widespread adoption of…