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Comment by knocte | Hacker News Reader

And this is why most funds that hold bitcoin will fail, at some point.

Bitcoin is a paradigm shift. Its more important value proposition is the lack of counterparty risk (which other people refer to as "self financial sovereignity"). If you're hiring a custodian to hold the bitcoins for you, you're doing it wrong.

> They think that they don't have the 'expertise'

If bitcoin is seen as requiring some special knowledge to hold it safely, it's simply a UX problem that will be solved when wallet software/hardware matures.

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I disagree. As a private person I would feel a lot more secure if I could pay someone to safely hold my cryptocurrency for me.

I trust my bank a lot more than I trust myself to keep things safe.

This seems to be a controversial opinion in the crypto-space :)

People like you, in the long term, will learn that the risk associated using an identity-based custodian based services (be it for fiat or for crypto) is never worth it. Why? In the crypto case, because counterparty risk is higher in this space (companies get hacked more often than banks being robbed). In the fiat case, because of the diminishing rate of value of your holdings due to inflation.

I would love to have a way for my bank to hold my crypto for me, with the same amount of insurances and security audits as they have for other assets.

The "be your own bank" idea which crypto offers was one of the reasons it has taken me a while to get into it. That was something that I really didn't want.

I trust my bank living up to the task of keeping it safe and reimbursing me if they don't. I don't care about the individual coins but I do care about the value they represent and I trust that even if a bank loses a number of coins that it will not affect me. Just like if a bank vault was broken into it would not come out of my account.

> I trust my bank living up to the task of keeping it safe...

Your trust will have a cost. That's what I meant. You will pay with risk or value.

To be honest, bearer shares weren't exactly the best invention ever. They held considerable risks, and losing the shares meant losing your investment and/or company. Crypto ownership is very similar.

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