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Comment by jstandard | Hacker News Reader

I've often heard that problems with banks and private , centralized control of wealth is one of the fundamental reasons for cryptocurrency.

I'm genuinely curious, what cryptocurrency related services would you want a bank to provide? And, related, what do you expect or hope to be using that cryptocurrency for?

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It would be nice if I could buy cryptocurrency with my account funds, and for it to be protected/insured while it was in the bank's wallet. The ability to transfer in and out, etc. The ability to make debits against a cryptocurrency balance, etc.

I use robinhood at the moment. If robinhood was able to act more like a bank, and supported transferring cryptocurrency in and out, then it would basically be what I was looking for.

In the past I've just used coinbase/poloniex, and I just transfer to my wallets. I currently use bitcoin to buy domains on namecheap, and I use purse.io to buy stuff from amazon - but I can see myself using it for a lot more in the future.

There may not be a lot of demand for it, but like I said, if local banks started offering these services it would get my attention.

It sounds like all the same protections and uses you get with USD. I get the impression Coinbase may be moving in that direction if they haven't already.

What advantages over USD are there for using bitcoin to buy domains or items from amazon?

Not sure if there's any specific advantages, but I still prefer to use bitcoin when I can - just feels good. It's nice to be able to buy stuff from amazon without an amazon account though, although that has more to do with purse.io than bitcoin.

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