The third largest bank in the United States, Wells Fargo, has agreed to pay $575 million USD to resolve legal investigations, according to a report published by the New York Times. These investigations, conducted by all 50 states and Washington DC, delved into a plethora of scams targeted at their clients, carried out over the past decade. These scams include: forcing customers who took out car loans to buy unwanted auto insurance; enrolling more than 500,000 clients in a bill-paying service they did not ask to join and opening millions of unauthorized bank accounts in customers names, so as to meet sales goals.

This news comes after Wells Fargo blocked their clients from making cryptocurrency related purchases with their credit cards back in June of 2018. The company claimed that the reason for this was because they considered crypto related investments to be too risky, as they are volatile and prone to scams. Now it would seem that Wells Fargo stands as the prime example of the risks and dangers of centralized banking. As opposed to protecting its customers and their money, the financial company took advantage of them.

This incident showcases the core allure of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology: that it is decentralized. This means there is no third-party holding onto your finance. Hence, there is no risk of having your account frozen or having unwanted insurance forced upon you. Despite being regulated by the government and numerous agencies, the banking system still holds the possibility to take advantage of those within it.

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