Most of us have consumer bank accounts that we use to pay our bills, make purchases, investments, and save money with — transfer and store value. Signing up for a bank account requires documentation of our personal and ID information. Operating our bank account requires us to log-in to an online banking portal where our information is stored. Have you ever actually looked at your bank statement to see how much the bank rewards you for storing your value with them?

In this article, I will:

briefly dive into the statistics, painting the harsh reality of the current mainstream consumer banking savings return rates ( Chase & Wells Fargo );

of the current mainstream ( ); take a look at Goldman Sachs’ consumer Certificate of Deposit (CD) product; and

consumer Certificate of Deposit (CD) product; and dive into an innovative project aiming to change the way we transfer and store value.

Mainstream Consumer Savings — We Lose, They Win.

Wells Fargo Basic Consumer Savings Account Interest Rate: Source

Banks offer consumers saving accounts to give us a separate account to store our value aside from our spending account, earning an interest rate for doing so. Consumer savings accounts only earn interest when the funds are in the account, but afford consumers the ability to transfer funds out of their account in needed. Did you know savings accounts are limited to only 6 outgoing transfers per month (Regulation D)? Consumers are charged a fee if they exceed 6 transfers in 1-month, Bank of America charges a $10 fee for each outgoing transfer after 6 in the 1-month period.

Let’s take a look at Wells Fargo’s consumer saving rate above. This might be disgruntling news to you if you do not scan your savings account statement, but mainstream banks only offer (in the US at least) 0.01% interest rates — for every $100 you save and store in your savings account. At the end of one-year you will have earned $0.01 for your untouched, $100 savings.

JPMorgan Chase Basic Consumer Savings Account Interest Rate: Source

Let’s not forget about JPMorgan Chase Bank as they have been in the mainstream news quite a bit recently in association with contrasting views on Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Looking at the consumer savings account interest rates above, straight from their website, we see some nice disclosures before we can get to their interest rate number..

Hey, at least Chase is disclosing they have the power to take advantage of us at will, right? Are you starting to see why it is in the banks’ best interest that ‘Bitcoin is a fraud’? Banks make money by charging us fees and loaning us money when we need it, charging an interest rate on the amount loaned to us.

Above is the September 12th, 2017 video of JPMorgan Chase Bank CEO, Jamie Dimon, talking about Bitcoin a fraud and bubble, comparing it to the infamous Tulip Mania (Investopedia Explained) if you haven’t yet listened.

Let’s look at Goldman Sachs’ CD rates below.

Certificate of Deposits — A Harsh Reality

Goldman Sachs’ Consumer Certificate of Deposit Accounts: Source

The major difference between a savings account and certificate of deposit (CD) is that you cannot remove funds locked in a CD without paying a penalty fee. Due to this restriction, consumers are rewarded ‘much higher’ interest rates than consumer savings accounts offer.

Look at those CD rates! Even locking your funds into a CD for the minimum of 6-months earns the saver 60x rate compared to a savings account! I am being a bit sarcastic as locking in $100 into the 6-month CD would earn the consumer a $0.30 at the end of the 6-month period. Unfortunately, even the 0.60% interest rate falls far below the average US rate of inflation of 2.2%. This means 12-months from now, your $100 only has $97.8 of buying power due to the rate of inflation devaluing the currency your savings are denominated in.

Does it make sense to earn $0.01 if your $100 savings are decreasing in value by $2.2? Take notice they are advertising the 5-year, 2.40% rate on across the internet.

Conclusion About Bank Sentiment Toward Blockchain Technology

Jamie Dimon’s Tulip Mania statement breaks some of the most basic economic principles. For instance, is there a limited supply in existence? What utility do Tulips carry? They smell good or look pretty? So they had absolutely no utility and people could grow them in their back yard…Tulips are also organic material so they would deteriorate over time — definitely not a safe store of value. The Tulip Mania bubble was just the most pronounced speculative bubble example humanity have ever seen.

Ultimately, it sounds like banks are nervous that Bitcoin and blockchain technology are enabling consumers to be in complete control of their value storage and transferring — heavily taking away from their revenue source…what will they tell investors when they fail to meet expectations? Let’s look at just how this technology is causing banks to react this way.

MinexBank — Fair Rates, Value Appreciation and 100% in Your Control