The Bank of America have released data that shows how Bitcoin transfers equate to around 6000 times cheaper than the traditional transfer of FIAT currencies at the banks own standard rates. Many do argue that Bitcoin transactions carry a ridiculous expense, however with these findings in mind, Bitcoin is still proving to be a far superior alternative to FIAT currencies.

The findings from the Bank of America show that an international transfer in US Dollars costs on average $45.00 per transaction, compared to just $0.46 for the same transaction made in Bitcoin. This is because, whilst Bitcoin uses a low cost blockchain to process payments, the Bank of America’s payments run through a system called FedWire, the Federal Reserve’s money transfer network. According to Cryptovest:

“FedWire fees are estimated based on the size of the individual transactions and total volume of payments, and an additional ‘incentive fee’ discount can be applied for ‘transfers that exceed 60% of a customer’s historic benchmark volume’. US banks can pay as low as $0.32 in fees for transactions over $90,000 – but at least according to publicly available figures, customer fees do not benefit from this discount. By contrast, a Bitcoin transaction worth $90,000 would cost only 75 cents, according to Earn.com data which puts recommended fees at eight satoshis per byte.”

Sadly, it’s not that simple. Whilst these findings do prove that cryptocurrency is better than FIAT currency, this is hardly a revelatory discovery. We know that Bitcoin is cheaper to use than USD and we know that cryptocurrencies on the whole are better, however sadly this isn’t enough to allow adoption to take place.

We say it time and time again, but regulation is the key here unfortunately. With regards to regulation though, these findings by the Bank of America could prove to be quite essential for when it comes to actually spearheading an adoption drive. If even the Bank of America are admitting flaws within FIAT transfers and their own transfer systems, perhaps regulators and government officials might listen in a bit. These findings will be read worldwide, and that can only have a positive impact on the global opinion of Bitcoin right?

Cryptovest