# Money forms relationships

By [Citizen2058](https://paragraph.com/@citizen2058) · 2021-12-01

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### What banks and other traditional financial organizations miss, is that the act of interacting with money involves emotions, needs trust, and creates relationships.

At the center of every transaction or payment, there is a relationship. A relationship between a mother and a son, a relationship between a son and their parents, a relationship between a business and their customers. 

At the center of all relationships, there is **trust**. When both people are connected by a single network or platform, trust and transparency are introduced and the relationship between them is strengthened. Important components in a relationship. You need to have full trust in who is providing you the service and the service itself needs to be fully transparent with everything it provides.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/acb9c0eef0042b0c929b62a7ca4d5fb794c5886346de2720032b16e85877b7ce.jpg)

Unfortunately, we see often banks and traditional financial organizations promote trust and transparency without really providing full transparency which leads to a decline in trust.

Did you know that according to an independent [report](https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2108/S00143/nzd294-billion-150b-paid-in-hidden-fees-on-foreign-currency-each-year.htm) from Edgar, Dunn and Company, over **£150 billion** is paid in hidden fees to traditional banks each year? Fees are either extracted via an exchange rate mark-up or a rate mark-up plus additional fees.

The same [reports](https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2108/S00143/nzd294-billion-150b-paid-in-hidden-fees-on-foreign-currency-each-year.htm) show that only **4%** of surveyed bank customers understand what they are being charged in these transactions. **4%??** That’s just crazy.

![Image: dua.com](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/9ed67d191cf15b1aa68218385554845d35c9be1ffee16e321983fe4994015cc5.jpg)

Image: dua.com

Did you also know that financial institutions have been fined a total of [**$ 333 billion**](https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/industry/financial%20services) since the year **2000**? There have been [**6,826**](https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/industry/financial%20services) penalty record entries around the globe since 2000 for different reasons from money laundering to working with 3rd world dictators.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/0eac864a9f53bebc4ead28a838bf4819e55c1abf267ce148fb433f01827dfe8e.gif)

Let’s not talk about the recent financial crisis of 2007-2008 when the state had to bail out major banks in the US, because of their massive involvement in the housing bubble. According to the IMF, U.S. and European banks [lost](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008) more than **$1 trillion** from bad loans from January 2007 to September 2009.

#### The solution is decentralization

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f4223ac0014e778fd09d2cf0d1ebdc12a4e4a24d456e5815a8051186390e5db3.jpg)

More than a decade ago Bitcoin was born and suddenly the component of trust wasn’t necessary anymore. Satoshi introduced to the world the miracle of decentralization. A currency that is not owned by a single entity but by many of them. He democratized money.

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*Originally published on [Citizen2058](https://paragraph.com/@citizen2058/money-forms-relationships)*