Traditional banking has little to fear from bitcoin block chain and its underlying technology. Swift (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) should instead be alarmed by the relatively new technology.
For those of you that dont know Swift: it is the the company that maintains the network on which almost al financial transactions are performed. Over 11 thousand financial institutions worldwide use the services of Swift. Meaning that Swift has a monopoly position.
Bitcoin remains a niche player in the payment transactions and block chain is hardly a threat to banks. Block Chain is mainly seen as promising. It can increase confidence in transactions, is useful for archiving such as trade and may play a role in the development of smart contracts (Ethereum?).
This is different for a service such as Swift, a system that can communicate over 11,000 financial institutions together. Due to the new developments Swift is now perceived as slow, expensive and old-fashioned. The system is decades old and that creates security risks. Just think of the recent cyber attack on Bangladesh Bank which criminals Swift used to steal $ 81 million.
So far my thoughts on the developments of block chain in the nearby future. :)
Block Chain is a cheap, fast, difficult to hack, fully automated transaction system. Such a system can become an alternative to expensive international money transactions. With Swift it can take days for an international payment and could cost more than 10% of the total transaction amount.
Also for the stock market trading is block chain rather complement than a threat. It can increase the security of market transactions.
So far my thoughts on the short term developments of blockchain technology, am curious about yours...
Linnie.