> but it is ridiculous how crypto currency combines the worst of the wild west with the worst of banking with the worst of crappy customer service.
Crypto's value is because it is the wild west. Otherwise, it'd be gold: custodians holding the commodity for owners, most of it locked in cold storage, fully regulated, and governments pursuing theft whenever reported.
Eventually, the end state desired will be reached (regulation, customer service, insurance, pursuit of value theft, etc), it's just taking time for governments and Big Finance to catch up.
Bitcoin is a self custody asset just like gold, and IMHO that and it's de-centralized exchange is actually where all the value comes from if it has any. People do own gold and store it on their own property as well.
Gold owners also use responsible custodians when they don't store the gold themselves. I think bitcoin owners do not do the same because they want to have easy access to trading and there aren’t companies that both operate trading and are either responsible custodians or make it easy to use a different custodian for storage.
Crypto's value is because it is the wild west. Otherwise, it'd be gold: custodians holding the commodity for owners, most of it locked in cold storage, fully regulated, and governments pursuing theft whenever reported.
Eventually, the end state desired will be reached (regulation, customer service, insurance, pursuit of value theft, etc), it's just taking time for governments and Big Finance to catch up.
EDIT: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/01/defi-protocol-compound-mista... (DeFi bug accidentally gives $90 million to users, founder begs them to return it)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency_and_crime