Won’t Happen With Bitcoin: Bank of America Shuts Down Ex-PayPal CFO’s Bank Account
One of the largest US banking institutions, the Bank of America, has recently decided to close the account of the former CFO of PayPal. The decision came without an explanation, despite the fact that he had been a client for over 20 years. Needless to say, Bitcoin’s censorship-resistant nature is one of the things that bring it up as a viable alternative in scenarios of the kind.
Bank Of America Shuts Down An Account
The former CFO of PayPal and current partner at Sequoia, Roelof Botha, shared that his Bank of America account has been shut down after 20 years of being a customer. The notice he got contained nothing else but the fact that the account will be closed in 30 days. Commenting on the matter, Botha said:
After being a customer of @BankofAmerica for 20 years, I received this notice today that they decided to fire me as their customer! With absolutely no explanation…. pic.twitter.com/IJu3peiIWX
— Roelof Botha (@roelofbotha) November 18, 2019
Apparently, the bank made this decision “after a careful review” of his banking relationship, without providing any other explanation whatsoever. A lot of people asked whether or not he has been using the account for cryptocurrency-related transactions but so far, Botha hasn’t responded. In any case, it’s exactly those kinds of one-sided decisions that centralized authorities have the capacity to make that bring out one of Bitcoin’s best characteristics – its censorship resistance.
Bitcoin To The Rescue
Having your banking account shut down without an explanation could be harmful. Unfortunately, the Terms of Service that people agree to when opening bank accounts oftentimes state that the bank retains the right to terminate the account without providing any explanations but only a notice.
This is exactly where Bitcoin shines, though. One of the biggest advantages of its distributed and decentralized nature is the lack of central point of authority. No one has the capability to single out a person or an entity and forbid him from participating in the network.
But it’s not just that, the perks of censorship resistance go further. A central party can’t invalidate the user’s transactions or reverse any changes. Furthermore, all of the transactions are publicly auditable and a central party isn’t required to ensure that the transactions are valid.
In addition, everyone with access to the Internet can become a part of Bitcoin’s network, irrespective of their net worth, geographical location, business intentions, and so forth.
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