They’ve been around for hundreds of years, and they weren’t just going to give up the ghost and disappear. Yes, I’m talking about the banks.

A decade ago, ‘bank’ was a four-letter word in more ways than one, and everyone was predicting their demise in the face of the FinTech revolution. Finance was being overtaken by technology, and pundits asked: “When will the banks be Ubered?”

But the banks fought back, usurping Bitcoin and the blockchain with a better, more scalable and widely acceptable solution. They called it BankChain.

BankChain was the key to enabling the monetizing and digitizing of almost everything. Digital commerce, digital manufacturing through robotic 3D-printing and digital logistics; on top of media, entertainment and all the usual stuff. They needed a fully digital currency, to enable the Valueweb: an internet where value can be exchanged anywhere, anytime by anyone.

You see, despite all the negatives, people still trust banks more than they trust government or tech companies when it comes to stores of value, even digital value. The ‘bank’ aspect to BankChain, created and backed by banks worldwide, gave it the legitimacy even the mighty dollar, euro and yuan could never achieve.

The fact remains that fiat currency always carries a political and fiscal risk; it’s controlled by a nation state. BankChain is controlled by the Valueweb itself, globally, and legitimized by the financial markets, and of course, the banks.