Not your keys, not your bitcoin?

Striking news if we have to believe Reuters: ING is working on a cryptocurrency service. According to the press release, the bank sees “opportunities in the field of digital currency.”

Sources are unknown

No specific sources are mentioned in the message. Reuters does write that the announcement comes from ING. The bank has not released anything on its own website or other channels.

ING would work on a solution to store bitcoin, but also other types of “digital assets”. What exactly ING means by that is still unclear.

The ING project is still in its infancy, and we do not know whether the product will ever be launched. Previously, Dutch banks have also worked on a crypto service, but these attempts have never gone beyond the development or pilot phase. Think for example of Wallie from ABN Amro and Rabobit from Rabobank.

The German Solarisbank is also working on a service to store crypto coins. The bank announced this in an official press release. In that respect, our eastern neighbors are a bit further.

Will ING come up with a working product, or will the custody service end up in the development phase? That is still waiting.

Not your keys, not your bitcoin

It is a striking development, but one that goes against the principles of bitcoin. Bitcoin has been developed to give people more independence. With bitcoin you are the manager of your own money. You decide what happens to it.

For example, you can manage bitcoin with a hardware wallet. That is a physical device with which you can prove that you are the owner of your bitcoins. A hardware wallet provides you with access to your coins in the form of private keys.

But do you let someone else manage your bitcoin, for example through an exchange or a bank? Then you are not the owner of the keys. And that’s where the expression comes from: not your keys, not your bitcoin.