In the old days, when money was sound, the job of a bank was to protect one’s wealth. Period. Full stop.

It worked like this:

Folks would deposit gold or silver in the bank and get a receipt which they could later use to make withdrawals against. Eventually, people just began trading these receipts and thus, cash was born. It didn’t take long for the bankers to figure out they could issue more paper receipts than the amount of gold or silver held in their vaults. This way, they can issue cash to themselves and even lend out customer money at interest! Indeed, since only a handful of customers can be expected to make withdrawals at any given time, their scheme was never exposed. This is called fractional reserve banking.

During times of crisis or panic, however, the demand to hold physical money increases greatly. When customers line up at banks to make withdrawals, all at the same time, the fraud of fractional reserve banking becomes exposed. Imagine depositing your money at the bank & when it’s time to withdraw it, the bank politely informs you that they lost it. This is known as a bank run.

In a free market, the frequency and severity of bank runs are limited by market forces. Competing banks are incentivized to safeguard their reputation and that of their business by ensuring that the amount held in reserve matches the amount of paper receipts issued. This is called full reserve banking, and the only way to attain this service now, is to do it yourself and become your own bank. This is the story of how I did it, and how you can too.

I’ve already mentioned that safeguarding funds is one aspect of banking. Nowadays, banks also provide a checking & savings account, along with investment advice.

Checking Account Services

Checking accounts are used for everyday exchanges and for all intents and purposes can be replaced simply by downloading the bitcoin.com wallet from the app store. My Bitcoin Cash wallet, which I’ve named “Konkin” is my checking account. My income is quickly converted into BCH and transferred to my Konkin wallet. I have a Bitpay card, which I load with funds from Konkin and use just as any normal debit card would be used. Further, I have a separate BCH wallet for business purposes which I’ve named “Kirzner.” Here, I make and receive payments from Agoristics – an ecom company I started to promote the mass adoption of cryptocurrency.

And thus, I have no cost personal and business checking accounts, free from the tyranny of fractional reserve banking.

Savings Account Services

As more and more people make the transition from fiat to cryptocurrency, the price will eventually stabilize. However, as of now, it remains volatile. As such, you shouldn’t hold anything in cryptocurrency that you aren’t willing to lose. Indeed, as I’ve tried to stress repeatedly in the past, no cryptocurrency has yet to assume the role of a store of value. Nor has fiat currency proven a reliable store of value. In order to store your wealth for later use, there is truly only one option: precious metals.

Since savings generally refers to larger amounts, I like to buy gold coins and silver bars. These metals are then stored in a safe which I keep bolted to my floor. Rihanna, my fully-choked 12 gauge is always nearby. This is a level of safety bankers just aren’t able to provide.

JM Bullion, Provident Metals and Roberts & Roberts Brokerage all sell precious metals in exchange for crypto currency. They also buy it back, so when your savings goal has been reached, it can be easily converted back to crypto for exchange purposes.

In short, gold and silver are my savings account.

Investment Services

In a full reserve system, bankers don’t lend out money and thus can’t charge interest on it, so they need to find avenues to generate income other than their vault services. One way they do this is by offering investment advice and brokerage services.

No investment is 100% secure and thus, only invest funds you can afford to lose. In any case, here are some options for DIY bankers.

BlockFi Wealth Management Services will allow you to earn up to 8.6% APY on crypto currency deposits, a rate unmatched by members of the banking cartel. No hidden fees, compounding monthly interest, and a lack of FDIC insurance makes this a wonderful choice for agorists.

Many agorists made a hefty sum of money during the alt-coin boom of 2016-2017. It wasn’t uncommon for coins to 1000x! Coins like Augur and Waves will always play a special role in the story of my personal financial development. If you missed out on the 2016 boom, don’t worry! Although there are less of them, valuable alt coins are still being created every day. With a bit of research and due diligence, this remains a valuable aspect of any agorist’s portfolio.

Finally, my favorite investment option for DIY bankers are tokenized securities and assets. Instead of companies creating an IPO and listing shares on a publicly traded exchange like Nasdaq or the Dow Jones, soon, they’ll issue tokens on-chain which can then be traded like any other crypto currency. This is how agorists will defeat the parasites infesting the SEC and open capital markets to the world, unleashing a tidal wave of investment and innovation. For now however, the technology is brand new and options remain limited. Patience you must have, my young Padawan.

The best platform for tokenization is Bitcoin Cash’s Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP). SLP tokens can be securely stored on your Bitcoin.com wallet alongside your BCH and BTC. Some SLP tokens like Honk and Spice have already acquired real monetary value.

Conclusion

To summarize, every service provided by bankers can be disintermediated using a combination of cryptocurrency and precious metals. Moreover, in the presence of these alternatives, continuing to fund the welfare/warfare state makes one complicit to the state’s bloodletting. Thus, to replace your fiat checking account, use the Bitcoin.com wallet. To replace your savings account, use precious metals. For investment purposes, consider BlockFi Wealth Management Services, alt-coin investments, and tokenized securities & assets. Not only are these alternatives consistent with the non-aggression principle, but they protect your wealth from political parasites, making them the only option for agorists everywhere.