Data Backup Digest

Most banks in the United States have been historically known for securing more than money. With safe deposit boxes that can hold gold, precious gems, jewelry, and nearly anything in between, they've always been a secure location to store your valuables – unless you were trying to secure cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Ethereum, Doge, or anything else.

But all that has recently changed thanks to a brand new policy in the United States. While banks were previously unable to store Bitcoin or any other form of cryptocurrency on behalf of their customers, they can now add cryptocurrency security to the list of services they provide to their customers.

A Delayed Start

While the recent move to embrace Bitcoin is a positive sign, some feel that it's too late. After all, cryptocurrency has been around for years already. Bitcoin – and some of its competitors – have already experienced some substantial highs and lows.

However, most experts agree that cryptocurrency as a whole is still in its infancy stage. If this proves to be true, the latest move by U.S. financial institutions might have came just in time. While regulatory complications have led banks to avoid cryptocurrency in the past, it seems these concerns are lifting – at least a little bit.

Securing Your Digital Assets

The process of securing and storing cryptocurrency on a long-term basis comes with a number of inherent challenges. It doesn't provide a physical likeness, such as cash, and all cryptocurrency exists solely in a digital space. So how exactly does a bank store cryptocurrency for its customers?

In its simplest form, storage comes in the way of the bank's private encryption key. Without access to the key, nobody – including the currency's original owner and any would-be hackers – will be able to access the funds.

As some banks point out, this isn't even the first time they've offered digital security services. Many banks and other institutions have provided similar services, including digital document storage, for many years. But this is the first time that such capabilities have been extended to include cryptocurrency.

But many proponents and users of cryptocurrency might simply opt to do what they've been doing all along – securing it themselves. The process of storing and securing cryptocurrency on a personal basis isn't any different than the process that the banks are using, so tech-savvy individuals can certainly use their own encryption and secure their digital funds without the help of banks or other financial institutions.

The biggest benefits come to those who aren't tech-savvy as well as those who are holding millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency. Moreover, the fact that banks are now engaging with cryptocurrency could pave the way for other, related services, such as cryptocurrency staking.

While this development is still rather new, it's certainly an exciting time for cryptocurrency. Whether or not the recent news has any major affect on cryptocurrency remains to be seen, but it's certainly shed even more light on an area that has received a great deal attention as of late.