I went on-line and tried to make a bacs payment. It was 3k so a reasonable sum yet not big in the great scheme. After filling out the details and pressing send, I was told that the payment would be declined and that I no longer had any access to my on-line bank accounts.
Obviously, I did what you'd do and rang the phone number. I got through after a few minutes and explained what had just happened. For the following 35 minutes I answered question after question - started off as the usual security type questions but then went onto quizzing about what I was buying and who I was buying it of and all in great detail. I even explained that the seller was a friend of 30 years standing, a lawyer and even the executor of my will.
When we finally got to the end of all that, I was told they would still decline the payment. As you can imagine, I'm now slightly fed up so asked them to clarify that they were in fact dictating when and on what I could spend my own money and, yes we are, seems to be the answer (I could feel a 'it's for your own good' and a pat on the head coming but thankfully it didn't)
Currently cash is a back up but what happens once that goes? If you think about it (even briefly) that's quite a scary prospect with potentially massive implications.
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I've a mate who 'mines' bitcoin, rows of PCs generating loads of heat you then need to get rid of. Each transaction the code gets longer so you need more and more computing power, with banks and banks of machines and cooling systems.
