Had a good reminder today of the difference between permissionless & permissioned money

Moving AUD from a bank account to a crypto exchange my withdrawal got blocked 

It took 4 days for the bank to contact me and try to resolve the situation

“We’re writing in reference to recent unusual activity on your ANZ Internet Banking/ANZ Mobile Banking. 

As a precautionary measure your Customer Registration Number (CRN) has been temporarily suspended to prevent unauthorised use.”

After a single phone call it was resolved, but wow the questions their fraud team asked were strange 

- first it’s all the kyc confirmation. Dob. Addresss. Phone number. Full name. They’re the ones calling you btw..
- then the all questions: is this for crypto? Is it just yourself? Have you done this a long time? This seems to be a new platform??? Etc etc

What’s frustrating is 

1) how slow to notify me they’d stopped the withdrawal 
2) the amount of info they already have that they need repeated back to them
3) the info they already had but didn’t look for (I’ve only ever used this exchange in the 3 years I’ve had the account eg, so it can’t be new, and also I’ve clearly done it before)

In short, when you have to ask permission to move your money, it creates so many hurdles 

& hence the ability to opt out with Bitcoin is so important, valuable, and needed

🙏🏻 

 Could be a scam? Best not to answer phone calls. Call the number you know instead 

 If you need permission to move the money it is jot your money  

 Bingo. Which is a fact that takes quite some time to figure out given all the conditioning! 

 It wasn’t a scam. Number was the usual and email address from the real place 

I did almost get tripped up by a copy of a proton mail email recently. Thankfully checked the address, whcih was some random person, but the email was so similar to what they would send. Phishing 101! 

 Maybe keep your cash savings in a financial firm(e.g. Fidelity) in a money market cash balance account then wire it to the exchange when you want to buy. I have used this technique with no problem. Maybe try wiring to Strike or Unchained. Get another bank account and see if they behave better✌️ 

 Thanks for the suggestions. There’s a number of ways around I know 

Interestingly this transaction was on behalf of my super (Australian pension equivalent), so only a handful of approved exchanges and banks can be used