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I don't think anyone is considering banning cash. More likely, you'll one day find that merchants may refuse to accept cash, or provide change, the same way tha
by whack 10y ago
I don't think anyone is considering banning cash. More likely, you'll one day find that merchants may refuse to accept cash, or provide change, the same way that many merchants today refuse to accept credit cards. And honestly, that is their right. As someone who's had to collect rent from roommates, I refused to accept cash from them. It's too much of a hassle/liability for me to deal with. I think that a law requiring all merchants to accept cash is government-overreach frankly.
Regarding negative interest rates - this is something that sounds really scary, but actually isn't. We aren't talking about a hard asset like gold - we're talking about fiat currencies. Every time your government expands the money supply and triggers inflation, you're losing money. If you try to prevent governments from setting negative interest rates, they will just pump up the money supply and make you lose money through inflation instead. There's little point in banning negative interest rates, unless you're willing to ban monetary-supply-expansion as well. And unless you're a hardcore Ron Paul libertarian, I bet you've never protested governments promoting moderate inflation.
Regarding anonymous monetary transactions, I agree that there is value in this. This can also be accomplished through cashless transactions. All you need is an aggregated prepaid debit card service. You buy the prepaid debit-card using your regular bank account, and then use that prepaid debit card to conduct anonymous transactions.
The one upside of cash is minimal transaction fees. It always annoys me that Visa takes a 1-2% cut from every single transaction. It effectively makes us all 1-2% poorer in the process. But this is a market-solvable problem if the government took adequate steps to foster competition, and ban anti-competitive tactics. We've already seen many attempts recently, such as Apple Pay, to undercut the credit card companies fees, while still allowing cashless transactions.
Overall, cash is a pain to deal with. If I never had to touch cash again, I'd be a perfectly happy man. I don't think the government should take steps to discourage/ban the use of cash, but if private merchants and individuals decide to abandon cash, the government certainly shouldn't interfere with that decision. The current benefits of using cash can certainly be replicated and had, even in a cashless society.
- mindslight 10y agoFWIW, the patents on blinded signatures have come and gone. E-cash based on blinded signatures has the critical property of untraceability that Bitcoin lacks. However, the system must be run by a real-world institution ("bank"). It's quite clear that the existing power structure "wants" to hinder anonymity, whether deliberately for more control via Orwellian crimes like "money laundering", or just emergently where no party wants to get stuck holding the bag in our defective soft-money banking system. Cash is basically what we've got in the medium term. I've personally gone back to using cash for groceries and other various sundry purchases, because pushing back against the government+corporate surveillance panopticon is the right thing to do. This idea of anonymous e-payments is completely hypothetical until eg a proper replacement for Bitcoin arises that has untracability and can withstand nation-state attacks. I'm under no illusions about its anonymity though - every note has a serial number right on it. It would be prudent to assume that banks record the serials of bills that are withdrawn and deposited. I don't actually think this is happening at the consumer level just yet, but I'm sure the diktat has been drawn up and is just waiting for the right 24 hour tragedy.
- Canada 10y ago> You buy the prepaid debit-card using your regular bank account, and then use that prepaid debit card to conduct anonymous transactions. Cash is mixed by changing hands multiple times before being deposited, so even recording the serial numbers at withdraw and deposit time yields little information. Notes frequently pass between people who don't even know each other. At best you might be able to make some assumptions about where people shop regularly, but there's no mandatory database of what is purchased. Your suggestion is not anonymous at all. Prepaid cards can only be anonymous when purchased with cash, and even then they can be traced back to the merchant who sold them who may be able to identify the buyer. (eg. Cameras, known to staff, etc)
- cardiffspaceman 10y agoThe Lindbergh kidnapping suspects were tracked down by tracing the currency they used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindbergh_kidnapping#Tracking_the_ransom_money https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindbergh_kidnapping#Tracking_...