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Excited to see a reputable company like Coinbase launch this. Hopefully with their reputation we can avoid another Tether situation. The US government should l

Excited to see a reputable company like Coinbase launch this. Hopefully with their reputation we can avoid another Tether situation. The US government should launch their own stablecoin. A digital US dollar is a national need that shouldn’t be managed by a corporation in my opinion.

cheeseomlit 8y ago
USD is already digital, the vast majority of dollars in circulation are not bills/coins
- agorabinary 8y ago
  Can you withdraw your USD to a flash drive?
  - jf- 8y ago
    Would that be a good idea? Do you want your money to be in a state where it can very easily become unrecoverable?
    - donatj 8y ago
      Like cash?
      - jf- 8y ago
        Hmm. So you can’t see any differences between a flash drive and cash? If you withdrew your life savings in cash, that cash couldn’t become corrupted, unless by physical damage. Your life savings in cash would also be large enough that you wouldn’t be likely to lose it, or have the container it sits in easily stolen or accidentally smashed. You also are not very likely to forget or misplace the password to your cash. Or, you could just use a credit card and have fraud protection.
        reidjs 8y ago
        If I had my life savings on a flash drive I think I could keep track of it pretty well. The nice thing about crypto wallets is you can replicate the secret key indefinitely. So, even if the drive is stolen you still have a password protected backup. If the cash is stolen, well, possession is 9/10s the law ;).
- buildbuildbuild 8y ago
  Consumers currently cannot hold USD electronically without a bank.
  - celticninja 8y ago
    Pre paid visa card? Gift card?
    - wmf 8y ago
      Those cards are issued by banks as well.
soared 8y ago
Why does there need to be a digital US dollar? Almost 20% of the US is underbanked, and 6.5% is unbanked. A digital dollar seemingly would be even worse and work to concentrate wealth among the educated/wealthy. https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/ https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/
- arcticbull 8y ago
  Many low income people have smartphones actually, and use them in lieu of desktops. Not being connected isn’t the reason they’re unbanked or underbanked, you could argue moving more to digital would include more of them. Plus the US dollar is already digital. In part they don’t have bank accounts because they’re poor, so they don’t have money to put in them. If they weren’t broke they’d have bank accounts. IMO this is more a function of wealth inequality in the US than of banking. Think about it, you’ve got $0. Now I give you a fee free bank account. You’ve still got $0. You’re no more included in the financial system.
  - soared 8y ago
    If they're already connected, why would moving digital include more of them in banking? They're not using physical banking now, I don't see how digital banking would convert them.
    - arcticbull 8y ago
      I meant having more ways to spend their money directly from their phones would allow them to avoid having to withdraw from physical ATMs, and more digital acceptance options means not having to deposit at ATMs. Those are kind of the last vestiges of the physical banking system. These problems are being solved though. Basically any time you’ve seen a “cash only” sign, it’s a blocker to totally digital banking. Low income folks get wrecked disproportionately by the high fees associated with physical retail banking (including ATMs). They charge flat fees (like Cryptos incidentally) which function as a regressive tax on the poor. Digital banking, by virtue of not having to deal with real estate and physical assets is more efficient and cheaper.
billions 8y ago
The government's "stable coin" lost 96% of its value since 1913. Time to try something different? https://comparegoldandsilverprices.com/news/economics-101/dollar-devaluation-since-1913/ https://comparegoldandsilverprices.com/news/economics-101/do...
- crooked-v 8y ago
  That article is dramatically inaccurate in many ways, starting with its claim of gold's value not changing over time.
- arcticbull 8y ago
  I can’t overstate this enough, DONT HOLD DOLLARS. Currency is intentionally lossy so you invest it in productive assets. You’re pointing to a feature and yelling bug because you don’t seem to understand how it’s meant to work. Wages kept pace so earn rate remained constant or better and if you invested instead of throwing dollar bills under your mattress you’d have done incredibly well as the S&P has had a historical 7% geometric return. Finally, all the popular stable coins are literally indexed to the US dollar, so you can’t say USDC/USDT is great then whine about the USD right?
- wcarron 8y ago
  What a strawman. Inflation BAAAAAD, right guys? C'mon. We all know why the Fed targets a relatively consistent rate of inflation. It's because deflation suppresses consumer spending. Not what you want in a consumer economy.
  - cheeseomlit 8y ago
    What if I want to save? Certainly seems kinda bad when my savings keeps losing value
    - askafriend 8y ago
      Why not save shares of the S&P 500 index? You just sell some when you want to buy something like a car.

cheeseomlit 8y ago

USD is already digital, the vast majority of dollars in circulation are not bills/coins

agorabinary 8y ago
Can you withdraw your USD to a flash drive?
- jf- 8y ago
  Would that be a good idea? Do you want your money to be in a state where it can very easily become unrecoverable?
  - donatj 8y ago
    Like cash?
    - jf- 8y ago
      Hmm. So you can’t see any differences between a flash drive and cash? If you withdrew your life savings in cash, that cash couldn’t become corrupted, unless by physical damage. Your life savings in cash would also be large enough that you wouldn’t be likely to lose it, or have the container it sits in easily stolen or accidentally smashed. You also are not very likely to forget or misplace the password to your cash. Or, you could just use a credit card and have fraud protection.
      - reidjs 8y ago
        If I had my life savings on a flash drive I think I could keep track of it pretty well. The nice thing about crypto wallets is you can replicate the secret key indefinitely. So, even if the drive is stolen you still have a password protected backup. If the cash is stolen, well, possession is 9/10s the law ;).
buildbuildbuild 8y ago
Consumers currently cannot hold USD electronically without a bank.
- celticninja 8y ago
  Pre paid visa card? Gift card?
  - wmf 8y ago
    Those cards are issued by banks as well.

soared 8y ago

Why does there need to be a digital US dollar? Almost 20% of the US is underbanked, and 6.5% is unbanked. A digital dollar seemingly would be even worse and work to concentrate wealth among the educated/wealthy. https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/ https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/

arcticbull 8y ago
Many low income people have smartphones actually, and use them in lieu of desktops. Not being connected isn’t the reason they’re unbanked or underbanked, you could argue moving more to digital would include more of them. Plus the US dollar is already digital. In part they don’t have bank accounts because they’re poor, so they don’t have money to put in them. If they weren’t broke they’d have bank accounts. IMO this is more a function of wealth inequality in the US than of banking. Think about it, you’ve got $0. Now I give you a fee free bank account. You’ve still got $0. You’re no more included in the financial system.
- soared 8y ago
  If they're already connected, why would moving digital include more of them in banking? They're not using physical banking now, I don't see how digital banking would convert them.
  - arcticbull 8y ago
    I meant having more ways to spend their money directly from their phones would allow them to avoid having to withdraw from physical ATMs, and more digital acceptance options means not having to deposit at ATMs. Those are kind of the last vestiges of the physical banking system. These problems are being solved though. Basically any time you’ve seen a “cash only” sign, it’s a blocker to totally digital banking. Low income folks get wrecked disproportionately by the high fees associated with physical retail banking (including ATMs). They charge flat fees (like Cryptos incidentally) which function as a regressive tax on the poor. Digital banking, by virtue of not having to deal with real estate and physical assets is more efficient and cheaper.

billions 8y ago

The government's "stable coin" lost 96% of its value since 1913. Time to try something different? https://comparegoldandsilverprices.com/news/economics-101/dollar-devaluation-since-1913/ https://comparegoldandsilverprices.com/news/economics-101/do...

crooked-v 8y ago
That article is dramatically inaccurate in many ways, starting with its claim of gold's value not changing over time.
arcticbull 8y ago
I can’t overstate this enough, DONT HOLD DOLLARS. Currency is intentionally lossy so you invest it in productive assets. You’re pointing to a feature and yelling bug because you don’t seem to understand how it’s meant to work. Wages kept pace so earn rate remained constant or better and if you invested instead of throwing dollar bills under your mattress you’d have done incredibly well as the S&P has had a historical 7% geometric return. Finally, all the popular stable coins are literally indexed to the US dollar, so you can’t say USDC/USDT is great then whine about the USD right?
wcarron 8y ago
What a strawman. Inflation BAAAAAD, right guys? C'mon. We all know why the Fed targets a relatively consistent rate of inflation. It's because deflation suppresses consumer spending. Not what you want in a consumer economy.
- cheeseomlit 8y ago
  What if I want to save? Certainly seems kinda bad when my savings keeps losing value
  - askafriend 8y ago
    Why not save shares of the S&P 500 index? You just sell some when you want to buy something like a car.