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One benefit I didn't see mentioned was that central banks, being an arm of the government, presumably won't cut off payment processing for completely-legal-but-

One benefit I didn't see mentioned was that central banks, being an arm of the government, presumably won't cut off payment processing for completely-legal-but-socially-unacceptable sites like private payment services do. I know this happens to porn artists/websites all the time, and recently it's been happening to political extremist sites like Parler etc. too.

UShouldBWorking 6y ago
The us central bank is NOT an arm of the government any more that Federal Express is an arm of the government.
louloulou 6y ago
A lot of that was due to government "suggestion": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point
- vladvasiliu 6y ago
  That's interesting. As I commented elsewhere on the thread, I'm not sure why people think that with a central bank digital currency the retail banking and payment processor sectors would be shut down, or at the least that it would be possible to easily circumvent them. I think they will continue the way they do today, but instead of trading in "paper" tokens they will trade in digital ones. Which, what with the fractional reserve and all, shouldn't be all that different. So they could continue with their current kind of policies, like "we won't do business with people / companies we consider undesirable".
GoblinSlayer 6y ago
In the end it's just another censorship mechanism, and the only question will be how to extend its use. Once the system is in place, it becomes a neverending temptation.
GNU_James 6y ago
>political extremist sites like Parler
pjc50 6y ago
I would expect the use of the system for policy enforcement to be much more intrusive.
supercollision 6y ago
a concern I've heard of CBDCs and cashless systems in general is that governments will be able to do exactly that, and there wouldn't be a recourse to someone pushed out of the system. More realistically they could have your purchases and income streams feed into a social credit system or actuarial models.

UShouldBWorking 6y ago

The us central bank is NOT an arm of the government any more that Federal Express is an arm of the government.

louloulou 6y ago

A lot of that was due to government "suggestion": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point

vladvasiliu 6y ago
That's interesting. As I commented elsewhere on the thread, I'm not sure why people think that with a central bank digital currency the retail banking and payment processor sectors would be shut down, or at the least that it would be possible to easily circumvent them. I think they will continue the way they do today, but instead of trading in "paper" tokens they will trade in digital ones. Which, what with the fractional reserve and all, shouldn't be all that different. So they could continue with their current kind of policies, like "we won't do business with people / companies we consider undesirable".

GoblinSlayer 6y ago

In the end it's just another censorship mechanism, and the only question will be how to extend its use. Once the system is in place, it becomes a neverending temptation.

GNU_James 6y ago

>political extremist sites like Parler

pjc50 6y ago

I would expect the use of the system for policy enforcement to be much more intrusive.

supercollision 6y ago

a concern I've heard of CBDCs and cashless systems in general is that governments will be able to do exactly that, and there wouldn't be a recourse to someone pushed out of the system. More realistically they could have your purchases and income streams feed into a social credit system or actuarial models.