3 ms·

No, digital cash

• dgfitz 5y ago
  As far as I’m concerned 99% of my money is already digital cash. Unless I go through the effort of taking cash out via ATM/bank or at a grocery story etc, all I ever see are numbers in a browser/app get bigger or smaller. How is this different? It precludes me from __ever__ having a tangible form of currency?
  • makeitdouble 5y ago
    You are putting too much meaning on the “digital” (yes, I know, it’s a name but). The point is not the digitalness but the decentralized part. One of the main participant in this system is railroads, and they already introduced a money equivalent offline system (Suica/Pasmo) that is wildly used in lieu of cash. As worded in the article they want to take it a step further and convert their “points” to actual legal tender.
    • dgfitz 5y ago
      So it seems like what really should happen is a decentralized USD “blockchain” where the difference is transparent to the users. ACH exchanges just don’t take 3 days and investment transfers don’t have a settling period. This is where I see the actual value of digital currency. If Bitcoin were truly of value in and of itself, it would not be tied back to the dollar. The tech makes it valuable, the concept and the potential, not btc (or a mimic of it) by itself.