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The real benefits could come from making taxation easy and automatic and a requirement that all public transactions be publically accessible while private could

The real benefits could come from making taxation easy and automatic and a requirement that all public transactions be publically accessible while private could remain private. But I don't see states implementing this at any point, but maybe the reverse will happen anonimized public transactions while individuals have to keep all transactions transparent to states.

godelski 5y ago
As I see it, there can be a lot of benefits to everyone. - Gov can easily collect consumption taxes through transaction fees - Make transactions completely anonymous (similar to cash) - Ease government infrastructure as we no longer need to print physical currency that can be lost or destroyed. Also potentially helping with counterfeit money. I'm also assuming coins would be pre-mined. The major disadvantage I see is: Gov could reduce anonymity and further invade privacy of everyday citizens. I see this as too much power the dream of authoritarians. I don't think you would need the public/private transaction paradigm (like zcash). We can watch transactions from wallets and know the owners without knowing who transactions are going to. This would operate the same way cash businesses operate. In a business wallet you'd still have to report everything on your taxes. We can still see when businesses make and lose money by tracking just their wallets. I think the best way to do this is not have wallets with special privileges nor privileged transactions. If we have to explicitly make transactions private they can do the same thing they do with encryption: "only bad guys use encryption because they have something to hide".
- nathias 5y ago
  Yea, I was thinking more in terms of what would be good for society, regardless of current implementation. It would really help fight corruption if each state/business interaction can be tracked along with all supply chains.
  - godelski 5y ago
    Yeah, but you have to make tradeoffs. If we look at pareto we can't solve everything without infinite resources. There's also the assumption that people have to be good actors. So why not instead protect individual rights? We get the benefits of cash with anonymity but a digital currency also reduces tax evasion. We can have both. But not either perfectly. You just declare your wallets on your tax forms. We could also make it tied to a citizen ID (update SSN) and presto, everyone has access to banking (in some form). Which is a great for everyone.

godelski 5y ago

As I see it, there can be a lot of benefits to everyone. - Gov can easily collect consumption taxes through transaction fees - Make transactions completely anonymous (similar to cash) - Ease government infrastructure as we no longer need to print physical currency that can be lost or destroyed. Also potentially helping with counterfeit money. I'm also assuming coins would be pre-mined. The major disadvantage I see is: Gov could reduce anonymity and further invade privacy of everyday citizens. I see this as too much power the dream of authoritarians. I don't think you would need the public/private transaction paradigm (like zcash). We can watch transactions from wallets and know the owners without knowing who transactions are going to. This would operate the same way cash businesses operate. In a business wallet you'd still have to report everything on your taxes. We can still see when businesses make and lose money by tracking just their wallets. I think the best way to do this is not have wallets with special privileges nor privileged transactions. If we have to explicitly make transactions private they can do the same thing they do with encryption: "only bad guys use encryption because they have something to hide".

nathias 5y ago
Yea, I was thinking more in terms of what would be good for society, regardless of current implementation. It would really help fight corruption if each state/business interaction can be tracked along with all supply chains.
- godelski 5y ago
  Yeah, but you have to make tradeoffs. If we look at pareto we can't solve everything without infinite resources. There's also the assumption that people have to be good actors. So why not instead protect individual rights? We get the benefits of cash with anonymity but a digital currency also reduces tax evasion. We can have both. But not either perfectly. You just declare your wallets on your tax forms. We could also make it tied to a citizen ID (update SSN) and presto, everyone has access to banking (in some form). Which is a great for everyone.