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Honestly, I think the solution to crypto and other e-payment methods being hard to use is for the next government that wants to adopt crypto to go with a PoS cr

Honestly, I think the solution to crypto and other e-payment methods being hard to use is for the next government that wants to adopt crypto to go with a PoS crypto. Then they can purchase a reserve, stake it, and issue a series of notes keyed to some portion of that reserve (in other words, if their reserve was split into a billion notes, they would have a billion unique serial numbers). Citizens could then just use the notes (with counterfeit measures in place) or bring it to the bank to deposit, and (at their discretion) withdraw on-chain. If the citizens want the staking rewards, they'd have to self-custody on-chain, but the nation could implement a system where users/merchants could scan the notes on receipt (which would validate the authenticity, as well as provide information about circulation which would help with anti-counterfeit measures). Upon scanning, you'd then get a kickback from the staking rewards, proportional to the amount and the date of last scan. Sounds like a nightmare, but it makes it accessible to homeless people, elderly, etc. and it's honestly more private than existing digital payments; scanning would be at your discretion.

AvAn12 5y ago
Sure but doesn't that essentially ask the government to back the whole thing? In which case, how is that scenario any different than life w/o cryptocurrency (i.e. physical cash + debit cards + credit cards)?
- pcthrowaway 5y ago
  The government is custodying the crypto, sure. But they can't arbitrarily print more. E.g. you can verify that your note is tied to some amount of crypto on the blockchain. If you want to self-custody, you can. If you want to make payments on-chain, you can. The cash is just for convenience and making it more accessible to people who might not have phones. Blending custodial solutions as a way to abstract the complexity of actually using crypto away from people, with the actual blockchain they serve as an interface to, lets people choose their approach based on their comfort level.

AvAn12 5y ago

Sure but doesn't that essentially ask the government to back the whole thing? In which case, how is that scenario any different than life w/o cryptocurrency (i.e. physical cash + debit cards + credit cards)?

pcthrowaway 5y ago
The government is custodying the crypto, sure. But they can't arbitrarily print more. E.g. you can verify that your note is tied to some amount of crypto on the blockchain. If you want to self-custody, you can. If you want to make payments on-chain, you can. The cash is just for convenience and making it more accessible to people who might not have phones. Blending custodial solutions as a way to abstract the complexity of actually using crypto away from people, with the actual blockchain they serve as an interface to, lets people choose their approach based on their comfort level.