News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Drug cartels use dollar bill serial numbers as random key... by adventured on Saturday July 20, 2019 @02:42AM (#20484483)
> How is it a gift to the government?

The parent is wrong that it's a gift of $1 to the Treasury.

It is a gift to the government however, as you note in your own explanation. It just increased the government's USD purchasing power. The US Government is an epic scale spender of USD (millions of employees, $4.x trillion budget).

Re:Drug cartels use dollar bill serial numbers as random key... by thaumasiotes on Sunday July 21, 2019 @08:09PM (#20494528)
The government is a large spender of USD.

It also issues a lot of USD-denominated debt; deflating the dollar makes that worse.

If the government's dollar liabilities exceed its dollar assets, the impact of destroying a dollar on the government's financial health is negative.

Re:Drug cartels use dollar bill serial numbers as random key... by perl4ever on Saturday July 20, 2019 @12:09PM (#20486553)
If $1 is destroyed, that should make everyone who possesses dollars collectively $1 richer, all else being equal.

The government does not possess all wealth.