Re:China promises its digital currency will offer 'controlla...
by oc_elder on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @11:23AM
(#33422461)
Being subjected to a financial panopticon is something that Brett Scott discusses in "Cloud Money".
CDBC's have an advantage over bank money (checking accounts, credit cards, etc.) in that it is actual state issued currency, rather than a promise. However, they raise the same privacy and coercive concerns.
A promise of not recording transactions is ... not reliable. You don't have to see the CCP as nefarious in order to see that the incentives and ease of recording all transactions would inevitably lead that outcome. This is true for global capital as well.
Hard currency remains the best medium for transactions that remain beyond full surveillance. It's difficult for me to imagine something digital replacing that at scale that doesn't also make financing large scale criminal or terrorist activity much more difficult to stop.
CDBC's have an advantage over bank money (checking accounts, credit cards, etc.) in that it is actual state issued currency, rather than a promise. However, they raise the same privacy and coercive concerns.
A promise of not recording transactions is ... not reliable. You don't have to see the CCP as nefarious in order to see that the incentives and ease of recording all transactions would inevitably lead that outcome. This is true for global capital as well.
Hard currency remains the best medium for transactions that remain beyond full surveillance. It's difficult for me to imagine something digital replacing that at scale that doesn't also make financing large scale criminal or terrorist activity much more difficult to stop.