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With the death of cash, privacy faces a deeply uncertain future

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Re: With the death of cash, privacy faces a deeply uncertain future

#31

Has anyone found a use for cash outside financing criminal operations? Transactions are slower than sending money electronically, the paper is subject to decay, and if your cash gets stolen you have no recourse to getting it back. The fact that a hundred dollar bill is worth a hundred real dollars is insanity and proof that its value is a speculative bubble that’s being driven by anarchist fanatics and criminals.

> being driven by anarchist fanatics

Literally backed by the government. Cash is a government-backed store of value.

What kind of hoops do you have to jump through to say "my federally standardized central currency that only the government is allowed to print is a tool of the anarchist anti-state fanatics?"

Re: With the death of cash, privacy faces a deeply uncertain future

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Has anyone found a use for cash outside financing criminal operations? I’ve gone camping and hiking in plenty of places that have no cellular service so cash is the only way to pay the fees. >The fact that a hundred dollar bill is worth a hundred real dollars is insanity and proof that its value is a speculative bubble that’s being driven by anarchist fanatics and criminals. Or, you know, because the government says…

> I’ve gone camping and hiking in plenty of places that have no cellular service so cash is the only way to pay the fees. This seems like more of a reason to push for rolling out wireless connectivity in places of natural beauty than to argue for keeping cash around. Last time I traveled Chilean Patagonia, I was impressed that even the most isolated communities now have 4G and the village general store has a card ter…

I know there are many downsides to it, but I enjoy these places where you can get away from the 24/7 always online world. There are so few left anymore

Re: With the death of cash, privacy faces a deeply uncertain future

#33

This is the real killer app of cryptocurrency. Monero is a decentralized, untraceable digital cash that preserves privacy. All the arguments against cryptocurrency can also be applied to cash, but that doesn’t take away their main value proposition, which is a mathematically secure way to send payments while protecting the sender’s privacy.

As a monero contributor, I can say one problem differentiating it still from the capabilities of cash is the inability to give Monero to someone who doesn't already have a wallet. there's trust involved in every solution we know of so far.

I get what you're saying of course, but as a fun counterpoint, I gave my brother $50 worth of Monero for Christmas and he has absolutely no idea how cryptocurrencies work, had never heard of Monero. I simply wrote out instructions on a piece of paper, the seed, basic opsec, and there you go. He probably put it in his drawer and forgot about it. But he'll remember and learn how it works real quick if I ever tell him it's at $50,000 or something in a few years haha.

Re: With the death of cash, privacy faces a deeply uncertain future

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you explain hyperinflation?

I'd explain it as being irrelevant to this particular conversation since credit/debit cards would also be affected by hyperinflation. Though you'd have the advantage of not having to push a wheelbarrow full of cash around.

[deleted]

Re: With the death of cash, privacy faces a deeply uncertain future

#35

Has anyone found a use for cash outside financing criminal operations? Transactions are slower than sending money electronically, the paper is subject to decay, and if your cash gets stolen you have no recourse to getting it back. The fact that a hundred dollar bill is worth a hundred real dollars is insanity and proof that its value is a speculative bubble that’s being driven by anarchist fanatics and criminals.

Alms.

Cash tips to underpaid workers of various stripes.

An “Oh, Shit” emergency envelope in the home.

An “oh crap got a flat” $50 in my bike jersey.

Lots of reasons!

Re: With the death of cash, privacy faces a deeply uncertain future

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Has anyone found a use for cash outside financing criminal operations? I’ve gone camping and hiking in plenty of places that have no cellular service so cash is the only way to pay the fees. >The fact that a hundred dollar bill is worth a hundred real dollars is insanity and proof that its value is a speculative bubble that’s being driven by anarchist fanatics and criminals. Or, you know, because the government says…

> I’ve gone camping and hiking in plenty of places that have no cellular service so cash is the only way to pay the fees. This seems like more of a reason to push for rolling out wireless connectivity in places of natural beauty than to argue for keeping cash around. Last time I traveled Chilean Patagonia, I was impressed that even the most isolated communities now have 4G and the village general store has a card ter…

> This seems like more of a reason to push for rolling out wireless connectivity in places of natural beauty than to argue for keeping cash around.

Is there a timeline for when America will get perfect, reliable connectivity in rural/isolated areas? Is it OK if we keep cash around in the meantime until that problem is solved?

Just let us know when that 4G rollout is completely done, and then we can revisit this conversation.

Re: With the death of cash, privacy faces a deeply uncertain future

#37
post #2

As long as it's framed as a way to cut off immoral right wing extremists from the financial system, Silicon Valley will enthusiastically embrace dystopian government control of currency.

And 20 years ago, neo-cons embracing dystopian government control to make sure muslims didn't use cash. It's all control. But instead of seeing it as right vs. left, its better framed as authoritarians (historic and modern left [1], Silicon Valley, FBI) vs. people who value their freedom and privacy either because its innate to their being, or because their particular group is kept under a watchful eye (gays in the 8…

Christian people are kept under a watchful eye in the US today? All 200 million of them?

Re: With the death of cash, privacy faces a deeply uncertain future

#38
Societies need to implement rules so that any sharing of a user's data needs to flow through data repositories that are controlled by the user and so they can authorize and audit each of these flows. Sort of like an oAuth dialogue, "Mortage Lender A wants access to your 2020 after-tax income" and you'd give them limited access so they could underwrite the loan and it'd be illegal to store the user's data any longer than necessary for that purpose. This would give companies cleaner data and common API while eliminating the possibly for anti-consumer data middle men like credit bureaus who could be then be summarily launched into space.

Re: With the death of cash, privacy faces a deeply uncertain future

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Has anyone found a use for cash outside financing criminal operations? I’ve gone camping and hiking in plenty of places that have no cellular service so cash is the only way to pay the fees. >The fact that a hundred dollar bill is worth a hundred real dollars is insanity and proof that its value is a speculative bubble that’s being driven by anarchist fanatics and criminals. Or, you know, because the government says…

> I’ve gone camping and hiking in plenty of places that have no cellular service so cash is the only way to pay the fees. This seems like more of a reason to push for rolling out wireless connectivity in places of natural beauty than to argue for keeping cash around. Last time I traveled Chilean Patagonia, I was impressed that even the most isolated communities now have 4G and the village general store has a card ter…

>This seems like more of a reason to push for rolling out wireless connectivity in places of natural beauty

I cannot state how strongly I. disagree. Part of the appeal of these places is that you are completely cut off. Destroying that for something as banal as credit card payments is abhorrent to me.

I’d also much rather that the organizations that run these areas spend their money on things other than paying for and maintaining PoS systems. I’ve yet to see one that’s as reliable as a steel post that you jam cash into.

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