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Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency

reuters.com

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Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency

#31

Post by eddsh1994 »

rbera wrote: post #12
lockhouse wrote: post #8

I understand the advantages of this for the government. It will be much easier to track and control how we spend our money and ensure that we pay every last possible cent of taxes. What is the advantage for me as a citizen?

I suppose ideally your money can’t be stolen? E.g., if someone hacks you or something similar, the government can invalidate that currency. Plus reduced money laundering, since it’s tracked, which theoretically reduces crime and makes it easier to track. Personally I only see physical currency being deprecated over the next several decades, considering most people don’t really care about privacy anymore (including me…

It's 2032. Covid Alpha variant is running rampant. In an attempt to prevent Americans breaking mandatory isolation electric cars have been disabled unless authorised by your neighbourhood state leader and all non-online transactions have been blocked.

Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency

#33

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

isthisthingon99 wrote: post #19
youngtaff wrote: post #16

We have one, it’s called the sterling Seriously I don’t think I touched more than £50 in paper money since the start of the pandemic… everything is via debit / credit card or bank transfer Even when my teenager owes me money he sends it to me via his banking app talking to mine via bluetooth

The point there being that the bank is the middleman not the government. Maybe the same thing given how incestuous things are sometimes.

> The point there being that the bank is the middleman not the government.

The current UK government is not going to be the one to "expand the role of government", eliminate the private sector and avoid allowing "private enterprise" (i.e. their pals and donors in big business) a role (i.e. a cut). They're ideologically opposed to that. Mr Sunak, The current PM has ties to banking, he's not going to leave them in the cold. Like he does with pensioners who can't afford heating.

Grandparent is correct: currency is already digital. The majority of my GBP transactions are digital now - they are not pieces of paper with picture of the late Queen changing hands, they are database records, mediated by a "buy" button in the web browser, or the tap of a card onto a reader.

Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency

#34

Post by [deleted] »

voldacar wrote: post #21
EMIRELADERO wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ensure that we pay every last possible cent of taxes. Is that a bad thing? (The end, not the means)

It may be if you believe the government will do evil things with the money, which is often a reasonable belief.

[deleted]

Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency

#35

Post by toomuchtodo »

roenxi wrote: post #25
lockhouse wrote: post #8

I understand the advantages of this for the government. It will be much easier to track and control how we spend our money and ensure that we pay every last possible cent of taxes. What is the advantage for me as a citizen?

It is also difficult to see what good scenarios this enables. This tech in China is being used to un-bank people who the government thinks are troublemakers. It also looks like it would enable direct-to-consumer money printing which will end poorly (but, I suppose, is better than handouts to the wealthy). The UK government, and Western governments more generally, have a terrible history of lies about who they are goi…

Be less concerned with the money printing, and more concerned with expiring money, making pensioners go back to work to “solve labor shortages”. Programmable money via central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) enables more granular economic control over citizens, that is its purpose.

(China’s digital yuan has/had an expiring voucher version of the currency issued)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/24/uk-governme...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/02/i-cant-work...

https://pca.st/episode/fca3c402-4383-427e-9dd4-e5355d270ba1?... (15:20-~20:00)

Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency

#36

Post by worik »

wesapien wrote: post #28
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #22

Crypto was always mis-marketed as decentralised. It’s not. The American banking system is decentralised. Credit is created and balances maintained at the edges. Blockchain is centralised. This brings many efficiencies. But it also empowers those at the centre.

Can you elaborate how the American banking system? What does a central bank have to do with decentralization?

Banks act independently. There are rules and boundaries set by the central bank, but the create credit on their own initiative and do not have to justify or record each transaction witt a central authority

Block chain keeps everything together in one database.

I think that is the sense that banks are decentralized despite a central bank

Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency

#37

Post by galuggus »

lockhouse wrote: post #8

I understand the advantages of this for the government. It will be much easier to track and control how we spend our money and ensure that we pay every last possible cent of taxes. What is the advantage for me as a citizen?

In theory if the gov can collect all tax then taxes should be lower.

Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency

#39

Post by namaria »

galuggus wrote: post #37
lockhouse wrote: post #8

I understand the advantages of this for the government. It will be much easier to track and control how we spend our money and ensure that we pay every last possible cent of taxes. What is the advantage for me as a citizen?

In theory if the gov can collect all tax then taxes should be lower.

In practice, a government with unlimited capacity for raising taxes will just expand its scope indefinitely.

Re: Bank of England and Treasury think UK is 'likely' to need digital currency

#40

Post by vagabund »

lockhouse wrote: post #8

I understand the advantages of this for the government. It will be much easier to track and control how we spend our money and ensure that we pay every last possible cent of taxes. What is the advantage for me as a citizen?

More granular economic data probably means better monetary policy and fewer systemic risks.
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