We already use social security numbers for everything (insurance, credit, etc.). It's pretty much a national ID, just a shitty one.
The way they got SSNs through is by promising that it would be illegal to use them for identification. The only remnant of that is that it (still?) remains illegal to refuse services to people who refuse to give their social security numbers, although if you do it you'll break customer service.
"Can I see your social security card, please? The one that says 'Not to be used for identification' on it?" lol
PayPal doesn’t have a military and doesn’t extract taxes from you though.
The military? When was the last time they turned on the citizens? I don't live in Tiananmen, thankfully. Meanwhile it's private companies that oppress most of us: private hospitals, private prisons, private insurances companies, private credit bureaus, private banks, private tech companies, private surveillance companies, private small arms manufacturers and dealers. It ain't the government that's crimping my freedom…
Forget the military, when was the last time the government used force on its own citizens? Probably 1 second ago, and thousands of times a day. Are you really more oppressed by a private hospital today than you are by literally thousands of laws that have penalties that will put you in prison? I'm not pro private hospital, or anti-law, but let's be real about who has ultimate control of your freedom. Even if we grant the threat to your freedom by a private [fill in the blank], that entity only is allowed to exist by dint of the government. Not a coincidence that many of your examples are the most regulated industries, or directly in business with Government (hospitals, firearms manufactures, prisons, insurance companies).
Here we go. CBDCs are next, and also national Digital IDs. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uwRSzNTp2ko Real ID + needing it to browse anything on the Internet: https://community.qbix.com/t/the-coming-war-on-end-to-end-en... From what I see people on HN writing, by and large they downplay the risks of these as well as AI. Or alternately seem to suggest that CBDCs and national IDs are not coming, and that it’s a conspira…
> CBDCs are next Nobody has seriously discussed a CBDC for months in the U.S. FedNow is the American financial system catching up to the 1990s. It has nothing to do with crypto beyond the cursory.
Powell seriously discussed CBDC in his recent testimony to congress. He mentioned it was far off.
How can a consumer actually try this to send money? This says Wells Fargo is live now but after logging into Wells Fargo I don't see any obvious new feature.
Here we go. CBDCs are next, and also national Digital IDs. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uwRSzNTp2ko Real ID + needing it to browse anything on the Internet: https://community.qbix.com/t/the-coming-war-on-end-to-end-en... From what I see people on HN writing, by and large they downplay the risks of these as well as AI. Or alternately seem to suggest that CBDCs and national IDs are not coming, and that it’s a conspira…
I would love to see government IDs be available as a form of auth on the internet. It would open up the possibility of real-person communities with fewer bots and trolls. Similarly with digital payments, I'd much rather trust the government with that than some rando cryptobro of the week. There is nothing extreme about this. The government already does both functions in the analog world. It's about time they caught u…
> It would open up the possibility of real-person communities with fewer bots and trolls.
I would be 100% unwilling to engage with public online communities if I had to reveal my real-world identity to do so.
I don't understand why FedNow and CBDC are such a big issue in the US. FedNow looks quite attractive from a fees perspective, especially when compared to PayPal and alike. Part of me wonders if the middlemen who stand to lose out might be trying to muddy the waters. It wouldn't be the first time.
The same thing happens when a town decides to string fiber on their utility poles and sell transit. All sorts of reasons why that's a terrible thing. Same for importing drugs from other countries. And on and on.
I don't understand why FedNow and CBDC are such a big issue in the US. FedNow looks quite attractive from a fees perspective, especially when compared to PayPal and alike. Part of me wonders if the middlemen who stand to lose out might be trying to muddy the waters. It wouldn't be the first time.
Because there are many Americans who are small gov and against excessive taxation. A CBDC is "too far" for a lot of people who believe that.
I don't understand why FedNow and CBDC are such a big issue in the US. FedNow looks quite attractive from a fees perspective, especially when compared to PayPal and alike. Part of me wonders if the middlemen who stand to lose out might be trying to muddy the waters. It wouldn't be the first time.
Supposedly, it's because of more centralized surveillance and control.