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Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

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Re: Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

#11

Post by tryptophan »

skybrian wrote: post #3
jonathan-adly wrote: post #2

It’s ironic that they named it project Hamilton. He is probably rolling in his grave now thinking that Jefferson would be finally proven right with CBDC and the insane ever increasing Public debt. "banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies," Thomas Jefferson

History hasn't been kind to either of Jefferson's opinions in that sentence. The US did abolish the central bank for a while and nothing good happened as a result. Also, military coups are a problem in many countries, but not the US.

Nothing good has happened after central banking was established either. It's been one financial crisis after another.

Also fun fact - back when the US had private currencies, people WILLINGLY preferred to use them despite a gov currency existing. It is only after the government passed high taxes on these currencies(ie having to pay tax for each transaction to exchange them) that they went out of favor. If they were really so terrible, why did the gov feel the need to kill them?

Central banking is nothing but a power grab. The "it stabilizes the baking system" is nothing but a lie.

Re: Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

#12

Post by politician »

mjevans wrote: post #7

The mention of blockchain in the summary worries me. We have real world data that shows us this only leads to wasted electricity and fabricated silicon shortages/outrageously expensive computer hardware. The idea of a public ledger and distributed witness signatures is sound though, and that should be the basis of a government approved system of inter-reserve asset tracking.

There are different classes of blockchains. For example, the data structure managed by `git` is a blockchain. So, in and of themselves, blockchains are not problematic. When you raise those criticisms you probably meant to address the security function of the consensus mechanism for distributed decentralized ledgers. The security function there is crazy not because the people are evil scammers and con artists, but because Byzantine Fault Tolerance [1] is a hard CS problem, like AI.

Tiered systems for central bank digital currencies that allow complete tracking of all transactions are an active area of interest by central banks. For instance, the PBoC has filed over 80 patents on the subject. You can be sure that these systems don't attempt to solve BFT, don't use as much electricity, and don't protect the peasants from the abuses of the rulers.

[1] https://decrypt.co/resources/byzantine-fault-tolerance-what-...

Re: Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

#13

Post by jonathan-adly »

jlarocco wrote: post #8
mjevans wrote: post #7

The mention of blockchain in the summary worries me. We have real world data that shows us this only leads to wasted electricity and fabricated silicon shortages/outrageously expensive computer hardware. The idea of a public ledger and distributed witness signatures is sound though, and that should be the basis of a government approved system of inter-reserve asset tracking.

I think you may be confusing "blockchain" with "bitcoin". A blockchain is just blocks of data linked together using hash functions to guarantee the authenticity of previous blocks. There's no mining, and only a tiny amount of electricity used.

The anti-crypto bros don’t need that kind of nuance. Blockchains = bad, we don’t need to complicate their simple world with big words.

Re: Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

#14

Post by cryptica »

CDBCs are going to be a goldmine for hackers. If implemented as centralized systems, some hackers and insiders are going to have access to unlimited free money. The fact is that nobody, no group of people on this planet is trustworthy enough to implement such an important system. Such people don't exist. Such centralized system is guaranteed to be corrupted.

This is why such important financial systems MUST be decentralized, at least to the extent that anyone should be able to verify the correctness of the system's state independently.

Re: Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

#15

Post by whimsicalism »

jonathan-adly wrote: post #13
jlarocco wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may be confusing "blockchain" with "bitcoin". A blockchain is just blocks of data linked together using hash functions to guarantee the authenticity of previous blocks. There's no mining, and only a tiny amount of electricity used.

The anti-crypto bros don’t need that kind of nuance. Blockchains = bad, we don’t need to complicate their simple world with big words.

Why not just be charitable and not malign entire classes of people with certain opinions?

Re: Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

#16

Post by bjelkeman-again »

tryptophan wrote: post #11
skybrian wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

History hasn't been kind to either of Jefferson's opinions in that sentence. The US did abolish the central bank for a while and nothing good happened as a result. Also, military coups are a problem in many countries, but not the US.

Nothing good has happened after central banking was established either. It's been one financial crisis after another. Also fun fact - back when the US had private currencies, people WILLINGLY preferred to use them despite a gov currency existing. It is only after the government passed high taxes on these currencies(ie having to pay tax for each transaction to exchange them) that they went out of favor. If they were r…

Do you have any good documentation that backs up your statement that is a lie? I’d be curious to read it.

Re: Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

#17

Post by whimsicalism »

cryptica wrote: post #14

CDBCs are going to be a goldmine for hackers. If implemented as centralized systems, some hackers and insiders are going to have access to unlimited free money. The fact is that nobody, no group of people on this planet is trustworthy enough to implement such an important system. Such people don't exist. Such centralized system is guaranteed to be corrupted. This is why such important financial systems MUST be decent…

You seem to be conflating hacked contracts and hacked coins.

AFAIK, none of the major cryptocurrencies have ever been "hacked."

Re: Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

#18

Post by RandomLensman »

mjevans wrote: post #7

The mention of blockchain in the summary worries me. We have real world data that shows us this only leads to wasted electricity and fabricated silicon shortages/outrageously expensive computer hardware. The idea of a public ledger and distributed witness signatures is sound though, and that should be the basis of a government approved system of inter-reserve asset tracking.

They opted against the use of DLT, so ok for now, I suppose. After all, it is something explicitly under central control.

Re: Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

#19

Post by skybrian »

jlarocco wrote: post #8
mjevans wrote: post #7

The mention of blockchain in the summary worries me. We have real world data that shows us this only leads to wasted electricity and fabricated silicon shortages/outrageously expensive computer hardware. The idea of a public ledger and distributed witness signatures is sound though, and that should be the basis of a government approved system of inter-reserve asset tracking.

I think you may be confusing "blockchain" with "bitcoin". A blockchain is just blocks of data linked together using hash functions to guarantee the authenticity of previous blocks. There's no mining, and only a tiny amount of electricity used.

Isn't that a Merkle tree? "Blockchain" is not commonly used for what git does.

Re: Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study

#20

Post by skybrian »

cryptica wrote: post #14

CDBCs are going to be a goldmine for hackers. If implemented as centralized systems, some hackers and insiders are going to have access to unlimited free money. The fact is that nobody, no group of people on this planet is trustworthy enough to implement such an important system. Such people don't exist. Such centralized system is guaranteed to be corrupted. This is why such important financial systems MUST be decent…

Banks are centralized systems. They do guard against attacks from hackers. It doesn't seem to result in unlimited free money. How is this different?
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