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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

#111

Post by dghlsakjg »

djbusby wrote: post #83
rmbyrro wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would also eliminate an incredible last grain of financial privacy people have. When every transaction goes through FED, the government won't need to call or subpoena anyone to know where your money come and go.

How does the Post remain private, since the Government runs that too?

With mail, the only information that is verifiable is the address that received the mail.

The return address can be made up. Although the general area it is sent from is recorded in the form of zip code.

The contents of the letter are also not known.

So even if that info got out, there’s really not much information beyond the fact that mail was received, and we probably know who sent it.

Thats a world of difference from cryptographically signed transactions between known parties with known amounts.

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

#112

Post by psswrd12345 »

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

It was named after Margaret Hamilton, not Alexander

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

#113

Post by drusepth »

rmbyrro wrote: post #78
tadfisher wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key words here are "central transaction processor". Being able to interact with the financial system without going through intermediaries would eliminate an incredible amount of waste in the form of most of the payments industry.

Would also eliminate an incredible last grain of financial privacy people have. When every transaction goes through FED, the government won't need to call or subpoena anyone to know where your money come and go.

So what you're saying is they can finally just do my taxes for me?

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

#114

Post by rvense »

pessimizer wrote: post #77
triangleman wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading Matt Levine's latest column on this CBDC was sort of mind blowing. With a truly centralized digital currency the Fed would basically monopolize all bank deposits (why store money in the bank at all when your digital wallet is perfectly safe) and destroy the entire banking sector. So they are forced to decentralize the currency to some extent, so that banks are the ones to actually issue the currency (after bo…

This is literally the only reason I support it. Banking, debit cards, and paypal are just private taxes.

Exactly. CBDC is not a response to cryptocurrencies. It is a (belated) response to the fact that the way cashless economies have evolved has basically privatized money-as-infrastructure.

The privacy implications of CDBC are a real problem, but the rapidly approaching end game of the current slippery slope is one in which, among other things, all participation in the economy is gated entirely by private banks. No sovereign country should accept that. And yes, any real implementation of a blockchain as a day-to-day cash replacement will have the same problem. These are legal problems requiring a legal solution, not a technical one.

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

#115

Post by dragonwriter »

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.

> Also, military coups are a problem in many countries, but not the US

Standing armies’ threat to liberty isn't exclusively, or even mostly, via military coup, it's through acting without effective oversight against citizens when employed in a domestic security role, heightened by the separate culture and us-vs- them attitude standing forces create.

And, since the mid-19th century, it's mostly been realized in the US through standing paramilitary police forces rather than an normal standing military, as the former were established as permanent entities before regular standing armies in the US, and displaced regular standing armies from the dangerous domestic role that is the main underpinning of them being in Jefferson’s statement.

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

#116

Post by rvense »

reese_john wrote: post #80
pessimizer wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already have all of this. The government can tell your bank to do something, and your bank will do it. What a government digital currency would do is end the subsidy of banks as the only "safe" place to park money. If I have a government account with my money, banks don't get to gamble with it for their own benefit. If I want to do that, I could withdraw the cash from where it is safe and consciously put it at ris…

We already have all of this. The government can tell your bank to do something, and your bank will do it. But can the government do that at scale ? I thought they needed at least a subpoena to get your bank records. It's different from the mass surveillance that a CBDC enables.

Why is it you think a CDBC can't be set up, legally, to require subpoenas?

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

#119

Post by mynegation »

drusepth wrote: post #113
rmbyrro wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would also eliminate an incredible last grain of financial privacy people have. When every transaction goes through FED, the government won't need to call or subpoena anyone to know where your money come and go.

So what you're saying is they can finally just do my taxes for me?

They will, but will also transfer a TurboTax licensing fee to Intuit automatically on your behalf.

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

#120

Post by dragonwriter »

salawat wrote: post #87
djbusby wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does the Post remain private, since the Government runs that too?

They never open the package, and technically, they are quasi-public. Public enough that they can't play fast and loose like everyone else, but private where it matters in terms of not having literal Federally administered databases all just eafer for the reaping.

The USPS isn't quasi-public, it's fully public, an “independent” (meaning it has an Presidentially-appointed, Senate confirmed board with limits on degree of single-party domination) federal executive-branch agency.
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