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

bostonfed.org

21–30 of 190 posts

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

#21

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…

Has anyone ever hacked normal central bank vs bank pipes and injected new balances, for example? Or wholesale siphoned off stuff from payment systems? Why would a decentralized system be stronger? Would really more people care to actively monitor it?

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

#22

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…

Its clear that current implementations of decentralized finance are also deregulated. There is a reason that we have some regulation, every single financial scam that is regulated in centralized systems is currently active in decentralized systems. Your concept of decentralization has been corrupted from the start.

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

#23
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…

This isn't good history. You should read more about wildcat banks and the financial crises of that era.

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

#24
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.

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

"Block chaining" is absolutely used to refer to that concept in cryptography, and pre-dates cryptocurrency.

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

#25

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?

A national currency would be even more centralized, and centralized banking systems have not been free of problems either. They acted irresponsibly for years and then many got bailed out because they were "too big to fail". And people that society doesn't approve of can get screwed over if the payment processors choose not to do business with them. Moving in the direction of eliminating cash for these people scares me.

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

#26
Central bank digital currency efforts seem interesting.

1. They make it possible to deliver helicopter money directly to the consumers. Now central banks can only work trough banks or financial markets. Digital currency where everyone has access to central bank money can correct the errors in current systems.

2. Currency would be anchored in real economy with sound monetary policy. Nobody in their right mind takes Bitcoin denominated 10 year mortgage.

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

#27
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.

> We have real world data that shows us this only leads to wasted electricity

You are either ill-informed and should educate yourself on the subject (blockchain != proof of work-based consensus) or willingly creating confusion by mixing up concepts.

Let's assume the first, shall we?

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

#28

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…

I have been cashless for pretty much a decade, I'm more interested in what smart money that can be programmed can do.

Like can i get paid instantly for every KWH i deliver back to the grid via solar panels. Can my salary or hourly contract be streamed to my bank account. These sort of things are all possible in crypto.

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

#29
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> History hasn't been kind to either of Jefferson's opinions in that sentence...military coups are a problem in many countries, but not the US. In fairness, if Jefferson had his way, there wouldn't be much of a military around to plot a coup in the first place. He'd also be considered a staunch non-interventionist were he alive today - "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations and entangling alliances…

I think that argument had more power before a bunch of Canadians set the White House on fire.

the US started that war.

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

#30
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 be…

Isnt git a merkle tree? And a blockchain a special case of a merkle tree? More like a merkle chain ^.^
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