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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

#71

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

triangleman wrote: post #66
beefman wrote: post #44

"In our design users interact with a central transaction processor using digital wallets storing cryptographic keys. ... Despite using ideas from blockchain technology, we found that a distributed ledger operating under the jurisdiction of different actors was not needed to achieve our goals. Specifically, a distributed ledger does not match the trust assumptions in Project Hamilton's approach, which assumes that the…

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…

Or couldn’t it force banks to offer better rates on accounts? If the Fed will store your money for free, then the banks would have to offer a few percent return to get you to lend to them.

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

#72

Post by randomhodler84 »

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

21st Century Jefferson would be stacking sats and telling everyone they knew about BTC. The antidote to 21st Century Hamilton CBDCs.

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

#73

Post by melony »

tadfisher wrote: post #69
DennisP wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't sound all that different from the banking system we have now.

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.

It is better for the government to run financial infrastructure. The restrictions imposed by PayPal and the banks on certain types of businesses can then be challenged in court.

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

#74

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

ur-whale wrote: post #37

Many people on HN claim that the rise of crypto-currencies is a social catastrophe. Maybe so (I disagree), but wait until central-bank issued digital currencies become a reality, you'll very quickly learn the real meaning of social catastrophe. Spending 10 seconds thinking about it, I can come up with the following scenarios: - complete and utter "financial deplatforming" if you don't behave as a citizen. This is bas…

> complete and utter "financial deplatforming" if you don't behave as a citizen.

We live in a world with prisons. Stopping your spending is nothing compared to literally locking you up.

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

#75

Post by klyrs »

ur-whale wrote: post #59
pphysch wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does civilians owning firearms have to do with a well-trained military force taking over the seats of power?

> What does civilians owning firearms have to do with a well-trained military force taking over the seats of power? Such a military force would be facing a very well armed citizen-led guerilla response. Given the amount of private gun ownership in the US, holding on to power after a coup would prove a rather difficult proposition.

How do guerilla forces defend themselves against Predator drones?

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

#76

Post by CrazyStat »

tryptophan wrote: post #46
SkyMarshal wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fwiw in hindsight it appears that structural regulation like Glass-Steagal is what stabilizes the banking system. Separating banking, investment banking, and insurance into separate legal entities and preventing the banks from consolidating into mega-banks prevented another a Great Depression for ~70years. Then roughly 8yrs after we repealed all that, we unsurprisingly had another Great Depression level financial cri…

> Fwiw in hindsight it appears that structural regulation like Glass-Steagal is what stabilizes the banking system. This is not at all clear. > Separating banking, investment banking, and insurance into separate legal entities and preventing the banks from consolidating into mega-banks prevented another a Great Depression for ~70years. Then roughly 8yrs after we repealed all that, we unsurprisingly had another Great…

>How the USD has lost 98% of its value since the 70s?

By what metric has the USD lost 98% of its value since the 70s?

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

#77

Post by pessimizer »

triangleman wrote: post #66
beefman wrote: post #44

"In our design users interact with a central transaction processor using digital wallets storing cryptographic keys. ... Despite using ideas from blockchain technology, we found that a distributed ledger operating under the jurisdiction of different actors was not needed to achieve our goals. Specifically, a distributed ledger does not match the trust assumptions in Project Hamilton's approach, which assumes that the…

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.

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

#78

Post by rmbyrro »

tadfisher wrote: post #69
DennisP wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't sound all that different from the banking system we have now.

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.

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

#79

Post by AutumnCurtain »

zozbot234 wrote: post #68
krapp wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Such a military force would be facing a very well armed citizen-led guerilla response. Unless enough citizens were on the side of the coup. I don't know why no one ever seems to acknowledge that as a possibility, especially after Jan. 6. Gun owners are just as driven by politics and ideology as anyone else. Plus just because you have a gun in a safe and maybe sometimes shoot watermelons in the backyard with it doesn…

The flip side is that many people in the military would absolutely sabotage the coup. Keep in mind that everyone in the military is bound by an oath to defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic.

Purely anecdotal, but from discussion with my military friends there is widespread belief more than half of enlisted soldiers would've supported the Jan 6th coup attempt militarily. That percentage is far smaller along officers. With two exceptions though the people telling me this are officers and that will slant their view.

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

#80

Post by reese_john »

pessimizer wrote: post #57
ur-whale wrote: post #37

Many people on HN claim that the rise of crypto-currencies is a social catastrophe. Maybe so (I disagree), but wait until central-bank issued digital currencies become a reality, you'll very quickly learn the real meaning of social catastrophe. Spending 10 seconds thinking about it, I can come up with the following scenarios: - complete and utter "financial deplatforming" if you don't behave as a citizen. This is bas…

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.

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