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Central Bank Digital Currencies are coming

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Re: Central Bank Digital Currencies are coming

#81

The Fed Digital Dollar will be a purchasing instrument that exists only in an app or website. They will be added and subtracted as the government sees fit. If, for example, the government should want to spike consumer spending, they need only tell you that your account will have a maximum value of $100 as of midnight. Either spend the rest or it will be deleted. Show up at a political rally for a group that is curren…

So what you're describing is the complete collapse of our current system of government. If the US becomes a failed state like you describe, turning into a totalitarian wasteland where not even the pretense of democracy is maintained, do you really think the secret police are going to let you buy things with gold?

The fed introducing a cryptocurrency will not cause the US to become a failed state, and if the US is on the path to becoming a failed state, then the federal reserve not introducing a cryptocurrency isn't going to change anything. You cant eat gold. Buy productive assets. If you think society is going to collapse like that into a totalitarian state, then, I dunno, move to some country that you think is not on the path to giving up democracy, or go full prepper and buy land and guns and stuff. Good luck holding off the US military though. Might be better to defect when you have the chance.

Re: Central Bank Digital Currencies are coming

#84

These are not the cryptos you're looking for. You don't want ones that trade like currencies, you want ones that trade like stocks.

Unless you want to use them like a currency. Then you probably want ones that trade like a currency. Theres a reason you don't buy sandwiches with fractional google shares.

I actually very much would like the ability to do that.

Re: Central Bank Digital Currencies are coming

#85
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you want to use them like a currency. Then you probably want ones that trade like a currency. Theres a reason you don't buy sandwiches with fractional google shares.

I actually very much would like the ability to do that.

It would be cool, but transactions are two way. Its technologically not gonna be too difficult to create a way to buy with stocks (cashapp could probably add the feature tommorow if they wanted) but its also about the other party's willingness to recieve payment in stocks. If the price is expected to go down, they're not going to want to receive it (inflation). If the price is going to go up, you're not going to want to part with it (deflation). But what if there was some sort of asset that had an agency backing it to try and control inflation and deflation to ensure that the value of the asset is stable over time, so it can be used as a currency? Wait a sec...

Re: Central Bank Digital Currencies are coming

#87
post #29
post #18

Are these proposed central bank “digital currencies” anything more than a centralised or federalised database of who-owns-how-many? And if so, how does that differ from what we have now? That is, in a European country, I have an account with my bank, and my bank has an account with the central bank (or the two interact in some other way). My understanding of the current system is limited, I merely know some large por…

I can half answer that and hope somebody can complete the story. What you have in your bank account is not digital cash. It's effectively a note that the bank owes you cash. This may sound like a technical detail but as far as I understood without physical money there would be no bank accounts. That's what I always wondered about: how could an economy go 100 percent electronic banking, if banking is built on the exis…

Money today is already 'mostly digital'.

And yes, your bank doesn't have all the money required to pay everyone out at the same time. That's 'fractional reserve lending'.

But at the same time, the money it does have is not all cash.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply

Re: Central Bank Digital Currencies are coming

#88
So.... I'm lost. What is a Central Bank Digital Currency?

The article he links is pretty corporate-speak. Can anyone translate? What's in the seeming boilerplate now that wasn't there before. Why are they excited about it and how does this mean they can do more stimulus?

Re: Central Bank Digital Currencies are coming

#89

So.... I'm lost. What is a Central Bank Digital Currency? The article he links is pretty corporate-speak. Can anyone translate? What's in the seeming boilerplate now that wasn't there before. Why are they excited about it and how does this mean they can do more stimulus?

tl;dr: more surveillance and financial oppression because corona.

Re: Central Bank Digital Currencies are coming

#90
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the current system as you describe is a two-level system with your bank in between; a CBDC allows you to "have an account" directly with the central bank directly and make/receive payments without needing a retail bank intermediary. It also enables central banks to achieve policy goals that they could not earlier - for example, in the last big crisis all the quantitative easing did not result in as much actual…

I see. But then again I am a bit confused by this text in the report on digital euro[0], which was recently posted on HN. “While the Eurosystem would always retain control over the issuance of a digital euro, supervised private intermediaries would be best placed to provide ancillary, user-facing services and to build new business models on its core back-end functionality. A model whereby access to the digital euro i…

It's the branding that they need to get rid of cash. Playing it off as an analogue to digital switch, rather than the removal of transaction freedom and privacy.
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