from the all-the-better-to-track-you-with dept.
The former chair of the Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC) has partnered with Accenture to create the non-profit Digital Dollar Project, which plans to explore the creation of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
“The digital 21st century is underserved by an analogue reserve currency,” said Chris Giancarlo, former CFTC chair under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. “A digital dollar would help future-proof the greenback and allow individuals and global enterprises to make payments in dollars irrespective of space and time.
The purpose of the Digital Dollar Project is to encourage research and public discussion on the potential advantages of a digital dollar, convene private sector thought leaders and actors, and propose possible models to support the public sector. The Project will develop a framework for practical steps that can be taken to establish a dollar-based CBDC.
A cryptocurrency backed by a fiat cash is known as a stablecoin.
A “tokenized” U.S. currency would coexist with other Federal Reserve liabilities and serve as a settlement medium to meet the demands of the digital world and a cheaper, faster and more inclusive global financial system, Giancarlo added in a statement.
[...] The U.S. dollar is the world’s “reserve currency” because it represents about 58% of all foreign exchange reserves in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Additionally, 40% of the world’s debt is denominated in dollars.
Some experts believe the U.S. dollar could fall behind as the defacto ecommerce currency if other nations launch state-sponsored stablecoin first.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @10:14AM (14 children)
What is the advantage of this?
(Score: 4, Informative) by inertnet on Thursday January 23 2020, @10:30AM (5 children)
Population control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @11:23AM (4 children)
Getting the money out from the control of the old establishment. Need a bigger boom, faster if possible.
Money matter, population is secondary in their minds, just statistics. Ask khallow, he's a master of ignoring implicit assumptions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @11:28AM
Mental illness, confused mind, above.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday January 23 2020, @06:41PM (2 children)
But this would be under the control of the Federal Reserve Bank. The literal old establishment.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @11:54PM
In the hand of the new guard. Those seniles don't get it anyway, a free playfield for us.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 23 2020, @11:59PM
That's how you win wars in the 21st century.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Thursday January 23 2020, @02:40PM (7 children)
Pros:
Lighter
Cons:
--
Even Chuck Norris stays off my lawn.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday January 23 2020, @03:13PM
Cons: as with any hitech sophisticated solution, if internet and/or power go down, you are fucked for the duration of the outage. Think natural disasters: hurricanes, floods, bushfires, Tony Abbott, Trump's reelection, Breentry, etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @04:08PM (5 children)
I don't see any difference between your pros and using a debit/credit card.
(Score: 2, Informative) by nitehawk214 on Thursday January 23 2020, @06:43PM (3 children)
Different people get the money for the use. Instead of Credit Card companies, it would be the Federal Reserve... or likely some private entity that directs money into Chris Giancarlo and his friend's pockets.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 24 2020, @12:02AM (2 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Friday January 24 2020, @01:41AM (1 child)
This may come as a surprise, but at anything larger than tiny scales cash handling actually isn't free. It has nontrivial overhead costs from counting, storing, transporting, depositing, shrink, buying change, etc.
It's not as expensive as dealing with chargebacks and other credit card fuckwittery, but it is very much not free.
I was surprised to learn this too.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 24 2020, @01:55AM
Merchants generally like cash. Even large amounts. That 2% - 3% credit card surcharge adds up really quickly. And when they get dinged extra for credit-card-imposed "cashback" schemes that are paid by the retailer and not the credit card company (contrary to public perception) you can end up losing money on cc transactions with tight margins, or lose even more with loss leaders.
A store doing a quarter million a day can end up losing $10k or more on cashback schemes, transaction fees, etc. Calling the armoured car guys for a quick pickup doesn't cost that.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @07:49PM
Honestly, the cons list is pretty similar as well.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bradley13 on Thursday January 23 2020, @11:34AM (5 children)
The EU is also considering something like this. This opens up a number of fundamental questions:
- What are the goals of such a currency? Consider that e-Dollars and e-Euros effectively already exist: huge quantities of money are transferred electronically all the time. Including by consumers, by using their debit cards. So what is missing from the current electronic currencies that a new solution would add? The software engineer in me says: You need a solid analysis of the functional requirements before you hare off after a solution.
- What technology should be used? Blockchains make the most sense for distributed solutions, where there is no central, controlling entity. For e-Dollars, presumably the Fed will want to retain ultimate control. The ECB will want control of the e-Euro. So blockchains, or indeed any sort of cryptocurrency may or may not be the best solution. What alternatives are there? The choice of technology will be influenced by the non-functional requirements: central control and...what else?
I haven't yet seen any sort of discussion of these issues. Maybe governments have some secret reports with this information? Not that there is any reason to keep them secret...
As a closing note: Central governments have (in my anarchistic opinion) too much power. The Internet provided us with an opportunity to reduce this power, but we failed: look at all the successful censorship being put in place by Russia, Turkey, China and other countries. Cryptocurrencies provided us with yet another opportunity to create an alternative centralized, government control. Looks like we have failed again...
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @12:33PM
Bitcoin is chugging along just fine. There is no reason for a centrally controlled cryptocurrency, since the central controller will just manipulate it.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @01:01PM
I too hope they would use a decentralized blockchain type ledger for transfers, but something tells me they would want more control and oversight. Kinda the whole Revelation 13:17 thing. But I don't think that matters too much. Humans always find a way around whether bartering or making another blockchain style currency to run around something central. Black markets will always exist for when you need to make a more private transaction.
And I wholeheartedly agree with you on having lost control of the Internet. "Without the ability to talk about government power, there's no way for citizens to make sure this power isn't being misused." -Aaron Swartz
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 23 2020, @01:15PM
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @01:45PM
What problem are they trying to fix?
Staying relevant, keeping control of the currency, perhaps making money on transition to new money.
What features are missing from the current banking system that crypto currencies offer?
1) Near zero transaction cost
2) Near instant non-reversable transactions where both parties know if they happened or not.
3) Publically auditable transaction log.
4) Anonomous 'accounts' in the transaction log created without interaction with a 'bank'.
5) Remote access anywhere there is communications.
6) Trust of some party to implement a mixer function to further hide account holder.
7) Defined rules for the creation of money separate from governments and their politics.
8) Limited ability of any single party to control of the system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @12:09AM
You have the same power of expression on the Internet that you had in 1998. At pretty much the same price: tech knowledge.
The difference:
- in 1998, you needed to know how to setup your site. Now, if you live in Russia/China/etc, you need to know how to tunnel the firewall; otherwise it's still the 'setup your website and you have the soapbox to stand on while speaking'.
- in 1998, you 'listeners' needed to have internet access. Now, you need to know how to make your voice distinctive in the cacaphony.
And, no, YouTube demonetizing you is not censorship - freedom of speech doesn't include 'the right to earn your living from your speech'
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Thursday January 23 2020, @02:12PM (3 children)
Nice that governments are considering backing and managing crypto-currency, but it's just one area in whic they are way behind.
1. Why doesn't the postal service do email? For that matter, why isn't the postal service, or some other government or quasi-government agency, providing Internet service? Or if not that, maybe private ISP providers ought to have their rates regulated, much like electricity?
2. Why the hysterically over-the-top rules and punishments around hacking? For governments to get into crypto-currencies, they'll have to admit once and for all that encryption is not in the same class as munitions.
3. Voting! The state of electronic voting is a mess, with the likes of Diebold and their laughable "security" that is allowed to slide time and time again, apparently because corrupt actors want e-voting to be insecure the better to rig elections. Hackers deserve the death penalty, but vote rigging is just a problem that is sooo hard to contain that the public just has to be understanding, you know?
4. Intellectual property. Copying belongs to the masses now. The law is way behind on this one.
5. Income tax. Yeah, we know that scumbag special interest tax prep businesses lobby to keep tax complicated, and then try their damnedest to cheat taxpayers by hiding the free alternative they're legally obligated to provide.
6. Digital signatures. There's been some progress on this, but could use much more.
7. Sales receipts. I mean, come on, we're still stuck on paper for most. Yeah, some places will email a receipt now. And there's this Near-field communication, because doing it wirelessly is hot.
8. Paperless office. Why do we put up with inkjet ink prices? Why do people still point out that printed books are easier on the eyes and more portable and all that?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday January 24 2020, @12:12AM (2 children)
Most of items on your list are so specific to US that I wonder how much you're aware that the world doesn't start or stop in America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday January 24 2020, @02:24AM (1 child)
Actually, I do know that. Used to be that the US was the leader in tech, and so any area the US wasn't up on, no one was. "Encryption is a munition" is especially US centered and arrogant, with its implication that no one else in the world can do decent cryptography on their own and has to "steal" the ideas from the US.
Now though, with the anti-intellectuals in power in the US, should be all the easier for some other nation to take the lead on science and tech.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday January 24 2020, @03:04AM
Objection on "now" in regards with crypto:
- AES [wikipedia.org] - developed by two Belgian cryptographers, prior to 2001 (when it entered the NIST competition). It is The symmetric crypto used by almost everybody today.
- EdDSA [wikipedia.org] - check how many of the authors are non-Americans.
- Horst Feistel [wikipedia.org] was born in Germany - many symmetric crypto schemes are based on his work [wikipedia.org] (true, while at IBM. But indeed, US lost a lot of appeal as a brain-drain destination)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 4, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday January 23 2020, @03:01PM
This probably isn't going to fly. Several countries are taking hard looks at the disproportionate power the US has because of its position as the reserve currency and control of inter-bank transfers. Any changes to the current system are likely to lessen our global influence, not increase it.
SPFS [wikipedia.org] exists solely to remove the US ability to say "no" to international payments. It is a viable alternative to SWIFT [wikipedia.org] for nontrivial parts of Asia and Europe .
Full disclosure: As an American, I benefit from the current currency reserve system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @03:33PM (2 children)
And other crypto-currency: to have a currency FREE OF ANY GOVERNMENT?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @04:59PM
The point of CBDC is to prevent that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @12:17AM
Nope, the reason for it was to fill the pockets of the early adopters - it isn't by chance the total number of bitcoins that could ever be mined was so small.
A shot in the dark at the time but the effort invested into it was negligible.
(Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Thursday January 23 2020, @09:15PM
Stablecoin - wtf you can't just label your currency 'stabledollar.' It is like calling your car a Chevy Fast Mustang. Or Larry Cashdollar's name. It is something that sounds better the less intelligent you are. Anti-intellectualism. Like Ethos Capital and Project Veritas. It is true and ethical because it is in the name. This is degenerate, and is obvious semantic warfare on all english speakers. Huge steps in the direction of Idiocracy.
"But the currency is not stable, yesterday it was worth 50 cents, now it is worth .5 cents!"
"But it's stablecoin! So it's stable. Can you put some pepsi on those plants, they need some electrolytes!"
Already the united states has a fantasy money-by-fiat game going on, and most of the world derives the value of every piece of currency and asset from that.
And that is based on nothing else at this point but our own dependency on it. We could chose not to depend on it, and that is what, I believe they are really afraid of. To the point that they really bother people capable of offering any alternative way to think about it.
https://www.axios.com/student-loan-debt-a-wayne-johnson-resignation-trump-09f01803-ad33-46aa-97bb-84c93a42f278.html [axios.com]
Back to basics, what is independence? What is a market? What is slavery?
The problem is not the money so much as it is the interest, interest doesn't work. It just doesn't, in every case it causes warfare at all levels of society. But the problem is also the money, and that everyone in the country who was not born with a silver spoon was sold a bill of goods and that was not delivered. To the extent that is possible, there will be a two tiered system with no connection to reality, that will essentially be a company store with chits you can cash in at the poor people store. And you won't even know the rich people store exists, just like north korea.
It does not matter who prints the money as long as this is going on:
https://archive.is/ZinJT [archive.is] (class war, you may have seen this before)
https://archive.is/2M4AJ [archive.is] (post size rundown of your dollar value, for printing and posting all over)
https://archive.is/kd65L [archive.is] millenials position on the subject
thesesystemsarefailing.net obviously.