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Biden Orders Study of Cryptocurrency Risk, Creation of US Digital Currency (wsj.com) 117

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
President Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday instructing agencies across the federal government to study the possible risks presented by the explosion in popularity of cryptocurrencies and consider the creation of a U.S. digital currency. From a report: The executive order urges federal regulators to review the risks a roughly $1.75 trillion crypto market presents to consumers, investors and the broader economy. Federal agencies will have several months to prepare a report with their findings, which would then inform any new regulatory actions the White House takes. About 16% of adult Americans, or roughly 40 million people, have invested in, traded or used cryptocurrencies, according to a White House fact sheet. That growing prevalence of digital assets, which include volatile cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and so-called stablecoins pegged to assets like the U.S. dollar, has pushed the Biden administration to centralize its work on the topic. White House officials have been working with the crypto industry and experts for several months to prepare the executive order. "We must take strong steps to reduce the risks that digital assets could pose to consumers, investors, and business protections," Mr. Biden said in the order, adding that the White House will monitor cryptocurrencies' impact on financial stability, nationals security and climate change.
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Biden Orders Study of Cryptocurrency Risk, Creation of US Digital Currency More

Biden Orders Study of Cryptocurrency Risk, Creation of US Digital Currency

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  • They always need to ensure that we cannot have nice things without them getting their "fair share" of it.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Governments provide services and infrastrcture without them society basically collapses so yes, they want their fair share so that the lifestyles we enjoy through large scale collaboration can continue to exist.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by schwit1 ( 797399 )

        This is NOT about fair share This is about control.

        Canada's Trudeau gave a preview of the future plan of action when the wrong people protest. Freeze and confiscate assets.

        DEFI is disruptive to governments' plans of a cashless system where they have total control.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Moryath ( 553296 )

          DEFI is disruptive to governments' plans of a cashless system where they have total control.

          Interestingly, "DEFI" itself, when you read the papers, explains how cryptocurrencies are really just a pyramid scam in action. [cornell.edu]

          Investors should watch for the following warning signs of pyramid schemes:
          -promises of unrealistic returns on investments
          -high upfront fees or investments
          -strong emphasis on the legality of the business
          -no clear descriptions of products, services, or investments being offered
          -no re

          • You need to study the subject more in order to make an intelligent opinion.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Moryath ( 553296 )
              Says someone who said nothing intelligent in their bumper sticker level reply, whereas I provided sourced backing for statements analyzing how the cryptocurrency scam works.
          • You've explained a process by which you can use a cryptocurrency as a vehicle for your scheme but not a mechanism which innately makes cryptocurrencies pyramid schemes.

            I can pull a server from my rack, put a walnut on my desk and smash it. By your reasoning servers must now be fairly characterized as nutcrackers. Like you I will henceforth wait for all server related stories and explain how they are nutcrackers.

            • The "no real underlying investment" issue applies to all cryptocurrencies invented so far.

              • Perhaps that has something to do with being a financial tool and not being an investment at all.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by Moryath ( 553296 )

              but not a mechanism which innately makes cryptocurrencies pyramid schemes.

              I literally explained how the levels system of a pyramid scheme applies to the cryptocurrency production model. You're just being dishonest at this point.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by jwdb ( 526327 )

                I literally explained how the levels system of a pyramid scheme applies to the cryptocurrency production model. You're just being dishonest at this point.

                Agreed that levels system applies to most cryptocurrencies. However, not all cryptocurrencies fall under that production model, with Bitcoin being the notable counterexample - no investors, no premine, no gatekeepers, and can actually be used to transact.

                While many (if not most) ICOs are ponzi schemes, rug pulls, or other forms of fraud, that doesn't autom

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by Moryath ( 553296 )

                  Bitcoin operates in every way as a ponzi scheme [ft.com].

                  Bitcoin is bought not as an income-earning asset but rather as a zero-coupon perpetual. In other words, it promises nothing as a running yield and nevermatures with a required terminal payment. It follows that it cannot suffer a run. The only way a holder of bitcoin can cash out is by a sale to someone else.

                  What this means in practice is that those who have been suckered in, to let the last group cash out, have only one option - they have to convince a ne

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by jwdb ( 526327 )

                    Being a zero-coupon perpetual does not make something a ponzi scheme. Cash is a zero-coupon perpetual. The US CBDC, if and when it's released, could quite possibly be a zero-coupon perpetual. Does that make those both ponzi schemes?

                    What this means in practice is that those who have been suckered in, to let the last group cash out, have only one option - they have to convince a new round of suckers to buy at a higher price than they got in at.

                    You're assuming everyone's goal is to make a profit off of holdin

                  • The bitcoin as a ponzi scheme thing has been debunked so many times... how many trolls are going to keep pulling out this nonsense. Bitcoin is a financial tool, not an investment essentially nothing you've said is applicable. You don't 'cash out' bitcoin IS cash. You spend it. One of your options is to spend it on another currency or you can spend it on goods and services. There are entire nations where I can pay for a cab ride in bitcoin and it is legal tender. There are a dozen more where the local econom
                • Indeed and other cryptocurrencies are most commonly nothing but bitcoin knockoffs. If I fork the linux kernel and spin a bunch of investors to hand me cash for my project that doesn't make linux a scam... if 10,000 people did so linux STILL wouldn't be any more of a scam.

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by Moryath ( 553296 )
                    If someone copies Bernie Madoff's scam with the serial numbers filed off, they're still running a ponzi scam.

          • Stock Markets, Insurance, Almost all financial derivatives.... They are all Pyramid schemes. And it's not bad because all human civilization/Society is a pyramid scheme. Unless you are the last human on earth there's always a few pyramid schemes going on.

            That's what the Pharaoh's wanted to teach you by building those great pyramids in Egypt. The construction of those may have been another pyramid scheme though

        • This really concerns me, but the more I think about it, the more I think crypto is not the solution, by its very nature it needs the internet which is ultimately controlled by large organizations that can be controlled the government and can be automated. Physical cash seems to be far less traceable and simpler, and each seizure has to be manually done.

          • Crypto is not some magic silver bullet.

            Its limited purpose is a small safety net in case things go bad, like gold was for previous generations.

            If n when cash gets devalued significantly (during real problematic times cash can go to near zero in few months as we've seen in so many countries) or gets "demonetized" (only new Bills are legal, old ones have to be exchanged at banks with justification if more than income) etc etc.

            It's like people in some countries with dicey currencies might keep 10% of their cas

    • I love governments (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2022 @12:37PM (#62340503)
      as long as they're tempered with lots of democracy and an educated population.

      For example, every 10 years like clockwork the US economy collapses due to Wall Street gambling. We've known for around 100 years how to stop it (no joke, the theories go back to the 1920s) and Liz Warren wrote two pretty good books on the subject that nobody bothered to read (to be fair she's kind of an annoying school marm). But the point is we know how to stop these crashes, and everyone's lives would be better if we did.

      You still need a government to stop those crashes though.

      The lack of government and this cult of laissez faire is why we can't have nice things. We can't have mature, stable markets because we refuse to do the bare minimum maintenance needed to make those markets work. Capitalism in a modern economy isn't a guy making shoes anymore. The machinery of Capitalism is way, way bigger and so way way more complex. And like any complex machine if you skip your maintenance you'll pay for it. We've been skipping that maintenance since the late 70s.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shmlco ( 594907 )

        Wish I had mod points.

      • It is interesting. A researcher recently combed through the last 120 years examining all public policy and comparing to increase in inflation adjusted actual wages and disposable income for workers and the poor. He was baffled to discover that in US history there were 240 substantial NET increases there were only two where NET increases happened following progressive policies (progressive being defined as ANY shift toward greater central/government control regardless of motivation) and in both cases the pol

        • It is interesting. A researcher recently combed through the last 120 years examining all public policy and comparing to increase in inflation adjusted actual wages and disposable income for workers and the poor. He was baffled to discover that in US history there were 240 substantial NET increases there were only two where NET increases happened following progressive policies (progressive being defined as ANY shift toward greater central/government control regardless of motivation) and in both cases the policies changes at the time were actually blended. Most of what needs to be done to curb Wall Street is shedding the regulations which protect their institutions from competition and give them control.

          Citation needed. And not because I doubt you -- I'd just really like to read about this in more detail!

          • You could easily make those numbers line up just by subtly changing the definition of what's progressive legislation. So for example the mass of infrastructure spending the drastically improved the quality of lives for the loan programs created by the government that essentially required affordable housing to be built for working class people or the laws making unions a thing and protecting them could all be left out and you could just focus on social security and leave it at that.

            And all this is before

            • required affordable housing to be built for working class people

              Which sounds good until the compromise with the Republicans turns in into "big massive apartment company gets government handout to build low-income rental units".

            • "You could easily make those numbers line up just by subtly changing the definition of what's progressive legislation. So for example the mass of infrastructure spending the drastically improved the quality of lives for the loan programs created by the government that essentially required affordable housing to be built for working class people or the laws making unions a thing and protecting them could all be left out and you could just focus on social security and leave it at that."

              Yes. I'm sure we could f
          • I fudged up the numbers a fair bit from memory but the gist is the same.

            https://www.theepochtimes.com/progressive-socialist-policies-are-destructive-have-never-brought-prosperity-economist-robert-genetski_4297629.html

            • I fudged up the numbers a fair bit from memory but the gist is the same. https://www.theepochtimes.com/... [theepochtimes.com]

              So, your source is a "top US economist" (who studied elementary education not economics) and "researcher" (who is a Republican county clerk in Michigan not conducting research which shows because of his assertion without evidence that the Parkland, Florida high school shooting wasn't real) who came to a conclusion (without publishing his methods) that would rock the world of economics (except nobody heard about it because he never submitted it to peer review) when he told The Epoch Times (a "far right" publ

              • About the only thing in your little blurb which is accurate is that he is a Republican.

                Here is his actual bio.
                https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/robert-genetski

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by Moryath ( 553296 )

                  Heartland Institute? That propaganda shitbrains factory is still around? I thought they collapsed after all their fakery and fraud on the cigarettes/cancer link was exposed.

                  Hell, even WIKIPEDIA gets it right [wikipedia.org] on what a group of fucking liars and scammers that crapfactory is.

                  The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian public policy think tank known for its rejection of the scientific consensus on climate change and the negative health impacts of smoking.[3]

                  Founded in 1984, it wo

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Moryath ( 553296 )
              Your source (Epoch Times) is a Chinese government disinformation-pushing front group. Yawn.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ranton ( 36917 )

          A researcher recently combed through the last 120 years examining all public policy and comparing to increase in inflation adjusted actual wages and disposable income for workers and the poor. He was baffled to discover that in US history there were 240 substantial NET increases there were only two where NET increases happened following progressive policies

          This reminds me of situations in school when students would give negative answers for questions which obviously couldn't be negative, and the teacher would use it as a situation to educate on the use of critical thinking.

          Here you have a researcher looking at 120 years of public policy and finding on average two substantial NET increases in wages and disposable income per year. Then he claims he can tie those to progressive (or regressive) policies on that short of a timespan.

          You should be able to call bulls

          • First, fair disclaimer when I looked back at the assessment I was referring to I fudged the numbers from memory. The general analysis and lopsided outcome is substantially is still as I'd originally indicated.

            I'm fairly sure the point here is to massage out the details with the vast number of policies and course of time. If lag was the issue as you say one would expect a less lopsided distribution. The lag periods would be varied and thus across the large course of time many would have landed on both sides

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by ranton ( 36917 )

              Indeed. I know many people who consider 'faith' a cornerstone of their personal beliefs.

              Who said anything about faith (other than you of course)? I pointed out that with such ridiculous claims (at least the ones you stated) you don't have to look into the details to know they are false. Policy decisions take years if not decades to show fruition, and looking at economic trends within timespans shorter than a year is going to show more noise than anything else.

              If each of the figures you gave were off by at least an order of magnitude, then throwing out the claims wouldn't be so easy. I was only

              • "I pointed out that with such ridiculous claims (at least the ones you stated) you don't have to look into the details to know they are false."

                Yes. When you hold a position in the face of evidence to the contrary that is called faith. You have faith you know the truth, regardless of evidence to the contrary, therefore you have faith the contrary evidence will be wrong to the point of not even looking.

                "If each of the figures you gave were off by at least an order of magnitude, then throwing out the claims wo

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Moryath ( 553296 )
          Funny how this bitscamming loser tries to claim he's citing "a researcher" (while hiding the identity at first). And then his actual "source" turns out to be a propaganda producer from a fraud factory mostly responsible for cigarette-cancer denial and climate science denial...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Moryath ( 553296 )

          a researcher - by which the bitscamming liar means a propaganda artist from the fraud factory known as "heartland institute", responsible mostly for cigarette-cancer denialism and climate science denialism frauds.

          Gee, I wonder why Scammer Shaitand had to try to hide the "source" with the utterly bullshit claims...

      • But the point is we know how to stop these crashes, and everyone's lives would be better if we did.

        This isn't something that government allows to happen because they're bumbling fools. The crashing is by design. It gives the wealthy an opportunity to increase their holdings. Hell, even Trump knew it:

        The subprime mortgage crisis alone caused millions of Americans to lose their homes, but that same Globe and Mail piece reports Trump was “advising investors that their are now great deals in buying subprime mortgages at a discount, and repossessed houses at low prices.” source [nbcnews.com]

        You've mentioned

        • The 2008 crash is how I was able to buy my condo in 2010. I bought for 120k and the small place is now around 360k. Pure madness.

          I live in San Diego about 25 miles from the ocean. It's a nice enough place in a nice enough area but 360k is just absurd. I'd sell but everything else is also absurd, so I just keep investing into the place. The interior is been completely remodeled and I put solar panels up last year. Probably try and add a battery backup in a few more years.

          If the market takes a huge crap, it w

    • Can't have anything upsetting the status quo... not when the status quo is them being on top.

    • We're talking about cryptocurrency not "nice things", so this seems off topic.

  • Federal Cryptocurrency (Score:3)

    by Merk42 ( 1906718 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2022 @12:23PM (#62340429)
    Doesn't that defeat the "point" of cryptocurrency?

    • Standard government bureaucracy then. Politicians and civil servants are far removed from reality. The PSAs over the last 50 years should be a big tip off on just how weird the people in government really are.

    • See here [slashdot.org] for an explanation of why.

      TL;DR; the exchanges and mining pools are so big and so centralized they can exert as much or more power over crypto than a government. If you try to splinter of and make your own currencies they get so overwhelmed with fraud (Valve had 50%) and infrastructure issues (need those mining pools to solve for performance) they become unusable.

      As a result the tech isn't really usable for the intended purpose of making a safe, secure and free currency. Crypto is a failed
      • Are you or were you a Valve employee? The amount of times (every cryptocurrency post) you bring them up as proof of widespread fraud is kind of deranged

        As a result the tech isn't really usable for the intended purpose of making a safe

        You will always be able to use it for hookers and blow, (steroids, porn)... as was done before people really used exchanges. And let's be honest, money laundering is a stupid, *lazy* fake boogyman. FOMO, maybe, but I'd posit that it is now a rich mans status symbol. That al

      • Exchanges are not part of the crypto design, they are brokers n middlemen who cropped up to help newbies speculate in crypto and to help all types of new crypto coins make a market and a killing.
        They are a temporary phenomenon and are already on the way out now.

        It's like searching on internet with google. Everyone does it as its convenient but if and when google blocks you or is itself blocked you just use something else. The internet wont stop because Google or FB or Amazon bans you.

    • I know it was rhetorical but still. Yes. Yes it does.
    • What was the point of cryptocurrency? To be anonymous and untraceable - which almost guarantees its main use will be for illegal activity. To be unregulated, so its price relative to physical goods will fluctuate wildly?

  • Player and Referee (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Tokolosh ( 1256448 )

    If the dollar and its associated Federal Reserve, the US banking system, Wall Street and the rest are so great, why are they so afraid of cryptocurrencies and DeFi? If their product is so superior, any competing system is bound to fail, and can be ignored.

    Or is the government so scared that it may lose its exorbitant privilege and the power of turning the captured financial players into its own personal StaSi?

    If you say "money laundering", then I say prosecute the actual crime, not some made-up thing. If

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ranton ( 36917 )

      If the dollar and its associated Federal Reserve, the US banking system, Wall Street and the rest are so great, why are they so afraid of cryptocurrencies and DeFi? If their product is so superior, any competing system is bound to fail, and can be ignored.

      The government is a much different stake holder than the end users of currency. They have different goals. The government is more interested in their ability to regulate and tax transactions, which are two interests most end users do not share. So it is quite obvious why the government could have conflict with the market.

    • Re:Player and Referee (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2022 @12:44PM (#62340521) Journal

      > If you think crypto is stupid, then don't do it. Live and let live.

      But what if other people use it to hide and spread crimes and waste energy, resulting in pollution, climate change, and crime that affects me myself and I? Your escapades leak onto ME!

      > then read, "Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent" by Harvey Silverglate (https://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229).

      No large scale system is perfect. Your argument seems to be "burn everything that's not perfect". Humans are highly imperfect such that anything complex they make will have notable imperfections. Imperfection is not a reason to abandon civilization.

      Maybe there is a compromise such that cryptocurrencies can exist without being a crime magnet and energy drain. I'm sure any regulation on such will have glitches, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't regulate at all. "Perfect regulation or no regulation" is not a rational viewpoint.

      • Maybe there is a compromise such that cryptocurrencies can exist without being a crime magnet and energy drain.

        That's cute. You can't even manage to do that with actual currency, as if money laundering doesn't exist, and Ireland isn't sitting afloat on trillions.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          You seem to be intermixing crimes vs. clever tax avoidance under existing international laws. Ireland is not necessarily lying and cheating to be a tax heaven, they are just levering existing loop-holes created by poorly written laws. Ireland is kind of like patent trolls: they don't directly cheat, rather just milk the hell out of bad laws (or lack of).

          I do agree there is some grey area in between, though.

          • You seem to be intermixing crimes vs. clever tax avoidance under existing international laws. Ireland is not necessarily lying and cheating to be a tax heaven, they are just levering existing loop-holes created by poorly written laws.

            Oh yeah. "poorly written", as if we don't have a single person on the planet who knows how to re-write them.

            Steal a million, and you're a criminal. Steal a trillion, and you're a entrepreneur? Bullshit. Greed is abusing loopholes that Greed wrote, and then turning around and calling that "clever". There's nothing clever about dodging a tax burden, especially when you impact millions.

            Ireland is kind of like patent trolls: they don't directly cheat, rather just milk the hell out of bad laws (or lack of).

            I do agree there is some grey area in between, though.

            Ireland has been reduced to nothing but a grey area. Comparing their actions to an entity we blatantly call "troll", do

      • I can't necessarily address the other problems you stated but in terms of energy consumption, there are some exciting new algos that have been proven out to address this. Chia for instance, is an example of a cryptocurrency validated on Proof-Of-Space, which is basically an algorithm that rewards miners based on the number of plot files they have on disk. Creating the plot files takes some energy however the energy usage after plots are created is equal to the average power consumption of a spinning disk d

      • "spread crimes" Please explain, I don't understand the concept. In any event, if there is crime, prosecute it.

        If there is pollution, then regulate it. Turning on a light is an "energy drain". What is wrong with that?

        The main problem is that the government wants the financial system to do their work for them - sniffing out crime, reporting on strangers and offering them up for prosecution. In return, they get to make huge profits. This conspiracy is a recipe for bad things.

      • But what if other people use it to hide and spread crimes and waste energy,

        So what you are saying is that you are against cities, or all forms of transport.

        Or you are saying you are against restaurants, since after all traditionally they have been a great way to launder money and they certainly waste energy.

        Or you are saying you are against the internet itself, which obviously enables lots of crime and wastes energy.

        Or maybe, just maybe, anything could be used for those things and you have to realize that y

      • and waste energy,

        What people do with their electricity doesn't concern me.

        What do you propose to do...start rationing electricity based on someone "Need"?

    • this is the big boys moving in because they smell money. If you're in crypto you should be afraid. Very afraid. I mean that. This is like the mafia moving in on your small moonshine business because it got too big and now they want their cut.

      Biden isn't the Mafia here, Wall Street is. Biden is a mildly corrupt politician trying to stop a gang war from breaking out and prevent shootouts in the streets. "Shootouts" in this metaphor would be a market crash that affects regular working slobs like you and m

    • :) Exactly !

      This is no different than the middle east guys wanting to ban books and movies and cartoons and dresses.

      I hear taliban had banned men's soccer/football because it showed men's legs !

  • These aren't assets (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2022 @12:32PM (#62340477)
    they have no intrinsic value whatsoever and are not backed by a government's laws or military. They're not even regulated enough that contract law can be reliably enforced.

    If you think 2008 was bad when mortgage backed securities crashed the economy imagine if it had been Monopoly money and pictures of nonplussed primates instead.

    • [Digital currencies] have no intrinsic value whatsoever and are not backed by a government's laws or military.

      While I'm no fan of digital currencies, fiat currencies (by definition) don't have any intrinsic value either. I don't know what it might mean for a currency to be back by laws or military. A currency has value only because people are willing to accept it for goods and services. In countries where the economy has collapsed, their fiat currency is practically worthless even though it's legislated t

    • Well if you were a Russian national on the sidelines of this fiasco and you wanted the agency to transfer money without random political squabbles getting in the way of your legitimate and legal livlihood, I would say with certainty that crypto outside of the centralized government backed banking cartel would be looking rather useful to you right now.

      And before you say, "Gee golly, my first world government would never sanction me!" I would suggest you to lookup how Australia is freezing bank accounts of it

      • lookup how Australia is freezing bank accounts of its own citizens as we speak, simply for voicing pro-Russian opinions on social media platforms

        Can you supply evidence of this? I'm getting nothing from multiple variations of Google searches.

          • Thanks for this, I was able to search up other news of the same event. It's worth having a think about the ramifications, but you've misrepresented the situation. It's not about Australian citizens as far as I can see, and certainly not about suppressing ordinary nobodies who support Russia's actions on social media.

            This is more akin to blocking propagandists from a foreign government you're (sorta) at war with. The ten sanctioned are Putin's spokesperson, the Kremlin's press director and then eight "high-p

    • Government's laws or military? What does that even mean? North Korea has been churning out all kinds of counterfeit US dollars for years. Uncle Sam has yet to pay them a visit.

    • Ask the Russian banks how their US dollars, backed by the full faith and credit of the government, backed in turn by the might of the US military and law enforcement, are doing? Maybe their crypto assets, backed by nothing at all, are doing better.

      The whole argument about crypto having no government backing is correct. Crypto is backed by mathematics, which cannot be overthrown by any government or force of arms. A hydrogen bomb is nothing to mathematics.

  • You can't have a CBDC in the US and have freedom (Score:4, Interesting)

    by DeplorableCodeMonkey ( 4828467 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2022 @12:34PM (#62340481)

    Because the Fed will absolutely act in bad faith on a Soviet level of command and control if it has the power to influence down to the digital wallet level--and we all know that's going to happen.

    What the US **needs** is something like Cardano, with every state having a massive number of validator nodes running its capitol and with a much higher cap on than the current 45B coin limit. (And crypto bashers, GTFO with your reeeing about energy use; Cardano is competitive with Visa and MC and can be on performance and cost to do a transfer)

    Any CBDC that puts fundamental control into the Federal Reserve and its masters is guaranteed to be an even worse evolution of the current system which is already horrendously broken.

    • This is a great idea, but even better for energy usage, look up the Proof-Of-Space protocol implemented in Chia. It allows for miners to operate on no more energy usage than it takes to run a disk array.
    • Without regulation private individuals will leverage their power to control you and your economy for their benefit. With the government overseeing the economy and a proper democracy you have a say. The alternative is to leave a massive power vacuum that a handful of people at the top will exploit just like the kings and queens of old did.

      Government is an inevitability. The question is never will there be a government organizing your economy. The question is will you be allowed to take part in the decisi

      • The question is will you be allowed to take part in the decisions that government makes.

        That's why I explicitly said that one of the absolute requirements for a CBDC for the USA would be that it would not be owned by the Fed, but its validator nodes would be evenly divided between all 50 states and be under the control of each state government.

        That functionally means there will never be a consensus on any measure to screw the money supply. There will also never be a consensus to go "mark of the beast" on t

  • If it Keeps Moving, Regulate it. (Score:3)

    by SchroedingersCat ( 583063 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2022 @01:07PM (#62340637)
    "If it Moves, Tax it. If it Keeps Moving, Regulate it. And if it Stops Moving, Subsidize it." We are on step 2.

  • It is called the US dollar. Most people's money is a number in the SQL database of some bank. The government can take your money by running a simple SQL statement "UPDATE BANK_ACCOUNT SET Cash = 0 WHERE User = 'You';-- ". Heck most US dollars is nothing but that. Crypto would be better, makes it harder for them to just take your shit. It's a lot easier to stash a USB flash drive or memory card.

  • The US government seems to want more and more surveillance power. Look at the recent push to monitor all transactions of only a few $hundred. A digital currency is the government's wet dream: they would see all transactions, no matter how small. No warrant or probable cause required. All other arguments are secondary - that's the real motivation behind a government-run digital currency.
    • Another thing to note is that because of inflation, the 10,000 reporting requirement from 1970 is worth 70,000$ today. Same thing with having denominations > 100$

      • Another thing to note is that because of inflation, the 10,000 reporting requirement from 1970 is worth 70,000$ today. Same thing with having denominations > 100$

        Just wanted to point out $10,000 was more than the average annual salary. The $10000 reporting requirement would not affect the average person at all outside of house purchases which are tracked anyway.

  • The government is all in favor of "digital currency", i.e. Cryptocurrency, as long as its OUR digital currency. One of the original goals of crypto was privacy. If the government goes ahead with a digital currency they will then have the ability to track ALL money movement. Not just credit card transactions, which are essentially already tracked, but cash transactions.

    You might recall that Biden had already tried this a few months back with a proposal to track money transfers greater than $600 - not the $10

    • Bitcoin, for example, has a fixed number of coins.

      No, it doesn't. It has the number of coins the people participating in the shared delusion want it to have. If a 51% majority of the miners suddenly agree it needs more coins, the code can be modified and it will produce more coins.

      Democratically elected leadership has already produced a system that found it desirable to print more money once. It's rather foolish to believe it can't simply happen again.

  • I can certainly see this as a thing. Might not even be a bad idea.

    However, as the fundamental desire for 'crypto' currency was born (as I understand it) from a desire to NOT be tracked/beholden/controlled by national authorities...I wouldn't expect this to really pull much out of the current crytocurrency market demand.

  • There is more pumping in here than my gym next to the lip place. Good luck to you all.

  • It's sad that this has to come from the President where it should have originated from the Office of Technology Assessment, which unfortunately was defunded in 1995.

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

    We killed this resource while other nations beefed theirs up.

    Sad... :-/

  • Biggest issue with crypto (as someone explained to me here on slashdot) is that we cant survive on an inflationary currency. Deflationary currency like all Fiat is needed for people to invest in income producing assets and businesses.

    If the currency keeps getting more valuable on it's own then everyone just sits on their money and it keeps increasing on it own and you dont take a risk of setting up a business or buying stock in a business for making money.

    Now ever increasing value of a currency may be great

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