As perhaps most now know, China is preparing a digital currency with which it intends to replace cash entirely, and other countries, including the US, are considering the idea. Conservatives and libertarians will shriek, pull their hair, and turn blue at the idea, perhaps with good reason—which doesn’t matter since it is going to happen anyway.
How would it work? Digital currencies have many interesting qualities, but here we will look only at a few relevant to this column. First, you download the app like any other. It gives you a QR code and requires a face scan and perhaps a fingerprint scan, so that only you can use your money. Second, details of every transaction are recorded: time, place, name, and amount of every payment., from whom to whom. Most people won’t care since most people don’t do anything illegal, which will facilitate acceptance.
More @ UNZ
The attempt to impose a digital currency on Americans, to replace our current paper currency, would create incentives for the expansion of barter and the re-creation of cash through the use of the precious metals. My hope is that those incentives would be strong enough to overcome the "convenience" aspect of digital currency, because as Fred Reed says, it's going to happen, like it or not.
ReplyDeletewould create incentives for the expansion of barter and the re-creation of cash through the use of the precious metals.
DeleteHadn't thought of this and I hope so! By the way, I saw Fred in Ajijic Mexico last year.