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WHAT WILL A CASHLESS SOCIETY MEAN?
THE PROS
CONVENIENCE — THERE WILL NO LONGER BE ANY NEED TO CARRY CASH AROUND
THE CONS
EVERY TRANSACTION YOU MAKE WILL BE TRACKED YOUR SPENDING HABITS CAN BE LINKED TO YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
YOU WILL ONLY BE PERMITTED TO SPEND ON THINGS THE GOVERNMENT APPROVES OF. THINGS THAT ARE DEEMED TO BE LUXURIES — MEAT, FUEL, TRAVEL — CAN BE RESTRICTED
YOUR MONEY CAN BE PROGRAMMED WITH AN EXPIRY DATE — IF YOU DON’T SPEND IT BY A CERTAIN DATE, YOU'LL LOSE IT
THERE WILL BE NO ‘BLACK’ ECONOMY. IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE TO AVOID TAX, BUT THEN YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GIVE POCKET MONEY TO CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN AND NEITHER WILL YOU BE ABLE TO BORROW OR LEND MONEY TO FRIENDS WITHOUT THAT BEING TAXED BY THE GOVERNMENT
PARKING AND SPEEDING FINES WILL BE TAKEN AT SOURCE, WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF CHALLENGE AND POSSIBLY EVEN WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE
IF YOU PROTEST THE ACTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT, YOUR MONEY CAN BE SWITCHED OFF. IF YOU THINK THAT’S UNLIKELY, IT’S ALREADY HAPPENED TO TENS OF THOUSANDS OF CANADIANS WHEN THEY PROTESTED AND IT ALSO HAPPENED TO A BRITISH JOURNALIST
A CASHLESS SOCIETY MEANS THE END OF HUMAN FREEDOM
IF YOU WANT THAT, DO NOTHING
IF YOU DON'T, THE FIRST THING YOU MUST DO IS RESPOND TO THE GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSAL ON DIGITAL ID, UPON WHICH A CASHLESS SOCIETY MUST BE BASED
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/draft-legislation-to-help-more-people-prove-their- identity-online/consultation-on-draft-legislation-to-support-identity-verificat
Image Credit: Brett Scott
That's really not very doable since Monero acts as digital cash. Therefore, once you have it in Monero, you can spend it and they have no idea, you can lose it and they have no idea, or you can keep it and they have no idea. And you can move it around and they have no idea. So if they ask about it, you can very easily make the argument that you no longer have it unless they're going to use force on you that is.
Curious how that will work when crypto was billed as untraceable, until it came out that it was in a manner of speaking.
There are two types of cryptocurrencies. There are transparency coins, and those are blockchains such as Bitcoin, where the receiver address, the sender address, and the amount are all known. Then there are privacy blockchains such as Monero, where the sender is one of 16 people currently. The receiver is unknown and the amount sent is unknown as well. This is the nightmare of governments all over the world.
Interesting!
https://decrypt.co/40284/us-homeland-security-can-now-track-privacy-crypto-monero
It seems that it's at least somewhat traceable as of 2020, and if you have any opsec failures you might be compromised and not even be aware. It's still better than cash but not a magic bullet.
You can call me and the rest of the Monero community skeptical. The article says that $3 million was made available for this, but the IRS has a $615 million bounty, and it has not been claimed. And the bounty is for Tracing Monero. So why would they take $3 million over $600 million? Monero does a really excellent job at preventing mass surveillance. There are a very few pinpoint target attacks that can be performed, but most normal people are not going to run into those sorts of issues. Basically, if you were selling, say, Bibles in North Korea and you bought from an Asian exchange and then sold accidentally to North Korean government operatives that were purposely sent out to find Bible sellers, they could link your buying with your selling to the compromised agents. But again, that's a very targeted attack. Also, keep in mind that the protocol is constantly improving and there is going to be a very big update to the privacy functionality in about a year or less.