Yes that's all fine and good, but finance is at the heart of structured civilization, and we're note quite there yet with respect to open, transparent systems, that have privacy and resiliency.
The INTERAC network in Canada is owned by the banks and it's yet another 99% margin rake on small businesses. It's a game of leverage - the big chains can negotiate a deal, the smaller vendors are out.
The Canadian government just invoked a kind of 'Marshall Law' because protestors were honking horns and not moving. While I'm glad the Police moved them (and should have sooner), the fact is, personal financial bank accounts of individuals not very related to the transactions were shut down by the federal government.
A politicized situation should not allow for the cancellation of the flow of money, that should be strictly an issue of the justice system, and then, proportionately.
The thought that the gov, or a bank, or Amazon could stop me from giving someone $40 for almost whatever reason, is Orwellian.
All of our leaders relish, at least on some level, the opportunity for control - and I'm not being conspiratorial here, I do think that for now things are benign, but it takes the smallest 'problem' for things to go south.
I think we need a system that has privacy, that has no fees, and whereupon individuals cannot be 'de-banked' from the system in any way, i.e where it would take some act of interdictive oversight for the justice system, with a warrant, to get access to, or control some transactions (i.e. major drug bust, bribery, organized crime).
In effect: we need a 'digital cash' that's 'just like cash', meaning that it's open, anonymous, secure, maybe not very useful to transport large quantities, there's no arbitrary means of interdiction etc..
The INTERAC network in Canada is owned by the banks and it's yet another 99% margin rake on small businesses. It's a game of leverage - the big chains can negotiate a deal, the smaller vendors are out.
The Canadian government just invoked a kind of 'Marshall Law' because protestors were honking horns and not moving. While I'm glad the Police moved them (and should have sooner), the fact is, personal financial bank accounts of individuals not very related to the transactions were shut down by the federal government.
A politicized situation should not allow for the cancellation of the flow of money, that should be strictly an issue of the justice system, and then, proportionately.
The thought that the gov, or a bank, or Amazon could stop me from giving someone $40 for almost whatever reason, is Orwellian.
All of our leaders relish, at least on some level, the opportunity for control - and I'm not being conspiratorial here, I do think that for now things are benign, but it takes the smallest 'problem' for things to go south.
I think we need a system that has privacy, that has no fees, and whereupon individuals cannot be 'de-banked' from the system in any way, i.e where it would take some act of interdictive oversight for the justice system, with a warrant, to get access to, or control some transactions (i.e. major drug bust, bribery, organized crime).
In effect: we need a 'digital cash' that's 'just like cash', meaning that it's open, anonymous, secure, maybe not very useful to transport large quantities, there's no arbitrary means of interdiction etc..