Quote from: gentlemand on October 14, 2018, 10:32:02 PM

As for a government issued crypto, look to China and its drive towards cashlessness because that's what it would look like.

Yeah, thanks but no thanks. I think most societies are moving toward being cashless, but my impression is that this is being driven by citizens and not government, i.e., people much prefer to use either debit/credit cards or their phones to pay for everyday things and at least in the US it's not being promoted by the government.

One of the biggest advantages bitcoin has over other electronic forms of payment is that it's relatively anonymous. Not completely anonymous, but far more so than a debit card is--and it's not issued by the government or the banks. I've read some threads on the forum about government-sponsored crypto, and I can't say I'd be a big fan of that if it was introduced in my country. It would be just another way for the prying eyes of gov't to see what you're buying or who you send money to. At least with cold, hard cash there's no real way to tell where it's going to unless you track serial numbers on the paper currency. And hell, there's no way at all to track coinage that I know of.

We'll see what happens with China. I'm glad the experiment is being done over there and not in Europe or N. America. I don't think it's a good idea from a privacy standpoint and I'm hoping it never catches on.