'One day everyone will use China's digital currency' | Hacker News Reader

'One day everyone will use China's digital currency'

bbc.com

11 pointsfactordaily_8 comments

I dunno: the point of cryptocurrency is it’s not tied to some large government to control. At least it is for me.

Important bits from the article:

However, DCEP will be centralised and state-run, unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum which are free of state control.

Many Bitcoin enthusiasts fear that DCEP will be used as a tool by the Chinese Communist Party to exert greater control over their citizens through surveillance. The authorities will be able to monitor how money is spent in real time. They will also have the same controls over DCEP as with the yuan.

"DCEP is the antithesis of Bitcoin. The ultimate goal of a cryptocurrency is the separation of money and state," says Stewart Mackenzie, a cryptocurrency expert based in Hong Kong. "It's easy for them to say that it's like Bitcoin when it's worlds apart."

Linghao Bao agrees. "DCEP is built on an idea of centralised control. The value of Bitcoin lies in its decentralisation nature and its isolation from the financial system," Mr Bao says.

" The ultimate goal of a cryptocurrency is the separation of money and state "

  It was my understanding that crypto's ultimate value was in the block chain, which is a secure, decentralized record of all transactions that can not be altered by any one entity, be that the state or other fraudulent actors.

The anonymous aspects of crypto might be appealing to some libritarian minded people but I'm not sure that is what makes it ultimatly valuable to the general masses. Believe it or not many people are OK with the government watching and tracking their assests, even in the USA. Just look at the current popularity of socialism.

To be able to monitor how money flows is one of the objective of digital currency. In 2008, the government injected 4 trillion into the economy, much of it went into property market instead where it is designated. It is not trying to be a bitcoin, rather a financial tool to control where money flows for QE for example. It is an enhanced banknote.

LOL. This will never happen, as long as its tied to a GOV its not going to widely accepted. The same farce happened with facebooks own crypto.

The Chinese GOV could probably "force" its people to adopt this, but its not going to be used outside china.

I don't know about your first argument. Dollar is tied to US and you wouldn't mind to take it don't you? It is a currency, and it is backed up by a government. Of course, the Chinese currency is not dollar. You should see it as paypal, rather than something like bitcoin.

Dollar has been on the decline since Nixon removed the gold standard. The FIAT system is deeply flawed and it looks like money printing is just increasing (see US debt, and issues bonds over the last 40-50 years).

This led to crypto like Bitcoin, thats NOT tied to a GOV or any other instance. Why would i move from Bitcoin to Chinacoin? Why would i trust the Chinese gov with my money?

Thiel point again "It's inevitable" vs. "We are harmless". Truth is in the middle.

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