The Future of Money Is Terrifying – Aaron Bastani Meets Brett Scott – Downstream [video] | Hacker News Reader

The Future of Money Is Terrifying – Aaron Bastani Meets Brett Scott – Downstream [video]

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3 pointsljosifov4 comments

Many people around the world are already living in a cashless society. With the dominion of Visa and Mastercard showing no sign of shrinking, it's vital to scrutinise exactly what this shift means.

Brett Scott is an author and former banker, who is deeply committed to evaluating the grave dangers surrounding the removal of cash as a payment system. He sat down with Aaron to talk about bitcoin, gold and the central paradox at the heart of modern libertarianism.

You can find Brett's book here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/439997/cloudmoney-by-scott-b...

This is a very western mentality. There are people in northern Vietnam who store their savings as gold embedded in their teeth. They are effectively "cashless" as many of their other "transactions" are done through barter of goods. At the same time, these people have smartphones and 5G internet. Should they continue on with the way they are living or can we trustlessly digitize their experience in a way that gives them more security and decisions over their own funds?

In the context of that interview - cash is paper notes (and coins) issued by national Central Bank (named "Tier 1 money, public money"). Then there is electronic balances held by the Commercial banks (named "Tier 2 money, private money") that is convertible to the "Tier 1". (there is also "Tier 3 money" like Paypal and so on) So in this context "cashless" means "without the existing Tier 1 money" and issuing electronic balances as Tier 1 that replace existing notes (that get retired). Given that China, India, Brazil, countries in Africa etc all have the same (Fiat) money system - not sure in what way this is "western" or "mentality" TBH.

> Many people around the world are already living in a cashless society.

Also, you just stated the fact, so there is no 'mentality' to it, I believe.

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