Has Brazil Invented the Future of Money? – Paul Krugman
paulkrugman.substack.com
paulkrugman.substack.com
But here's the problem: PIX’s source code is not public.
No external institution—be it a citizen, a researcher, a company, or even another government agency—can audit how PIX operates under the hood. This directly contradicts both the letter and the spirit of Article 16 of Law 14.063/2021.
https://d1gesto.blogspot.com/2025/06/brazils-pix-system-face...
Almost everyone (very close to literally everyone) uses PIX and we have zero reported cases of mishap, errors or bad faith attacks...?
I quite frankly don't care that the system backed/created by the public services and imposed on banks is "closed"; to the point I'm generally curious as to what are the arguments for caring
Hope this does not sound dismissive - as a heavy user with no complaints for years, why should I care PIX is a black box?
Earlier this month, hackers using credentials purchased from a C&M employee were able to generate unauthorised PIX transactions on client banks and steal at least BRL$ 500 MM, and maybe as much as BRL $ 5 BN, so it's definitely not fool proof.
> Hope this does not sound dismissive - as a heavy user with no complaints for years, why should I care PIX is a black box?
Brazilians in general are very accepting of government surveillance, with the omnipresent CPF and now complete disclosure of almost all consumer transactions to the State. It's always surprised me, TBH, given the very recent history of dictatorship and unbounded potential for abuse.
To be clear - This was a "bank robbery" (inside job, given usage of credentials?) and in absolutely zero ways affects trust in Pix as a user
As for your other point - thanks, our values and concerns are not aligned; it would be hard for us to agree on this
Well, that doesn't appear to have been the case. Instead it seems to have been an attack that leverage a as-yet-unknown weakness in the Pix protocol that seems to have allowed something similar to impersonation. Whether it has affected your trust in Pix is almost immaterial, as it has rocked institutional trust in the protocol and platform.
As for user trust, with endless malware attacks like PixPirate, PixBankBot, GoPix, etc,
> As for your other point - thanks, our values and concerns are not aligned; it would be hard for us to agree on this
That's an interesting claim - how do you know my values and concerns?
Also, it’s not complicated to build your own PIX system from reverse engineering the APIs. In fact, it’s quite trivial. The tricky part is to make it scalable.
Pix is more comparable to India's UPI, which was certainly a reference.
It would also be great if something similar to Pix was released for messaging.
Then the hairstylist uses that $50 to buy groceries.
Then the grocery uses that $50 to buy boxes.
Then the box people use that $50 to buy wood.
The $50 keeps going.
Why the government wants to do away with cash and go to this system.
$50 minus fees.
$49 minus fees.
$48 minus fees.
Not to mention the ability to digitally print money has caused tremendous inflation and that's about to get much worse.
>Republicans say that they’re worried about invasion of privacy, that a CBDC would open the door to widespread government surveillance. But remember, these are the people who have handed over personal Medicaid data to ICE to facilitate arrests and abductions.
So proving the point literally 100%? That the USA already has widespread government surveillance and nobody ever did anything about it?
(and cash is not usable for large amounts)
Every part of the chain currently pay fees unless they are paying with cash.
> Not to mention the ability to digitally print money has caused tremendous inflation and that's about to get much worse.
Governments can print money physically as well. Also, most money in circulation never needs to be printed because it never leaves the banking system.
> So proving the point literally 100%?
Do you think banks would resist to giving the government your transaction history?
I literally said cash as the 4th word typed.
>Governments can print money physically as well. Also, most money in circulation never needs to be printed because it never leaves the banking system.
Printing money back in the 1930s had to be done physically; and was at the consequence of gold.
Subsequent bad US presidents, roosevelt and nixon wrecked the usa ultimately; and they are paying for it now.
>Do you think banks would resist to giving the government your transaction history?
How do the banks know how i spent my cash?
How many companies use cash as a primary means of payment?
> How do the banks know how i spent my cash?
That info would be inferred from the data the phone, social media, and other surveillance companies offer. They'd know to keep an eye on you because you transact too much using cash.