Hacker News Reader

If a public institution was introduced to allow you to freely digitally transact and securely store your money would you feel similarly?

View on HN

I may then be more likely to use a digital transaction for some cases, although still I would prefer to use cash as much as possible. (For one thing, it doesn't fail in the way that digital systems do. And, it can be used without a computer. There are other advantages too.)

Not all digital systems fail similarly, consider some sort of distributed hub and spoke system that could arbitrate transactions; thus mitigating a single point of failure. Also consider how much of everything we purchase today is entirely reliant on our digital infrastructure, if there were some calamity that entirely halted our networks I don't think legal tender would be any use.

There is good reason to have more than 10k in cash to have for your family in case a localized natural disaster or other emergency makes digital transactions impossible where your are, during a crisis. You may well need a transaction larger than 10k in cash for transport etc at that point as well.

rephrased: Would I trust Uncle Sam's servers with the entirety of my financial activity? No.

There exist cryptographically secure digital payment systems, but governments are moving against them just the same as cash.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com