Comment by lampiaio
3 years ago
> in most countries, those services are provided by banks, not the government
That's something I always point out when telling others how awesome the Brazilian Pix system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pix_(payment_system)
is. It's not a private initiative by a bunch of individual banks, but rather a zero-fee payment system managed by the country's central bank: https://www.bcb.gov.br/en/financialstability/pixfaqen .
And it seriously rocks. It has been such a tremendous change to everyday life.
What happens when it becomes so good that it's the only option? There's no need for it to be profitable, so it can inevitably undercut private sector competitors. Do you want to live in a country where the central bank controls and monitors your ability to transact with other people?
Just last year, the Canadian government weaponized "debanking" in an effort to quell peaceful protests against vaccination mandates. They restricted the bank accounts of people who peacefully disagreed with government policy stances. And that was just with the status quo of deputizing private banks to enforce the sanctions against the individual citizens - imagine how much more systemized and effective it would be as a coercion measure if the bank accounts were directly managed and controlled by the government.
We're not a banana republic and actually have laws governing what the central back can do, and they can't block transfers without a warrant. Any private banking solution would be subject to same kind of laws.
1 reply →
> What happens when it becomes so good that it's the only option?
Nothing is stopping banks from creating something better.
2 replies →