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Comment by sneak

16 hours ago

Yes, and this is a bad thing, and free societies are impossible without the possibility of payments that the government doesn’t want you to be able to make.

Cryptocurrency solves that problem well, which is why governments have moved hard to effectively nerf it everywhere.

> the possibility of payments that the government doesn’t want you to be able to make

The idea that visa and mastercard provide these ...

  • Visa and Mastercard don't, but right now cash more or less does. If the state has a monopoly on digital payments, and can thus mass surveil all digital payments without any scrutiny, the state has a huge incentive to disincentivize or bar the use of cash. Then all it takes is a bad actor to come into power and abuse the system.

    • No more so than with visa or mastercard, who already hand over data whenever, and hand it over to a foreign government on demand too.

      This fear of government services is toxic americanism.

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