commit b60bbcb88c04fca7822e4ba512b22dbf81456eb7
parent f61ea22bb25ae5f5af2e272c9ed4638257326745
Author: Christian Grothoff <grothoff@gnunet.org>
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2022 00:33:42 +0100
cite US Fed report
Diffstat:
2 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-)
diff --git a/2022-privacy/literature.bib b/2022-privacy/literature.bib
@@ -5,6 +5,15 @@
howpublished = {\url{https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2016/03/data_is_a_toxic_asse.html}},
}
+@TechReport{usfed2022,
+ author = {{Board of Governers of the Federal Reserve System}},
+ title = {{Money and Payments: The U.S. Digital Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation}},
+ institution = {United States Federal Reserve},
+ year = {2022},
+ month = {January},
+ note = {\url{https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/money-and-payments-20220120.pdf}},
+}
+
@PhdThesis{dold2019,
author = {Florian Dold},
title = {The GNU Taler System},
diff --git a/2022-privacy/privacy.tex b/2022-privacy/privacy.tex
@@ -83,11 +83,6 @@ permissioned blockchains does not inherently prevent such manipulations as
long as the participating operators are colluding. Thus, if European
democratic ideals and personal freedoms are to prevail, we clearly cannot
ignore this danger and must reestablish the principles of personal
-%MSC: Question: Is "self-reliance" supposed to mean "autarky" or "personal responsibility"?
-% Autarky sounds a bit odd as a principle in the European or democratic context.
-% Hence change it for now, feel free to change again.
-% Unless referring to some defined EU principle it is better as it ties in with
-% the idea of being responsible for your tokens just like cash.
responsibility, personal independence and subsidiarity in the design processes
for critical infrastructure created by European institutions.
@@ -121,11 +116,14 @@ and regulations, this implies the bank could arbitrarily block
payments by private citizens. The repressive potential of a government with
such a capability is so large that it must be firmly rejected.
-% MSC: I removed a strawman here (This [the implication] is likely wrong).
-% I replaced it with "our belief", not sure if that is better...
-Instead, we believe the question should be if central banks
-should limit CBDC issuance corresponding to their mission instead of adapting
-it.
+Instead, we believe the question should be if central banks should limit CBDC
+issuance corresponding to their mission instead of adapting it. Wisely, the
+US Federal Reserve is currently barred from maintaining digital account
+balances for individuals~\cite{usfed2022}, which limits its ability to issue a
+retail CBDC. We consider this law wise, as we will next argue that tightly
+coupling payments with identity is harmful. Furthermore, the law does not seem
+to prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing a token-based privacy-respecting
+CBDC.
\section{Harmful coupling with identity}
@@ -275,23 +273,24 @@ limits for their CBDC holdings based on their actual cash needs.
\section{Tokenization beyond CBDC}
-With electronic tokens it is possible to tokenize payment systems that are not
-CBDCs. For example, a Swiss group around Claudio
+With electronic tokens it is possible to implement payment systems that are
+not CBDCs. For example, a Swiss group around Claudio
Zanetti~\footnote{\url{https://www.zanetti.ch/}} is considering launching an
electronic payment system based on gold. Direct payments with physical gold
are problematic, as giving change (the exact problem GNU Taler solves for
-Chaum's DigiCash~\cite{chaum1988untraceable}) is impractical with gold (as is the
-validation that the gold is pure). With eGold, Zanetti plans to ``establish a
-private competitor to the Swiss National Bank, that is not able to deflate
-economic crises by inflating the currency at the expense of the working
-class''.\footnote{Personal communication.} It remains to be seen if this
-effective limitation on central bank policy making is ultimately beneficial,
-given the ecological cost of mining gold and the detrimental effect of rampant
-economic crises on the poor. Regardless, the idea is interesting as it may
-require governments to take a more preventative stance against economic crises
---- and economists (naturally ignoring the global environmental impact of
-mining gold) have previously claimed that a competing gold-backed payment
-system might be inherently beneficial to the (Swiss) economy~\cite{nzz}.
+Chaum's DigiCash~\cite{chaum1988untraceable}) is impractical with gold (as is
+the validation that the gold is pure). With eGold, Zanetti plans to
+``establish a private competitor to the Swiss National Bank, that is not able
+to deflate economic crises by inflating the currency at the expense of the
+working class''.\footnote{Personal communication.} It remains to be seen if
+this effective limitation on central bank policy making is ultimately
+beneficial, given the ecological cost of mining gold and the detrimental
+effect of rampant economic crises on the poor. Regardless, the idea is
+interesting as it may require governments to take a more preventative stance
+against economic crises --- and economists (naturally ignoring the global
+environmental impact of mining gold) have previously claimed that a competing
+gold-backed payment system might be inherently beneficial to the (Swiss)
+economy~\cite{nzz}.
Systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum that are based on distributed ledger
technology are often confused with true token-based systems. In Bitcoin and
