The Dangers of Digital Currency
November 10, 2024
“THE perils of an all-digital currency range from the fairly obvious to the altogether inconspicuous. In order to adequately appreciate the crucial importance of establishing and upholding the right to cash, it is necessary to explore them in some detail.
“The clearest danger arising from the elimination of all physical money is the threat to privacy it entails. Purchases using digital money, be they via credit card, mobile phones or online banking, are never as anonymous as cash transactions: a record is invariably created and held by a third party – usually a bank or credit card company. While these entities may be obliged by law to keep such information confidential, such confidentiality can be breached by government pressure or broken by skilful hackers. In short, it is only cash that provides full anonymity – and the concomitant autonomy. Only with physical money may we say with Dostoevsky:
“‘Money is coined liberty.’
“Sadly, the convenience of using credit cards, the rise of online shopping and propaganda campaigns portraying cash as unhygienic or maligning it as an instrument of criminality have generally sufficed to overpower privacy concerns. In order to strengthen the case for establishing a right to cash, it is therefore necessary to study some of the less evident negative consequences of an all-digital currency.”
— Arindam Basu, “The Right to Cash” Read More »