[littlestymaar]

> 4. the central bank gets to decide how much "cash" each individual deserves to have at any given point in time.

Taler is a payment system, it has nothing to do with central banks at all.

> 5. this "cash" has an expiration date, which is chosen at the whim of the central bank. If you stuff it in your mattress like paper cash, it becomes worthless. Therefore, this scheme is a massive step backwards in terms of central bank control over our lives, relative to coins-and-banknotes

Again, you must be confusing Taler with something else. Also, coins and banknotes have expiration dates too (for instance, try pay something with a Deutsch Mark note today).

Kind of sad to see the “Evil central banks want to control your life” conspiracy theory leaving the mud of 4chan to reach HN…

[pjc50]

Like a lot of conspiracy theory, there's a core of truth. All you have to do is ask the question "is this system going to be allowed to be used for crime on a huge scale", receive the obvious answer "no", and infer that there will be some control built into the system.

Where it leaps into conspiracy is the question of when and whom this will be used against. But it's fairly obvious that measures will be taken against drug sellers, sex workers, banned political parties and so on.

[littlestymaar]

This has nothing to do with what GP invented (amount control and expiration date set by central banks).

> But it's fairly obvious that measures will be taken against drug sellers, sex workers, banned political parties and so on.

Yeah, of course like governments already do with cash!

There's a big difference between saying “governments are going to police things” (which is always true, that's their purpose in fact) and spreading made up claims involving a central bank's conspiracy (spoiler alert: policing isn't part of central banker's job, if somebody is going to do anything it will not be them but the plain and boring law enforcement agencies, but that sounds less bad as a conspiracy to say that police is going to police stuff, I guess).

If anything, a technology like Taler is a big improvement in terms of individual freedom compared to things like credit cards. If governments want to stop cash to combat crime (and save money, the logistics around cash is very expensive) having Taler instead of Visa is a massive benefit for privacy and freedom.

[pjc50]

The argument is that, if the money is just a database, the police will get it policed, or the bank will police it themselves, in an extra-legal way of just deleting or freezing accounts on request.

[littlestymaar]

Like with regular bank accounts you mean? (Btw, Taler being just a payment system, you don't have anything but a regular bank account tied to it: you don't hold money through Taler anymore than you hold it on Visa: there's a small short lived wallet for transaction purpose but it's supposed to act like a purse, not a safe).

If you live in a country where the police can delete or freeze your bank account without legal control (or at all, even), then you're screwed and you can either change your government or find a new country, the fact that cash exists is not at all a big enough a guarantee for your freedom. At that point the government could also seize all your properties (including cash, something that the US police routinely does[1]) and/or keep you under arrest in secret prisons.

If you hope a technological mean (be it rudimentary like cash, or more modern like a blockchain) can help you protect your freedom against evil government, I have bad news for you. No technology can solve your political problems.

[1]: https://priceonomics.com/how-police-officers-seize-cash-from...