Foreigners visiting China are increasingly stumped by its cashless society

Some governments, like Canada and Estonia, would disagree, since both central banks have seriously explored the idea of issuing cryptocurrencies (Venezuela, too, but that was a desperation move). There’s nothing in such plans that requires the government to issue the individual user’s account or wallet (thereby linking a given public transaction to the two parties).

So you could have a government issuing cash in digital form that, via blockchain technology, preserves the level of privacy you get from banknotes or private cryptocurrencies while adding a layer of digital convenience (and a very accurate audit trail, if needed) and the stability of central bank governance.

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