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Hi,<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/16/20 5:08 PM, John R. Levine
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:dbe7d989-f6b7-30dd-51c-feca4f85dfbf@iecc.com">I know all
of the policy reasons why CBDC might or might not be a good idea.
The question is how would they work, and the implications of what
control the workings would allow.
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
The devil is in the details here. There isn't a common framework for
how CBDCs will work yet, so there is nothing to draw concrete
conclusions from. There are various options in how a CBDC _could_ be
built, and those options have trade offs and implications but
without referencing a specific CBDC you can't reference the options
they've chosen and therefore can't talk about the trade offs yet. <br>
<br>
The paper you referenced in your original message does try to select
some various options that the author expects CBDCs to go with and
even with those options the devil in in the details. For example:<br>
<br>
* The paper mentions that "The CBDC will incorporate programmable
money". Depending on how this is done you can make different
conclusions. If the "programing system" is Turing complete the you
are going to run into various smart contract hacks like you see in
Ethereum today. On the other hand, if the "programming system" is
more limited the you can make some assertions and guarantees about
the contracts (aka. programs) correctness, but you also limit the
possible programs that can be written. <br>
<br>
* The paper states that "here will be no purely anonymous wallets"
and at the same time "Unhosted wallets will be possible" which to me
are contradictory statements. Even though a form of ID might be
required to create a wallet (i.e. get a private key authorized),
since the wallet is unhosted there is nothing that prevents that
wallet from being stolen (or sold) effectively making the new owner
of the wallet anonymous. <br>
<br>
I think it would be helpful if you could give us specific questions
and reference a specific CBDC implementation. In that case we might
be able to provide more concrete answers.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Nabil.<br>
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