abolishing cash/banknotes?

[Daniel Pocock]

On 28/01/14 22:03, Tobias Platen wrote:
> 
> On 28.01.2014 21:39, Daniel Pocock wrote:
>>
>> On 28/01/14 21:37, Florian Weimer wrote:
>>> * Daniel Pocock:
>>>
>>>> That, too, is what I commented - getting more people to pay by
>>>> electronic means (making cash/anonymity appear shameful) seems to be
>>>> the objective
>>> Cash is already heavily regulated, at least in countries with a stable
>>> economy.
>>>
>>> What has this to do with free software, by the way?
>>>
>> How much of the software used for those electronic
>> currency/banking/payment transactions is free?
>>
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> Most ATMs run with nonfree software (mostly Windows XP), but this does
> not seem to be a problem for Richard Stallman:
> "Likewise, I don't need to worry about what software is in a kiosk, pay
> phone, or ATM that I am using. I hope their owners migrate them to free
> software, for their sake, but there's no need for me to refuse to touch
> them until then."
> 
> There is also a really old programming language called COBOL
> http://jxself.org/cobol.shtml.
> As most COBOL software is never distributed, developing COBOL programs
> seems to be compatible with the free software movement.
> 

Actually, my job at Barlcays Capital was rolling out the Ganglia system
across the whole enterprise.  Banks do use free software, usually in
those cases where it is really compelling to do so (Linux, Git, Jenkins
are other common examples, although Firefox has some way to go to
displace IE6 in some bigger corporates)

On the other hand, the issue with electronic payment is very different.
 From the perspective of the user of the currency, they have little or
no control over just what happens to their data.

Just as Facebook reveals who your friends are, your financial
transactions reveal a lot about your economic preferences (e.g. where
you eat, whether you go to the pub every night/every weekend).

People concerned about these wider technology issues would see the move
away from cash as something similar to banning ToR and forcing everybody
to browse the web while logged into Google.