The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust thats required to make it
work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of
fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our
money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles
with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them
not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive overhead costs make
micropayments impossible.
A generation ago, multi-user time-sharing computer systems had a similar problem.
Before strong encryption, users had to rely on password protection to secure their
files, placing trust in the system administrator to keep their information private.
Privacy could always be overridden by the admin based on his judgment call weighing the
principle of privacy against other concerns, or at the behest of his superiors. Then
strong encryption became available to the masses, and trust was no longer required.
Data could be secured in a way that was physically impossible for others to access, no
matter for what reason, no matter how good the excuse, no matter what.
Its time we had the same thing for money. With e-currency based on cryptographic
proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and
transactions effortless.