BitDigest May 15 · Issue #659

• Bitcoin hitting resistance at $10,000 and Halving-hype did not provide positive returns on the week
• South Korea considering a $400 billion response to China’s national blockchain program
• Taiwan’s central bank does not see need to follow China and rush into CBDC

Will Cashless Operations Be Permitted in Post Coronavirus World?

I received an update from Amtrak yesterday. It explained the different procedures the rail company is taking to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Facial covering, 50% capacity, enhanced cleaning protocols, etc.  The one new policy that caught my eye was “cashless service.” Amtrak has decided to temporarily move to cashless payments in stations and on the trains.

Going cashless is not new. It’s something I write about often, but in case you have forgotten, earlier this year the New Yok City Council approved legislation that prohibits stores, restaurants and other retail outlets from refusing to accept hard currency. Several other states like New Jersey, California and Pennsylvania approved similar laws last year.

Times are different now and it will be interesting to watch the response to this move. Besides addressing what people consider to be the inconvenience of having to keep cash, there is now a social safety concern that is driving this decision. I am not sure if the City Council will respond but if so I hope more people object.

Weekend Reading

• I had the opportunity to speak with former Andreessen Horowitz crypto partner Jesse Walden. We were discussing network effects and he explained his belief that cooperative and crypto networks are similar participatory systems that are both owned and operated by their members. Jessie wrote a paper explaining this comparison in much greater detail: Past, Present, Future: From Co-ops to Cryptonetworks.
• A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto is the seminal work by computer programmer Eric Hughes addressing the essence of privacy and the building of anonymous systems using cryptography. In the essay, Hughes speaks of free and open code and states that “we know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and since we can’t get privacy unless we all do, we’re going to write it.”

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