Tiny Transistors Could Be Used To Track Cash

disco_tracy writes "Banks have long considered placing silicon transistors on currency for security purposes, but the technology was too chunky and intensive for paper bills. Now, tiny low-power organic transistors developed by German scientists could make it possible to really follow the money."

Comments

Damn

[BJ_Covert_Action]

There goes one of the last mediums of semi-anonymous financial transactions.

Re:Damn

[aztektum]

Toss your bills in the microwave.

Re:Damn

[Anonymous Coward]

The protesters in the middle east could be seen as criminals. Anonymity is important because it can protect dissenters from retribution from those in power. It may mean that there will be people that buy drugs or whatever, but I fear tyrants more than I fear crime.

Re:Damn

[BJ_Covert_Action]

Your ignorance on the importance of anonymity astounds me. Try living next to some nosey, judgmental, zealous neighbors sometime and tell me how much you like the idea of all of your actions, transactions, and movements tracked.

Re:Damn

[BJ_Covert_Action]

You're using the government's own printed scrip, backed by the government's health and stability, all of which is costly to all of us.

Exactly, it's costly to us. It's not the government's scrip. It's our scrip. We pay for it. And we simply trust the government to print it in a responsible manner. That means, logically, that we should be able to, as citizens, do whatever the hell we want with our scrip without oversight from our government overlords. We, the citizenry, are supposed to be tracking and monitoring our government, and all of their powers, to keep them in check. Our government is not supposed to be tracking and monitoring we citizens to keep us in check. The government is little more than a necessary evil to help manage and contend with the more unpredictable, shitty portions of being a human being living on this planet (like dealing with sociopathic criminals and such). The government is not supposed to be, and should never be, an overbearing social entity that regulates all citizens' lives to protect them from themselves.

My government should answer to me. I fund it. I contribute to it. I take time out of my busy damn life to help it function (jury duty, voting, registering my vehicle with DMV, smog checks, etc. etc. etc.). That means that the government is mine (more appropriately ours) to oversee and monitor. Not the other way around. The fact that I purchase legal tender from the government via my taxes and contributions to society does not mean that I am purchasing government oversight of my life. It means that I am entering into a social contract with the government that says, "I'll give you a portion of my earnings to help support the society that helps support me. In return, I expect access to the legal tender we (the citizenry) grant you (the government) the power to print that I may partake in whatever social transactions I see fit." What is not included in that contract, and what should never be included in that contract, is a clause that says, "I expect access to the legal tender only for goods and services that the government approves of." Money is not under the control of the Executive branch, it is under control of the Legislative branch. Money is not intended to be used as crime prevention tool. It is intended to be used as a social contract between two individuals partaking in a private transaction in a common society. To conflate those two roles is a violation of the principle of the Separation of Powers and is downright fucking stupid.

The government is not explicitly granted the power to track my private financial transactions in the Constitution of the United States of America. And, until we citizens get together and vote to amend that document and, thus, yield that power to the government that we hold a social contract with, it never has the right, responsibility, or duty to do so. Just because you wish the government has that power, does not give the government that power. Learning and understanding that principle could actually help you grow into the informed citizen that you are supposed to be in this society. Good day sir.