[HN Gopher] Israel bans use of cash for purchases larger than NI...
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       Israel bans use of cash for purchases larger than NIS 6k (~1700
       USD/EUR)
        
       Author : triyambakam
       Score  : 21 points
       Date   : 2022-07-29 19:57 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.jpost.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.jpost.com)
        
       | lsiq wrote:
       | Everything is going as planned.
       | 
       | One store credit to rule them all and in the darkness bind them.
        
       | przemub wrote:
       | That sounds awfully totalitarian.
        
       | contingencies wrote:
       | A global trend. Australia has a $10K AUD (~$7K USD) limit
       | introduced in 2020. China just introduced 2022 documentation
       | requirements for cash withdrawls and deposits over 50K CNY
       | (USD$7400) and are trialling e-renminbi (CN govcoin). Essentially
       | the whole of Chinese society already pays most bills through
       | Tencent's WeChatPay and the now-apparently-nationalized Alibaba's
       | Alipay, so they have an effective govcoin by proxy already.
        
       | catchnear4321 wrote:
       | "...ban payments of large sums of money in cash and bank checks."
       | 
       | What's acceptable? Alternate means. Such as...
       | 
       | "digital transfer or a debit card"
       | 
       | The better to see you with, my dear.
        
       | sschueller wrote:
       | That's less than 2 bills here (Switzerland) . Absolutely insane.
       | Why even print cash at that point?
       | 
       | I doubt this brings in any more money in taxes and I would bet
       | it's so small of an amount compared to the legal tax loopholes
       | which the "big guys" use that it only hurts the general public
       | than solve their tax issues.
        
         | _-david-_ wrote:
         | It is not about taxes. It is about surveillance. If you don't
         | use physical cash they can more easily track you.
        
         | AussieWog93 wrote:
         | You have >EUR850 bills in Switzerland!?
        
       | deejaaymac wrote:
       | bitcoin solves this.
       | 
       | In an age of the modern computer and internet, cash has to
       | evolve. People deserve the right to privacy with their money.
       | 
       | I know a lot of people are anti BTC, even here on HN, and I get
       | where people are coming from, but do you not also think that
       | people deserve privacy?
       | 
       | "Only criminals use it"
       | 
       | I use/trade BTC all the time for legit reasons because most
       | people I know also have BTC. I firmly and will always believe in
       | peoples right to privacy.
       | 
       | INB4 "BTC is not private"
       | 
       | If used correctly, it is. SO rather than just stomp on BTC, why
       | not help the cause?
        
         | _aavaa_ wrote:
         | > INB4 "BTC is not private"
         | 
         | I am curious. What are some of these mysterious on/off-ramps
         | which do not record your private information?
         | 
         | > If used correctly,
         | 
         | PGP is also secure but the burden of using it "correctly" is
         | higher than most regular people are willing to put up with. So,
         | at least for the time being, it effectively is not private
        
         | MBCook wrote:
         | This is an anti-money laundering law. It doesn't ban
         | transactions that size, just in cash.
         | 
         | You know what still works? Debit cards. Credit cards. I'd
         | assume checks. Possibly other apps (though I'd be afraid to put
         | so much money through them personally).
         | 
         | BTC does nothing good special here _unless you're trying to
         | launder money_.
        
           | deejaaymac wrote:
           | I believe that people deserve the right / ability to spend
           | their money as they see fit regardless of transaction size,
           | anonymously.
           | 
           | Why does the bank / government need to know were/how I'm
           | spending my money?
           | 
           | I'm already taxed when I'm paid every month, I pay my
           | property taxes. This is not about tax evasion or money
           | laundering for me.
        
             | themacguffinman wrote:
             | > Why does the bank / government need to know were/how I'm
             | spending my money?
             | 
             | Because they need that information to identify and trace
             | tax evasion and money laundering.
             | 
             | > This is not about tax evasion or money laundering for me.
             | 
             | Oh, since you said so, I guess it must be true. No need for
             | the government to actually check using information.
        
               | bavell wrote:
               | > Because they need that information to identify and
               | trace tax evasion and money laundering.
               | 
               | Isn't that what IRS audits are for?
               | 
               | This discussion reminds me of the automatic CSAM scanning
               | on phones (Apple iirc?). Seems like a noble cause but you
               | sure are handing over a lot of power.
        
               | ilammy wrote:
               | > _No need for the government to actually check using
               | information._
               | 
               | But do they _need_ to check that for every citizen
               | without a warrant in close to real-time? Is panopticon
               | the only way for it to be effective? Is this what
               | citizens want?
        
           | jollybean wrote:
           | ??? Credit Cards take 2.5%.
           | 
           | Can you imagine the government forcing 2.55 of entire swaths
           | of the economy over to VISA?
           | 
           | Debit transactions also have fees.
           | 
           | If the government really wants people to switch to digital,
           | kill VISA fees.
           | 
           | VISA is the 'Organized Crime Syndicate' that has a
           | stranglehold on the entire digital economy.
           | 
           | Gov. can't do it because banks/visa practically own them.
           | 
           | It would take a Jimmy Carter or Bernie Sanders for that.
           | 
           | Institutional Dems. won't ever do it.
        
             | sonofhans wrote:
             | This is an excellent point and should be more visible. One
             | effect of this is business model support for payment
             | processors.
             | 
             | It's clearly not the only intent of the law. Bu when a
             | government does something to benefit large and entrenched
             | players in the market, we can all be forgiven for thinking
             | that the fix is in.
        
               | salawat wrote:
               | Keep in mind this also implicitly waives 4th Amendment
               | protections for financial activity. As soon as you have a
               | payment processor involved in a transaction, it's 3rd
               | Party Doctrine all the way to the bank. Kiss expectation
               | of privacy goodbye.
        
               | CogitoCogito wrote:
               | That's kind of the point.
        
       | MBCook wrote:
       | A law like this doesn't seem like a bad idea to me (though I'm
       | sure many will disagree). At a certain point carrying so much
       | cash just gets very risky.
        
         | dieselgate wrote:
         | I don't disagree with you outright but the denomination seems
         | incredibly small with (unless I missed something) the only
         | intent to reduce the supply of cash in circulation. If they
         | capped it at something like an order of magnitude more I could
         | maybe feel differently. Not sure why you're getting downvoted
         | as you present a valid opinion.
        
         | _-david-_ wrote:
        
         | JohnFen wrote:
         | > At a certain point carrying so much cash just gets very
         | risky.
         | 
         | Why should I not be allowed to take that risk?
        
         | yesbut wrote:
         | But why should the state get to decide that for the citizen?
         | The citizen should decide for themselves what they feel is too
         | risky.
        
         | rafale wrote:
         | At a certain point driving a motorcycle gets very risky too.
        
           | henrydark wrote:
           | There's also regulation on driving motorcycles
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | catchnear4321 wrote:
         | This isn't about carrying cash, so much as spending it without
         | an electronic trail. They want more data.
         | 
         | At a certain point, carrying so much data just gets very risky.
        
         | rufus_foreman wrote:
         | I, for one, welcome our new privacy destroying overlords.
        
       | ipaddr wrote:
       | This is the test case other countries will try to copy.
        
       | ciupicri wrote:
       | The limit in Romania is already ~1000 or 2000 EUR (USD) depending
       | on a few factors: individual or business, business type etc.
       | 
       | If I'm not mistaking it's similar limit in Italy.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-29 23:02 UTC)