@pepsi_man @CliffSecord For all intents and purposes when people use a credit card it's the same thing. You give merchant magic device. Magic device says thing is paid for. Merchant gives you thing.

At some point someone asks you for USD.

The government won't actually like a CBDC because it will produce too strict of rules about expanding the currency. Right now they already have that with the Fed, but with a ton of ability to pretend stuff isn't happening, because of how t-bills work. With a CBDC, it would be literal line item (your dollar is now worth 95c)