GNU Taler begins operating in Switzerland, distributed by the Taler Operations AG. Gnu Taler aims to be a “digital wallet” and has been used by the swiss national bank as well as the european national bank as a example for how a digital currency handed out by the state could work. It aims to be as privacy preserving as cash for the buyer while not allowing the seller to evade taxes.
Currently the Taler is brought out by a special organisation, the “Taler Operations AG”, and not the national bank, although both the national bank as well as the Taler Team have shown interest in a official digial currency by the national bank based on the Taler. But we need to relativate as the national council has stated that the introduction of a digital currency would probably take relatively major legislative changes and therefore take a bit of time.
Depends on threat model, eg police will seize phones/computers/devices all the time but will only seize money if they think it’s related to a crime. As long as you’re not being arrested for a money-related charge then your cash would most likely be untouched but your devices will be lost. But of course that issue is circumvented with just off-site backups which are probably just as safe as your cash if cops aren’t interested in your cash.
If the cops steal my USB drive with my encrypted bitcoin wallet, I just restore it from the backup and they’ve stolen nothing.
In the US, cops steal cash all the time. Sometimes tbeh steal it personally, but they have an incentive to “legitimately” steal it to add it to their budget. Its fucked.
Fair, I don’t live in the US and IME cops haven’t stolen my cash, although tbf I’ve not really had cash lying around when raided or arrested.
Well thats their logic. If you have a lot of cash lying around, they immediately recognize it as an anomolu and therefore assume you’re guilty and the money is illicit.
Its completely legal to not trust banks and keep your savings in cash instead (or some ratio per your risk appetite), but cops generally don’t care about laws.