
Ask HN: Should we create a Crypto Bank that issues bank notes? - Findeton
Some people have created &quot;bills&quot; and physical &quot;coins&quot; that actually contain crypto. I haven&#x27;t seen anyone creating bank notes that are simply backed by a bank that stores the crypto for them. What do you think about the idea?<p>I believe it could be useful for people in some developing countries. My initial idea is to create a branch in Colombia&#x2F;Cucuta, oriented to support people from Venezuela crossing the border forth and back.<p>Pros about such a bank:<p>- Crypto bank notes enable off-chain transactions with zero cost.<p>- Bills&#x2F;notes enable use non-gov backed currency (may fluctuate, but won&#x27;t have inflation) without requiring internet.<p>- A &quot;current&quot; crypto bank account also enables you to forget about taking care of the security side of crypto addresses, where it&#x27;s also easy to move money to an Ethereum address or back to other currencies like colombian pesos or dollars.<p>What do you think?<p>PD: I&#x27;m based in Europe, but I&#x27;ve been to Colombia.
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gus_massa
[Hi from Argentina!]

How do you prevent counterfeit? Bank notes have a lot of security measures and
the government will send to hail anyone that tries to make a fake bill.

How is this better than dollar bills?

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Findeton
A dollar still has inflation. Counterfeits are an issue though there are well
known mitigation approaches. Honestly it’s not that different from a dollar,
it’s just something that I haven’t seen anyone testing it.

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gus_massa
The inflation rate in Venezuela is more than 200% monthly. (!!!) That makes it
very difficult to deal with the money and essentially worthless for anyone
outside Venezuela.

Using dollars that has only an inflation rate of 1-2% annually would be a huge
difference.

You are underestimating counterfeits. Here in Argentina we had 20 years ago
some "barter clubs", it was like a local market but people use a fake internal
money instead of the national money. It was like a local/neighborhood money
backed by thin air. It worked for some time, until some of them were popular
enough to get counterfeits attacks.

