Why couldn't this be a public service though? Governments spend so much money on producing and managing cash as a public good. Why can't we do the same for digital payment infrastructure?
> Governments spend so much money on producing and managing cash as a public good.
No, governments do not spend money on producing cash. They make money by printing it. The net value to the government of printing money is positive, not negative. (And in our current financial system, they distribute much of that value to financial institutions and the rich people who own them--which was the original reason the Federal Reserve system was put in place, due to intensive lobbying by the rich people at the time.)
