The funny thing is, what he calls “Layer 1 cash” is not the lowest layer. Most cash currencies were issued as tokens which could themselves be reimbursed for gold or silver by the issuing state or bank. The current level of cash (which he tries to defend) is already one level removed from what was originally valued. One could see where gold bugs and silverites get their thinking from.
But, one could argue, if most people really think there’s only one type of money, isn’t that by then by definition, true? I.e. if other people value a “layer 2 digital chip” as much as “layer 1 cash”, aren’t both worth the same to me, since I can get the same worth from them both? And, therefore, why should we care anything about any shift from layer 1 to layer 2, since the shift from layer 0 to layer 1 seems to not be a problem now?
This is a limited view, and is true solely if you look only at the two forms’ notional “value”. Hovever, the differences between the two lie instead in the technical limitations in how they can be used. If layer 1 cash cannot be used by, say, online retailers, or in certain shops, that form might have less value for me, if I want to buy something online or in those shops. On the other hand, if layer 2 digital chips cannot be used without the bank (and state) getting and keeping a permanent log of all my transactions, and also makes it impossible to send money to what either the government or the credit card companies deem to be unsuitable destinations, then I might value that form less.
It all depends on what you, yourself, value, or (by extension), what freedoms and/or conveniences you want society as a whole to have. He chooses to defend “the balance of power” between the two. We must all make our own choices here, and remember that all our actions will affect the balance.
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted here, this is all good sense - if "Layer 2" casino chips are actually more useful to me, and interoperate seemlessly with "layer 1", there seems no particular reason to care about the power struggle the author frames, or even paint it in terms of a struggle.
AFAICT there is no war between the Bank of England and the banks in the UK over who gets to issue the money, no conflict, just the system running as it is designed with various participants in their niche.
The author likes to paint proponents of cashless societies as naive, but to me it looks like they have decided there's a moral component and a battle where it seems really there is none, or at least it is a political/idealogical viewpoint they are superimposing on the situation.
IMHO, if you value financial privacy as an important civic right, the total abandonment of layer 1 cash (which has it) for layer 2 chips (which notoriously lacks it), really is a political and moral issue.
But, one could argue, if most people really think there’s only one type of money, isn’t that by then by definition, true? I.e. if other people value a “layer 2 digital chip” as much as “layer 1 cash”, aren’t both worth the same to me, since I can get the same worth from them both? And, therefore, why should we care anything about any shift from layer 1 to layer 2, since the shift from layer 0 to layer 1 seems to not be a problem now?
This is a limited view, and is true solely if you look only at the two forms’ notional “value”. Hovever, the differences between the two lie instead in the technical limitations in how they can be used. If layer 1 cash cannot be used by, say, online retailers, or in certain shops, that form might have less value for me, if I want to buy something online or in those shops. On the other hand, if layer 2 digital chips cannot be used without the bank (and state) getting and keeping a permanent log of all my transactions, and also makes it impossible to send money to what either the government or the credit card companies deem to be unsuitable destinations, then I might value that form less.
It all depends on what you, yourself, value, or (by extension), what freedoms and/or conveniences you want society as a whole to have. He chooses to defend “the balance of power” between the two. We must all make our own choices here, and remember that all our actions will affect the balance.