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diff --git a/doc/paper/taler.tex b/doc/paper/taler.tex index 9e10b3937..a370ccf9a 100644 --- a/doc/paper/taler.tex +++ b/doc/paper/taler.tex @@ -91,21 +91,20 @@ citizen's needs for private economic activity. \section{Introduction} -The design of payment systems shapes economies and societies. -Strong, developed nation states are evolving towards transparent -payment systems, such as the MasterCard and VisaCard credit card -schemes and computerized bank transactions such as SWIFT. -These systems enable mass surveillance by both governments and -private companies, chilling customer activity~\cite{???}. -Aspects of this government control benifit the economy, by enabling -taxation. Also, bribery and corruption are limited to elites who -can afford to escape the dragnet. +The design of payment systems shapes economies and societies. Strong, +developed nation states are evolving towards transparent payment +systems, such as the MasterCard and VisaCard credit card schemes and +computerized bank transactions such as SWIFT. These systems enable +mass surveillance by both governments and private companies. Aspects +of this government control benefit the economy, by enabling taxation +(also called anti-money laundering). As a result, bribery and +corruption are limited to elites who can afford to escape the dragnet. At the other extreme, weaker developing nation states have economic -activity based largely on coins, paper money or even barter. -Here, the state is often unable to effectively monitor or tax economic -activity, and this limits the ability of the state to shape the society. -As bribery is virtually impossible to detect, corruption is widespread -and not limited to social elites. +activity based largely on coins, paper money or even barter. Here, +the state is often unable to effectively monitor or tax economic +activity, and this limits the ability of the state to shape the +society. As bribery is virtually impossible to detect, corruption is +widespread and not limited to social elites. % ZeroCoin~\cite{miers2013zerocoin} is an example for translating an anarchistic economy into the digital realm. |