I was watching two people buy ice cream using their phones today. It occurs that they can only do that because the central bank that controls their phone apps/bank account hasn’t frozen their favors.

If money represents personal favors between two people, introducing a third party into money means someone else can show you disfavor (heh)

Fiat money is “controlled” centrally, but not each transaction.

Digital Fiat money is both “controlled” centrally, but each transaction must be approved by a third party (outside of some fringe distributed ledgers).

Like if you were a human rights reporter in a war torn country, and you tried to buy ice cream… maybe you couldn’t anymore, all your favors have been expired.

Full Disclosure - I’ve been influenced by this great book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5,000_Years

I had this thought in a swimming pool, and not a shower, but a pool is shower adjacent so I thought this might count.