> The government has the power to unilaterally block any transaction in any domain, so long as they deem the transaction to have occurred in or whose parties are under their jurisdiction.
The government cannot block cash or barter transactions. Instead, they can declare certain kinds of transaction illegal and then use the courts to punish anyone who engaged in an illegal transaction.
It’s a subtle but important distinction— to do anything against you, the government needs to present some sort of a case to judge and jury, and you have an opportunity to argue your side.
The government can freeze access to your assets unilaterally without your input if they deem it necessary. They can even take your cash and charge it with crimes! That's not even including things like the US government OFAC list which you could end up on without due process.
But to your point, thankfully we (mostly) have due process with our government (in US at least); the same cannot be said of dealing with corporations. I certainly see your point. One large fear I have around money being a number in a database is that your access to the monetary system is more easily revoked, whomever the controlling authority may be.
The government cannot block cash or barter transactions. Instead, they can declare certain kinds of transaction illegal and then use the courts to punish anyone who engaged in an illegal transaction.
It’s a subtle but important distinction— to do anything against you, the government needs to present some sort of a case to judge and jury, and you have an opportunity to argue your side.