@mousy,
Yes it is overhyped by paranoid types. When I worked at a small paper in Texas we had a guy come in the newsroom every week and swear the local police had put a micro chip under his skin. Eventually they arrested him and had him committed because he running down the street and was smashing car windows as he ran. Maybe the voices told him to do it I don't know.
The point is as technology advances it will become harder and harder to stay anonymous. Hard money will eventually dissappear or at least remain only as a tool for small transactions. Our money is no longer backed by gold so it is a small step.
Every legal transaction a person makes such as registering their cars renewing their car insurance can be tracked.
Eventually every action outside our houses and some inside will be trackable...
One day we will buy gas and groceries with an electronic device, that fits in a wrist watch. We will pay road tolls with it and even register our cars with it. Maybe vote with it. Over hyped sure, paranoid maybe, but every person in this country leaves a "paper trail" as they go unless they live in a cave and the trail gets easier to track as the years go by.
It is bad...I don't know. It doesn't really bother me that much but it is a logical step forward.