PNW STAFF
The Federal Reserve has released a long-awaited review of the potential for creating a central bank digital currency or CBDC. The report represents a signfigant first step in moving forward with the concept and is now going through a public review period where people will be invited to respond to questions put forward in the report.
From the moment bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies first emerged, sold as an independent and alternative medium of exchange outside the financial status quo, it was only a matter of time before the new alternative would be absorbed, modified and redeployed in service of the state.
For many government officials who want to maintain control of the financial system, "Central Bank Digital Currencies": are the mainstream answer to bitcoin.
For those who have never heard of them, "Central Bank Digital Currencies" (CBDCs) are exactly what they sound like, digitized versions of the pound/dollar/euro etc. issued by central banks.
Like bitcoin (and other crypto), the CBDC would be entirely digital, thus furthering the ongoing war on cash. However, unlike crypto, it would not have any encryption preserving anonymity. In fact, it would be totally the reverse, potentially ending the very idea of financial privacy.
The countries where the idea of digital currency has progressed the furthest are China and the UK. The Chinese Digital Yuan has been in development since 2014, and is subject to ongoing and widespread testing. The UK is nowhere near that stage yet, but Chancellor Rishi Sunak is keenly pushing forward a digital pound that the press are calling "Britcoin".
Other countries, including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Malaysia, are not far behind.
The proposals for how these CBDCs might work should be enough to raise red flags in even the most trusting of minds.
Most people wouldn't like the idea of the government monitoring "all spending in real-time", but that's not the worst of it.
By far the most dangerous idea is that any future digital currency should be "programmable". Meaning the people issuing the money would have the power to control how it is spent.
That's not an interpretation or a "conspiracy theory", here is a quote from Agustin Carstens, head of the Bank for International Settlements, speaking earlier this year:
The key difference with a CBDC is that the central bank would have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability, and then have the technology to enforce that."
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