B Gates: Governments Should Invest In Digital Public Infrastructure For Payments And ID Systems

Bill Gates tells governments to invest in technologies for “payment and ID systems”

By Ken Macon

Account ownership and digital payments have increased, so has the gender gap in account ownership, according to the World Bank, after it analyzed the Global Findex 2021 database.

The World Bank attributed the improvement on financial inclusion by controversial modern digital ID systems, and called for more investment in the technology.

“The world has a crucial opportunity to build a more inclusive and resilient economy and provide a gateway to prosperity for billions of people,” said Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a non-profit that supports the Global Findex database.

“By investing in digital public infrastructure and technologies for payment and ID systems and updating regulations to foster innovation and protect consumers, governments can build on the progress reported in the Findex and expand access to financial services for all who need them,” Gates added.

From  Central Bank Digital Currencies make authoritarianism, censorship, and surveillance easy:

“Beyond simply keeping an ever watchful eye over what citizens are up to, governments would also be able to decide on more radical and in immediate terms much more damaging moves, such as cutting people off from their money. The world has recently learned through Canadian authorities’ flabbergasting actions when bank accounts of participants in a civil protest were frozen, that this is perfectly doable even without centralized, government-issued digital money.

“But imagine if that form of currency were the only one available? The unprecedented level of financial mass surveillance itself would be almost insignificant compared to the potential damage done by replacing all other forms of currency, including fiat money, and cash as one of its manifestations, say critics.