With crypto continuing to receive much bad press, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are being quietly prepared for roll out.
Crypto bad press
Crypto has imploded in on itself over the last several months as firstly it has been in a year-long bear market, and secondly, several of the centralised lending platforms and funds have collapsed after bad loans or fraudulent management.
The mainstream media has had a field day as first one crypto platform collapsed, then another, and then a few more. It could be likened to a series of banks going down, as the bad loans triggered contagion throughout the system – but of course, central banks would have been on hand (and taxpayers) to bail them out.
Crypto just hasn’t had a break, and to be quite honest most of the flak has been deserved. Lessons learnt from the debacle would probably be that decentralisation is the way to go, and know-how on self-custodying ones digital assets in order to keep them away from any third party is extremely important.
Those representing government, the banking industry, and the regulatory agencies will feel vindicated and will be thinking that most of the battle to destroy the holding of all private digital assets must be won.
CBDCs quietly being prepared for roll out
Amid all the crypto carnage and the very public scrutiny of this tiny little asset class, the real business of propping up an exponentially larger fiat monetary system has been under way.
More than 100 countries around the world have been developing their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central bank of central banks, anticipates that all will issue their CBDCs in 2023 through to 2025.
Why you should be worried
So what is the issue here?
Nick Saponaro, CEO of Decentralised Payment Platform Provider, Divi Labs contributed an article on the situation to Nasdaq.com. He wrote:
“One of the key features is the programmability of currency which would allow central banks to set limits on how much you can buy, where you can buy it, when you can buy it and how much you can save.”
He also penned the following very worrying concern on CBDCs:
“The biggest concern is the ability to create negative interest rates. This is not the same as the negative interest rates we’ve recently seen in the Eurozone. Whereas negative interest rates with traditional currencies effectively pay you to borrow, negative interest rates in a CBDC system mean any currency you don’t spend would be slowly destroyed. This would give central banks even greater economic control, the likes of which have never been seen before. The end game is the complete loss of financial sovereignty for the user.”
A change on this scale, in how people make payments, has arguably never been seen in the history of the world. With very little in-depth media coverage of CBDCs, the vast majority of civilisation is not likely to be informed and educated on what is coming.
Once CBDCs are rolled out, there may be very few alternatives available to escape the iron grip of central banks. Currently, crypto is still open to the average retail investor, but with crushing regulation fast approaching, this avenue might not still be there when everyone needs it most.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
