There was a lot of discussion on social media over the weekend regarding central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). This is because many believe the idea would lead to increased financial surveillance and a totalitarian monetary system, and Lynette Zang, chief market analyst at ITM Trading, in a recent interview, warned that CBDC would “lead the world to a fully monitored economy that central banks can directly control. to lead the world,” she warned.
“We have begun to persuade people to support a controlled CBDC,”
Over the past week, discussions about CBDC have trended on social media. It shows that people are very skeptical about central bank cryptocurrency assets. Opposing views have come from well-known influencers and politicians from around the world. Former congressman and 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard recently criticized the idea in the United States.
“Biden (administration) aims to create a cashless society by introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to track everything we buy (and) manage our money,” Gabbardopined. “A ‘Fednow’ system by the government is needed as a first step to make their dream of a cashless society a reality. If we don’t stop this in the first place, it will be too late,” she added.
Member sightings in London.
We saynot. #CBDC because we want financial privacy. pic.twitter.com/nn8nOKq0ya
– Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) April 16, 2023
The U.S. central bank’s Fednow program has been the subject of much debate of late, and just recently the Federal Reserve affirmed that the project is neither a digital currency, CBDC, nor a cash alternative. Other debate centers around the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) CBDC pilot, Project Icebreaker; the BIS recently released a videoabout the project, and people have commented on the organization’s statement.” “The persuasion to support a controlled central bank digital currency has begun,” tweetedpodcaster James Miller.
Why CBDC is a totalitarian dreampic.twitter.com/KsbZ6cFxLF.
– Jon Najarian (@jonnajarian) on April 16, 2023
Natalie Smolensky, Senior Fellow at thenonpartisan nonprofit Bitcoin Policy Institutealso criticized Project Icebreaker’s video.” Literally all the benefits of this CBDC interoperability project (BIS “Project Icebreaker”) can already be realized by the Bitcoin Lightning Network,” Smolenskywrote. ‘There is absolutely no need for CBDC. There is no problem that can be solved. It just reincorporates central banks back into a function that is already obsolete.” According to the Atlantic Council’sCBDC Tracker, 114 countries are working on “negative interest rates attack principal … Just because they put out CBDC does not mean that this crisis is over. It is just the next step.”
Not everyone is opposed to the concept of CBDC, with Keynesian economist Paul Krugman criticizing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a recent opinion editorial for his opposition to a central bank digital currency. Krugman characterized this hostility as resistance to “woke money” and argued that DeSantis may be motivated by “general paranoia.” Krugman also commentedon Twitter that opposition to the CBDC may be “tied to a broad push by monetary conspiracy theory types,”claiming that the theory “has been right-wing for a while.”
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