www.zerohedge.com
Australia's Reserve Bank is launching a pilot program
over the course of the next year in collaboration with the Bank for
International Settlements (the central bank of central banks) to test
the “benefits” of a blockchain ledger based digital currency system.
The central bank is added to a long list of participants in BIS efforts
to introduce CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) with the target
goal of launching them globally by 2025-2030.
It's important to
note that substantial economic changes would have to occur within the
next few years in order to make CBDC a viable option for the general
public. Though many people use electronic transactions as a matter of
convenience, a large portion of the population still prefers cash. In
the US, surveys within the last few years show that at least 37% of Americans still choose cash over other methods of payment like credit and debit cards. In Australia, the number stands at around 32%.
The
usage of digital payment systems also does not necessarily denote a
societal shift away from the idea of cash, it only shows a preference
for convenience. People still like to know that cash exists as an
option if they need it or want it, but central banks are working
diligently to remove physical cash as a choice within the next 8 years.
CBDCs, much like all blockchain based currency mechanisms, are
inherently devoid of privacy. By it's very design, blockchain tech
requires a ledger of transactions than can be tracked by governments if
they so choose. Physical cash, though fiat in nature, is at least
anonymous.
With the advent of widespread CBDCs the very notion of privacy in
trade would utterly disappear from society within a generation. Not
only that, but if these currencies are tied into a social credit system
like the one used in communist China, then there is a good chance
governments will be able to freeze accounts or even erase your savings
at the push of a button. And, without physical cash there would be no
recourse for trade. A person deemed “problematic” could be locked out
of the economy on a whim.
The fact that the BIS is so heavily
involved in national digital currency programs suggests that the
ultimate goal of CBDCs will be an eventual global digital currency
– A one world currency mechanism that all other digital currencies are
eventually absorbed into. This collaboration extends to the IMF and
World Bank as well.
With so many physical currencies in use
around the world and at least 30% of each western nation preferring
cash, there is little chance that central banks will be able to force
the issue of CBDCs unless there is an economic downturn or crash that
inspires a public outcry for alternatives to existing currencies.
Meaning, banking elites will need a crisis that damages the very buying
power of multiple currency systems in order to get people accept an
aggressive shift to a cashless society before 2030.
The pitfalls
of such a framework are many and the potential for abuse goes far beyond
the idea of fiat printing. CBDCs would give banks and governments
ultimate power of influence over the populace, inspiring fear in
individuals as they consider the threat that their access to the economy
could be severed at any moment should they say or do anything in
defiance of the authorities.
Banks and politicians will try to
sell CBDCs as the pinnacle of convenience and a necessary transition in
order to stabilize the economy. What they will not mention is the
pervasive level of control they will gain in the process.
