Oh boy…

Afternoon everyone ……

I came across a very interesting article from one of my subscriptions. It’s from Bullionstar, they write many articles on obviously bullion, but also write articles about finacial markets as well. This one is about digital currency.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) – Accelerating towards Dystopia

There is an ominous development gaining momentum across the world’s financial systems which has the potential to undermine monetary and personal freedom, yet which remains largely under the radar for most of the world’s population.

This development is the globally coordinated plan to roll out retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Billed by central banks and governments as the future of money, promising benefits like payment efficiency and financial inclusion, CBDCs in reality pave the way for a dystopian future characterised by total surveillance and control, which stands in stark contrast to the principles of a free society.

At the helm of pushing this CBDC agenda are two shadowy but powerful organisations, neither of which is publicly accountable in any way – i.e. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) known as the “the central banks’ central bank”, based in Basel, Switzerland, and the Atlantic Council, a US led, Atlantic alliance (NATO) ‘think tank’ based in Washington D.C. which is funded by a combination of government, corporate and foundation sponsors.

While the Atlantic Council pushes policy frameworks in favour of CBDCs and creates the pro-CBDC narratives, the BIS (through its ‘Innovation Hub’) coordinates with central banks in pushing the actual development and implementation of CBDCs. And in both cases, they have been very busy.

According to the 2023 BIS Survey on CBDCs in which 86 central banks participated, 94% of these central banks are exploring a CBDC.

400% Increase in Central Banks planning a CBDC

Furthermore, according to the Atlantic Council’s ‘GeoEconomics Center’, which maintains a CBDC tracker, 134 countries (which represent 98% of global GDP) are involved in, or exploring, the rollout of a central bank digital currency. Four years ago in 2020, there were only 35 countries in that same position, so you can see the huge increase in numbers of central banks involved with CDBCs over the 2020 – 2024 period.

Currently, 69 countries are in the advanced phase of readying their CBDC, a figure which covers CBDCs in the development, pilot, or launch stages. Another 44 countries / central banks are in the research stage.

The Dangers of CBDCs

From BullionStar’s previous coverage, you will also be able to see why retail CBDCs are dangerous, so we won’t go over old ground here. Suffice to say, CBDCs are dangerous digital chains for humanity because:

• With CBDCs, transactions are not anonymous, so you have no privacy. Governments and central banks can monitor every transaction and who makes it. This allows total surveillance and erases financial privacy.

• CBDCs are programmable. This allows governments and their central banks to control what goods and services a digital token can buy, to apply expiration dates on balances, and most importantly to exclude or block individuals who might criticise government policies (i.e. think Chinese type social credit score). These are all forms of social and economic manipulation and indeed economic coercion.

• For retail CBDCs to be used, they in practice require each citizen to have a Digital ID, with the CBDC account and balances linked to a digital ID. A global rollout of CBDCs will therefore a) force everyone to have a Digital ID, which b) will create a full surveillance network that tracks everyone and their financial transactions.

• Since CBDCs are issued directly by central banks, they also centralise financial power in the State and its central bank. This is highly dangerous and is the antithesis to the concepts of freedom represented by gold and silver, and the concept of decentralisation represented by private cryptocurrencies.