This is not a game.
The way things have been your whole life is dramatically changing around you, right now. Like the wind, you might not be able to see it, but it affects everything — we’re talking about the way money works, and it’s serious.
It’s been 110 years since the Federal Reserve gained ultimate control of the world’s reserve currency, and, as a result, a century of boom and bust ensued as sound money in the form of gold and other precious metals was replaced with worthless junk paper currency, which simply continues to get more and more worthless as the infinite printing presses keep on going brr…
The transition from gold-backed currencies to fiat currencies has allowed governments and central banks to manipulate the money supply, artificially inflating the prices of assets and eroding currency values. This has been especially true over the last couple of years, since the world closed down as a result of the ‘pandemic’ (and the money supply just expanded exponentially), and the now fragile financial system looks to be teetering on the brink of collapse.
Whether through ‘de-dollarisation’, inflation, market manipulation, rising CPI and AI threatening to take over 70% of the jobs (if it doesn’t obliterate all life on the planet in the process), one thing is certain — ordinary citizens will bear the brunt of the consequences.
And as chaos reigns, both in finance, and in the street-level and online cultural debates (sometimes being played out as literal stone-throwing, rampaging and pillaging) those who are paying attention are witnessing the controlled demolition of the cash-based monetary system that, at least at some level, does allow individuals a degree of control over how and where they spend their money, and relative privacy and anonymity in their day-to-day purchases.
This, it seems, cannot be allowed by the powerful few who want to regulate everything in your life, because financial freedom makes all other liberties possible. It is arguably true that in the last few years, the world has lurched significantly towards more and more centralised control, even though the technologies empowering decentralisation continue to evolve.
This is not a game.
Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are being proposed as the next step in the evolution of money, and with them, the potential dangers to individual freedom and privacy have grown exponentially.
But how many countries allowed their citizens a vote on the implementation of a programmatic currency which will drastically change the way that money works, and give governments unprecedented power to monitor and restrict not just what you can buy, but when you’re allowed to make a purchase? Answer — precisely zero. Because they all know what the reaction will be — a big fat “Nope”.
Sure, some nations may have gone through the motions of putting together a ‘public consultation’ but even if this isn’t stuffed full of government stooges all gushing over the idea of more centralised controls, the concerns of their citizens will mostly go unheeded, because, well which of them really gives a damn what the plebs think?
In fact, most people don’t even know what a CBDC is, let alone have any clue that they will soon be forced to accept them. In some cases, these digital currencies may be rolled out as part of upgraded payment settlement service, which again, few outsiders have any awareness of.
For example, the US FedNow payments service will launch in July of this year, and FedCoin, as the United States CBDC has been touted, won’t be far behind.
Over the Atlantic, the European Union has already introduced cash payment limits, Christine Lagarde, and this week the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) unwittingly revealed to pranksters impersonating Ukrainian President Zelensky that the European CBDC would indeed impose controls on an individuals ability to spend their money how they like.
The UK, India, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran are among other major nations which are actively either piloting or developing a CBDC, and Nigeria has led the way with its digital Naira already, along with Jamaica and the Bahamas who have already deployed a national central bank digital currency.
In other countries, cash is being phased out, again with no consultation or permission from the citizens. One of Australia’s biggest banks, ANZ has said it will soon end cash withdrawals from many of its branches, even whilst they reduce their ATM machines by over 50%.
It’s everywhere, in fact — and most of the countries world are actively pursuing some form of CBDC, as shown in the diagram below:
This is not a game.
CBDCs would see governments and central banks controlling the creation, distribution, and exchange of virtual money, effectively erasing any remaining semblance of free markets.
Imagine if criticising the government (or maybe even a bank!) would likely result in your ability to buy essentials (including food) being reduced or even eliminated altogether.
Having the ability to monitor every transaction, and programmatically restrict your ability to spend your money gives the state unprecedented power over individuals, and this nightmare has never been so close as it is today.
If you think that’s all hyperbole, well it already happens in Communist China where the social credit system regulates the lives of citizens daily, enforcing compliance and staving off any threat to the ruling elite who can punish, or even non-person anyone for any infraction of rules, from buying too many video games or saying something ‘verboten’ online.
Of course, in the libertarian West, we’d never see any form of censorship or curtailment of liberties, would we? Surely, the “free” West would never allow this to happen, right?
Even Robert F Kennedy Jr, a recent contender for the 2024 US Presidential race, came out publicly in the last few days about the threats posed by CBDC’s on individuals and society.
This is not a game.
Implementing CBDCs will blur the lines between free market capitalism and state-controlled communism, as governments and central banks would effectively hold a digital monopoly over the only legal forms of money.
This would allow them to regulate not only financial transactions, but also free speech, personal behaviour, and other aspects of life that have long been considered essential to a free society.
Because even the most hardened free speech activists will eventually buckle when the choice is between shut up or starve.
This is not a game.
As CBDCs become more widespread, it is likely that the same surveillance systems and social credit scores that are already common in communist China will become prevalent in the West.
This would mark the end of the Cold War’s ideological dichotomy, with the West’s system of control over its citizens becoming indistinguishable from that of its former adversaries.
It’s already happening, of course, and it will only become more obvious over time, and the oblique warnings of ‘if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’ that enforcers love to trot out will become increasingly more Kafka-esque as your right to make your own financial decisions becomes subsumed by the government’s ability to force you to make only approved ones.
This is not a game.
As more countries consider implementing their own CBDCs, the BIS is positioned to play a significant role in shaping the future of digital currencies.
One of the major considerations as many nations develop their own CBDC’s will be the issue of settlement between them, and this is where the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) comes in. The BIS is an organisation that facilitates cooperation among central banks globally and is at the forefront of research and development for central bank digital currencies.
It’s more than likely that the BIS will eventually push for a global standard to replace a myriad of competing national digital currencies with a single, centralised digital currency (managed by the BIS, of course) facilitating cross-border transactions.
Should that happen, supra-governments (such as the World Economic Forum) and central banks would gain unprecedented power to monitor and control every financial transaction, eroding privacy and individual freedom.
If you have ever been concerned with individual liberty and the idea that government should be accountable to the people (and not the other way around) then this should terrify you.
This is not a game.
The increasing erosion of personal liberties, free markets, and private ownership must be confronted before it is too late, and those who have already entered the world of crypto (particularly those who are here for more than simple price speculation, those who in fact hold true the tenets of decentralisation and revere Satoshi’s original vision) already know this.
The implementation of CBDCs threatens to subjugate citizens to an unprecedented level of control and surveillance. Now is the time for those who value freedom and personal liberty to stand up and defend personal ownership and the unrestricted exchange of goods, services, and ideas from the encroachment of centralised digital currencies.
This is not a game.
Whilst many in the space are aware of the mission creep from CBDCs (and potentially the ‘one ring to rule them all’ global CBDC and the threat these pose to individual freedom and privacy, there is a definite lack of clarity about how to practically deal with them.
This is where DeFi will come into its own, but if, and only if, it becomes more practical and simplistic for the currently uninitiated to get involved in. There are millions of people who own crypto already, but of these, only a small percentage truly understand the benefits that decentralising financial services offers.
To counter the threats posed by CBDCs, it’s essential to increase education and awareness around DeFi and the dangers of centralised control, but just as important is the emergence of novel new products and services, and the accessibility and simplicity of usage.
This is not a game.
It’s deadly serious, and waiting until CBDCs have been rolled out to complain about them means missing the boat. In a banana republic, where the ‘dear leader’ regularly gets 99.9% of the vote (easy to do when you’re the only candidate), being the 0.1% who refuse to vote is a good way to get a target painted on your back.
The same will be true when CBDCs are launched. Right now, this is the time to do your family, friends and neighbours a massive favour, and start turning them on to the idea of crypto, and the possibilities that DeFi enables. The more people and businesses that realise the direction the wind is blowing now, the more likely it is that commerce will be able to continue without excessive government oversight in the future.
And, we have to do it all whilst dealing with continuous threats to the industry, not just from the hostile environment from regulators and governments who’ll be very happy to see the back of DeFi forever and exacerbate it by going after the companies who provide important services like on-ramps, but also from the hacks and exploits that are sadly all too frequent.
If DeFi remains on the fringes, the net result is that it simply makes it easier for central banks to get their way, and issue in a new world order of global tyranny in which our liberties are finally eroded, possibly for good.
If we want to preserve free markets, we — that’s all of us who realise what’s going on — need to support the protocols and products that are outside of the purview and control of the central banks.
This isn’t a game, but if it was, we’re getting closer to the final boss level, and it’s time we pinned our colours onto DeFi if we want to preserve liberty in all its forms.
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