Over the weekend, discussions about central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, have developed on social media, as many believe the idea will result in increased financial surveillance and a totalitarian monetary system. In a recent interview, Lynette Zang, chief market analyst at ITM Trading, warned that CBDCs will “take the world into a full surveillance economy that can be directly controlled by the central bank.”
‘Convincing you to support a controlled CBDC has begun’
In the past week, discussions about CBDCs have been trending on social media, and comments show that people are very skeptical of the central bank’s cryptocurrency holdings. Opposition has come from well-known influencers and politicians around the world. Former congresswoman and US presidential candidate in 2020, Tulsi Gabbard, recently criticized the idea in the US.
“[The] Biden [administration] aims to implement a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to bring about a cashless society, so they can track everything we buy [and] control our money,” Gabbard meant. “[The] gov’s ‘Fednow’ system is required [as the] first step to achieve the dream of [a] cashless society. This must be stopped at the start or it will be too late, she added.
The US central bank’s Fednow program has sparked a lot of debate in recent times, with the Federal Reserve recently claiming that the project was not a digital currency, CBDC or cash substitute. Other discussions have centered around the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) CBDC pilot, Project Icebreaker. BIS recently released a video about the project, and people have commented on the organization’s statements. “Convincing you to support a controlled central bank digital currency has begun,” tweeted podcaster James Miller.
Natalie Smolenski, senior fellow at the nonpartisan, nonprofit Bitcoin Policy Institute, also criticized the Project Icebreaker video. “Literally all the benefits of this CBDC interoperability project (BIS ‘Project Icebreaker’) can already be realized by the bitcoin Lightning Network,” Smolenski wrote. “CBDCs are completely unnecessary. There is no problem they solve. They just insert central banks into functions where they have already become obsolete.” According to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC Tracker, 114 countries are working on CBDCs, and 11 countries have fully launched implementations.
CBDCs will usher in a “full surveillance economy,” says market analyst Lynette Zang
Lynette Zang, chief market analyst at ITM Trading, has warned about the dangers of CBDCs in a recent video with Michelle Makori, lead anchor at Kitco News. This is not the first time Zang has been critical of CBDCs; she spoke to Makori on the subject in a video published last February. In his latest discussion, Zang talked about the collapse of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and claimed that the failures were “by design”. Zang believes that a CBDC will usher in a totalitarian monetary system that will become the economy’s new norm.
“They need a big enough crisis that people will buy into this next iteration, CBDCs,” Zang explained to Makori in his latest interview. “It also takes the world into a full surveillance economy that can be directly controlled by the central bank, if all your wealth is kept within the system.” Zang believes that negative interest rates with CBDC will be imposed on people’s bank accounts and individuals’ principal will be threatened. “Central bank digital currencies are really about control, and also about the ability to take away principal,” Zang said. “Negative prices are attacking the principal … When they come out with a CBDC, it doesn’t mean this crisis is over. It’s just the next phase of it.”
Not everyone is opposed to the concept of CBDCs, and in a recent editorial, Keynesian economist Paul Krugman criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSanti’s recent opposition to a digital central bank currency. Krugman referred to the hostility as opposition to “woke money” and argued that DeSantis may be motivated by “general paranoia.” On Twitter, Krugman too meant that the dissent against CBDCs may be “tied up with a broader push of monetary conspiracy theory types” and argued that the theories have been a “right-wing thing for a while.”
Tags in this story
Atlantic Council, BIS, Bitcoin Policy Institute, cash replacement, Cashless Society, CBDCs, central banks, commentary, conspiracy theory, controversy, decentralized, digital currency, Federal Reserve, Fednow, financial system, Florida Governor, government control, ITM Trading, James Miller, Keynesian economist , Kitco News , lightning network , Lynette Zang , Michelle Makori , Monetary System , Natalie Smolenski , negative interest rates , partisan political , nonprofit , Paul Krugman , political influencers , Project Icebreaker , Ron DeSantis , senior fellow , Signature Bank , Silicon Valley Bank , social media , surveillance economy, totalitarianism, Woke Money
What are your thoughts on the rise of CBDC and the potential for a cashless society? Do you agree with the criticism from certain people? Share your views in the comments section below.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the news editor at Bitcoin.com News and a financial technology journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
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