Kevin Helms
A student of Austrian economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects and the intersection of finance and cryptography.
Government May Ban, Seize Bitcoin – CBDCs Could Lead to Economic Slavery, Political Tyranny – Regulation Bitcoin News
Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has issued a warning regarding the Federal Reserve’s new Fednow system and the potential risk of central bank digital currencies leading to financial slavery and political tyranny. He further warned: “We should not be blind to the obvious danger that this is the first step in banning and confiscating bitcoin as the Treasury did with gold 90 years ago.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warns about Fednow and CBDCs
Lawyer and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the Federal Reserve’s Fednow system and the central bank’s digital currencies in a tweet Wednesday — the same day he filed papers to run for president in 2024. He is President John F. Kennedy’s nephew and U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s son.
“The Fed just announced that it will introduce its ‘Fednow’ Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in July,” he wrote, elaborating:
CBDCs smooth the slippery slope to economic slavery and political tyranny.
Fednow is the Federal Reserve’s real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) for instant payments. However, the Fed’s CBDC development is separate from Fednow, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last month that the central bank’s CBDC efforts are still in the early stages of experimentation.
“While cash transactions are anonymous, a CBDC would allow the government to monitor all of our private financial affairs. The central bank would have the power to enforce dollar limits on our transactions that limit where you can send money, where you can spend it and when the money expires,” Kennedy’s continued tweet. “A CBDC linked to digital ID and social credit score would allow the government to freeze your assets or limit your spending to approved providers if you fail to comply with arbitrary dictates, i.e. vaccine mandates.”
“The Fed will initially limit its CBDC to interbank transactions,” Kennedy noted, warning:
We should not be blind to the obvious danger that this is the first step in banning and confiscating bitcoin as the Treasury did with gold 90 years ago today in 1933.
“Watch as governments, never one to let a good crisis go to waste, use Covid-19 and the banking crisis to usher in a new wave of CBDCs as a safe haven from germ-laden paper currencies or as protection against bank runs,” the presidential hopeful concluded.
Numerous voices have warned against the federal government launching a CBDC, including US Representative Tom Emmer, who introduced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance Act in February. US Senator Ted Cruz recently introduced a bill to prohibit the Federal Reserve from developing a direct-to-consumer CBDC, and Florida Governor Ron Desantis introduced a proposal in March to ban the use of CBDC as money in his state.
Do you agree with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about Fednow and the risk of the government launching a CBDC? Let us know in the comments section below.
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