If central banks control all uses of money, this is not democracy, Coinbase’s ex-tech chief Balaji Srinivasan is convinced. The entrepreneur commented on statements by the head of the Bank of International Settlements during an IMF meeting devoted to cross-border payments.
Balaji Srinivasan Speaks Out Against Centralized Control Over Money Through CBDCs
Former chief technology officer at Coinbase, Balaji Srinivasan, voiced his concerns over central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) allowing monetary authorities to control money. On Tuesday, Srinivasan took to Twitter to say:
When the head of BIS says ‘central banks will have absolute control’ over all uses of money, that’s not democracy.
The American investor was referring to statements made by the General Manager of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Agustín Carstens at a videoconference held by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2020.
Policymakers participating in the event, including the Fund’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, discussed future changes in cross-border payments coming with new technologies and the advent of digital currencies.
During the virtual meeting, Carstens pointed out that, unlike cash, with CBDCs central banks will have “absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability” as well as “the technology to enforce that.”
“That’s when Keynesianism finally drops the mask and becomes flat out communism: total centralized control of all resources by unelected bureaucrats,” Srinivasan elaborated. His comments sparked a lively Twitter discussion on the topic:
No amount of wordsmithing gets around the fact that CBDCs will be a massive blow to economic freedom. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. With CBDCs the Canadian truckers wouldn’t have even been able to buy a cup of coffee.
— SK (@SKmacro) July 11, 2023
Balaji Srinivasan’s tweet coincided with the release of a BIS survey on CBDCs and crypto assets. The institution, which facilitates cooperation between monetary authorities around the world, found that in 2022, 93% of 86 surveyed central banks were engaged in CBDC-related work and over half of them were already carrying out tests and pilots.
Do you think central banks will control all uses of money through CBDCs? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.
