Central bank digital currencies are due to be rolled out in many countries across the world. The vast majority of people have no idea what is coming and how it will affect them.
From knowledge to ignorancePoverty and repression make people much more aware politically, and conversations are always taking place in cafes, bars, and back rooms, where the people are accustomed to a government that is in many ways their enemy.
In more recent history this has been the case in countries in Latin America for example, where dictators ruled with a fist of iron, safe in the knowledge that the US with its CIA operatives had their back.
In Western countries today the same surely cannot be said. Ask 1,000 people on the streets in towns and cities across the US, UK, and European countries for their views on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and their implications for zero privacy and total control, and probably nigh on all of them wouldn’t have the foggiest clue what is going on, or that the stakes are as high as they’ve ever been.
A dearth of proper debateIt might be an extremely unpopular opinion, but much like alcohol was fed to indigenous peoples to keep them quiet while their land and resources were being pillaged, the same could be said of beer and football in today’s society.
The problem isn’t just this either. Even if the average Joe or Jane thought there was something amiss and wanted to educate themselves on the situation - where would they go?
Television and mainstream media do not contain anything that might be ascribed to be of a serious political nature. With geopolitics and the economic situation in the most desperate state they have been, arguably for decades, no proper mainstream debate is allowed to happen.
Still time to get educatedSo CBDCs are going to land onto the least prepared and educated populace on the matter that it’s possible to get. The powers that be, governments, and banks, with the help of the mainstream media, have successfully kept things under wraps thus far, and it’s only a short matter of time before CBDCs are upon us.
There is even the narrative out there that CBDCs will be good for you. They will speed up settlement and enable easy cross-border payments. But as for taking away your freedom to transact with privacy, or the imposition of a social credit system, well they aren’t as important in the eyes of the bankers.
All is not lost though. There are still places to find out and educate oneself on the monetary system, CBDCs, and perhaps the solution to it all, in Bitcoin. This kind of information can still be found on the internet, and on social media channels.
If CBDCs are allowed to be imposed on citizens then banks will have the power to cut anybody off from their money, much like has already happened recently to Nigel Farage, but this time with just a tap of a central bank keyboard. Time to educate oneself.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.