Keep your friends close and your enemies closer
3100 sats \ 8 comments \ @0fje0 23 Nov 2023 bitcoin
Always good to know what you're up against - even (and maybe especially) when it comes to topics you don't think belong here on SN. Like CBDC's and AI, for example.
Also, better the devil you know, and all that.
Partly inspired by the Human Rights Foundation's recent launch of their CBDC tracker, I found the keynote speech by Agustín Carstens, the general manager of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) at the CBDC & Future Monetary System Seminar in Seoul, Korea very interesting.
The talk is titled: The future monetary system: from vision to reality, no less.
A few highlights & comments from the speech:
  • The BIS lists some of the problems they want to "fix" as:
    • Many parts of society remain unbanked, without adequate payment, savings or credit services;
    • Under-use of financial services due to slow and costly transactions;
    • Low customer satisfaction; and
    • Feeble connectivity, particularly for cross-border transactions
  • Of course, Bitcoin is never mentioned by name - unless you take "encouraging financial activity to migrate to unregulated 'shadow' intermediaries" to mean Bitcoin.
  • The word "crypto" is never used. But "token" appears 28 times in the speech. No surprise there, I guess.
You can read the full transcript here:
Source: https://www.bis.org/speeches/sp231123.htm
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265 sats \ 3 replies \ @BitByBit21 23 Nov 2023
It's interesting how they are building this narrative around CBDCs in order to implement it. I think their main concern at the moment is how to push it everywhere despite infringing human basic rights. They are already getting a lot of push back even from some politicians. BTC and cRyPTo might be what they are really afraid of as a potential lifeboat to their eventual shipwreck, but first they need to convince all the other clowns. Some will follow and some (hopefully) not.
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493 sats \ 2 replies \ @0fje0 OP 23 Nov 2023
building this narrative
Indeed. I got the impression that they know quite well what they're up against, borrowing freely from the narrative bitcoiners have been building. Ironically.
They are already getting a lot of push back
My concern here is that, as bitcoiners, we may over-estimate the amount of push back they're getting.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 23 Nov 2023
My concern here is that, as bitcoiners, we may over-estimate the amount of push back they're getting.
Good point. But another point is that it looks like people like to put people in certain "camps" like "pro BTC" or "pro CBDC"
But I think most people are not in any of these camps. They are still outside in the open and indifferent to any camp.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitByBit21 23 Nov 2023
Agreed, eventually the final narrative is the one that fits the ruling class incentives, regardless what people think.
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @siggy47 23 Nov 2023
You are quoting a fictional mobster in your title, not that there's anything wrong with that.
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237 sats \ 2 replies \ @0fje0 OP 23 Nov 2023
quoting a fictional mobster
The Godfather (allegedly) wasn't the first to use the phrase. But he certainly popularized it.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 23 Nov 2023
I read somewhere that Puzo got a lot of those sayings from his mother.
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237 sats \ 0 replies \ @0fje0 OP 23 Nov 2023
Interesting! I didn't know that.
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