At best, a CBDC is surveillance masquerading as currency. The central bank would have precise information of your currency usage, savings, borrowing, and more.
Central Bank Digital Currencies Are Dangerous and Unnecessary | Daniel Lacallemises.org/mises-wire/central-bank-digital-currencies-are-dangerous-and-unnecessary
zaps forwarded to @cryotosensei (10%)
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72 sats \ 3 replies \ @Enemy_of_the_state 2 Mar
I admit I’m secretly hoping for a CBDC so we can hyperbitcoinize sooner.
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150 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined OP 2 Mar
I don't like "the worse the better" scenarios. I'd rather bitcoin just continues to get overlooked until it's already won.
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51 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei fwd 3 Mar
Well this observation may inspire you. @chungkingexpress shared about visiting a flea market in Tokyo and paying for expenses via the LN. For a country that is still cash-dominated, I think this is huge
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 3 Mar
You seem to forget most people are sheep.
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72 sats \ 4 replies \ @grayruby 2 Mar
Do you have enough confidence in the masses to resist them when they offer up a wallet loaded up with 200 Fed Dollars to every citizen?
Maybe it will be different in the US but in Canada citizens are going to roll over and say ok we will use this now.
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101 sats \ 1 reply \ @Enemy_of_the_state 2 Mar
People may take it as an airdrop and use it…but if it can’t be used to buy the things you want : ammo, beef, etc, no one is going to work in exchange for it, and it will trade at a deep discount to more saleable monies.
If it is by definition less saleable, it will have a lower monetary premium to more saleable money.
It’s like trying to spend laundry tokens anywhere but the laundromat. (Or food stamps.) You might be able to get rid of them, but only at a deep discount.
If cash and other money is eliminated, something else will take its place, like cigarettes in a prison. Eventually people figure out that you need Bitcoin to buy what you want. CBDC will be the best advertising agent for Bitcoin since Obama’s second term for gun sales.
Imagine the purchasing power your BTC will have when a CBDC is rolled out and people are desperate to be able to buy what they want. Bitcoin is going to buy a lot of someone else’s time.
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71 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 2 Mar
This is correct, as far as I can tell. CBDC's are definitively less useful media of exchange and will therefor circulate at a discount, even compared to the lousy money we currently have.
I do think it's very likely that Canada and other countries downstream of the dollar will adopt CBDC's, though.
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91 sats \ 0 replies \ @Enemy_of_the_state 2 Mar
People don’t need to actively resist it. Either money will work or it won’t. People in Zimbabwe, Argentina, and Venezuela don’t want their govt shitcoin, they want money that works as money.
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 3 Mar
Hell no!
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51 sats \ 1 reply \ @Enemy_of_the_state 2 Mar
CBDC is a red herring to distract the tax cattle, as they print trillions to send to Ukraine round trip to the military industrial complex, the Clintons and bankers meanwhile continue plundering with impunity.
CBDC will never work and any attempt will see hyperbitcoinization soon after.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 2 Mar
I know other countries are experimenting with it, but I agree that it's a non-starter in the US. The Fed is serving the regime's interests more than adequately.
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30 sats \ 4 replies \ @cryotosensei fwd 3 Mar
Thanks for this. I don’t know much, but I think Singapore is going full steam ahead with producing a CBDC. Or at least I think the MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore)-regulated stablecoin refers to a CBDC.
In general, stablecoins are experiencing broader adoption in Singapore. Circle, for instance secured a payment license to offer USDC-related services in Singapore. So it seems that my country wants to cover all its bases haha
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238 sats \ 2 replies \ @elvismercury 3 Mar
From my outsider's perspective, Singapore seems like a highly functional society where people have a lot of trust in the government. Is that true? If it is, do you think it could explain people's openness to CBDCs?
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466 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei fwd 3 Mar
Thank you for your questions! It’s 7am now, so I will deploy my 💯 cognitive energy to reply you haha.
Yes, we have a high level of trust in our government. Of course, as with any society, 20% of the population finds fault with the government and hopes that more power be given to the opposition parties. The shift has gradually happened. The opposition used to occupy only one constituency in the entire nation for the longest time; during the last election, they extended their reach to two constituencies.
I belong to the silent majority (instead of the vocal online disgruntled minority) and believe that most of us are satisfied enough with the way our country is ruled. From my lens, I would say that the prevailing sentiment on the ground is that our government is efficient and competent but could probably do with more empathy.
The thing is, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has always painted crypto as highly volatile, speculative assets. It doesn’t distinguish between Bitcoin and shitcoins. Here are examples of the advisories it issues: https://www.mas.gov.sg/news/media-releases/2019/warning-on-fraudulent-websites-soliciting-cryptocurrency-investments#:~:text=The%20Monetary%20Authority%20of%20Singapore,cryptocurrency%20as%20its%20official%20coin. So the general public has been conditioned to think that Crypto is Dangerous!
There are alternative ways to invest, so since our preoccupation is making money, I doubt many Singaporeans will regard Bitcoin as a low time-preference asset. We want riches, and we want it Fast!
Another thing, there is a learning curve when it comes to buying BTC, and given that things are always done so efficiently by the government, most Singaporeans would shy away from the hassle, citing that it is super troublesome and that they have no time haha
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury 4 Mar
This is really interesting. I'll be curious, going forward, to see how the general btc culture in Singapore ebbs and flows vs countries whose citizens would give very different answers to the questions I asked you.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @guts 3 Mar
You can check on CBDCtracker.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @guts 3 Mar
CBDC and Digital IDs is really dystopian.
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