The Dangers of CBDCs: A Threat to Freedom
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are not progress—they are a tool for control. Unlike cash or decentralized cryptocurrencies, CBDCs give governments unprecedented power to monitor, restrict, and even freeze your money at will. Every transaction could be tracked, spending habits analyzed, and dissent punished by cutting off access to funds.
Worse, programmable CBDCs could enforce expiration dates on money, dictate where you can spend it, or impose negative interest rates to force consumption. This isn’t financial innovation—it’s financial authoritarianism.
We are not tokens in the ledger of bureaucrats and politicians. Human dignity, autonomy, and the right to privacy should never be reduced to lines of code in a government database. Money is more than just data—it represents our labor, our choices, and our freedom. Turning it into a surveillance tool treats people like programmable assets rather than sovereign individuals.
If we value privacy, freedom, and true economic sovereignty, we must reject CBDCs before it’s too late. Once they’re in place, escaping this digital surveillance state will be nearly impossible.
MONEY AS MEAN OF CONTROL
China’s Social Credit System (SCS) and its potential integration with Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) is a growing concern for privacy and financial freedom advocates. While no country has yet fully implemented a CBDC with explicit social scoring like China’s SCS, the technological infrastructure of CBDCs makes such control possible.
Here are some resources discussing the risks of programmable CBDCs and their potential for surveillance and behavior control:
China’s Social Credit System & Digital Yuan (e-CNY)
- The Atlantic: “China’s Digital Currency Is a Trap” (Discusses how the digital yuan could enhance surveillance)
- MIT Technology Review: “China’s digital yuan could challenge the US dollar” (Explains the control features of e-CNY)
- Reuters: “China’s digital yuan poses big privacy challenge” (Covers privacy concerns with e-CNY transactions)
CBDCs & Programmable Money (Risk of Social Control)
- Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Paper on Programmable CBDCs (Discusses the technical ability to restrict CBDC usage)
- Wired: “The Dystopian Future of a Cashless Society” (Explores how CBDCs could enforce policy compliance)
- Cato Institute: “The Risks of CBDCs and Financial Surveillance” (Critique of CBDCs as tools for government overreach)
Academic & Policy Warnings
- Harvard Law Review: “Digital Currencies and the New Financial Surveillance” (Discusses how CBDCs enable financial censorship)
- CoinDesk: “How CBDCs Could Become Tools for Oppression” (Warns about authoritarian misuse of CBDCs)