CBDCs Will Have Built in Permissions and Restrictions on Personal Transactions

Originally posted on Quora November 1, 2022

If you think CBDCs are just some innocuous changes to completely digital transactions without an intermediary party you’re wrong. The switch is more about complete corporate and state control of your life than innovation. This is the social credit system they want.

Tom Mutton, a director at the Bank of England, said during a conference on Monday that programming could become a key feature of any future central bank digital currency, in which the money would be programmed to be released only when something happened.

He said: “You could introduce programmability - what happens if one of the participants in a transaction puts a restriction on [future use of the money]?

“There could be some socially beneficial outcomes from that, preventing activity which is seen to be socially harmful in some way. But at the same time it could be a restriction on people’s freedoms.”

He warned that the Government would be required to intervene and make the final decision.

Mr Mutton said: “That is a really delicate debate that needs to be had. It is not something we can settle ourselves, that is for the Government to lead on.”

Are you living off of UBI because your job was automated? Then every purchase you make will be subject to bureaucratic purview to decide whether it is “socially harmful” according to them. Want to have a pint of beer or a glass of wine on Friday night? No can do; the state decided it’s “socially harmful” and not “essential” food. Want a porkchop or some fried chicken to celebrate a special occasion? Too bad. The state has decided you need to stick with your bug and tofu diet. Don’t think for a second this won’t be used to micromanage people’s lives?

One potential use could be control over benefits payments, said Sandra Ro, chief executive of the Global Blockchain Business Council.

She compared a programmed digital currency to the US system of paying benefits in vouchers, as it could have a similar goal of restricting the recipient to buying only essentials such as food with the money.

And they would do this not because they view us as adult humans with free will, moral agency and equal rights. Nope! Clearly, we are to be coddled like children who have none of those things because the power elites know what’s best for the unwashed masses.

Earlier this month Sir Jon Cunliffe, a deputy Governor at the Bank, said digital currencies could be programmed for commercial or social purposes, even down to the way children spend pocket money.

“You could think of giving your children pocket money, but programming the money so that it couldn’t be used for sweets. There is a whole range of things that money could do, programmable money, which we cannot do with the current technology.”