In the immortal words of James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, “he who controls the money supply of a nation controls the nation.”
This fact is not lost on the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As I write this, the controversial organisation is busy working on a “global platform” to help bolster the agenda of central bank digital currencies, otherwise known as CBDCs. Unlike cryptocurrencies, which are decentralized and catered towards privacy, CBDCs are centralised and public. In many ways, CBDCs are the antithesis of cryptocurrencies; they are the antithesis of privacy.
But I am not here to promote crypto. I am here to highlight the dangers of CBDCs and the importance of cash.
Cash is king for a very specific reason. It is in your hands, in your pocket, under your control. You can lodge it into your account, or you can store it under the mattress. It’s really up to you. Cash is liberating. CBDCs, on the other hand, are the very opposite.
During a recent, globalist-friendly event in Morocco, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva told those in attendance that her organisation is “working hard on the concept of a global CBDC platform.” She insisted that CBDCs must be interoperable between countries. The world is home to 195 countries, 190 of these countries are IMF members — and yes, Ireland is one of them. The Fund, she noted, plans to roll out a global CBDC platform in the not so distant future.
“If we are to be successful,” said Georgieva, “CBDCs could not be fragmented national propositions. To have transactions more efficient and fairer, we need systems that connect countries,” “In other words,” she concluded, “we need interoperability.”
The IMF’s plan to roll out CBDCs should concern anyone who values the idea of privacy.
CBDCs and digital IDs go hand in hand. In other words, the IMF is not just looking to introduce tightly-controlled, centralised currencies, it’s looking to introduce digital certification and digital signatures. Digital IDs often include biometric identifiers that verify an individual’s identity based on certain physical characteristics — facial recognition, fingerprints, voice recognition, retinal scans, iris scans, palm prints, etc.
Though adopting CBDCs could have some benefits (convenience, for example), a cashless society presents everyday citizens with a whole host of new, potentially devastating dangers. By default, a cashless society instantly becomes a more surveilled society. In China, a country I worked in for a couple of years, digital IDs and cashless transactions are the norm. You know what else is the norm in China? A pervasive social credit system that tracks every single person, assigning them a “score” for good and bad behaviour. If one’s score drops below a certain number, they are punished in a variety of ways: denied bank loans, forbidden from leaving the country, refused entry into certain venues, etc.
For those rolling their eyes at the prospect of such a system being introduced in Ireland, ask yourself why this sounds so ridiculous?
Linking a Chinese-style social credit system to digital money and digital IDs isn’t just easy, it’s logical — well, for those in charge, anyway. CBDCs make both authoritarianism and censorship easier and far more likely. Unlike cash, CBDCs strictly forbid anonymous transactions, meaning every single transaction is closely monitored and recorded. Those in charge will know where you shop and what you buy. Make no mistake about it, these government-backed digital currencies will be fully traceable and permissions-based. In plain English, those in charge will be able to dictate what you can and cannot purchase.
Moreover, CBDCs are entirely programmable, meaning they come with built-in rules. An individual’s money supply can be switched off; money can be “expired” immediately. It’s relatively easy to see how an individual deemed dangerous could find himself immediately cut off from his hard earned savings.
Worryingly, the IMF is not the only organisation obsessed by the idea of CBDCs. Last year, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the international organisation behind the so-called Great Reset, published its Future Focus 2025 report. The authors of the report fully support the mass roll out of CBDCs—but only if these digital monstrosities are accompanied by digital IDs. According to the authors of the sobering report: “While CBDCs promise to revolutionize payments and deliver efficiencies for consumers (retail or commercial), it is still unclear how their architecture accommodates an identity layer.” Thus, they suggested, a “digital identity layer should be developed” to accompany CBDCs.
For those who say that they simply won’t comply, that they will continue using cash indefinitely, I have even more bad news for you: A digital euro is definitely coming, whether you like it or not. It’s a matter of when, not if.
Brace yourself for a cashless future.
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