By: Andrew Moran
Several years ago, the peer-to-peer digital currency, bitcoin, rose to international prominence, generating global attention for its revolutionary technology and forecasts that it could replace cash. At the time, all the central banks and federal governments warned about the dangers of cryptocurrencies, issuing statements that virtual currencies were used for illicit purposes and to evade taxation. suddenly, however, the globalists have had a change of heart and have turned bullish on the technology. Why the pivot? Perhaps they have realized its potential for vast surveillance and financial enslavement.
Do You Even Bitcoin, Bro?
Late last month, six central banks collaborated to form a working group with the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). The aim was to outline their discoveries as each institution explored the prospect of central bank digital currencies or CBDCs. The group – comprising the European Central Bank (ECB), Canada, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. – is studying the “economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability” of a CBDC.
A week later, the BIS released the results of a recent study that assessed central banks’ appetite for CBDCs. The survey discovered that 80% of the 66 central banks queried are in some stage of work regarding CBDCs, and 40% of these organizations have shifted to experiments and developments. The real eye-popping figure, however, was that 30% of respondents revealed they have active plans to issue digital currency – 10% say they are “imminently close” to introducing a CBDC to the public within the next three years.
“Central banks representing a fifth of the world’s population say they are likely to issue the first CBDCs in the next few years,” the report concluded.
Deutsche Bank recently published analysis and determined that it would be a positive development for the global economy. It noted that if CBDCs were established, the institutions could impose a system of interest-bearing accounts for everyone. This new process would “resolve many problems caused by the current fractional reserve banking system” and help commercial banks that are “vulnerable to bank runs” or “too big to fail.” Deutsche Bank believes cryptocurrency has the “potential to radically change payments, banking, central banking, and the balance of economic power.”
This comes as a whole host of central banks worldwide are in the process of launching a digital currency. In the last month alone, the Bank of Lithuania, the Reserve Bank of India, the National Bank of Cambodia, and the Australia Reserve Bank have reportedly been deeply active in the concept; some are even basing their money on the blockchain.
It has for the last couple of years been thought that the Federal Reserve would get in on the action, too. Former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, William Dudley, revealed in 2017 that the Eccles Building had been considering launching its e-money. However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell shot this down in November and confirmed that the central bank has no plans to create a digital currency.
Bitcoin And The Bobby Soxers
As the young folks like to say on social media, life comes at you pretty fast. Where was this ebullience and acceptance nearly a decade ago? It was pretty much non-existent within the globalist community.
Bitcoin exploded in the international economy in 2013 and it seemed that the sky was the limit. Subway franchises accepted bit payments, companies offered paychecks in bitcoin, and Wall Street was discussing bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Around this time, central banks across the globe had a great deal of consternation about cryptocurrencies. A simple Google search back then would reveal a myriad of examples of central banks urging everyone to be cautious, warning that it could act as a Ponzi scheme and violate laws.
There was a lot of fearmongering at the time, and most of it turned out to be baseless. Why have the central planners turned into lovestruck bobbysoxers on digital currency?
A Surveillance Tool
During its infancy period, bitcoin was marketed as a form of money that could not be tracked by the authorities, allowing one to evade the system by stealth. Its main selling point was the anonymity. This seemed promising until the emergence of numerous reports highlighting the opposite. Perhaps crypto did achieve these hopes back in the day, but it turns out that the U.S. and Chinese governments are surveilling the market rather well.
Since 2013, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been homing in on bitcoin, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden. The Intercept reported that the NSA tracked down bitcoin users by “examining bitcoin’s public transaction ledger,” “gathering intimate details of these users’ computers,” and “collecting some bitcoin users’ password information, internet activity, and a type of unique device identification number.”
Last year, law enforcement officials took down a massive child sexual exploitation market by using sophisticated techniques for tracking transactions. The authorities had a message to pedophiles and those participating in sex trafficking: Bitcoin will not help you skirt the law.
The private sector is even getting involved in crypto-sleuthing. Investors are ostensibly betting millions of dollars on companies monitoring transactions and following the money on the blockchain for the benefit of the government in locating fraudsters and launderers. Analysts say that some of the world’s largest financial institutions will contract these businesses so they can determine profiles of millions of cryptocurrency users worldwide.
Robert Wenzel, the editor and publisher of the Economic Policy Journal, may have had it right in 2013 when he wrote:
“It is absolutely insane to think that bitcoin users will be able to escape government surveillance. Bitcoin is easier to track than dollars or gold. And don’t tell me that bitcoins can be anonymized. How do you know the anonymity tumblers aren’t already being tracked the way Silk Road was? Or worse yet, how do you know the government isn’t behind one of the anonymity tumblers? Eventually, anonymity tumblers will be declared money laundering instruments, then what are bitcoin holders going to do, use such tumblers anyway and face prosecution?”
If it is digital, the government can track it. And that is bad news if the Leviathan inserts itself into the crypto game.
Tax, Regulate, And Control
Whenever the government opposes something the public enjoys and then tergiversates, you know something nefarious is brewing. The purpose of government is to tax, regulate, and control. Sure, the state has a history of conceding defeat on many of the sins it attempted to rein in, whether it is alcohol or marijuana. What has been the result? Alcohol is taxed at obscene rates, while marijuana is so over-regulated that consumers would have been better off if it were still illegal. Now that the central banks are becoming pitchmen for digital currency, you cannot help but wonder what reprehensible scheme they are devising by introducing CBDCs. It looks like the only way to rebel against the system is cash and gold because bitcoin is no longer anonymous.
This was originally published on Liberty Nation.
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