Edward Snowden published a post on CBDCs in which he takes a critical look at the digital currency of central banks.
on Twitter the NSA whistleblower harshly criticized central bank digital money (CBDC). In his Blog post Snowden advertises central bank digital currencies as the “newest threat on the public horizon”.
In response to a speech by Christopher J. Waller, member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors of the United States, Snowden argued against implementing a digital dollar. In it, he described how central banks could use CBDC to gain more power over the financial system.
He also compared China and the digital yuan, one of the most advanced CBDC projects in the world at the moment. He explained that the implementation of the digital yuan and the simultaneous Bitcoin ban in China were only there to “strengthen the state’s ability to intervene in every transaction”.
“Crypto-Fascist Currency”
Above all, the former NSA employee criticized the centrality of the digital currencies of the central banks. The US-CBDC is not to be equated with a “digital dollar” – after all, “most of the dollars are already digital” and only exist as an entry in a database.
The leap to CBDCs is also not a sign of the government towards crypto adoption and acceptance. In the following, he describes what a CBDC is for Snowden:
Instead, a CBDC is more of a perversion of a cryptocurrency, or at least its basic principles and protocols – a crypto-fascist currency, an evil twin that invaded the ledgers on the opposite day, specifically designed to withhold basic ownership of their money from users and to build the state into the center as the mediator of all transactions.
Edward Snowden
According to this, the advantages of CBDCs of making transactions “faster” and “safer” are merely a pretext to achieve the state of the surveillance state.
CBDC transaction refused
Meanwhile, he defended the basic idea of decentralized cryptocurrencies in his contribution. However, central and private banks would fear Bitcoin and Co., as they were “designed to guarantee the same protection for all users without special state privileges”.
Snowden stated that the state would often convey its aversion to such technologies as “fatherly concern.” The government claims that without “their careful mediation” the market would turn into “gambling, tax fraud, drug trafficking and arms smuggling”.
Ultimately, he takes us on a little thought experiment. According to this, a bank employee has to reduce his sugar consumption due to his state of health. Due to the shared data between the health insurance company and his CBDC wallet, transactions to purchase candy would be rejected – even if he only wanted to please his granddaughter.
A similar development can currently be observed in China. In April, a “forfeiture system” at the e-yuan caused a sensation, according to which transactions could be validated and canceled at will by the Chinese central bank.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is currently investigating the use of an EU-wide digital central bank currency. The final decision will then be made in October 2023. So far, the directive has always been that an “E-Euro” should complement and not replace cash. In addition, a survey that the ECB carried out among EU citizens in mid-April showed a clear picture: for 43 percent of those surveyed, privacy was the top priority.