There’s a series of reactions “normies” have when they learn about Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). First, there is curiosity, especially among those who have dabbled with cryptocurrencies. After all, one of the biggest drawbacks of cryptocurrencies is their adoption; you just can’t buy very many things with them unless you jump through a bunch of hoops.

The next reaction is hope. If CBDCs are automatically drawn or deposited from your accounts, it makes transactions seem easier. It’s like a credit card, right, just more digital. The powers-that-be are saying they’re secure. Corporate media is playing them up as a real convenience. Who wants to hand out filthy cash back and forth between strangers at the convenience store?

As this stage, the evolving reactions to CBDCs diverge. Many “normies” forget all about them and go about their business. Some start to get that hint of concern in the backs of their minds, especially if they’re politically conservative. What sort of controls will government have over us as a result of CBDC adoption? Will they know everything we buy and sell? Will those records be easily accessible to others? Could they shut us down if we get out of line like the truckers in Canada?

My audience almost certainly bypassed stage one and two and went straight to skepticism the first time they heard about CBDCs. Yes, they mean more control over our money from government. Yes, they mean our financial privacy will be non-existent. And yes, the government can shut us down if we get out of line. But it’s actually even worse than all that.

An interesting Substack hit my feed that details much of the current situation regarding CBDCs and why we should be very concerned. I would go so far as to say we should be much more than concerned. We should fight this with the same fervor that we’d fight off a pack of wolves trying to eat our families. CBDCs represent an existential threat to our way of life. This isn’t just about freedom or privacy. This is about losing our abilities to fight against tyranny. It’s a half-notch below gun confiscations as far as detrimental effects on our future. Just as taking away the 2nd Amendment would remove our ability to dissuade the rise of tyranny, so too would widespread CBDC adoption remove our ability to operate outside of the government-prescribed system.

According to Kanekoa on Substack:

The White House published a “comprehensive framework” on Friday attacking decentralized cryptocurrencies while promoting a U.S. government-controlled programmable Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), per an official press release.

Agencies that were chosen to lead the ongoing working group for the research and possible development of a CBDC include the Federal Reserve, the National Economic Council, the National Security Council, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Treasury Department.

CBDCs are digital currency issued directly from a nation-state’s central bank and serve as legal tender. Critically, CBDCs are controlled by governments and therefore represent the polar opposite of the ideas — decentralization, open-source software, permissionless, peer-to-peer transactions — that made Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such a revolutionary technology.

As you can guess, CBDCs will be tied to user identities and Digital IDs, which will allow for total surveillance by the State and eliminate any chance of financial privacy. According to the Atlantic Council’s Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker, 112 countries, representing over 95 percent of global GDP, are exploring a CBDC.

11 countries have already launched a digital currency including Nigeria and numerous Caribbean nations. 14 countries are testing pilot programs including South Korea, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and China which is set to expand its use of the Digital Yuan in 2023.

Anthony Pompliano, an American entrepreneur, investor, and Bitcoin evangelist wrote last March that “central bank digital currencies will be one of the greatest violations of human rights in history.”

“Central bank digital currencies remove the privacy and decentralized nature of physical cash,” Pompliano explained. “It creates an environment where central banks have complete control over every aspect of a citizen’s financial life.”

“These central bankers will be able to see what is in your bank account, who you transact with, what you purchase, and anything else they are curious about in your financial life,” he wrote.

“That full transparency with the state removes all elements of privacy, while also giving the institutions the ability to censor any and all transactions, regardless of whether they have a legitimate reason or not.”

Pompliano’s comments mirror those made by the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Neel Kashkari who, speaking at a panel hosted at Columbia University, said that he had no idea what problem centralized digital currencies solved for American citizens. [read more]

5 Greatest Threats of CBDCs

On today’s episode of The JD Rucker Show, I dove into what I believe are the five greatest threats Central Bank Digital Currencies represent for the American people.

More Government Spying – It’s not just their ability to track what we buy, where we’re buying it, and how our money comes in. That’s not very different from what we’re seeing today with a majority of expenditures through credit cards, PayPal, or other digital transactions. Centralizing all transaction records means they can piece together massive amounts of information about us that can be used to classify us in targeted groups. They won’t just know what we’re buying. They’ll use that centralized data to know far more about us than anyone can possibly imagine.

Limitless Government Control – Today, governments across the globe and particularly in the United States enjoy a massive amount of control over the finances of the masses. Many are just now coming to the conclusion that if the government wants our money, they can take our money and there’s not much we could do about it. This is one of many reasons I’m so bullish on people protecting their wealth or retirement with physical precious metals. I want something that requires men with guns coming to my home to confiscate it rather than some bureaucrat pawn pushing a button. With CBDCs, our money will literally be a push of a button away from no longer being ours.

The Pathway to Personal Climate Change Lockdowns – When a Colorado bureaucrat decided people were using too much electricity to cool their homes during a particularly hot stretch, they pushed a button and smart homes across the area locked thermostats at a high temperature. This outraged people, but there was nothing they could do about it. Now, multiply that draconian action times a million. That’s the level of control Central Bank Digital Currencies will afford the powers-that-be. They WILL use this to lock us down as individuals and families if we do not comply with their climate change demands.

Severe Vulnerabilities, Planned or Not – The Obamacare website cost $2 billion dollars and it failed miserably for months after launch. In today’s world, government often throws around billions of dollars as if it’s nothing, but a decade ago $2 billion was a price tag that was nearly unfathomable. With CBDCs, there is a near certainty the systems will be vulnerable in some way. No matter how much security and advanced technologies are applied to it, there is no way to allow access to someone without allowing access to anyone with enough hacking skills. An organized, well-funded, and determined group will be able to crash an economy that is built around CBDCs. Moreover, there’s always the risk that the globalist elites could make it happen intentionally just to drive chaos and usher in The Great Reset.

Mark of the Beast – For the last two decades, I have explored and dismissed at least a dozen claims that the Biblical Mark of the Beast is rising. They said it was credit cards. They said it was RFID chips. They said it was QR Codes. They said it was Bitcoin. The problem the prognosticators of the end times have always missed is how an evil globalist cabal led by Satan could prevent people from buying or selling if they didn’t have the mark. This could be it. For the first time in my life, I’ve explored a potential Beast System and thought, “this really could be it.”

How to Fight It

As seems to be the case far too often lately, this is a major problem that doesn’t have an easy solution. When the Covid lockdowns were in full swing, I participated in and called on others to participate in protests, lawsuits, civil disobedience, and other direct actions that could bring about the necessary changes to defend our freedoms. Today, CBDCs fall under the ever-growing category of threats that are currently too vague for direct action unless it’s at a massive scale.

Who do we protest? What form of civil disobedience could we engage in that would impact the CBDC push? Lawsuits are possible and I will work with those who are suing ahead of any implementation of CBDCs. I would encourage others to do the same. But for any of our actions to bear fruit and stop the adoption of CBDCs in America, we will need a massive wave of awareness. As my audience knows, we are surrounded by sheep who will head in the direction of the herd 99% of the time. The herd is going to be drawn to CBDC adoption like flies to fresh cow dung.

It is of utmost importance that we spread the truth about this. With so many major threats facing Americans, this is one that will be easy to miss. I would argue that many have missed an important component of implementation already. While all of the focus has been on stopping the hiring of 87,000 IRS agents because we’ve been told they’ll come after middle class Americans and small businesses, I would argue the real reason for such a massive hire is because widespread implementation of CBDCs will need an army of experts going business to business, training retailers and consumers alike while installing all the right software necessary to make CBDCs happen.

I’m not saying they WON’T also be used to go after the middle class and small businesses with audits, but they don’t need 87,000 new IRS agents for that. There just aren’t enough people cheating on their taxes to justify it. No, that’s all a smokescreen to get an army of CBDC implementation operatives. Otherwise, it makes zero sense even for Washington DC.

This is coming, which means we need people to not only be aware but to also be prepared. It’s imperative that we gather the resources we can gather now before we’re required to adopt their new monetary system. If we can minimize our CBDC dependency, preferably all the way to nil, then we will be able to fight the good fight more easily. How many people who would otherwise stand up to tyranny end up cowering begrudgingly if they will lose everything for their disobedience? Now is the time to stock up on food, meds, and anything else important to survival. One does not have to be a “prepper” to be prepared for what’s to come.

Prepare to fight in the courts. Prepare to take to the streets. But most importantly, prepare yourself and your family to be able to say “no.” We need to make as many Americans aware of this as possible.