Posted on 01/23/2024 4:12:36 PM PST by dayglored
A Florida man has chosen the next cultural wars flashpoint he will rally behind in an effort to mobilize the 2024 US presidential electorate: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
"Such a currency would give a federal government, our federal government, the absolute control over your money," the former Wrestlemania star declared of CBDCs from a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday. "They could take your money – you wouldn’t even know it was gone. This would be a dangerous threat to freedom."
The busy former reality television host and American president took a moment away from his E. Jean Carroll defamation damages trial to attend the rally where he promised his CBDC blocking actions would "protect Americans from government tyranny."
He's not entirely wrong: While it wouldn't make much sense to issue centralized tokens only to revoke or undermine them, thus ruining their utility and acceptance, CBDCs generally aren't a great idea in terms of privacy and surveillance. The US government can already seize people's assets and snoop on banking records, of course; a CBDC would make that a whole lot easier, especially if smart contracts or some degree of programmability was involved.
Crucially, his comments have undoubtedly pleased the likes of many conspiracy theorists, libertarians, and at least some crypto enthusiasts.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.com ...
I just thought this was a funny article from a techie point of view, and of course Trump is a Florida Man on steroids. :-)
The British have a strange sense of perspective and phrasing.
He’s correct about CBDC’s. It’s all about control. Disagree with a govt. policy? We’ll take your money with a keystroke, and you won’t even be able to pay your bills.
What the man says about DBDC is something everyone should be very concerned about, because it would take away the control of the money of every citizen, and the retribution would be immediate, on anyone they do not like.
“Such a currency would give government the absolute control over your money.
https://www.lerctr.org/~transit/healy/Uh_Yeah.mp3
Oh, just the tongue-in-cheek way they introduced PDJT as "Florida Man" and so forth.
As you said, the actual message about DBDC is quite serious and right on.
Not entirely wrong? issue a correction: he is entirely correct
Of course, in the very beginning they would not confiscate a person’s CBDC tokens (which are not money). At least in the very beginning, no. They will, of course, wait until all real money has been banned first leaving no viable alternatives. It is at that point they will threaten (and follow through) people with confiscation for any and all activities which are not supportive of the government’s positions, on everything.
If someone thinks this could never happen it is easy to prove me wrong. Just demonstrate using only logic, how a fully centralized, programmable token could never have a rule created to remove or expire or freeze the tokens of a person or group of people whenever the technocrats / bureaucrats / deep state wants.
“He’s not entirely wrong: While it wouldn’t make much sense to issue centralized tokens only to revoke or undermine them, thus ruining their utility and acceptance, CBDCs generally aren’t a great idea in terms of privacy and surveillance. The US government can already seize people’s assets and snoop on banking records, of course; a CBDC would make that a whole lot easier, especially if smart contracts or some degree of programmability was involved.
“
He’s definitely NOT wrong...
The government could see literally every purchase you make.
They could simply shut off your money with a few keystrokes.
They could inflate or deflate the value of your currency individually.....ie rewarding friends and punishing foes.
They could decide you’re too fat and make your money no good at fast food restaurants. They could decide no more cigarettes for you.
The list of powers CBDCs would hand to governments is nearly endless. This is why they must never happen. They are the perfect instruments of totalitarian control.
This is why the government and various other totalitarian control freaks HATE cryptocurrency. No government controls it. No government CAN control it.
Its decentralized. There is no office to raid. There is nothing to confiscate. There is no CEO to arrest.
and they can’t stop it.
No, Cryptocurrency is not a scam. Its one of the greatest tools of freedom ever devised.
It just shows that the writer, Laura Dobberstein, who probably looks like a Dobermann, is also an ignorant useful idiot. Nothing funny about what she writes whatsoever. Not trying to be argumentative, just factual. 👍
So we hate central bank digital currencies
But love central banks?
I love The Register, have been a great BoFH and trained many a Pfy
Indeed. El Reg is my favorite tech site for IT/Sysadmin/DevOps stuff.
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