Former CIA turned whistleblower Edward Snowden calls central bank digital currencies the 'evil twin' of decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. For him, CBDCs - as they are known as Central Bank Digital Currencies - are "crypto-fascist" tools.
"A Perversion Of Cryptocurrency..."
The computer specialist, who resides in Russia as a fugitive from US justice for leaking thousands of 'top secret' documents wrote on his personal blog.
"I will tell you what a CBDC is NOT—it is NOT, as Wikipedia might tell you, a digital dollar. After all, most dollars are already digital, existing not as something folded in your wallet, but as an entry in a bank’s database, faithfully requested and rendered beneath the glass of your phone.
Instead, a CBDC is something closer to being a perversion of cryptocurrency, or at least of the founding principles and protocols of cryptocurrency—a cryptofascist currency, an evil twin entered into the ledgers on Opposite Day, expressly designed to deny its users the basic ownership of their money and to install the State at the mediating center of every transaction. "
Snowden, values privacy across the board, including financially, which is why the idea of an 'official state ledger' that can be continuously scrutinized and eternally reviewed alarms him.
Where Things Stand Now...
The 'Digital Yuan' which is the CBDC to be issued by the Central Bank of China in the 'advanced stage' of testing - total anonymity is not possible and the Government decides who can have permission to access the centralized database in which transactions are recorded.
Both the United States and European Union say they're in the process of evaluating the benefits of issuing their own CBDC's, the 'digital dollar' and 'digital euro'.
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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk / Breaking Crypto News
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