CBDC – Central Bank Digital Currency

What is a CBDC?

CBDC stands for Central Bank Digital Currency. A CBDC is virtual money issued by the Bank of England and backed by the Government. The CBDC is also known as the Digital Pound and Britcoin.

It will be the new form of sterling, similar to a banknote, just a digital version, and issued by the Bank of England. It would be used by everybody for all financial transactions; in-store, online and to make payments to family and friends.

The plan is that for the CBDC you wouldn’t have a bank account, but rather a digital wallet to be provided by a private company. Being provided by a private company may mean that you will have to pay them to hold your money.

The digital pounds would be built using the blockchain, tokenised and stored in your wallet. A blockchain is a distributed database or ledger that is used for recording transactions and tracking assets. The ledger is distributed between the nodes, or participants, of a public or private computer network. The token is a randomised data string that is a unique identifier, retaining all the information about the data without compromising its security.

It’s not just for the UK, all countries are on similar trajectories, so what happens in the UK other countries are likely to follow. To track the status of CBDC per country see Atlantic Council

The Bank of England and HM Treasury produced a ²Consultation Paper setting out their assessment of the case for a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), or a so-called ‘digital pound’. It has been overseen by the joint Bank/HM Treasury CBCD Taskforce, which was announced in April 2021.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Convenience
• No more bulky, jangly coins making your pockets and purses bulge out of shape
• No need to worry if you don’t have enough cash on you
• Just use your smartphone to pay for things, so simple

Cons

• Millions of job losses with the closures of banks (already happening)
• Further job losses with stores no longer needing the staff
• Cost of items going up even more
• No savings account & no interest will be paid
• Problems will arise if your phone doesn’t have a signal
• Very problematic for those without an smart phone!
• Some digital currency will be destroyed at certain times (probably similar to what they currently do at central banks)
• A number of people could lose their money when it cannot all be transferred
• Costly to stores and other vendors to change their systems
• Costly to the Government (or rather tax payers) to implement and put in place
• Government know EXACTLY how much you have and what you spend your money on
• Financial control

When will the Britcoin come in?

Whilst there is no definite time scale, things are pointing to the Britcoin being in place for 2025. Whilst many report that the decision to go ahead with it will be made by 2025, Rishi Sunak stated back in 2019 that he wanted it in place by 2025.

The government is currently speeding things up, and all responses to the consultation paper must be in by 7 June 2023. We can already see ‘tests’ of how it could work with Amazon’s ‘Fresh’ stores. You might wonder what the connection is with these stores, but Amazon is known to work with the Government, so if there really is no connection, then the timing of these stores is a huge coincidence. People who work in IT within that sector have reported that a lot of work is already in place, and that it is a lot nearer completion than people realised.

The government also invited applicants for the job position of Head of Central Bank Digital Currency, which closed on 7 February 2023

One financial expert, Neil McCoy-Ward, whose forecasts in the past have been uncannily correct so far, foresees that it will happen suddenly, perhaps an emergency announcement from the government one Friday, blaming somebody or something and because of this all of our currencies have crashed, a liquidity crisis, there’s been a sovereign crisis and it’s all going to happen very very quickly. But don’t worry, because they’ve got the solution for you – Britcoin, the new digital currency!

Changing your money to Britcoin?

When the Britcoin is in place, the Government will convert your money, but it is highly likely that not everybody will have all their money converted. Sir Jon Cunliffe, Bank of England’s Deputy Governor for Financial Stability, announced that you are only going to be able to hold between £10,000 and £20,000 worth of digital currency. This raises the question, what happens if you have more than that in your bank account(s) when they change over to Britcoin?

There will be people who, unfortunately and for whatever reason, will not be able/allowed to transfer all their money. But the Government says don’t worry, we will pass this great new law, bale-in (not bale-out).

Today, the billionaires are all investing in gold. They’re not daft, but why are they? Is it simply because they know a bad recession is coming, or is it because of the digital currency? My bet is on the latter.

What is bale in?

Bale in means that you will receive stock, which you will then hold until finances improve, which could take many years.

What will your local Bank be like?

Banks have already closed many branches around the UK and taken away many ATM machines, so a large number of people now have to travel distances in order to withdraw cash. More will be closed and of course more ATM machines will be removed.

The Bank of America have already started to have a new type of branch. The doors are locked and in order to get in you must swipe your card to unlock the doors. If there is a technical or other problem, and the doors remain red and locked, you will simply not be able to enter. When you enter there are, maybe, 2 ATMs and a few doors, there are no staff in attendance at all. The doors have a sign inviting you in to have a video chat. You enter and press a button to speak to an advisor.

How will you shop with Digital Currency

The system is already in place, it just needs switching over to the Digital Currency. In a store you just use your smartphone by tapping it on the same device used for credit and debit cards.

To see how it will probably eventually work, check out Amazon’s Fresh Stores. To enter these stores must use an app on your smart phone. No smartphone? No entry. No signal on your phone? No entry. As you enter there are cameras and sensors everywhere, watching your every move.

In the USA these stores have been around for some time now, and have digital trolleys, ‘smart cart’. You grab your trolley and allow the digital sensor to scan your phone. The trolley has sensors and cameras, and anything placed in the cart will immediately appear on the display situated on the handle bar. This digital trolley can also display your Alexis shopping list that you prepared at home. When you have finished shopping your cart contents will be charged to your Amazon account.

The first UK Fresh store opened in London in early 2021. Today there are a few other stores dotted around London. At the moment they don’t have the ‘smart cart’, but you can have either a free paper bag, pay for a material one, or just carry your purchase. The cameras and sensors that are all around the shop, know and record exactly what you pick up from the shelves and what you may put back. You then simply walk out the store with your shopping. Unless you have kept track of the cost of each product, adding up as you go, you will not know the cost until after shopping you check your emails.

Financial Control

The technology would be in place and it would be just a small step for the British Government to take more control over the population. For instance; Going along with the C40 plans, they could easily put into place carbon control limits. In accordance with the plan, they’re highly likely to say you can spend only so much on petrol/diesel, and if you’ve spent your quota for, say, that month then tough, you can’t go anywhere. They will tell you you are not buying the correct ‘healthy’ food and can control your spending in supermarkets. You have spent too much on your (growing) child’s clothes. If they think you have not paid enough tax they can simply take it from your account. There is also the possibility that if you do or say something against them, or that they don’t like, they can freeze your wallet accounts.

If you don’t believe this could or will happen (after all, the Government said they wouldn’t have access to our accounts and they never lie!), then take a look at China, who launched a pilot project for a Digital Yaun in October 2020, and are already beginning to see the government access and control the population’s finances. Or look at Canada where the truckers who were protesting were arrested, had their trucks seized and all of their bank accounts, business and personal, were frozen.

Jai Bifulco, Chief Commercial Officer at Kinesis Money, says:

“The centralised nature of CBDCs also comes with more sinister complications. It awards the government with access to previously untapped data, including that of individuals, and unparalleled control over the population’s finances. As it does today, the government will inevitably retain the ability to freeze assets and shut down accounts when it deems necessary. But armed with such knowledge and direct control, a CBDC could be used to penalise – financially or otherwise – users based on certain behaviour.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/britcoin-why-a-uk-cbdc-should-be-treated-with-caution/ar-AA17kZIk

Finally…

The government paint an almost wonderful situation, and indeed, in theory, it could be so convenient and easy just to get a smart phone and use that, providing you always have a connection! I would probably agree with it too, if I trusted the government! Unfortunately, I do not trust them at all. They have proven themselves to be liars, themselves spreading misinformation and restricting freedom of speech.

The government states that the Bank of England and government would not collect any of your personal data, nor be able to see how you spent your money. However, it is a proven fact that they have been spying on people for many, many years, so how can you believe them concerning that? With their target of reducing CO² and plan to restrict driving, and fuel consumption, among many other things, how would they control that if not by controlling your finances?

From my research, I see the Digital Currency, Britcoin, Digital Pound or whatever you want to call it, to be a stepping stone for the Government to gain complete control, and it gets a BIG thumbs down from me.

Maybe you disagree with me, let me know and your reasons! Please do your own research and prove me wrong!

Resources

¹ Atlantic Council
² Bank of England, Consultation Paper
³ Neil Macoy-Ward