Cryptocurrencies Vs CBDCs

It seems that, alongside the complete abandonment of scientific standards pertaining to the visibly false narrative around COVID-19, another insidious tactic of our current descent into an Orwellian hell is the notion of CBDCs. At a time in history when authorities are able to say, “Yes, we’ve seen the science disproving it, but do it anyway!” about so many things, them also saying, “Yes, of course central banks’ issuing a centralised digital currency makes it no cryptocurrency at all, but it’s fine!” makes sense too, writes Shannon Berkley.

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For anyone still a little lost when it comes to crypto, one of its sterling features is the anonymity; the self-control it enables — it’s real people’s currency when applied as a transactional lubricant between citizens. 
 

Having had their appetite whet by Nakamoto’s Bitcoin for a decade or more, the citizens of the world are ready for cryptocurrencies. What was never part of the deal, however, was any notion of centralisation in a blockchain-based, smart contract cryptocurrency. Bunging a centralised control figure at the top of it all — especially the figure of the toxic money masters whose rampant greed cost more human lives in the last century than we’ll probably ever know — was never a part of crypto.
 

Whether because Nakamoto really was Nakamoto — a solitary genius outside of the halls of power who bequeathed his idea to the world — or whether Nakamoto was actually a globalisation think-tank whose initial sampling of the population with Bitcoin now needs to be reined in and brought back under the masters’ control, is irrelevant. The facts around cryptocurrencies “versus” CBDCs remain the same: one is freedom for mankind, and the other is the loss of all real freedoms modern man could hope for. 
 

That’s not an overstatement. One can’t compare cryptocurrencies “versus” CBDCs, because they’re utterly and entirely different, notwithstanding the chameleonic cleverness of the central planners of copying crypto almost down to the last detail.
 

MONEY FOR THE PEOPLE, OR POWER FOR THE POWERFUL

The unfortunate final detail they’ve included, means that every other detail counts for nothing. Crypto is inherently decentralised, immutably recorded by all of the users, and beyond any possible centralised manipulation. CBDCs, on the other hand, walk and talk like cryptos, but enforce the maximum possible centralised control, right down to whether you have any money at all, based on how they’re feeling about you at the time, and, really, whether you live or die a modern life.
 

The push from governments or central banks — it’s hard to distinguish parties sometimes, so incestuously entwined and obligated are they to one another — to control the autonomy and ultimate prosperity of citizens worldwide, ought to present as repugnant to any thinking person. 

Crypto is liberty, CBDCs are slavery. More than dramatic, that’s a spot-on encapsulation of the fundamental difference between them. Would you hand your cash to someone with the shameless self-interests and corrupt, murderous tendencies of the average government for safe keeping? Well, that’s exactly what CBDCs ask of you. Divorced from power, you’ll put all of your faith, your life, your ability to exist, in the hands of the local crime boss (more formally known as the government) with their money masters’ vice grip on all of them.
 

Cryptocurrencies are possibly the most liberating and enabling currency notion that humans might ever have had. CBDCs are the false prophets, the interloping charlatans who look like crypto, taste like crypto, work like crypto, but can split your head with a rock in a heartbeat, stripping you of any wealth overnight, isolating you even while you live within society, and forcing your family onto the streets.
 

That last part isn’t supposed to be a possibility with cryptocurrency, in case you’re wondering. Can you see what the addition of just that one tiny element of centralisation does to CBDCs? It makes poison from honey. Not only would CBDCs ideally eliminate cash, literally taking the money out of your hands, they intrinsically eliminate all of the advantages of decentralised currency. Gone is any notion of privacy or autonomy — your credit card will work as long as you toe the line, whether of the central bank or current regime. 
 

Indeed, far more than merely a “loss” of privacy, CBDCs invoke slavery. When an entity has absolute control over your finances — including the ability to make them all disappear at the tap of a key — the only appropriate term to describe what ensues, is slavery. 
 

LIMITED SUPPLY VERSUS ROLLING THE PRESSES

An interesting phenomenon is happening right now, with central banks doing their bit to bankrupt fiat by printing however many trillions of dollars they need to blame the economic collapse on anyone but the terminally greedy — the institutionalised warmongers, investment bankers and other giant capital concerns. It provides a rather stark contrast to crypto’s principle of limited supply, something that assures its value and, well, currency over the long term. Central banks are doing the opposite of providing value. They’re debasing fiat in an unprecedented hyperinflation agenda, as it would seem that the old common sense rules no longer apply.
 

The utility of cryptos such as Bitcoin, for example, as a storehouse of wealth for humanity is sound. Ironically, should the part of the CBDC agenda where they eliminate fiat succeed, cryptocurrencies’ employment as a store of value — even issuing certificates of deposit, among other rather bank-like uses — would get a serious boost. In fact, it’s likely that a sadly comic scenario of primitivism in the form of hoarding gold will exist, right alongside the emerging cryptocurrencies of the near future. Take fiat out, and legacy says precious metals, while modern life says swap it with crypto. Real, private, people crypto, that is.
 

What no one except central banks is saying is: “Don’t worry, give it all to us, we’ll give it back to you of course when you need it.” After the past century’s disgorgement of the mountains of evidence of the rampant greed and corruption that has sent millions to their graves poor, while enriching investment banking interests almost as much as being able to print the money themselves, are the same makers of CBDCs the people who we should trust with our entire financial wellbeing? 
 

Bitcoin and other cryptos can only successfully be seen as a “digital gold” if they remain utterly devoid of centralised interference. Stores of value for people are by definition a consensus on what’s valuable — that requires the complete absence of any single entity being able to drastically manipulate that value, ergo the fallacy of a CBDC. Nothing but decentralised control, signalled by complete anonymity, can enable a safe house for citizens against the increasingly authoritarian lean of the financial establishment. 
 

CRYPTO ISN’T CRYPTO UNLESS IT’S DECENTRALISED

Truly private cryptocurrencies like Dash, Zcash, and especially Monero (still rated the most anonymous crypto) exist far from any notion of one big central authority running the show. In fact, everyone runs the show with cryptos, but with CBDCs, the bank runs the show. 
 

Hasn’t humanity had enough of that charade by now? The rise of Decentralised Finance (DeFi) will need to be intelligently carried by the millennial majority, or we’re heading for a two-camp globe. Central banks stronger than ever, having absorbed the concept of cryptocurrency and used their authority to bluff the sheep that their version is better, and in the other camp, citizens utilising genuinely private blockchains like those above. Until they’re banned as a ‘terrorist’ threat, that is.
 

The disadvantages inherent to CBDCs range from the wholesale — it’s centralised, and so not a crypto but rather a digital currency, one that will replace your fiat and give the banking establishment utter and complete control over how much money you have, if any — to the myriad of compounding issues like eroded consumer privacy, the stripping of personal sovereignty and the ability to direct your own prosperity, and the repulsive prospect of massive state control in individuals’ lives.
 

First prize? Hold onto cash for as long as possible. The truly nefarious concept of CBDCs simply cannot co-exist with physical money, because paper money gives citizens a freedom and anonymity that will forever buck greater control. A sincerely horrific scenario is promulgated by CBDCs, where possible regulatory action against genuine cryptocurrencies in a fully digitised, zero-cash society will lead to complete, wholesale control over people’s lives. Really what’s at play here, in the final analysis, is the survival of individual monetary freedom and self-control, or the dominion and extinguishing reality of government-centralised “money”. When you consider how inept and simultaneously barbaric governments can be, this is really no money at all.
 

Money has to remain the currency of the people — in print, in the hands of the citizenry. Any digitisation of that reality has to follow a decentralised path, if we are to avoid a nightmarish future that would make even previous Soviet philosophies look positively tame in comparison.   EG