The ABCs of CBDCs: Why the 4 Promises of Central Bank Digital Currencies Cannot Be Achieved

In a recent clip on my YouTube channel titled "The ABCs of CBDCs: Why the 4 Promises of CBDCs Cannot Be Achieved," I sat down with author Nick Anthony to unpack the controversial topic of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). If you haven't heard of CBDCs yet, you're not alone – but they could radically change how we interact with money and our government. As Anthony explains in his insightful book "Digital Currency or Digital Control?", CBDCs are essentially government-issued digital money, directly controlled by central banks.

Proponents of CBDCs make four primary promises: improved financial inclusion, faster payment settlement, enhanced monetary policy application, and strengthened currency status. These sound great on paper, but as our discussion reveals, they cannot be achieved. Take financial inclusion, for instance. The clip highlights that about 70% of unbanked individuals actually prefer not having a bank account. Is forcing a government-controlled digital currency on them really "inclusion"?

The other promises fare no better under scrutiny . Faster payments? We already have numerous digital options that work efficiently. Improved monetary policy? This mainly translates to increased surveillance of your financial activities. Strengthened currency status? It's unclear how a CBDC would achieve this, especially given the potential for reduced financial privacy.

What becomes clear, both in our YouTube discussion and Anthony's book, is that CBDCs serve less as a solution to existing problems and more as a means for governments to gain unprecedented control over our financial lives. As we explore in "The ABCs of CBDCs," the innovation here isn't technological – it's the expansion of government oversight into every transaction you make. Before we rush into this new financial paradigm, we need to seriously consider whether the costs to our privacy and financial autonomy are worth the dubious benefits being promised.

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