Reject CBDCs, Embrace the Right to Transact

We are all slowly losing something we barely noticed we had: the right to transact. A couple decades ago, it was inconceivable that an overbearing government would freeze payments as a means of social control. Today, a system of pervasive censorship of transactions is emerging to complement pervasive censorship of speech.

Zelinar XY, aka ZXY, is a writer, software developer and greengrocer. He’s the author of “The Right to Transact,” available on Amazon. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at zelinarxy [at] proton [dot] me.

States have long used economic censorship or sanction as a means of quashing dissent. So is it much of a surprise governments today would abuse the new affordances of digital technology, which expands the reach of data collection, surveillance and asset seizure? Early last year, for instance, the Canadian government declared a state of emergency and ordered banks to freeze the assets of anti-lockdown protesters.

See also: Who Really Benefits From CBDCs? It’s Not the Public | Opinion

Soon, because of the steady creep of payments digitization, governments will be able to carry out such interventions routinely – no need to break the glass and invoke emergency powers or enlist the aid of docile private-sector banks.

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which are in various stages of development across the world, will incorporate the ability to freeze or confiscate funds into money itself. With the kind of programmable money envisioned by CBDC advocates, the state may be able to bar you from using your national currency at all, regardless of what bank or payments provider you choose to do business with. You’ll no longer only run the risk that some company will mistreat you.

This may not happen, and indeed several central banks have said that they don’t want complete control over the ways users interface with their money. But the simple fact is that CBDCs open the door to that level of control, and it’s likely that many of the social policy aims behind CBDCs – like improving tax collection and fighting financial crime – would be next to impossible without a complete CBDC takeover.

Commercial banks, who would lose revenues if governments got involved in personal banking, would certainly put up a fuss. But either way, large numbers of people will end up…