Bitcoin and the end of cash

The digital currencies of central banks would reduce any privacy, but few seem to worry about it. Fortunately there will always be Bitcoin.

Cash loses ground

Christine Lagarde wants her digital euro, this new form of money also known as CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency).

The chief economist of the European Central Central Bank Philip Lane believes that Europe needs it to mitigate the growing risks linked to foreign stable and reduce dependence on American payment companies such as Visa, Mastercard, Applepay or Google Pay.

Another justification often put forward by the president of the ECB: the decline in cash. Cash payments are declined on the old continent. Half of the transactions (52 %) are still in cash, but it was 59 % two years back.

A ECB investigation However, shows that 62 % of Europeans believe that it is important that traders accept species. Half of them even consider that it is “Very important” that this option is available.

In other words, the cash has very bright days ahead of it. However, the ECB absolutely wants a digital euro. For some, this stubbornness betrays a desire to end the cash, especially since the CBDC is already a failure wherever it has been introduced (Nigeria, China).

“Conspiracy” provides a journalist BFM TV :: “The infox around the supposed end of cash have become a conspiratorial leitmotif since the COVVID, but the ECB stresses that the digital euro would complete the species, not replace them. »»

Here we are reassured …

One euro to control them all

Still according to the ECB's investigation, the Finns and the Dutch use the cash less than 30 % of the time. However, it is more than 60 % in Austria or Italy and more than 54 % in Germany as in Spain. The cash remains popular in the old fascist dictatorships.

Those with short memory should remember that Ukrainians can no longer use their payment cards abroad. This dictatorial measure aims to keep a tank of men for the front.

How to flee a country at war without access to their money? How to escape the conscription of force if your credit card reveals the time and the place where you do your shopping? Impossible without cash. Much easier with bitcoins.

You have to dare to talk about conspiracy when you know that the Zelenski regime kidnaps Ukrainians every day in the street to make it the cannon fodder of the Western block.

States and private payment companies should never have absolute control over payment means. The temptation is too strong to use it for dark designs. In case of war, but not only.

Central banks could implement negative rates. Savings would be planed with a certain percentage each year instead of reporting interest. To finance the war effort, for example …

The cash is a bulwark against this dystopian scenario. It is better to have tickets that bring nothing but lose money in negative interests. That said, let us point out that the cash represents only 5 % of the total money supply. The real escape would actually be bitcoin.

In short, total money control creates the temptation to ration expenses in the event of inflation or war, and to encourage expenditure in the event of deflation.

Tell me what you spend and I will tell you who you are

We are all profiled according to our consumption habits. Only the cash guarantees to have the choice to hide its expenses. The end of anonymity would be very dangerous, even in democracy, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal is the last demonstration.

This firm used Facebook data to profile tens of millions of users to flush out those who were likely to be convinced of voting for this or that presidential candidate (Donald Trump in this case).

In all, Cambridge Analytica went so far as to classify Americans according to 32 personal types depending on several thousand information. For example, there is a big chance that a man who liked (or bought …) a certain brand of cosmetics is homosexual, etc.

Crossing dozens, hundreds, even thousands of likes makes it possible to flirt with potential voters surgically. To do this, Cambridge Analytica has manufactured ten thousand tailor-made advertising spots that allowed the vote of more than 80 million Americans.

Privacy is essential to any democracy worthy of the name. It is not because we do not do anything illegal that our data cannot be used against us. The government does not have to know how we live our lives, which is very easy to detect via social networks or, a purchasing history …

Nor does he have to influence our philosophy of life. However, this is a good goal when countries are eyeing a social credit system worthy of the Black Mirror series. China has particularly looked into the subject and bet that more than one European technocrat also think about it.

Panopticon vs bitcoin

Ending privacy is the best way to encourage people to change their behavior. Someone who would like to modify customs, culture, philosophy of life would not do it otherwise. Christine Lagarde had summed up the thing in a 2018 speech:

“Imagine that people buy beer and frozen pizzas generally have a higher reimbursement rate than those that buy organic broccoli and spring water. What can you do if you want beer and pizza, but you don't want your score credit to drop? You can pay with cash. [Est-ce que l’impossibilité de payer en cash et le fait que votre historique d’achat soit scruté] Will you push you to the broccoli department? Could central banks come to the rescue by offering a completely anonymous digital currency? Certainly not. It would be a boon for criminals. »»

Christine Lagarde, 2018, speech Winds of Change: The Case for New Digital Currency

CBDC promoters often claim that it would lead to a decrease in criminal and illicit activities. Unlikely. Drug and weapon merchants will always find solutions.

Moreover, as recalled Jared Dillianfrom a philosophical point of view, virtue is not possible without freedom of choice. Not being able to choose to “live badly” your life does not make virtuous. A society in which no one has the freedom to get out of the mold is much more horrible than a society in which some can choose to live in inequality.

Whatever the real intentions of the ECB, Bitcoin is, to use the words of Christine Lagardea “Exhaust” to the Orwellian scenario of a cash without cash.

As such, note that the Lightning network allows you to pay in Bitcoins instantly and almost free. Download for this the application of French Phoenix.

Do not miss our article on the Lightning network: This network that changes everything for Bitcoin.