Could the proposed US ‘digital dollar’ be self-annihilating? Edward Snowden seems to say so

Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA) subcontractor and whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who recently published an opinion article concerning central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), continued to discuss the danger behind their adoption on Twitter. 

According to the famous privacy advocate, CBDCs are  “the newest danger cresting the public horizon,” designed to usher the State’s ultimate financial control.

Annihilation of Savings

While ironically commenting on Dr. Eswar Prasad’s opinion piece published in the New York Times in July 2021, in which the professor of trade policy at Cornell University presented the so-called ‘digital dollar’ in a positive light, Snowden said that CBDCs could be used by the Fed for “casually annihilating the savings of every wage-worker in the country if they don’t spend them fast enough.”

What is a Central Bank Digital Currency, you ask? Oh, you know: just a "useful policy tool" for casually annihilating the savings of every wage-worker in the country if they don't spend them fast enough. https://t.co/TAKQCEDcOX

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 9, 2021

“Most of your money exists not as something folded in your wallet, but as an entry in a bank’s database, faithfully requested and rendered beneath the glass of your phone. If someone else gets to decide *if* and *how* you can spend it, is it really yours,” wrote the famous whistleblower in his own opinion piece published on October 9, while pointing out that the adoption of CBDC proposes a direct threat to financial independence and freedom. 

Most of your money exists not as something folded in your wallet, but as an entry in a bank’s database, faithfully requested and rendered beneath the glass of your phone.

If someone else gets to decide *if* and *how* you can spend it, is it really yours?https://t.co/720SYvqzZM

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 9, 2021

Crypto’s evil twin

Snowden, who is known to be a fan of decentralized cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin (BTC), warned that those should not be confused or compared to CBDCs, which are, according to him, here to “ransom our future.”

A CBDC is a perversion of cryptocurrency, or at least the founding principles and protocols of it—a cryptofascist currency, expressly designed to deny you the basic ownership of your money by installing the State at the center of every transaction. https://t.co/720SYvqzZM

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 9, 2021

“Instead, a CBDC is something closer to being a perversion of cryptocurrency, or at least of the founding principles and protocols of cryptocurrency—a cryptofascist currency, an evil twin entered into the ledgers on Opposite Day, expressly designed to deny its users the basic ownership of their money and to install the State at the mediating center of every transaction,” he wrote. 

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