CBDC: Democratic governments need to understand that their efforts to exert control could kill the very golden goose of creativity and human agency that they were meant to be protecting.
A bill of digital property rights sounds good, and perhaps is worth pursuing, but the past 20 years have provided more than enough empirical evidence that it is simply not going to matter much or protect anyone, anywhere, from the creeping, enveloping tyranny and revanchist erosion of fundamental human civil liberties. There are millions of illustrative examples, but does anyone remember authorizing Clearview AI to perform mass facial recognition and aggregate it into a centralized honeypot of a database? We already have a Bill of Rights in the US, including a Fourth Amendment that was also supposed to protect us. Has it?
Institutions have only further lost legitimacy over that time frame, and they have proven to have little to no accountability. This includes the FED and its monetary policy. Trust has broken down. We have to play a different game - reality has rendered "do no evil" naive, manipulative, and tyrannical. We must focus on building systems that "can't be evil". Go all in on public, open-source, decentralized blockchains, as well as other forms of de-facto encryption of data. Focus on fast tracking Zero Knowledge cryptographic systems that can protect privacy while enabling economic activity. Focus on decentralizing power structures in general, not tacitly or explicitly supporting their further centralization. CBDCs are a wet dream of totalitarians, and must be fiercely resisted. I personally do not think they are inevitable everywhere, as not all governments will want to kill off their commercial banking systems.
I am a counter narrative theorist at heart. I truly am. I distrust government and big tech and pharma and even my mother sometimes when she can’t stop talking about Trump (I kid, I kid). But this feels wrong. How power hungry are these folks? How much do they really want to be China? We are the United States of America because our constitution and the Declaration of Independence are genius. We are in a weird place, a place I hate, a place of fear and corruption and doubt. But this feels a bridge too far. I truly hope I don’t have to eat my words and I will fight with my last breath to prevent it
superb article Pippa, and so true. CBDCs are inevitable and can really be used for a lot of good. But there has to be a nuanced dialogue around its limits and as you said, citizen's digital rights have to be enshrined in the constitution. I am sure that many govts dont have such evil motives to start with but once they have the power to control our lives absolutely, who would stop them. Problem is that right now 99.9% of people don't even understand this implication. Hence forwarded your article to everyone I know.
I am beginning to wonder if there will be a reaction to this process whereby a growing number of people will start to live without their phones at all. After all, it wasn't that long ago that the idea of a mobile phone was a fantastical sci-fi concept rather than the banality of everyday life it has become.
That said, I fear greatly for our future as I am highly confident that the only thing that drives virtually every member of every government, whether a democracy or a dictatorship, or anything in between, is the growth of their power. And while many government actors may not be that smart, as evidenced by their performance, they will immediately see a CBDC for what it is, an opportunity to exert more control.
I have often said that the most important amendment in the US Constitution is the 2nd as it is all that lies between any freedoms at all and complete tyranny.
Another excellent and thought-provoking article Dr. Pippa, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with the world. I live in the UK and that bill is genuinely shocking to me. Even more perhaps that I don't think many people know about it. I certainly did not. How do you envision a popular reaction to that could be? Do people at the end of the day even care?! What's the risk that Western countries will follow a sort of "Chinese model", where in my understanding people don't really care that much about what the government does as long as it provides food security and prosperity? Esp. looking at the energy situation in the old continent and all 2nd and 3rd order effects of that, I reckon that could be a catalyst for that transformation to be widely accepted.
VERY, Very depressing!!! Really hope Pippa’s wrong about this – but afraid she may not be. If this panopticon comes to pass, humanity’s chance to pass thru the ‘Great Filter’ (related to the Fermi Paradox) will be significantly reduced – or perhaps eliminated altogether. Healthy innovation is prevalent only among a free people – and the freer the people, the greater the innovation they achieve.
A great paradox: people everywhere yearn to be free – not to be bossed around by others. Yet, each of us, at times, is sure that we could run at least some other peoples’ lives better than those others are able to – and we often indulge that urge. Why is it so difficult for us to realize this hypocrisy, and to abjure the pernicious urge, especially when the intrusion is imposed forcibly – and MOST especially when it's done by government (often at our behest) ???
A bill of digital property rights sounds good, and perhaps is worth pursuing, but the past 20 years have provided more than enough empirical evidence that it is simply not going to matter much or protect anyone, anywhere, from the creeping, enveloping tyranny and revanchist erosion of fundamental human civil liberties. There are millions of illustrative examples, but does anyone remember authorizing Clearview AI to perform mass facial recognition and aggregate it into a centralized honeypot of a database? We already have a Bill of Rights in the US, including a Fourth Amendment that was also supposed to protect us. Has it?
Institutions have only further lost legitimacy over that time frame, and they have proven to have little to no accountability. This includes the FED and its monetary policy. Trust has broken down. We have to play a different game - reality has rendered "do no evil" naive, manipulative, and tyrannical. We must focus on building systems that "can't be evil". Go all in on public, open-source, decentralized blockchains, as well as other forms of de-facto encryption of data. Focus on fast tracking Zero Knowledge cryptographic systems that can protect privacy while enabling economic activity. Focus on decentralizing power structures in general, not tacitly or explicitly supporting their further centralization. CBDCs are a wet dream of totalitarians, and must be fiercely resisted. I personally do not think they are inevitable everywhere, as not all governments will want to kill off their commercial banking systems.
Let's focus on "can't be evil".
I am a counter narrative theorist at heart. I truly am. I distrust government and big tech and pharma and even my mother sometimes when she can’t stop talking about Trump (I kid, I kid). But this feels wrong. How power hungry are these folks? How much do they really want to be China? We are the United States of America because our constitution and the Declaration of Independence are genius. We are in a weird place, a place I hate, a place of fear and corruption and doubt. But this feels a bridge too far. I truly hope I don’t have to eat my words and I will fight with my last breath to prevent it
superb article Pippa, and so true. CBDCs are inevitable and can really be used for a lot of good. But there has to be a nuanced dialogue around its limits and as you said, citizen's digital rights have to be enshrined in the constitution. I am sure that many govts dont have such evil motives to start with but once they have the power to control our lives absolutely, who would stop them. Problem is that right now 99.9% of people don't even understand this implication. Hence forwarded your article to everyone I know.
Can anyone find the source of the Satoshi Nakamoto quote in this article? I've been searching online and can't find any mention...
I am beginning to wonder if there will be a reaction to this process whereby a growing number of people will start to live without their phones at all. After all, it wasn't that long ago that the idea of a mobile phone was a fantastical sci-fi concept rather than the banality of everyday life it has become.
That said, I fear greatly for our future as I am highly confident that the only thing that drives virtually every member of every government, whether a democracy or a dictatorship, or anything in between, is the growth of their power. And while many government actors may not be that smart, as evidenced by their performance, they will immediately see a CBDC for what it is, an opportunity to exert more control.
I have often said that the most important amendment in the US Constitution is the 2nd as it is all that lies between any freedoms at all and complete tyranny.
Another excellent and thought-provoking article Dr. Pippa, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with the world. I live in the UK and that bill is genuinely shocking to me. Even more perhaps that I don't think many people know about it. I certainly did not. How do you envision a popular reaction to that could be? Do people at the end of the day even care?! What's the risk that Western countries will follow a sort of "Chinese model", where in my understanding people don't really care that much about what the government does as long as it provides food security and prosperity? Esp. looking at the energy situation in the old continent and all 2nd and 3rd order effects of that, I reckon that could be a catalyst for that transformation to be widely accepted.
VERY, Very depressing!!! Really hope Pippa’s wrong about this – but afraid she may not be. If this panopticon comes to pass, humanity’s chance to pass thru the ‘Great Filter’ (related to the Fermi Paradox) will be significantly reduced – or perhaps eliminated altogether. Healthy innovation is prevalent only among a free people – and the freer the people, the greater the innovation they achieve.
A great paradox: people everywhere yearn to be free – not to be bossed around by others. Yet, each of us, at times, is sure that we could run at least some other peoples’ lives better than those others are able to – and we often indulge that urge. Why is it so difficult for us to realize this hypocrisy, and to abjure the pernicious urge, especially when the intrusion is imposed forcibly – and MOST especially when it's done by government (often at our behest) ???
Awesome article. Thanks