After my latest outline, on the looming probability of a dollar based Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) {SEE HERE}, I found myself saying, “I hate to say this, but most people really don’t care. For some, the issue is esoteric, abstract, and difficult to comprehend. For others, there is a massive blanket of comfortable ambivalence until the consequences hit. For the few who understand, this is extremely troubling.”
Then I step back, breathe and reevaluate my ability to communicate.
A few recent comments have me looking for something, anything, that will help people understand the scope and breadth of what I am trying to communicate, and the challenge therein. EXAMPLES:
[COMMENT #1] – I don’t know, this is way over my head, and I consider myself at least somewhat intelligent and informed. Other than a few twenties I keep in my wallet, all money of consequence in my life is already just digits in computer networks as far as I can perceive. I never actually see a check for my wages, much less any dead presidents.
[…] Not that I disagree, I just don’t understand. I’m at a loss as to why this is so qualitatively different as far as my financial security goes. Maybe it’s because I’m a resident of Illinois and have some sort of Stockholm Syndrome from knowing they can already, and do, raise my taxes – as much as they want, any time they want – and there is nothing to stop them. {link}
[COMMENT #2] I apologize for this stupid question, but I’m confused. How do the grey countries fit into this digital money and “world order” Pippa refers to?
Pippa states, “But what I see our superpowers introducing digital currency, the Chinese were the first the US is on the brink, I think of moving in the same direction the Europeans have committed to that as well.”
China is grey on the map, as is Russia. If we, the mapped yellow USA, are being boxed in by the Russian sanctions how is it China is grey yet they were the first to introduce a digital currency? These insane, drunk with power “superpowers” – is their goal to color the entire world map yellow with the SWIFT network digital coin to control the entire world? {link}
You come here for understanding the world that exists, not the one we may hope to exist. If you are confused, I need to do a better job.
So, let me start.
I will start first with some information perhaps some do not know.
♦ Ever since the Western sanctions against Russia were created, an entire new black market of finance has been created in the “grey zone” that circumvents the sanctions and assists the people trapped by them.
Almost no one, sans a handful of people I have met, really have a full scope understanding of what is going on.
You cannot discover this information within the yellow zone. You cannot get this level of comprehension from behind a keyboard safely in your home office or den. You have to put your boots on the ground, take some risks and see exactly how it works. {Example Here}
The Russian sanctions were not created to block the Russians. The Russian sanctions were created to wall-in the West.
There are now networks of people who operate in various places that create proactive financial mechanisms for what you might call, “financial preppers.”
These people and groups set up bank accounts in foreign countries for you; they organize addresses (needed), phone numbers (needed), and create accounts that you can access that are outside the control of the dollar-based financial system. You can even get an official passport in the process.
These people also sell hardware [to support the phone numbers (really digital ids)] that is completely different from what exists behind the wall of the yellow zone.
How many Americans know that an iPhone-15 sold in the USA is completely different from an iPhone-15 sold outside the yellow zone? Meaning, the internal hardware is different. How many Americans know that?
How many Americans know that an iPhone-15 sold inside the USA has different originating software than an iPhone-15 sold outside the USA?
How many people know that when you purchase one of these “ghost phones”, the data network automatically identifies the disparity when the phone crosses into the yellow zone, and shortly thereafter the cellular network transmits a software update to bring the “ghost phone” into USA (yellow zone) compliance?
How many Americans know phone apps and internal app functions can exist on phones outside the yellow zone that do not exist inside the yellow zone?
Example: use a ghost phone, and you can access a digital wallet in Telegram; you can transmit funds to other Telegram users. However, use a USA compliant phone and you cannot. The function is there but the service is, “not available in your area.”
Why?
It’s about control.
If you don’t update the software, the function exists inside the yellow zone. However, update the software and the function disappears.
This happens.
Another real-life example was recently missed by many people when the story of the Apple Watch Series 9 was found to have violated patent technology and was banned for sale in the USA. {STORY}
To get into legal compliance, Apple transmitted a remote software update disabling the function of the patent technology in the USA. Again, for emphasis, only in the USA. Bring your non-compliant Series-9 into the range of a wifi network, and bingo auto-compliance. I mention this story only to highlight a modern compliance capability that many people do not know exists.
In essence, your tech devices -and the capability therein- are different than an identical tech device sold outside the Western control zone.
♦ Technology is intertwined with Central Bank Digital Currencies. Tech companies are regulated by the U.S/Western government, and the tech companies have to comply. The regulatory compliance is part of the process of control. There are regulatory walls around us that most do not understand. The same regulatory principle applies to finance and banking. Hence, the origination motive of the yellow zone wall, built under the auspices of Russian sanctions.
Let me make one big point resoundingly clear before moving on. When the WESTERN Central Bank Digital Currency system begins, all forms of cryptocurrency will be blocked and made unlawful inside the Western zone – either by regulation or by legislation.
Let me repeat this. Cryptocurrency in all forms will be banned.
Crypto is not technically a currency; it is a barter based on trust. However, at a certain point (origination or end) crypto must have the ability to transfer into currency value. Dollars (or another currency) are needed to purchase BitCoin,…. or BitCoin eventually sold or exchanged for Dollars (or another currency). [BitCoin only used as a familiar type of crypto.] This process is where crypto gets blocked.
Ownership of Crypto may not be unlawful, but any effort to use Crypto as an alternate digital currency to exchange value will be unlawful once the dollar based CBDC is launched.
A fully implemented govt controlled central bank digital currency will not allow competition. Alternate crypto currency will be banned. Without any doubt!
Back to the original questions:
“China is grey on the map, as is Russia. If we, the mapped yellow USA, are being boxed in by the Russian sanctions, how is it China is grey yet they were the first to introduce a digital currency?”
The grey zone can trade amongst themselves however they want; the yellow zone (West) has no capability to stop them. Ex. if Russia wants to trade 1,000 barrels of oil with China for 100 boxes of intel microchips, they can. Or, if China and Russia want to exchange digital yen for digital rubles, they can; the West cannot stop them. However, if China wants to interact with a yellow zone member, the yellow zone financial rule makers have rules. China would have to be compliant with a dollar based CBDC to exchange value within the yellow zone.
Similarly, if you want to exchange a bushel of corn for 10 dozen eggs with your neighbor, you can; there is no mechanism to stop you. However, if you need to pay your mortgage, you will have to be compliant with a dollar based CBDC to exchange value, ie pay your bill.
Which brings me to the next question:
“All money of consequence in my life is already just digits in computer networks as far as I can perceive. … I’m at a loss as to why this is so qualitatively different as far as my financial security.”
This is the common mistake that most people make.
There is a big difference between “electronic transactions” of dollars, and the existence of a “digital dollar.”
Let me give you a metaphor using a casino as the reference.
♦ CURRENT – You go to the casino window and exchange $10,000 dollars for poker chips valued at $10,000. You give the teller $10,000 in cash, bankers check, money order, a credit card or debit card transaction, and the teller gives you chips worth $10,000 in that casino. You can use the chips gambling and perhaps win more chips. Return to the window with $12,000 in casino chips, and the teller exchanges the chips for $12,000 dollars – cash or check or deposit into your electronic card.
You meet a man in the casino willing to give you his fancy Rolex watch in exchange for $5,000. You give the man $5,000 worth of your poker chips and he gives you his Rolex watch. That man can then go to the teller window and exchange the chips for $5,000 in cash. You have the watch.
♦ DIGITAL DOLLAR – You go to the teller window and produce your bank card containing a digital dollar balance. You exchange $10,000 worth of your digital dollars for $10,ooo dollars’ worth of poker chips. Except this time, with a digital dollar, each poker chip has your fingerprint on it. You spend or bet your poker chips, and each chip you win also arrives to you with your fingerprint on it. You win $12,000 dollars. You return to the window with $12,000 in chips, each with your fingerprint, and the teller uploads your card with $12,000 digital dollars.
You meet a man in the casino willing to give you his fancy Rolex watch in exchange for $5,ooo. However, you cannot give the man your poker chips because they are unique to you and are carrying your fingerprint. If he takes your fingerprint poker chips to the window, his fingerprint does not match the chip; his request for $5,000 in digital dollars would be denied. He cannot sell you his watch. Your transactional capability is limited by the digital fingerprint.
[If he was planning to sell his watch for $5,000 in order to purchase a motorcycle worth $5,ooo, it is possible for you to purchase the motorcycle, exchange it for his watch and then carry on. However, the motorcycle would be digitally registered to you, and you would be digitally registered to the motorcycle. A reconciliation process is needed.]
A digital dollar creates a unique id attached to that digital dollar. Ultimately, the central bank that issues the digital dollar controls what the digital id can do (that’s you), and what those digital dollars can be used for (what you can do).
Digital dollars can be blocked from gun purchases, and digital ids can be used to stop unapproved users from purchasing guns – or a gas guzzling suv, or a house that’s too big, or the non-compliant fridge, or whatever.
Sellers of goods (or information) can have their ids banned from receiving digital dollars, just as VISA and MasterCard blocked sellers of guns from accessing their electronic transaction system. With digital dollars, “demonetization”, an alarmingly familiar modern term, can become a function of a financial regulation system. “Debanking” another alarmingly familiar term, also becomes much easier.
Ultimately, a dollar-based US-Central Bank Digital Currency, ie a “digital dollar,” is about control.
Every transaction has a unique digital fingerprint, and every digital dollar can be traced by the IRS to the digital id associated with it.
There is a BIG difference between electronic funds (current), and a digital dollar (future).
I hope that helps.
Excellent explanation. They can also put a time limit on your $. If you don
t spend it in a certain time it disappears. All about taxes, and control. Barter is a work aroud on a small level. If they ban crypto expect big rush into gold, and silver if they don
t ban that to.Already do that in Africa. The Phone Cards rule the world there. I’ve actually paid locals their Per Diem for a attending a training class with phone cards. But…EVERYTHING Expires in 30 days. Use or lose.
Put $50 on a phone card, great. You can now pay for data and local “Venmo”(ish) transactions.
But YOUR money expires in 30 days. I sh*t you not.
https://www.phonetravelwiz.com/buying-a-sim-card-in-djibouti-guide/#packages-plans-bundles-offers-evatis-djibouti-telecom
All about Control…and no one there complains.
I would say banning crypto is like banning booze back in the day or outlawing digital piracy. If it could be done, it would already be done. There are more ways to use crypto without on/offramps and 100% live off of it, with gift cards, say Coingate. These will probably move offshore.
Dang, now I’m really confused. Who the heck needs to gamble $10,000 or buy a $5000,00 watch? 😉
Just kidding! (still who needs to waste their money? the usual outcome would be buy 10K chips and cash in 0K chips)
The key information is that “It’s all about control” possibly down to how many hamburgers you have eaten or brewskis you have consumed this month. No! Bad human!! your wallet can only buy KALE and soylent green for the next 30 days!
This also removes the fungibility of cash. And would give the authorities the ability to exact myriad new taxes that are automatically debited. You drove more than 50 miles $10 Tax for example. You had two drinks with dinner $10 tax etc.
And while not mentioned, this tech could be attached to a social score that will also instantly penalize ($$) any “unaccepted” behavior. Trump sign in front yard- Beep! 500 demerits OK. Enough on that.
Trump did state at a rally that there would be no CBDC on his watch.
JB Pritzker wanted a $10 per prescription med tax in IL. I think it got shot down.
Yet another reason I do not get my “Drs Rx only” meds from CVS,…or in fact using a Drs Rx at all.
Its only in the Yellow areas, that a Drs Rx is required to purchase meds.
In the gray areas, buying what we think of as “Drs Rx meds” is like buying candy or cigarettes; tell the pharmacist what you want, how many and what dosage, and pay for it.
And meds are MUCH less expensive, for the SAME MEDICATION, in the gray areas.
How would VPN’s play in?
Friends who trade crypto think they will get around it using a VPN. Would those be banned? Say they are purchasing the crypto in foreign currency. They won’t even read the article sadly and claim it’s ludicrous. SMH. Try to share with people. What can you do, people don’t want to hear I guess.
VPNs – they have already created and have been pushing a bill in Congress which would outlaw their use.
That isn’t the big issue – what happens when to get on the internet at all requires a digital ID and every single bit of information transferred is tied to your digital ID?
Even worse – what do you do when they shut down the internet and blame it on hackers? They don’t need fiber optics and cables – they have satellites.
Or the worse – what happens if the grid gets so overloaded that it shuts down or a nuclear burst over the US buns out the power distribution system and all electronics?
What good is digital money then?
Now instead of crypto – you make it CBDC and digital IDs. Now run those last two scenarios through. Think of what will happen.
Then ask – Why are the ultra rich buying islands, building massive bunkers, and preparing for such scenarios?
IMHO,..
THEY, as in TPTB won’tshut down the internet, or the grid.
WE, or anarchists fighting against “the machine” might.
They do create the ILLUSION of chaos, so that they can institute greater control, but as true chaos is the opposite of, or counterto control, its the last thing they want.
In either scenario, hrid or internet down, there would be extensive chaos, whether we had CBDC or not; the electric doors, freezers and “cash registers” at the grocery stores wouldn’t work, nor would the debit cards most people depend on.
fwiw
Why Are CBDCs Considered Controversial?
If a CBDC is programmable, it would allow the government to actively incentivize or disincentivize certain behaviors by its population. For example, it could directly prevent citizens from purchasing things like alcohol or cigarettes, if the government would want to actively discourage consumption. Clearly, there is potential for abuse of such access and control.
What Is a Central Bank Digital Currency? A Brief Guide to CBDCs
https://www.coindesk.com/learn/what-is-a-central-bank-digital-currency-a-brief-guide-to-cbdcs/
I’ve stopped trying to get people to care about CBDC. They think I’m an alarmist about nothing – get a life. Well when they’re standing at the card machine at the grocery the cashier tells them their card is declined. No amount of arguing with the cashier will allow them to walk out out of the store with their bag of groceries – they’ll soon understand carbon credits. Or trying to pump gas into their car when a voice at the pump states they’ve exceeded their monthly allotment of fuel. Then there will be police at your door to haul you away for sedition – reminding them of a conversation yesterday with a friend gribing about politics. People dont get it. Don’t want to hear about it. So I don’t try to warn them anymore. Besides I’m too busy building another polytunnel and vertical planters to grow my own food year round and inside if necessary.
Connect the “dots” this is more than cbdc
<img src=”https://i.imghippo.com/files/A21001711712713.png” alt=”” border=”0″>
whole episode here :- https://www.youtube.com/live/U1WMg5HuHwk?si=oh-CAMg9yoa4wFgb
So glad you were able to post that chart, tried to do it a while back and failed miserably.
The whole video is definitely worth the time to get a grasp on how all these different media narratives work to corral everyone into the utopian’s idea of paradise.
Thanks, I wish there were a way to spread this far and wide. This guy Ivor has it nailed and is easy to understand.
14 February 2022 – Trudeau vows to freeze anti-mandate protesters’ bank accounts:
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said at Monday’s news conference that banks would be able freeze personal accounts of anyone linked with the (Canadian famers) protests without any need for a court order. Vehicle insurance of anyone involved with the demonstrations can also be suspended, she added. Ms Freeland said they were broadening Canada’s “Terrorist Financing” rules to cover cryptocurrencies and crowdfunding platforms, as part of the effort. “It’s all about following the money,” she said.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60383385
So how then does this work with say Bitcoin trading, those Trump Badges we see and the other Coin trading we see out there?
To borrow from an ancient TV show and movie series – “There can only be one.”
BTW – who’s to say that Bitcoin isn’t the global CBDC in disguise? It definitely has the ledger built into it…
Will be interesting if we have a Carrington event. Digital currencies may have a big problem if the internet goes down for an extended time.
“You meet a man in the casino willing to give you his fancy Rolex watch in exchange for $5,000. You give the man $5,000 worth of your poker chips and he gives you his Rolex watch. That man can then go to the teller window and exchange the chips for $5,000 in cash. You have the watch.”
Remember the story about how much money the wife of the president of Ukraine, in a short period of time, spent in a store selling luxury goods in France?
Luxury items such as watches?
.
Commissions beng spent… You, an important person, fly to Ukraine to somehow get important facts about Russia-Ukraine war from fancy Kiev hotel plus photoshoot with Zelensky. A corrupt Ukrainian oligarch er important business for “democracy” has received his free money aka “grant” of U.S. tax dollars from the local U.S. embassy. He buys what you want, real estate somewhere, gold to be banked in Switzerland, whatever, keeping part of his “grant” as commission.
You are there to in turn “buy” it or just get it from him in a transaction outside of the monitored zone.
.
People have finally noticed the same things happening in the same way in all the Western nations.
All part of the same plan.
Another thing, people noticed how places in the UK have elected “leaders” who are etchnically different from the typical citizen of those countries, especially when they elect Muslims.
Well we already had our Muslim leader, and he’s still here.
I don’t understand much about digital technology, or even currency.
What I did understand is what that vaxx passport was really for, and we even have had so-called Libertarians who were okay with that.
The main point to understand is the difference between crypto and cbdc.
Crypto is completely DE – CENTRALIZED
CBDC is completely CENTRALIZED
Crypto is essentially anonymous
CBDC is the opposite
With CBDC – everything, literally everything, will be tokenized on ONE GLOBAL LEDGER.
They will sell it on the “beneficial” characteristics- of which there many. At first it will seem great, easy instant transactions anywhere on the planet.
Then comes the TOTAL CONTROL of what you can buy, along with the social score. Try to exceed your meat allowance- transaction denied. Going on vacation a second time by air – sorry you are allowed one flight per person per year.
Criticize “the government” – well just don’t do it.
It will make the current state in China look like “the land of the free” compared to what’s coming, unless we can stop it
For information on how far advanced CBDCs and the attempt to control everyone through them already are, see: https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/brink-dramatic-change-digitalization-money
This is frightening. The author thinks Bitcoin is the answer – but I am skeptical that Bitcoin is actually safe from government surveillance and control. Blockchain has proved to not actually be anonymous.
Sundance, after reading your very helpful explanation, I think the key question is this: what can those of us who see this coming do to prepare? Gold and silver coins? But they will probably be outlawed. What prepper steps can actually be taken for this? I’m stumped on that.
Black markets have ALWAYS existed in totalitarian societies…
What you seem to be missing is that there comes a point when there is but a single answer – which is why all must dig in and bow their backs to ensure it doesn’t reach that point.
For information on how far advanced CBDCs and the attempt to control everyone through them already are, see: https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/brink-dramatic-change-digitalization-money
This is frightening. The author thinks Bitcoin is the answer – but I am skeptical that Bitcoin is actually safe from government surveillance and control. Blockchain has proved to not actually be anonymous.
Sundance, after your very helpful explanation, I think the key question is this: what can we do to prepare and survive once CBDCs are imposed? Gold and silver will likely be outlawed. And barter probably can’t work for long or at scale. What should we do now?
Whether youre dealing with gold/silver or BTC, it is the exchange point that matters IMO.
Sundance correctly points out that with BTC you can own it off the blockchain but to USE IT you have to exchange it for currency or in barter with someone who accepts it as barter.
I think the hint is that if you own BTC, it would be wise to have an account in the grey zone where you could exchange it for currency:
BTC>Mexican pesos>>>pesos to dollars…..but then, the $$$$s would be digital….so you’d have to use pesos to get goods….Aye Carumba!
What many do not understand is the GOVERNMENT contracts to develop the technology and perform integration of the systems + data required for CBDC + Social Control have in place since at least 1990.
By the 1990’s, the US GOVERNMENT had laid the ground work by SELLING OFF the data bases of the Social Security Administration for “Security Purposes” in the commercial world.
As digital processing technology advances started matching requirements in the 1990’s … the reality described by Sundance started to advance to fruition. This is the point where Silicon Valley actually merged with the US Government.
There is a line from the Burt Lancaster (1971) Western …Valdez is Coming. Valdez (Lancaster) was asked why he worked as scout hunting Indians as a young man and he answered, “it was before I knew better”.
The same for myself … I spent nearly 20 of my 35 years in Industry (before I knew better and fought before being asked to retire) designing this technology for DARPA and DoD as an engineer and project business director. The trail of integration of Commercial Industry with the US Government, Integration of technology, resulting “services” and consequences inside the US and Overseas is there to be read in Public News Sources.
The entire foundation IS IN PLACE NOW … just needs the go button to be pushed.
Also, do not think that the Gray Nations in the map above have not put the exact SAME SYSTEM in place. At this point in time it is the GRAY GLOBAL FACTION vs YELLOW FACTION economic war. The common denominators between the factions are the BANKERS and WEF Concepts.
so bascially what youre saying is the WEFers dont give a shit about yellow (consumers) and grey (producers)…they have their hands in both pockets.
The WEF IS NOT a player in the Great game of Dominance. The WEF is academic and philosophy … a school of thought and ideas available for use by anyone desiring to do so. YES, the WEF collects a “fee” from both camps as a royalty for use of their stuff.
Further the other major entity in common between the Gray and Yellow is the UN. The UN is the SHARED executive entity of the of the two GLOBAL ECONOMIC Alliances. Just as with any major MULTI-NATIONAL business, there are factions that use a shared Executive as both a battleground and as lever to execute.
It s no accident that the WEF, DAVOS, the BIS and ALL the major UN Executives are located in the EXACT same geographical location.
Both the gray and yellow ascribe to WEF for academic purposes … for ideas to employ. How WEF doctrine is deployed is the difference between the two camps. It is a function of the type of ALLIANCE and/or ALLIANCES formed within each block.
You sound like Mel Gibson, explaining to Julia Roberts, in “Conspiracy theory” …they promote stability, or so they say,….and the other group promotes INstability, or so THEY say,..”
When Bush (not Obama) started the concept that if you didn’t have a cell phone, the government needed to give you one, some of us knew it wasn’t about “safety”.
The phone is about tracking, but perhaps even more sinister, They offer every app you could desire to make your life and work “Easier”. What seems to be happening is a transition from using your brain to figure things out to using the phone to figure things out (because again, it’s easier). Brains need to be exercised.
OK, so where do we go from here? Once the vast % of folks are seriously dependent upon the phone for everything they do, the Powers that be turn off all phone accounts except theirs. This leaves many people completely incapable of not only navigating, but also many other things we should know how to do without anything but a paper map and a perhaps a compass.
Best have a set of analog old-school tools and know how to use them for the day this cut-off happens.
And to be clear, any number of agencies can cut us off the phone, our govt. … even our enemies.
One thing we should all be doing is reducing or eliminating any dependance on the phone.
I know that’s worse than eating your veggies, but woe be unto you who depend upon something that can be switched off by others.
So the old topo maps laying around and Boy Scout compass from the 60’s sitting in the nightstand might get some use? Guess I better brush up on my map reading.
Kinda strange, the two pickups sitting outside that I bought back in the 80’s still have maps in the door pockets. Imagine that. Found many a racetrack that way, staring at a map. Like a time capsule. 🙂
Thank God I am 84. Living in the world that will arrive by 2040 (or sooner) will not be a recognizable world to those born before y2k.
Y2k sounds pretty good, right about now!
Everyone wakes up, and finds their i-phone doesn’t work.
My wife just got a google notice, telling her she was supposed to activate a fingerprint dependent system for accessing her cell phone.
She deleted/ignored it.
Socialism always runs out of money. By forcing everyone to exchange their cash and savings for CBDC government will be able to postpone that day.
They THINK they will be able to eliminate that day, altogether.
Their problem is they believe their own hype, and they WANT the control CBDC and UBID promises, that they are in denial of the reality that they will never be able to make it work, but WILL tear down everything in the attempt.