So it turn's out the Bank of England is looking to launch it's very own CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) after doing some digging we look like were heading into the real of China where everything to do with your finances is tracked and on the "ledger"
Below is a copy of there paper dated March 2020 and signed by Mark Carney. The 57 page document is the ground work into the inner working of how the system will operate and be launched and makes for stark reading into where the central banks are heading.
I believe that the COVID-19 outbreak will be the catalyst for them to want to remove cash from our society's the argument will be that cash spreads disease.
I wanted to draw attention to a specific section in the document.
Full Document Link
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/paper/2020/central-bank-digital-currency-opportunities-challenges-and-design.pdf?la=en&hash=DFAD18646A77C00772AF1C5B18E63E71F68E4593
4.7 Privacy and data protection
It will be essential to consider how privacy is respected and how data is protected in a CBDC system. Privacy and
data protection is an issue that is of concern to policymakers in government and other authorities(5) and should be
considered carefully when designing CBDC.
Any CBDC system would need to be compatible with privacy regulations, such as the 2018 General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR), which would apply to the Bank of England, Payment Interface Providers and any
other firms providing CBDC‑related services. In simple terms, this means that users should have control over how
their data is used and who it is shared with. Any third‑party processing data will need to observe applicable data
protection legislation.
(5) In the UK, this would include the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Information Commissioners’ Office (ICO).
Other approaches to providing CBDC
An alternative to CBDC would be for private sector firms to issue liabilities which were fully backed by funds held
at the central bank. These firms would act as intermediaries between the central bank and the end‑users.
Providing that the regulatory framework ensures that these firms’ liabilities were always fully backed by funds at
the central bank, these liabilities could share many of the characteristics of a CBDC that is directly issued by the
central bank. However these liabilities would not be central bank money, as holders would not hold a direct claim
on the central bank.
Such an approach has been suggested by some stablecoin proposals. It has also been described by some
researchers as ‘synthetic CBDC’ (Adrian and Mancini‑Griffoli (2019)).
In line with the Financial Policy Committee’s principles for regulation of payments and expectations relating to
stablecoins, such an approach would require appropriate regulation and supervision to ensure that equivalent
standards apply as with existing forms of private money.
Discussion Paper: Central Bank Digital Currency March 2020 32
The appropriate degree of anonymity in a CBDC system is a political and social question, rather than a narrow
technical question. As discussed above, CBDC would need to be compliant with AML regulations, which rules out
truly anonymous payments. However, CBDC could be designed to protect privacy and give users control over who
they share data with, even if CBDC payments are not truly anonymous (or secret). For example, a user may
legitimately want to make a payment to a supermarket without sharing their identity with the supermarket, as
this would allow the supermarket to build a picture of their shopping habits. In most cases, the payer should be
able to pay without revealing their identity to the payee. In this sense, they could have anonymity with regards to
other users, without having anonymity with regards to law enforcement.
Some discussions of CBDC assume that CBDC is equivalent to cash and so should offer the same degree of
anonymity in payments. When a payer hands over cash to a payee, for example in a shop, the payee does not
receive any data about the identity of the payer, and there is no digital record that links the payer and payee.(6)
But the fact that an in‑person cash payment provides an anonymous means of payment is a result of the nature of
this payment method. The Bank does not have a specific mandate to provide untraceable or anonymous payment
methods.
Thought's and comments welcome on this subject do you think this is the steps to full control over people and there spending?..
