Congressman Thinks CBDCs Might be Easily Abused to Spy on American Citizens

In front of a crowd at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, Congressman Tom Emmer expressed his disapproval of digital currencies issued by central banks.

Source: www.analyticsinsight.net

Congressman Tom Emmer of the United States thinks that the introduction of programmable central bank digital money might rob American residents of their financial privacy.

Emmer stated that the programmable CBDC could be "easily weaponized" as a spying device to "choke out politically unpopular activity," among other things, on March 9 at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. The concept of a central bank digital currency has gained support among American political institutions, according to Emmer, as the federal government strives to preserve and increase the level of financial control to which it has become accustomed.

To block the development of the Digital Dollar Project, which has undergone significant changes in how it will be utilized since the second version of its white paper was issued in mid-January, the Minnesota congressman presented the CBDC Anti-Surveillance Act on February 22.

Recent measures by the Biden administration demonstrate its eagerness to establish a digital currency as well as its willingness to give up Citizens' right to financial privacy in exchange for the surveillance-style CBDC, the author continued.

Tweet by Tom Hemmer

Emmer asserted that many Washington officials are "threatened" by the blockchain-enabled "ownership economy," which "shifts economic power from centralized institutions back into the hands of the people."

Emmer and many others are worried about the potential risks that could arise because the CBDC not only tracks transaction level data down to the individual user but also has the ability to be programmed to stifle politically unpopular activity, despite the fact that the Federal Reserve's very recent issue paper emphasized that it would only issue the CBDC in the setting of "broad public and cross-governmental consensus."

Emmer also asserted that decentralized cryptocurrencies may help fix the problems with the US monetary system and bring back many of the "American ideals" that helped the country become a global economic force in the 20th century, including free markets, privacy, and individual sovereignty.

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