For example: in Canada, the bank accounts of those who protested were literally frozen (for simply speaking out or being critical) and talks of potential CBDCs (aka. used to deduct funds from one’s account as a fine) whilst considering on abolishing cash altogether.
The alternative (for now at least) may be Crypto (online) until they consider that “illegal” in the future penalizing those who are using it, framing that as money laundering or tax evasion, whilst pushing their propaganda of “tap & go is safe & convenient”.
The answers are divided between:
- “Cash is King” (it allows anonymous or “private” transactions between you and the merchant)
- “Contactless” (convenient, but your purchases & transactions are monitored by the state)
Cash is apparently the last bastion of “anonymous” transactions where it doesn’t appear on one’s statement and one gets to keep their money without the state deducting it from their account since a nation’s central bank has monopoly over CBDCs and one’s funds.
That’s not even the end of it: them trying to make BTC or equivalent illegal by making CBDCs the default replacing gold overnight, it would mean all those bills you have are worthless. At this point, the only payment method is CBDCs that are linked to one’s digital ID.
Unfortunately I don’t have an official source either, I’ve seen it on a Telegram channel a few days ago. Banknote serials are logged when dispensed from ATMs and when cash is being counted at the bank, e.g. when brought in by a business. So there are already checkpoints for banknote tracking. Cash isn’t as anonymous as people think, but for coins.
“Rendering my cash invalid with no recourse” might be on the extreme end of this, if the places that its checked are ATM and banks - so long as it’s still exchangeable for goods/services (e.g. not being checked by stores)
I’ll keep an eye out for kore info though.
But yes, with serials are tracked when taken from/put in ATM/bank, it is not anonymous. Potentially breaking larger bills at common places (stores/gas stations) could mitigate this, but theres still information about where you’ve been inherent in that.