This article only promotes the "benefits" of the CBDC and relies on trusting some mysterious plan with no actual proof. Sorry Joe but I do believe you lack a true understanding of what you are talking about here. Bitcoin is the only truly trustless permissionless protocol that will save humanity from central bankers.
I think you need to modify your terminology or people will automatically close their minds to your article.
You use CBDC interchangeably with Digital dollar while confirming Trump’s goal of eliminating the Central banks which is a contradiction.
CBDCs are the problem precisely because it’s centralized, the CB part of the term is what’s going to kill any support for it.
In Canada, Cabal puppet Justin Trudeau is beginning his push for its adoption and linked it with the Bank of Canada’s overall control of all financial transactions through the commercial banks, he even established the precedent of freezing accounts without due process back when they crushed the trucker protests here. There is no indication of a separate digital currency being adopted here.
In fact the true Digital dollar should be termed something like SDC: Secure Digital Currency with no central authority issuing it.
As for blockchain based DCs, I don’t think they’re quite ready for prime time yet, Bitcoin use is still a very tiny number of overall financial transactions, the problem here is technical, the amount of computing power needed to compute and synthesize updates to these ledgers isn’t trivial, power consumption isn’t trivial as well.
Imagine expanding the number of Bitcoin transactions by a factor of say 100 million.
The other Achilles heel of digital currency is that it’s network based, without network access you can’t really complete a transaction. You can temporarily store them in phones but you still require networks to validate the transaction.
I can see Bitcoin or similar SDCs being used for large purchases on the level of hundreds of dollars, can’t see them being used to buy candy bars.
I don’t think physical currencies will vanish and if/when the financial system disruption(not the economic system) comes people will revert back to their old habits and use coins or paper.
Also some people will absolutely refuse to participate in a digital currency system out of principle, there are people who refuse to use banks, period and I can’t blame them.
Joe, it is so great to have your studied opinion in article form here. I completely see and agree with you, as I find myself doing frequently. There is no doubt the world is turning back to solid money and privacy even as it moves forward in the digital world.
Hope our country catches on sooner than later.
Thank you, Joe, for your weekly, sometimes daily pump of sanity.
The problem with BTC and blockchain, at least as of today, is confirmation time. Confirming BTC transactions requires extensive computations, performed by 'miners' while also consuming fairly significant amounts of energy. Somewhere I read that BTC mining now uses about 1% of the world's electricity.
BTC confirmation times are now running about an hour, and up to 16 hours at peak times.
According to research done by BCG and published by the Bank of England, the annual cross-border exchange totals approximately USD 200 TRILLION per year -- about $550 billion per DAY. And that is only cross-border exchanges; internal trade is no doubt many times that.
Imagine scaling the BTC system up by 10000x, to $2 trillion per day (probably low but it won't matter). If nothing else, we would have to increase the world's electrical supply to one hundred times what it is today, just to process the blockchain confirmations!! (The global warming people will have a total meltdown about that one 🤔 )
Now before anyone says 'well, there will be some sort of technological improvement that will reduce this by orders of magnitude,' remember that the whole point of the BTC blockchain system is to make the calculations very difficult. BTC miners have gone from high-performance PCs to GPUs to FPGAs and now to custom ASICs to improve performance, and it has -- but not enough to come anywhere close to what is needed. And also remember, that if the computations CAN be accelerated that much, then the whole BTC security promise (based on difficulty of computations, message hashes in this case) collapses. This is why all the cyber gurus are worried about quantum computing.
So I do not believe that a system based on blockchain can deliver on this promise. Not with today's technology, and not with any foreseeable technological advance that will not simultaneously break blockchain's security.
Thanks for that (digital!) contribution, Joe. My head just starts swimming when this topic is brought up. Your explanation here is making me feel like I’ve finally got the beginnings of a foundation to understand what this business is all about.
Cbdc- the title itself has the enemy on it... we do t need a “central banking system” we also don’t want a specialized coin controlled for tax purposes etc either.. you mention the fed reserve? Why would they even still be existing in all this??? Nooo wayyy... blockchain, decentralized cryptos yea, centralized bank coin for all -no way
I like the idea of a new national usd backed by gold and silver and interchangeable with crypto currencies at their values and there doesn’t need tii or be co troll or scrutiny on individuals handling and payments they make- that would be freedom. Cabal is out of we throw them out- furthermore we know who the cabal are, why are they still breathing? The snake keeps biting til it’s dead
This was a TERRIFIC article! Thanks Joe Lange. By the way, I’m a white haired old gal, and I understood every word of it. Don’t dumb down. You’re encouraging us!
Joe, I Think you nailed it. Great explanation of whats really going on with our money. And yes for any Crypto Currency or Digital Dollar to have value it must be backed by Gold or Silver. Thank You for all your hard work.
Amazing work Joe. I’m so glad we have your insight. What you write always makes sense, and as a follower of you, it’s all lining up, I can buy what you’re selling, every bit of it. You align so perfectly with the Badlands point of view, devolution, Trump is the master, gold is the currency according to our constitution. Well done, I’m much more at ease, which is typical after reading your work. 👏🏻👏🏻 Keep it coming!!
Thank you, Joe, for all your contributions to this community! This is a great article, with just one necessary edit: change all references to "CBDC" to say "Bitcoin" instead. A key premise to this article is that "digital currency is based on blockchain technology", which "is a distributed ledger technology that is decentralized". This is true, but there is a HUGE difference between a public blockchain and a private blockchain. Bitcoin is a public blockchain, which anyone can join and create their own anonymous account (aka, wallet). This is what makes Bitcoin good. CBDC, on the other hand, is by definition a private blockchain, owned by the Central Bank. Users will have to register with the Central Bank to create an account, which makes it possible for the Central Bank to track each user's activity and control each user's access. This is what makes CBDC bad. This article does a great job of extolling the virtues of a public blockchain like Bitcoin, but (in my opinion) largely overlooks the tremendous down sides of a private blockchain like CBDC. So if you just change all references from CBDC to Bitcoin, it's all good!
Joe, heart attack Wy Dave here! On behalf of my wife and little older self here, thank you for your efforts as this matters to many of us! We understand much but not nearly as well as you so we rely on folks like you Joe. You have opened our eyes on this (we too feared CBDC) but this makes perfect sense...for now. I define “now” for maybe a half dozen generations. You and I along with many in this community understand that humanity has an engagement with the end of this age. Anti Christ does reign for a time prior to Christs second coming. BUT GOD, maybe the most important two words in scripture. BUT GOD defeats anti christ and sets up His kingdom for a designated period. We believe God is giving us a reprieve now for His glory! His glory and our good. Praise Him!
We love and thank you again for your informed insights with respect and kindness toward those who disrespectfully ignorantly disagree. Your hard work matters and you are greatly loved and appreciated by many! Soli Deo Gloria.
Thank you Joe for all of your insightful writing. It and the commentary it receives is invaluable. A simple question from a simple mind: what should a retiree trying to make sound investment decisions do now? Buy digital currency? Buy silver and/or gold? Nothing? I already have implemented prayer into my financial planning. (Thank you for your consideration from a follower who in the past shared a much simpler prediction of Kansas winning an NCAA basketball championship!!)
It’s Friday, the weather is nice, and Joe Lange posted an article. Can’t complain.
This article only promotes the "benefits" of the CBDC and relies on trusting some mysterious plan with no actual proof. Sorry Joe but I do believe you lack a true understanding of what you are talking about here. Bitcoin is the only truly trustless permissionless protocol that will save humanity from central bankers.
I think you need to modify your terminology or people will automatically close their minds to your article.
You use CBDC interchangeably with Digital dollar while confirming Trump’s goal of eliminating the Central banks which is a contradiction.
CBDCs are the problem precisely because it’s centralized, the CB part of the term is what’s going to kill any support for it.
In Canada, Cabal puppet Justin Trudeau is beginning his push for its adoption and linked it with the Bank of Canada’s overall control of all financial transactions through the commercial banks, he even established the precedent of freezing accounts without due process back when they crushed the trucker protests here. There is no indication of a separate digital currency being adopted here.
In fact the true Digital dollar should be termed something like SDC: Secure Digital Currency with no central authority issuing it.
As for blockchain based DCs, I don’t think they’re quite ready for prime time yet, Bitcoin use is still a very tiny number of overall financial transactions, the problem here is technical, the amount of computing power needed to compute and synthesize updates to these ledgers isn’t trivial, power consumption isn’t trivial as well.
Imagine expanding the number of Bitcoin transactions by a factor of say 100 million.
The other Achilles heel of digital currency is that it’s network based, without network access you can’t really complete a transaction. You can temporarily store them in phones but you still require networks to validate the transaction.
I can see Bitcoin or similar SDCs being used for large purchases on the level of hundreds of dollars, can’t see them being used to buy candy bars.
I don’t think physical currencies will vanish and if/when the financial system disruption(not the economic system) comes people will revert back to their old habits and use coins or paper.
Also some people will absolutely refuse to participate in a digital currency system out of principle, there are people who refuse to use banks, period and I can’t blame them.
Joe, it is so great to have your studied opinion in article form here. I completely see and agree with you, as I find myself doing frequently. There is no doubt the world is turning back to solid money and privacy even as it moves forward in the digital world.
Hope our country catches on sooner than later.
Thank you, Joe, for your weekly, sometimes daily pump of sanity.
The problem with BTC and blockchain, at least as of today, is confirmation time. Confirming BTC transactions requires extensive computations, performed by 'miners' while also consuming fairly significant amounts of energy. Somewhere I read that BTC mining now uses about 1% of the world's electricity.
BTC confirmation times are now running about an hour, and up to 16 hours at peak times.
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/charts/avg-confirmation-time
This is with BTC transactions valued in the ~USD200MM per day range.
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/charts/trade-volume
According to research done by BCG and published by the Bank of England, the annual cross-border exchange totals approximately USD 200 TRILLION per year -- about $550 billion per DAY. And that is only cross-border exchanges; internal trade is no doubt many times that.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/payment-and-settlement/cross-border-payments
Imagine scaling the BTC system up by 10000x, to $2 trillion per day (probably low but it won't matter). If nothing else, we would have to increase the world's electrical supply to one hundred times what it is today, just to process the blockchain confirmations!! (The global warming people will have a total meltdown about that one 🤔 )
Now before anyone says 'well, there will be some sort of technological improvement that will reduce this by orders of magnitude,' remember that the whole point of the BTC blockchain system is to make the calculations very difficult. BTC miners have gone from high-performance PCs to GPUs to FPGAs and now to custom ASICs to improve performance, and it has -- but not enough to come anywhere close to what is needed. And also remember, that if the computations CAN be accelerated that much, then the whole BTC security promise (based on difficulty of computations, message hashes in this case) collapses. This is why all the cyber gurus are worried about quantum computing.
So I do not believe that a system based on blockchain can deliver on this promise. Not with today's technology, and not with any foreseeable technological advance that will not simultaneously break blockchain's security.
Another excellent article with hindsight, foresight and logical explanation of your discernment and take on this.
Thank you for your time, energy and sacrifice to present this in an understandable format. God bless you brother.
Thanks for that (digital!) contribution, Joe. My head just starts swimming when this topic is brought up. Your explanation here is making me feel like I’ve finally got the beginnings of a foundation to understand what this business is all about.
Cbdc- the title itself has the enemy on it... we do t need a “central banking system” we also don’t want a specialized coin controlled for tax purposes etc either.. you mention the fed reserve? Why would they even still be existing in all this??? Nooo wayyy... blockchain, decentralized cryptos yea, centralized bank coin for all -no way
I like the idea of a new national usd backed by gold and silver and interchangeable with crypto currencies at their values and there doesn’t need tii or be co troll or scrutiny on individuals handling and payments they make- that would be freedom. Cabal is out of we throw them out- furthermore we know who the cabal are, why are they still breathing? The snake keeps biting til it’s dead
This was a TERRIFIC article! Thanks Joe Lange. By the way, I’m a white haired old gal, and I understood every word of it. Don’t dumb down. You’re encouraging us!
This is what we've been waiting for today Joe, thanks. I'm going to read and digest before commenting.
One thing we do know, the Federal Reserve/Central bank has enslaved us for a century, and that has to be abolished and replaced.
Joe, I Think you nailed it. Great explanation of whats really going on with our money. And yes for any Crypto Currency or Digital Dollar to have value it must be backed by Gold or Silver. Thank You for all your hard work.
Amazing work Joe. I’m so glad we have your insight. What you write always makes sense, and as a follower of you, it’s all lining up, I can buy what you’re selling, every bit of it. You align so perfectly with the Badlands point of view, devolution, Trump is the master, gold is the currency according to our constitution. Well done, I’m much more at ease, which is typical after reading your work. 👏🏻👏🏻 Keep it coming!!
Thank you, Joe, for all your contributions to this community! This is a great article, with just one necessary edit: change all references to "CBDC" to say "Bitcoin" instead. A key premise to this article is that "digital currency is based on blockchain technology", which "is a distributed ledger technology that is decentralized". This is true, but there is a HUGE difference between a public blockchain and a private blockchain. Bitcoin is a public blockchain, which anyone can join and create their own anonymous account (aka, wallet). This is what makes Bitcoin good. CBDC, on the other hand, is by definition a private blockchain, owned by the Central Bank. Users will have to register with the Central Bank to create an account, which makes it possible for the Central Bank to track each user's activity and control each user's access. This is what makes CBDC bad. This article does a great job of extolling the virtues of a public blockchain like Bitcoin, but (in my opinion) largely overlooks the tremendous down sides of a private blockchain like CBDC. So if you just change all references from CBDC to Bitcoin, it's all good!
Great piece Joe!
Joe, heart attack Wy Dave here! On behalf of my wife and little older self here, thank you for your efforts as this matters to many of us! We understand much but not nearly as well as you so we rely on folks like you Joe. You have opened our eyes on this (we too feared CBDC) but this makes perfect sense...for now. I define “now” for maybe a half dozen generations. You and I along with many in this community understand that humanity has an engagement with the end of this age. Anti Christ does reign for a time prior to Christs second coming. BUT GOD, maybe the most important two words in scripture. BUT GOD defeats anti christ and sets up His kingdom for a designated period. We believe God is giving us a reprieve now for His glory! His glory and our good. Praise Him!
We love and thank you again for your informed insights with respect and kindness toward those who disrespectfully ignorantly disagree. Your hard work matters and you are greatly loved and appreciated by many! Soli Deo Gloria.
Thank you Joe for all of your insightful writing. It and the commentary it receives is invaluable. A simple question from a simple mind: what should a retiree trying to make sound investment decisions do now? Buy digital currency? Buy silver and/or gold? Nothing? I already have implemented prayer into my financial planning. (Thank you for your consideration from a follower who in the past shared a much simpler prediction of Kansas winning an NCAA basketball championship!!)