YEAR after year, legislation is passed or systems are changed for no apparent reason and without any public debate. One such intrusion that’s coming down the road at speed is the Central Bank Digital Currency.
It will be argued that as cheques have mainly had their day and cash isn’t far behind, further simplifying payments is the way to go. A large proportion of the public already use credit cards and phone apps to pay for goods and services. Many of us use online banking. But we still pay for ‘odd jobs’ and so on in cash. Cash provides people with the ability to transact with one another without recourse to any other authority, and with high levels of privacy. It all works perfectly well. However if the banks and various political and financial organisations have their way, we will be compelled to carry out all transactions in a completely traceable way.
