My conservative relatives are getting riled up about CBDCs and how the US government is going to pull a corralito (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corralito) with it. I don't think a CBDC makes a government more able to corralito us than the current digital system. Am I wrong?
Respectfully, I have to disagree with you, quite a bit. CBDCs will be promoted to the public under the guise of "convenience" for some, for others, it won't be a choice. They'll make it a requirement to receive benefits, for example.
I think the main concern (one that I share, frankly) is that the government will utilize the "programmable money" features of CBDCs to enact a lot of invasive practices upon people. Just the idea of those in govt having such an insanely powerful weapon to potentially wield scares the crap out of me, TBH.
Personally I'm not scared of corralito hitting our shores (yet). But tech makes more sense in developing nations. Only a few have launched, others are in pilot, we are in "development" and falling behind. Look at Singapore, euro area, United Kingdom. All on track to adopt ahead of US. More financially inclusive.
I think we can all agree that CDBCs can and will give more control to the central bank and government entities. The ability to have privacy in everyday transactions is very possible today with cash. CBDC will allow more potential control and visibility into citizens transactions, more than it is today.
Rohan Grey has very interesting perspectives on this topic.
CBDC's are already being used for a wholesale perspective. The question on if the US government is going to enable CBDC's at a retail/consumer perspective will be v interesting.
You are wrong. the government wields power to both observe your finances and seize them. Seizure requires effort. Invasion of privacy requires some effort. A CBDC would crater required effort to zero.
Your relatives just need a boogie man to project their fears on. I like to think of it as a new hit song on the fear billboard. The news they consume will just play the top 100 hits and cycle through a list. Are CBDC’s bad? Arguably yes, but the hyperbolic reaction is just silly.
Only if they ban all other digital currencies, which they won't.
Why would the US want to impose a corralito in the first place? What happened in my country (Argentina) at that moment was a deep economic crisis with plummeting reserves at the central bank. We had 5 presidents in 2 weeks, it was that bad