Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
The Almighty Buck

The IMF is Working on a Global Central Bank Digital Currency Platform (yahoo.com) 95

Reuters reports: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is working on a platform for central bank digital currencies (CDBCs) to enable transactions between countries, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday.

"CBDCs should not be fragmented national propositions... To have more efficient and fairer transactions we need systems that connect countries: we need interoperability," Georgieva told a conference attended by African central banks in Rabat, Morocco. "For this reason at the IMF, we are working on the concept of a global CBDC platform," she said.

The IMF wants central banks to agree on a common regulatory framework for digital currencies that will allow global interoperability. Failure to agree on a common platform would create a vacuum that would likely be filled by cryptocurrencies, she said... Already 114 central banks are at some stage of CBDC exploration, "with about 10 already crossing the finish line", she said.

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike for sharing the news.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

The IMF is Working on a Global Central Bank Digital Currency Platform

Comments Filter:
  • One World Currency (Score:5, Interesting)

    by paralumina01 ( 6276944 ) on Sunday June 25, 2023 @02:56AM (#63630330)
    Nice to see the conspiracy theory has some legs on it.
    • by eneville ( 745111 ) on Sunday June 25, 2023 @02:59AM (#63630336) Homepage

      Well, at least they didn't call it One Coin

    • This is a currency platform, a way for banks to exchange currency, not a currency itself. Something similar to SWIFT I assume, or integrated into that system.
    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Sunday June 25, 2023 @05:58AM (#63630464)

      Oh, it's much worse than that. The goal of central bank digital currency is to address the two primary problems that centrally planned economies could not properly address in the past in their efforts of suppressing human freedom.

      Freedom of spending money on things people want to spend them, rather than on what central planners would force people to spend money on. Best Soviet Union could do was block purchases of certain expensive and limited items like cars behind permit walls. And inability to force people to spend money in a time frame central planners would prefer.

      If you ever listen to the planners of central bank digital currencies, these are the two primary benefits touted in that this will in fact allow central planners to dictate fully what people can and cannot spend their money on and time window in which currency must be spent before it's removed from one's accounts, ensuring high velocity of capital.

      I.e. if a central planner has decreed that workers below certain pay grade should not be able to purchase meat or a luxury handbag or be able to invest in stock market, they can specify that account belonging to that person cannot be used to pay for those items, whereas central planner's daughter's account can in fact purchase both and invest in stock market. They can also decree that worker must spend their entire salary within a certain time frame, for example monthly salary must be spent within two months or it will expire and be removed from the account, whereas central planner's daughter gets to keep all her savings in perpetuity. This enables the dream scenario of any centrally planned economy, people who are forced to work paycheck to paycheck and can never work themselves to the level where they can get out of that scenario. And the elite class of central planners that stand above all the rest that faces no real danger of being replaced by those below them.

      Again, both are at this point well documented aspects of central bank digital currencies currently in development, and developers talk about these benefits openly in their own forums. This particular effort is to simply extend this world wide once local ones are implemented. The fact that global system to unify all local ones is already in development already tells you how far along local central bank digital currencies have progressed in development and implementation.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        Do they also block us from buying tin foil hats?
        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          It's funny. We're in a story about this being done by IMF on global scale. And you're still implying that this is a conspiracy theory.

          How much cognitive dissonance are you dealing with to go so far as to be in the "I don't believe my lying eyes because I'm told that my eyes lie" mode?

          “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

          - George Orwell, 1984

          • by Can'tNot ( 5553824 ) on Sunday June 25, 2023 @07:33AM (#63630576)
            We're not in a story about this being done by the IMF on a global scale, that's not what this story is about. This story is about the IMF setting up an exchange protocol for digital currencies. Yes, the thing that you're talking about is a conspiracy theory.
            • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

              No. Luckyo's convinced me. It's the New World Order putting their totalitarian infrastructure in place to take away our freedoms and enslave us all under their despotic regime. We should resist by posting comments on social media.
            • by VAElynx ( 2001046 ) on Sunday June 25, 2023 @09:54AM (#63630790)
              We're in a story about an unelected group with long history of malfeasance towards poorer countries talks about setting up the exchange protocol for CBDCs, thus both proving CBDCs are in the putting and revealing plans of making the system even more intractable and inter-linked. There's absolutely nothing to worry about here, much like for the countries that took on "cheap" loans from IMF in the 60s, then turned into impoverished colonies when the interest rates sharply rose.
            • We're not in a story about this being done by the IMF on a global scale, that's not what this story is about. This story is about the IMF setting up an exchange protocol for digital currencies. Yes, the thing that you're talking about is a conspiracy theory.

              Let us say that it is. So what?

              Is it your position that all conspiracy theories have proven to be incorrect?

              Can you name any that ended up being accurate?

              Perhaps more importantly, assuming you know at least a couple, would you feel comfortable stating

              • It was t that long ago that Fifty One former US Intelligence agency experts told us a particular cache of information was "Russian dis-information" just in time for it to play a big part in a presidential election - a 'conspiracy theory', if you will.

                Then we learned that none of them ever saw any of information they declared "Russian Disinformation" (they were THAT good!).

                A little later we learned the experts were contacted by Anthony Blinkin, then a senior member of one political candidate's campaign, now

              • So what?

                In this case, it means that the parent's claim that this is not a conspiracy theory is incorrect.

                It's also a dumb thing to worry about, "Oh no! People will be able to exchange currencies! Horror!" But that is an independent truth, not a conclusion of the above.

            • True, building the infrastructure that can be easily used for oppression is not proof of oppression. But do you want to wait to find out?

              "It's only an enclosure, see it has windows"
              "It's only bars on the windows, see it has a door"
              "It's only a door that opens from the outside, see I'm on the outside" ...
              "Get in, there's a monster outside!"
              *clank*

              • I'm not sure what you're trying to suggest here. A mechanism for exchanging e-dollars for e-euros is a tool of oppression?

                Well, okay. I guess I am sure what you're trying to suggest here, you're trying to suggest that. It's just a dumb thing to suggest. We need to be able to exchange money.
            • So I agree with you about what it *is*. But I think you're shortsighted if you don't see where it *leads*.
          • by Anonymous Coward

            You know the IMF can't do those things right Luckyo?

            You always come up with the stupidest bullshit.

      • Bullish for Monero
      • If power can be grabbed, it will.

    • It's notable the right wing commentators on here have gone from normal Republican issues (Govt overreach, spending, defending the constitution, Evil empire) to Trump issues (inc appeaseement of Putin) to MAGA issues (anti-vaxx and bigotry) and finally seem to have transformed into whackjob conspiracy theorists.

      They have also managed to mod up their nonsensical conspiracy posts briefly, presumably using sock accounts as they have before.

      I have probably timed this wrong and be partisanly-modded down into obsc

      • mod up their nonsensical conspiracy

        In the 90s conspiracy theorists said "the government is wiretapping on a massive scale" everyone poo-poo'd and laughed at those people. suddenly it comes out the government is actually wiretapping at massive scale and no one apologized to the previous schizo's. instead they rebranded them as new schizo's because the new conspiracies were unbelievable. until they became true again.

        How long are you going to keep moving goalposts and call them nonsensical before they prove you wrong again. If there is one thing COVID taught me is that there is some degree of truth behind every conspiracy theory you hear.

        • by UpnAtom ( 551727 )

          Because one in a thousand conspiracy theories are correct (and the one everyone believed was correct), so all conspiracy theories are correct?

          Nobody saying we were spied upon was called schizo, or even a conspiracy theorist.

          But good try.

      • by tiqui ( 1024021 ) on Monday June 26, 2023 @03:57AM (#63632816)

        The issues you seem to think are "Trump issues" and "MAGA issues" are (to the extent you have properly identified them) in fact the things the Republican party always SAID is was about, even though the "establishment" sort never actually were. In some of your assertions, however, you're simply wildly wrong.

        1. Government overreach - Trump's refusal to drag America into another pointless overseas conflict can be seen as bot a limit on govt overreach and defense of the Constitution.

        2. Spending - The establishment sort of Republicans (also sometimes called "green eye shade Republicans") who PRETENDED to be concerned about spending always were amazingly incapable of limiting spending and (being bothered by deficits yet unwilling to make real spending cuts) always ended up agreeing to help the Dems raise taxes. Trump did not do well on this, due to the COVID mess, but most MAGA and Trump types would like to see vast parts of the government which are not in the Constitution and which intrude too far into the private sector eliminated entirely.

        3. Evil Empire - no need to bother here, Ronald Reagan, working with Thatcher, John Paul II, and Lech Walesa ended it. Remember: "The Evil Empire" was not Russia (the country) it was The Soviet Union, a godless communist empire bent on world domination. Russia may still be bad and lead by a dictator, but it's NOT active all around the world trying to spread communism. The modern analog, if there is one, would be China, which Trump and the MAGA types are all-in on opposing and which many leading Democrats (like the Bidens and Clintons) are/have taking/taken money from.

        4. "appeasement of Putin"? REALLY? Just how did Trump appease Putin? When Putin went into Ukraine under Obama, all Obama would do was offer humanitarian aid (food, medicine, blankets, etc) to Ukraine. Trump gave Ukraine anti-tank missiles to shoot at Putin's tanks. While Biden attacked the US oil sector, driving up prices and earning Putin vastly more cash on every barrel of oil he exports, Trump had the US energy independent and Putin was being severely hurt by low oil prices. Sure, Trump JOKED that if Putin could find Hillary's State Department e-mails he ought to hand them over... this would have required a TIME MACHINE to be a call for a hacking since everyone knew here servers had been shut down and wiped by that time. The American people own her work emails, and it's quite a joke if our enemies who hacked her server have them but the American people (who rightfully SHOULD have them) do not. This joke hardly qualifies as "appeasement" (you know, like where Putin took Crimea under Obama and there was no price...)

        5. Anti-vaxx - as far as I know, the only actual "anti-vaxx" political person of high profile is Democrat Robert Kennedy (currently running for president). There ARE many MAGA types who are anti-fake-vaxx; remember: the COVID-19 jabs are NOT normal vaccines made in the normal way, working in the normal way, and tested normally. The COVID-19 jabs are the first using the new techniques, have never been fully tested, were given only emergency authorization, and the CDC and NIH had to re-define the word "vaccine" in order to call them a vaccine. The people pushing these quasi-vaccines told so many lies about them that it's amazing anybody will accept them - they do not prevent infection, do not prevent hospitalization, do not prevent death, do not control spread, do have far more negative side effects (found and measured in only 2 years) than all other vaccines that have ever existed COMBINED (and over all years totalled). It's far from insane to be at least wide-eyed and skeptical about the COVID-19 jabs even if you are eager to get all other vaccines.

        MAGA bigotry? Really? First, "bigotry" is a very wide term. If you mean there are MAGA people with reservations about things like homosexuality and/or transgenderism then the MAGA people are about ad "bigoted" as ALL Americans, (including Democrats) circa 1984. If you mean the word "bigotry" to mean skin color issues, t

        • by UpnAtom ( 551727 )

          The issues you seem to think are "Trump issues" and "MAGA issues" are (to the extent you have properly identified them) in fact the things the Republican party always SAID is was about

          Appeasement of Putin? Bigotry? Anti-vaxx? Were you sober when you wrote this?

          1. Government overreach - Trump's refusal to drag America into another pointless overseas conflict can be seen as bot a limit on govt overreach and defense of the Constitution.

          Irrelevant. I didn't say Trump overreached though he surely did which is why he got impeached twice:
          Attempting to overturn the election.
          Attempting to hold back aid to Zelenskyy (appeasement of Putin).
          Blocking congressional investigations.
          Numerous reported attempts of him trying to break the law.
          Declaring a national emergency to fund his crappy wall.
          Attempting to declassify documents after being kicked out of office.

          2. Spending

      • There are reasons to be concerned about digital currencies but the IMF creating a platform for tracking them is not one of them.

        I am betting you gave advice to that submarine guy that was recently in the news.

    • by CEC-P ( 10248912 )
      I don't think the WEF literally saying openly, on camera, that they want to do this is much of a conspiracy theory. That's more of a stated bulletpoint agenda, perhaps even a powerpoint presentation. Yeah, they want to control the money to force their sick, twisted ideology down your throat. Just look at Trudeau with the locked bank accounts after the trucker protests. He's a tyrant and he's not even the worst out there.
  • People will gladly sign up to FedNow if it's just for their tax rebates and stimulus checks..
  • that way their cut comes right off the top and they run the system to verify their payments.
  • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Sunday June 25, 2023 @03:32AM (#63630366)

    The IMF is Working on a Global Central Bank Digital Currency Platform

    If they're caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of their actions.

    • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday June 25, 2023 @03:35AM (#63630368)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Simple question: Have the unelected, self-appointed and unaccountable IMF governors clearly demonstrated their trustworthiness sufficiently that you would accept their design of a system that would allow opaque, hidden control of absolutely every aspect your life while providing little to no redress of flaws, misuse or corruption?
      If the IMF were run by angels, maybe this could work. Otherwise, not a chance in hell.

  • would ever let their grip loosen willingly.
  • Good tech (Score:5, Insightful)

    by real_nickname ( 6922224 ) on Sunday June 25, 2023 @04:46AM (#63630410)
    CDBCs allows smart contract, for example, you could easily setup a contract which prevent John from using its money 10km away from its home. and the thing is directly implemented in the money system not individual banks. IMF could add the contract in the CBDC and it would be operational in every banks. Former IFM president and current ECB president, confirm: https://forkast.news/headlines... [forkast.news] Awesome! If every countries agree or at least the biggest one, small economies will be forced to agree anyway, ultra awesome! /s Need to destroy cash to be fully effective (cash is used only by terrorists, drugs addicts and for prostitution).
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      I hear they also have a mechanism for detecting any aluminium covering people's heads. Not sure if it works for mylar yet though. Don't let them control our minds & certainly don't let them see your eyes!
      • Interesting. A technology which clearly allows more tracking and control of population is pushed by governments/financial institutions using the same old argument (fight terrorism) and your reaction is: only conspiracy nuts are against it. It's ok if you think that society full of tracking technology is good. Well, you know, that's just like uh, your opinion, man. If you think my description of CBDC usages are not accurate or possible, please let us know. Personally, I think CBDC are an obvious big privacy
        • You know what tracks your every move even better & govts have unfettered access to the data? Smartphones. And you know that banks already sell your transaction data to whoever'll pay including govts, right? What do you suppose is going to change?
          • Wow, banks selling customers transactions in my country is totally illegal, hard to imagine, I'm sorry for your country. Current bank system is somewhat decentralized, as I said, CBDCs will make tracking a lot easier: everything is in the blockchain, no need to ask to N banks to follow money and smart contracts allow to implement customized restrictions easily, no need to ask private banks to comply to a new system. Plus government will own and thus have direct access to this data vs data owned by multiple
            • Pretty much all countries' security agencies bulk collect their population's banking & telecoms data (it's called SIGINT). There's plenty of secrecy, national security, & legal loopholes to cover their tracks. And following & profiling individuals via an international banking system would be at that kind of level & it's not going to stop any time soon. What are you going to do about it?
        • I can easily imagine a system that will block electronic payments for guns/ammo. And once the gov't declares a candidate is 'inciting insurrection', electronic donations to that candidate can be blocked to ensure 'national security'.

          It isn't hard to imagine, it won't be hard to implement - you just need the right pretense : fighting mass-shootings or national security.

          Are they planning this? I assume not, but it would be a trivial thing to implement such controls.

    • You mean to tell me zero of the EXISTING crypto currencies fit the bill? Does it not smell enough like you so you need to pee in it?

      This feels like an xkcd comic (with the "oh no, we have 13 standards for AC adapters we need to fix this! Aha! now we have 14 standards!" or however many)

    • Lol, who is going to pay the gas to run the smart contract to see if John can pay?

      • Smart contracts don't imply gas fee. Gas fee, proof of work, proof of stake, mining are tech used to secure public blockchain of cryptocurrencies where you can't trust users and need to create insensitive for them to run the system. CBDC will be managed by a limited set of truthful users (same as the swift system) and Kevin won't be allowed to run malicious contract in this system so there are no need for gas fee.
        • Sooo.. its not a public blockchain? Then what's the point. Is it even a blockchain? You think the banks are going to pay for the electricity to verify the smart contract without paying themselves to do it?

          • You think the banks are going to pay for the electricity to verify the smart contract without paying themselves to do it?

            smart contracts do not imply a special electricity cost same cost as current system. Proof of work is not related to blockchain and not needed by CBDC https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov] Also blockchain don't need to be public, it can be shared between a small set of users https://www.euromoney.com/lear... [euromoney.com].

            • Think about it at scale. Even the most trivial smart contracts will cost like a million dollars to run every year. I'm not even talking about proof of anything. I'm talking about just the code to check if John is within the geofence in our hypothetical smart contract earlier in the thread.

  • Thank god they are working on a banking system that allowed for international transactions, because before this idea, there was just no way different countries could do business..
  • It'll probably have a very important feature. Sanction capability - to freeze an entire country like how Russia was kicked out of swift.
  • Ah yes, CBDCs (Score:4, Insightful)

    by VAElynx ( 2001046 ) on Sunday June 25, 2023 @09:51AM (#63630780)
    Combining every disadvantage of state fiat currency with every disadvantage of crypto.

    Stuff 'em where the sun don't shine.
  • Since the SWIFT system already does bank-to-bank clearances, this effort by the IMF is an admission that SWIFT is in trouble because the Russian and Chinese clearance systems are taking hold in the world. No country wants to do business with countries that freezes their bank funds at will for political reasons. This effort by the IMF to create a system with a blank slate will fail because everyone knows that the IMF would support western sanctions and seizures of property and funds. The Russian and Chinese

    • Nobody, not even yourself, believes Russia and China are above "seizing funds for political reasons". You should apply a little more critical thinking when consuming those YouTube and BitChute videos.

  • Clueless bureaucrats are trying to re-invent Ripple/XRP.

Avoid strange women and temporary variables.

Working...