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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by War5oldier@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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.

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[-] eleitl@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 days ago

That's at government's discretion. E.g. they might decide to increase the velocity of money, by causing it to expire. The point is that they can render your cash invalid, with no recourse.

[-] HotChickenFeet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

You happen to have a source for this? I can't seem to find much.

Will stores be checking the serial of every bill they take? That doesn't seem scalable. I'd expect they would just be not recirculated the next time it's brought to a bank. Or if it has to be in stores, by checking the series, not serial.

[-] eleitl@lemmy.zip 2 points 22 hours ago

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.

this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2026
262 points (96.1% liked)

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