What's a CBDC? - Part 2

How to Prepare – Practically and Spiritually

This is the hardest article I’ve written. Buckle your seatbelts….

The only thing worse than fiat paper money is fiat digital money…What will hold its value?

How to prepare spiritually, which is more important than anything else

See last week -   What is a CBDC?

A CBDC, or central bank digital currency, is a whole different animal from paper currency.

Most everyone has heard of Bitcoin (BTC), the first digital currency, but few people understand that it’s really a software program. Bitcoin is designed, or programmed, to be used as a medium of exchange like money, but built into the program are rules for how its supply can only be increased until an absolute limit of 21 million bitcoins is reached. BTC was created in 2010, and there are now well over 19 million bitcoins, so getting close to the maximum.

pic from https://bitcoin.org/en/ - this site will answer a lot of your questions

According to buybitcoinworld.com , as of 2023, only 1.3% of the world’s population uses BTC. Still, the number is growing.  89% of Americans have heard of BTC, and 22% own some BTC. There are 270,000 daily bitcoin transactions worldwide.

Digital dollars? uh- oh

We’re used to a dollar simply being a dollar. Our paper dollars lose value over time due to inflation, but at least they have no hidden power to control our lives. They’re just pieces of paper, with a supposed value by “fiat” (government decree). CBDCs will also be “fiat” money. They will be even easier to “print” than paper money, because they won’t even need the paper or the ink! Digital dollars, being programmable, will be designed and drawn up by the woke lawyers in the administration. Not only that, but the software will be subject to change whenever and however the state wants to change it, just like they make changes all the time to all their other rules and regulations. (Thank goodness for TurboTax)

Social security or welfare money could be posted to your bank account with a simple click. But that same awesome power could be used against you. Your bank account could be wiped out with a simple click, too, if that’s what they really wanted to do. What would stop them? Not the constitution. We know how little respect they have for that.

Let me give you an example. Suppose the feds decide they don’t want anyone to buy gas-powered cars. Out of concern for the ‘environment’, they could program your digital dollars to be unusable for buying any cars with gas engines. You just wouldn’t be able to buy them. Or your dollars could be programmed so that only certain privileged people could buy gas cars. Others could be “blacklisted”. That’s the way totalitarian states have always acted.

wokeness applied and enforced

There’s a trend I’m sure you’ve heard of that rewards those who are “woke”, which is a collective term for all the things the radical left likes. Anyone who isn’t woke gets punished. Those are the people who would eventually get blacklisted. Some people, if deemed “enemies of the state”, could even be cut off completely, so that their digital dollars would be useless; that is, they would not be able to buy or sell anything. A digital dollar would be an incredibly powerful extension of the state’s ability to control the whole population to a much greater extent than they did with the covid mask and vaccine mandates.

I know this all sounds crazy and extreme almost beyond imagination, but it’s coming, and very soon. I hope I’m wrong.

blacklisted?

You may find yourself blacklisted and your ability to buy or sell restricted. In case that happens, do your best to be prepared for it, not only for your own good, but so that you’ll be in a position to help others who might be blacklisted or who might just be having a hard time because of inflation or a depressed economy. More about ways to prepare in next week’s post.

the nature of inflation

Inflation of fiat currency is a certainty; any deflationary interlude due to recession will only be a brief pause. I remember 70 yrs ago we bought postage stamps for 3 cents, bottles of 7-UP for 7 cents, and a matinee movie ticket for 14 cents.

60 yrs ago, as a newlywed, I could have bought a brand new Chevrolet for $2000, if I had $2000 -LOL. The dollar has lost much value. Inflation is an invisible tax. The government benefits from inflation because it gets to spend the new money as soon as it’s “printed”, before prices rise.

Digital gold

Since bitcoin cannot be inflated like paper, or “fiat” money, it’s been compared to gold. Gold will continue to be the standard inflation hedge and store of value. But actually, BTC has several advantages over gold, and may soon be even more highly valued than gold. Even the supply of gold can be increased gradually, by digging more up, but once bitcoin reaches 21 million ‘coins’, there will be no more increase. Bitcoin is divisible to 8 decimal places, (again, part of the way it’s programmed) so it can be used to buy a cup of coffee, whereas a gold coin is clunky and terribly inconvenient in comparison. Bitcoin can cross borders effortlessly over the internet, whereas gold is often confiscated when people try to leave a troubled country with it. Bitcoin omits the need for currency exchange fees when transacting from one country’s currency to another, because it’s the same everywhere. If kept in a “hardware wallet”, bitcoin cannot be stolen or hacked, and there is no storage expense.

What about bitcoin’s risk?

Bitcoin is risky because it’s new and no one knows how it will work out. It’s not widely used, at least not yet. But keeping your money in fiat paper money which is certain to lose it’s value, even going to zero whenever a government behind it collapses, may turn out to be riskier than bitcoin!

On the other hand, bitcoin has the potential to end up as the global currency of choice. When you look at the risk/reward ratio, some of us figure it’s only prudent to have some bitcoin, even though it takes a little work to set up an account on a digital exchange, fund it, buy some bitcoin, and then move it to the safety of a hardware wallet. Next week I’ll elaborate on how to do that, among other things.

The increasing probability of total collapse

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

When more and more people begin to realize that a central bank digital currency will essentially mean slavery, they will flee the US dollar. We’re already seeing an increasing movement to gold and bitcoin as inflation hedges, (Gold was about $1600/oz last year - today it was over $2,000. Bitcoin was down to $16,000 last year but today was close to $30,000). Imagine the run to get out of the dollar when people wake up to what a programmable CBDC will mean!  Since the dollar currently is used all over the world, and news flies over the internet at the speed of light, the flight to get out of paper money could accelerate exponentially almost overnight. If that happens, it will make previous historical runaway inflations look mild in comparison. Interest rates will soar, because no one in the world will want to loan out US dollars unless they get well paid for the risk that it will collapse. Bitcoin and gold would hold their value, but the collapse of a state’s currency almost always goes hand in hand with the collapse of the state itself. Chaos reigns.

Which is why we need to prepare spiritually. Physical items, even necessities, are not what life is really about. We only need them while we are temporarily passing through this world of sin and strife. Heaven is looking better all the time!

“Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” Luke 12:15

The need to prepare spiritually

We’re in a spiritual battle. The insanity we’re seeing with the denial of common sense, whether it be the loss of law and order by defunding police, or refusal to prosecute criminals, or denigrating the value of traditional marriage (one man and one woman), or the denial of male and female biology itself (so much for following the “science”), or the irresponsible spending of taxpayer dollars, or dozens of other issues, what we’re seeing is demonic activity. There’s no other way to explain why millions of people are falling for such delusion. This abandonment of thousands of years of traditional values is a historical turning point, and it’s not just local; it’s global.

the Gospel

In a spiritual battle, faith in Jesus Christ is our only hope. We need to live and work day-to-day and do what we can to survive and to be able to rescue others, but we also need to be proclaiming the truth – that Jesus died for our sins, was crucified, buried, rose from the dead, and is coming back to be with those who love him, in paradise forever, and to judge those who deny him.

freedom

If all goes well for BTC holders, BTC will set us free from the slavery that would come from CBDCs, which reminds me of the fact that submitting to and following Jesus Christ sets us free from slavery to sin.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Rom.8:2

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the ‘spirit world’ (see the Living Bible). Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6:12-17

next week - things to put in your ‘savings account’. hint - not dollars, and not in banks