And just who is the IMF you might be asking yourself, and why should I care about what they are doing? Let us jump right into it, and I will tell you all about it and how it ties into the wonderful world of CBDCs.
What exactly is the IMF trying to do?
The IMF or International Monetary Fund is the United Nations financial agency and an International Financial Institution consisting of 190 countries. So that means almost all of the 193 countries that are members of the UN are part of this as well. According to them, their mission statement is as follows: "working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world". That sounds good and all, but there are many ways to achieve those things. Let us see what the IMF is trying to do. The IMF has announced that they are developing a global cryptocurrency platform.
The project's primary aim is to provide an environment that promotes financial inclusion, enhances the efficiency of payment systems, and expedites cross-border payments and remittances. But over all it looks leike the platform will have many features such as a programabal layer. This would be where people and companies can delop different apps. But also some other features. If you want to know more I have linked the post down below.
This all sounds like great stuff. Making sure that no one gets left behind, and that everyone can pay and receive money domestically as well as internationally. This is all great stuff. Butt then it takes a turn for the worse. They go on complimenting CBDCs more or less calling them the next best thing since sliced bread. And this is where they lose me completely. While there are good things about CBDCs, the bad ones far outweigh the good ones.
How does this impact CBDCs?
Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF's managing director recently gave a talk at a conference for Africa's Central banks. In it, she talked about the need for a collective approach to CBDCs. And I assume an outright ban is off the table sadly. I do assume this joint approach is the very Global Cryptocurrency Platform they are developing. And with so many countries involved with them, I find it very hard to believe that any single country will be able to develop and compete with their system. Sure China, the US, and probably some other country will likely develop their own version despite this. But I can't see them being anything other than a tool for power and control for those specific countries. And I would hope that means at least those systems will in large remain unused.
I would say that this is, sadly, major news for the advancement of a future with CBDCs. And in that future, it is more and more looking like cryptocurrency will become nothing more than an afterthought. Something they will read about and teach in schools and wonder what if.
What are your thoughts on this global CBDC future that is approaching at lightning speeds? Please sound off in the comment section below.
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