US Congress tries to thwart CBDCs, but . . .

Digital Euro Association’s Tamara Ferreira Schmidt speaks at the CBDC Conference (Istanbul, 12-14 Sept), the leading event in CBDC:

𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 : 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿-𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗖𝗕𝗗𝗖

For more information, visit https://t.co/7wcehBdzko pic.twitter.com/1rZDec1NsI

— CBDC Conference (@CBDC_Conference) September 11, 2023

COGwriter

Some in the US Congress are concerned about the rise and possible implementation of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and took action:

Congressional committee passes bill to thwart CBDC

September 25, 2023

The House Financial Services Committee last week passed a bill that would stop the Federal Reserve from working on a central bank digital currency, giving the full House a chance to consider the legislation.

The legislation would amend the Federal Reserve Act to prohibit Federal Reserve banks from issuing “a central bank digital currency, or any digital asset that is substantially similar under any other name or label, directly to an individual,” according to the text of that proposed bill, H.R. 5403. …

“This bill has the support of 60 Members of Congress and groups ranging from the Independent Community Bankers Association and American Bankers Association to Club for Growth, Heritage Action, and the Blockchain Association,” Emmer said in a press release that day.

There doesn’t appear to be a Senate companion bill for the legislation at this time. https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/house-committee-passes-emmer-bill-thwart-central-bank-digital-currency-cbdc/694592/

Well, the US Senate does not yet have a similar bill, and the proposed bill in the House of Representatives also has not yet been voted on or passed.

That said, economic pundit Jim Rickards has concerns about digital currencies as he wrote:

“It’s Not Coming; It’s Already Here”

September 25, 2023

When I talk about the war on cash and a cashless society, some people think I’m exaggerating the threat or they don’t take it seriously.

But I’m not exaggerating the threat. It’s here, it’s growing and it’ll only get worse. …

You’re being herded into what I call a “digital cattle pen” from which there’s no escape.

The fact is, governments always use money laundering, drug dealing and terrorism as excuses to keep tabs on honest citizens and deprive them of the ability to use money alternatives such as physical cash, gold and, these days, cryptocurrencies.

The real burden of the war on cash falls on honest citizens who are made vulnerable to wealth confiscation through negative interest rates, loss of privacy, account freezes and limits on cash withdrawals or transfers.

In reality, the so-called “cashless society” is just a Trojan horse for a system in which all financial wealth is electronic and represented digitally in the records of a small number of megabanks and asset managers.

Once that is achieved, it will be easy for state power to seize and freeze the wealth, or subject it to constant surveillance, taxation and other forms of digital confiscation like negative interest rates.

They can’t do that as long as you can go to your bank and withdraw your cash. That’s the key. Cash prevents central banks from imposing negative interest rates because if they did, people would withdraw their cash from the banking system. …

CBDCs are a form of money issued by central banks or the Treasury in digital-only form. It’s true that most payments today — credit cards, direct deposit, ATMs, online shopping, etc. — are already digital.

But there’s a difference.

All the digital payments we have today are private. They’re between you and your bank or the online store. The government does not see that information at the individual level unless they get a warrant. That’s not true for CBDCs.

With CBDCs, the government controls the ledger. They see everything you buy, your charitable contributions, your political donations, your entertainment choices, your travel and more.

When that information is combined with geospatial location (from the GPS data on your iPhone, E-ZPass toll transmitters and license plate scanners) and analyzed by artificial intelligence applications, it’s easy to develop a political profile of you. …

Some Americans have been relieved that CBDCs have not been fully implemented yet and members of Congress and some governors such as Ron DeSantis have stood up against them. That’s true.

“It’s Not Coming; It’s Already Here”

But the authoritarians never take no for an answer. When you close one channel, they find another. https://dailyreckoning.com/its-not-coming-its-already-here/

While various ones in the USA and elsewhere have concerns, digital currencies are more and more being studied and implemented.

As the tweet at the beginning of this post shows, we continue to see European leaders pushing for CBDCs. There was actually a conference in Istanbul last week where the Europeans and others from Africa, Asia, and South America basically pushed for more digital currency control.

According to the Bible, Europe will end up with the ability to control and monitor buying and selling.

That would seem to have to require some type of computers and digital currency.

The Bible says that a coming totalitarian, European Beast power will control buying and selling.

Moves in that direction were part of #13 of my list of 23 items to prophetically watch in 2023:

13. CBDC and 666

Notice the following prophecy:

16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (Revelation 13:16-18)

This type of financial surveillance could not have happened during the time of the Apostle John as there was no real way to monitor many financial transactions then (despite the fact that ‘preterists’ believe this was fulfilled almost 2000 years ago, see also The Dangerous Rise of Preterists). The same was true for all the centuries that followed until the late 20th and now the 21st century. But now not only does the technology exist to monitor most financial transactions, the political will is there as well.

It will be a European power that will fulfill the above prophecy of 666 (watch Can You Prove that the Beast to Come is European?).

It will likely take computers aided with artificial intelligence to aid in the fulfillment of the scriptures in Revelation 13:15-18, as well as cyber-spying/monitoring. I do believe that cyber monitoring will be used by the European Beast, King of the North, 666 power. …

Knowledge and monitoring of financial transactions is greatly increasing.

Europe has claimed that it will be the dominant force in cryptocurrency.

While 2023 will not see a cashless world, expect to see more movements towards monitorable payments.

Expect to see more steps related to Central Bank Digital Currencies in 2023.

Biblically, we know that 666 financial controls will be put in place in Europe, and likely elsewhere.

Actions towards Central Bank Digital Currencies looks to make that easier. The US Congress will not stop what the Bible shows will happen in Europe.

We put together the following video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel:

14:22

World Economic Forum, CBDCs, and 666

Are there concerns about CBDCs (Central Bank Digitial Currencies)? The Summer meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) was held from June 27-29, 2023 in China. Did WEF speaker and Cornell University professor Eswar Prasad warn of CBDCs could “take us to a pretty dark place’? What did the European Commission say about the future of a digital euro and various protections the same week? Is the tweeted statement, “No one will be able to control how you use your euros” false in the long run according to biblical prophecies, such as Revelation 13:16-18? Is there a real ability to program a CBDC with an expiration date as well as restricting what it could be used to purchase? Has monitoring of purchase transactions been proposed by various European leaders? Does the EU already have a potential enforcement arm of ‘666’? Has the European Central Bank said that cash was “not fit for the digital economy’? Are we moving more towards a cashless world? Are things really changing towards that? Steve Dupuie and Dr. Thiel discuss these and other matters.