As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues its effort to advance the technologies behind central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), some members of the crypto community have reacted strongly against the IMF’s efforts to further the initiative.
In a CBDC policy roundtable on June 19, the IMF’s director of the monetary and capital markets department, Tobias Adrian, presented a new platform concept for cross-border payments. This includes a blueprint for a payment system that uses one ledger to record CBDC transactions. According to Adrian, the “XC platform” will have a single ledger where digital representations of central bank reserves in any currency can be exchanged.
While the IMF seemed very eager to share new development, the same cannot be said for many members of the crypto community: From interpreting the move as a “power grab” to claiming that no one wants centrally-controlled money.
The IMF is creating a global CBDC platform. Where central banks globally would follow the same regulatory framework.
So, if you say the wrong thing in one country, you’ll have nowhere to flee as they can switch your money off anywhere in the world in any jurisdiction.
— Layah Heilpern (@LayahHeilpern) June 19, 2023
According to a Reddit user, the whole project is just a new attempt by the IMF to gain more control, arguing that the organization is now using issues that they’ve “ignored for decades” like financial inclusion as a “Trojan horse” to push CBDCs forward. The Redditor wrote:
“The IMF is once again back to their old game. With nations exploring CBDCs, they see this as their next opportunity to amass more power and control.”
On Twitter, one person criticized the IMF’s latest move by saying that the new platform sounds very similar to a “sh*tcoin.” The Twitter user argued that governments or the IMF should not be able to decide on what “the best money is.”
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Responding to the new platform, another community member described CBDCs as a “dystopian nightmare.” The Redditor highlighted that this would give government agencies complete control over individuals as they would be able to see every single transaction and allow the IMF to turn off access to their own money whenever they want.
One person expressed joy that they haven’t seen individuals advocating for CBDCs, stating that “no one wants this” centrally-managed and controlled money.
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