The Critical Distinctions of CBDCs and Cryptocurrencies You Need To Know

The subject of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) is more pervasive than ever, with governments worldwide rushing to roll out their CBDCs, advocating that central bank digital currencies are like cryptocurrencies, only better. Citizens all over the world know this statement is false and vehemently oppose this new monetary system by lodging petitions and protests. However, a substantial proportion of society doesn’t recognize or even comprehend this age of digital technology. 

Today we’ll look at the difference between CBDCs and cryptocurrency and how they cannot be compared. That’s because one system will be used to enslave us, and the other will give us freedom and sovereignty.

 
When Did It All Start?

The two financial technologies are rooted in various digital currency initiatives, mostly coming into existence in the 1990s. The most significant difference is the digital currencies of that time were created to optimize payments primarily in a domestic setting. In other words, these digital currencies were intended to optimize the existing financial system by integrating with it.

An example is Finland’s eMoney system, Avant, in the 1990s, which was closely connected to its national currency and banking infrastructure. While some consider Finland’s eMoney to be the first CBDC, it is generally believed that the first actual CBDC to be released was the Bahamian Sand Dollar in October 2020. Although now, almost every country is actively working on a CBDC of some kind. 

In contrast to CBDCs, cryptocurrencies were initially created to replicate or even replace the existing financial system. In many cases, this meant they were internationally available to anyone with an internet connection. Two examples are David Chaum’s Ecash in the 1980s and Adam Back’s Hashcash in the 1990s.  Today, Adam is the CEO of Blockstream, one of the largest Bitcoin-related companies.

Then along came Bitcoin in 2008, boasted as the first cryptocurrency, created by a pseudonymous individual or group called Satoshi Nakamoto.  The first Bitcoin block contained a hidden message: "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” This was the headline of The Times newspaper on January 3rd, 2009, the same day Bitcoin went live.

Image source: https://bitcoinbriefly.com/21-million-bitcoin/

Bitcoin’s explicit intention is to replace the current financial system, and every prominent cryptocurrency that has come into being since that time shares this ethos. Whereas Bitcoin was created in response to the 2008 financial crisis, the CBDC was essentially created in response to cryptocurrencies. More to the point, CBDCs were created in response to alternative digital currencies of all kinds, be they public or private. 

For example, China began developing its digital Yuan in response to the country's rapid growth of financial technology companies during the 2010s. Similarly, the United States started developing its digital dollar in response to Facebook's digital currency, Libra, which was revealed in 2019 but never made it off the ground. On the other hand, Indonesia began developing its digital Rupiah in response to cryptocurrencies after the last bull run in 2017. 

Image source: Cointelegraph

Meanwhile, the Marshall Islands began developing its digital currency, dubbed the Marshallese sovereign, in response to developing CBDCs in other countries. Nevertheless, the common theme is centralized financial system control. This ultimately makes today's CBDCs different from their predecessors, which focused on payment optimization rather than centralized control. 

As such, we can define CBDCs as a type of digital currency centrally controlled by the government and requiring permission. Alternatively, we can define cryptocurrencies as virtual currency that is not controlled by anyone and does not require permission. 

CBDC’s and Cryptocurrency’s Underlying Implementations

Understanding how CBDCs and cryptocurrencies work under the hood is essential, starting with three definitions for the often misunderstood terms; Blockchain, Distributed Database (DDB), and Distributed Ledger technology. (DLT)

A blockchain is a specific type of distributed ledger technology. Notably, all Blockchains are distributed ledgers (DL), but not all distributed ledgers are blockchains. Permissionless or public blockchains are decentralized, meaning a single individual or institution does not control them. Instead, they are controlled by a vast network of unrelated individuals and institutions, so there's no single point of failure.

Distributed databases store data in a shared network rather than at a centralized location. This solution is for businesses that need to process huge amounts of structured and unstructured data, which could scale across networks. Consensus mechanisms such as Paxos or Raft control read/write permissions and establish secure communication channels among participants. However, these protocols assume that each participant cooperates in good faith, which limits their application to private networks under a centralized authority. 

Distributed Ledgers (DL) are like DDB protocols in that they maintain a consensus about the existence and status of a shared set of facts but do not rely on this assumption of good faith. They achieve this by leveraging strong cryptography to decentralize authority. They are different from generic distributed databases in two fundamental ways:

1. The control of the read/write access is genuinely decentralized, whereas it remains logically centralized for distributed databases.

2. Data integrity can be assured in adversarial environments without employing trusted third parties, whereas distributed databases rely on trusted administrators.

Image source: Blockchain Tutorial 

These terms are good to know because many countries claim their CBDCs will use a blockchain. However, countries claiming their CBDCs will use a Blockchain will use a distributed database because the Central Bank will centrally control it. It's possible that the officials making these statements don't know the difference or don't care to make the distinction. 

Some argue that the purpose of using the term ‘blockchain’ or ‘inspired by Bitcoin’ is to intentionally mislead the public into thinking the CBDC is just like a cryptocurrency. Although, it’s worth mentioning that a few regions seem to be planning to launch their CBDCs on cryptocurrency blockchains, such as the Marshall Islands, which has selected Algorand technology. But even then, it's likely that the central bank will still maintain total control of its CBDC because it would be issued as a token. 

What Is The Difference Between Coins And Tokens?

As we continue to be enlightened by this technology, the two different cryptocurrencies are often misrepresented, so here are the definitions of crypto coins and tokens.   

A cryptocurrency coin is native to its blockchain and is given as a reward to the miners (basically just powerful computers) that process transactions. Cryptocurrency coins also pay transaction fees on a cryptocurrency’s blockchain. For example, BTC is given as a reward to cryptocurrency miners that process transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. These cryptocurrency miners also earned the transaction fees paid in BTC.

Conversely, a cryptocurrency token is a customizable digital asset that exists on a cryptocurrency’s blockchain. Unlike coins, which directly represent a proposed medium of exchange, crypto tokens represent an asset. These tokens can be held for value, traded, and staked to earn interest. Unlike coins, tokens can choose not to be bound to a single blockchain, gaining flexibility and becoming easier to trade.

Tokens are used with decentralized applications (DApps) and are usually built on top of an existing blockchain. One example is Markethive’s Hivecoin, currently being integrated into the Solana Blockchain.  Cryptocurrency tokens can be used for all sorts of things and have led to some exciting applications, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and emerging crypto ecosystems in social media and marketing.   

The key takeaway here is that the creator of a cryptocurrency token can give themselves total control over the transfers of that token, the supply of that token, etc. Some stablecoins are cryptocurrency tokens that mirror the price of fiat currencies, primarily the US dollar. So, in the case of centralized stablecoins that are centrally controlled by the companies which issued them, any CBDCs issued as cryptocurrency tokens will likely work similarly. 

The Economics Of CBDCs And Cryptocurrencies

For context, let’s look at the economics of the current financial system. Central banks worldwide are tasked with encouraging economic growth while keeping inflation under control. They do this by raising and lowering interest rates. When interest rates are low, borrowing becomes cheap, making saving less attractive. This incentivizes individuals and institutions to spend rather than save, which increases economic growth. However, it also increases inflation as more money is circulated with low-interest rates.

When interest rates are high, borrowing becomes expensive, making saving more attractive. This incentivizes individuals and institutions to save rather than spend, which lowers economic growth. However, it also decreases inflation as there is less money in circulation when Interest rates are high.

Image source: PricedInGold.com

The big problem with this economic model is that money can easily be created, but taking it out of circulation is much more challenging. This inevitably leads to inflation in the long term. Long-term inflation wasn't a problem because fiat currencies were backed by gold. This limits how much money could be created in an economy because more gold had to be acquired to issue more money. 

However, this limit was lifted when the gold standard collapsed in 1971. And since then, we've seen what can only be described as long-term inflation, with the prices of many assets exploding in fiat terms while staying the same when priced in gold. 

However, it’s become clear that this inflation didn't show up in official inflation statistics until very recently because they have been adjusted and under-reported since they were introduced to make them seem less severe. This inflation is starting to appear in the official statistics, which means it's even worse than the authorities reveal.

Individuals and institutions took on record debt levels when interest rates were low, which means that raising interest rates too high would result in an economic catastrophe as these individuals and institutions would be unable to pay back their debts. 

It’s also apparent that many governments have record debt levels, and we're already seeing the first signs of default in some countries. In short, the money supply has grown so much that inflation is off the charts. And raising interest rates is not an option because of all the debt built up in the financial system over the years.

CBDC Economics

From the banks' perspective, CBDCs offer a solution to this situation. This is because, in a CBDC system, one of the many features is that it'll be possible for the central bank to destroy money as well as issue it easily. For starters, there'll be two types of CBDCs. Select individuals and financial institutions will use wholesale CBDCs, and regular folks like you and I will use Retail CBDCs. 

Image Source: Technode.global

This means there will be one financial system for the people in power and another for everyone else. Now, in addition, to being able to create and destroy money, Retail CBDCs will make it possible for central banks to; 

• Freeze CBDC holdings. 
• Set limits on CBDC holdings. 
• Set expiry dates on CBDC holdings. 
• Set location limits for where CBDCs can be spent.
• Set time limits for when CBDCs can be spent. 
• Set limits on how much CBDC can be spent. 
• Decide what can and can't be purchased with CBDCs. 
• Add a tax to every CBDC transaction. 
• Automatically flag or block suspicious CBDC transactions.
• Create custom CBDC limits for different individuals and institutions, depending on whatever criteria they decide. 
• Implement negative interest rates by gradually deleting unspent CBDC holdings over time. 

Financial institutions have openly discussed all the above features of CBDCs. The craziest part is that a continued increase in centralized control is required to prevent the current financial system from imploding, at least as far as central banks and governments are concerned. 

Any alternative would involve giving up some or even all of the central banks' and governments' control over the financial system. They would much rather see the financial system burn to the ground than lose control of it. This is why the IMF has outright recommended countries use CBDCs to fight cryptocurrency adoption to maintain that control. Many institutions are even trying to wipe out the crypto industry.

Images sourced from imf.org.pdf

Cryptocurrency Economics

It depends on the coin or token we're discussing regarding cryptocurrency economics. Bitcoin’s BTC is the obvious choice to reference as an example since it's arguably the biggest crypto competitor to the current financial system. Unlike fiat currencies, BTC has a maximum supply of 21 million. This supply is created slowly over time, and every four years, the amount of new BTC being mined or created is cut in half. 

It's believed that the last BTC will be mind around 2140. As basic economics dictates, a gradual decrease in supply combined with the same or more demand results in a higher price. Over the years, Bitcoin has seen exponential adoption that has increased demand, while the new supply of BTC has been declining, resulting in the price action shown below. 

Image source: coinmarketcap.com

BTC’s gradual appreciation in price has incentivized millions of computers to process transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, which has made it highly decentralized and, therefore, very secure. As a matter of fact, Bitcoin is believed to be the most secure payment network on the planet. 

The best part is that as BTC's price continues to climb, the Bitcoin blockchain will only continue to decentralize. This makes it the ideal base layer to build additional financial technologies, and many crypto projects and companies are leveraging the Bitcoin blockchain for its security. Because BTC is increasing in value over time, even relative to Gold, this creates a strong incentive to save rather than spend BTC.

 
The Custody Difference Between Cryptocurrencies and CBDCs. 

With cryptocurrencies, you have the option of self-custody, meaning you can keep your coins and tokens in a digital wallet that you entirely control. Because personal information isn't required to create a cryptocurrency wallet, all cryptocurrency transactions are pseudonymous by default. 

Unless you're holding cryptocurrency in your personal crypto wallet, chances are it's being stored in a custodial wallet, which includes cryptocurrency exchanges. This means that the crypto is technically owned by someone else under your name. You might think you have control over your crypto with such a setup, but in reality, the custodian only lets you make transactions so long as you abide by their terms and conditions.

Self-custody simply does not enter into the equation for CBDCs. If all the terms and conditions, or dare I say, restrictions mentioned above, didn't make it clear enough, the central bank will keep all your CBDC holdings and ultimately decide what you can or can't do with your digital money. 

Regarding privacy, I reckon this sentence from one of the CBDC reports from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) sums it up “Full anonymity with CBDCs is not possible.” This is because the central bank needs to be able to track everything specifically to impose these sorts of totalitarian controls.

It goes without saying you’ll be required to complete the KYC protocol. Also, according to the World Economic Forum's Digital Currency report, central banks will assign your digital identity a dystopian social credit score, determining what you can and can't do. The result will be a total absence of privacy with CBDCs, which is a massive problem because privacy is required for financial freedom. 

CBDC transactions that don't belong to you will not be viewable, meaning only the central bank can see what's happening behind the scenes. This will also apply at the network level because the technology that underlies a CBDC will likely be a closed source. 

A View Of How Both Economic Systems Could Play Out

So what would a cryptocurrency-based economic system look like as opposed to a CBDC-based system? As mentioned above, BTC has been increasing in value over time, even relative to gold, creating a strong incentive to save rather than spend BTC. This makes a BTC-based economy analogous to one where interest rates are consistently high, meaning inflation would be very low or even negative. 

Logically, this means a BTC-based economy is also one where it would be more expensive to borrow, and that could limit economic expansion. In a worst-case scenario, this could lead to a deflationary death spiral, where spending decreases, resulting in lower prices, lower production, and so on, until the economy dies. 

The thing is that the threat of a deflationary death spiral is nothing more than a ‘fiat currency finance conspiracy theory,’ as evidenced by the fact that the economy has been deflationary for most of human history. This is simply because innovation makes everything cheaper as time goes on, and the deflationary trend only changes whenever a central bank decides to turn the money printer on.

Image source: Adioma.com

A BTC-based economy also doesn't necessarily require using BTC as the currency. BTC could become the hard money that backs a more elastic currency, the same way gold was used to back national currencies, and that system has worked out pretty well. Ironically, a CBDC-based economy would face the same sort of deflationary risks for similar reasons. 

For instance, a CBDC status is considered a safe-haven asset in the eyes of the average investor. Multiple central banks have noted this status as the primary reason they're not rushing with their CBDC rollouts. A CBDC could siphon billions or even trillions of dollars from the traditional financial system. And this includes government bonds, which are also seen as safe-haven assets and considered cash equivalents by experienced investors and regulators alike. 

The interest rates on government bonds determine the interest rates in the broader economy, which are dictated by supply and demand. If everyone started selling government bonds for CBDCs because of a financial or geopolitical crisis, this would cause the interest rates in the economy to skyrocket, eventually leading to a next-level, deflationary death spiral and, potentially, even a full-on government default and collapse. Even if central banks programmatically put measures in place to prevent this scenario, a CBDC economy would still put central banks in direct competition with commercial banks. 

The Bank for International Settlements admitted in its CBDC report, “a common theme is that maintaining bank profitability would be challenging.” The Bank for International Settlements also determined that the only way a bank could remain profitable would be to raise interest rates. That would make borrowing extremely difficult and result in substandard economic conditions due to deflation.

Although, it seems the financial elite has a solution, and that's a synthetic CBDC, which was defined by the World Economic Forum in their CBDC and stable coin report. A synthetic CBDC would involve having a centralized stablecoin issuer holding the assets backing its stablecoin with a country's central bank. As discussed in this article, the two largest regulated stablecoins are supported almost entirely by cash equivalents, and that’s 'code' for government debt. 

This is quite clever because it means everyone buying a regulated stablecoin is financing the US government by indirectly purchasing government debt, which keeps interest rates low and allows its fiat ponzi to continue.

Image Source: Markethive.com

A Positive Note To Wrap Up

After studying various reports and following these topics, there’s arguably no chance CBDCs will reach mass adoption. There are a few reasons for this; 

Firstly, the Bank for International Settlements found that only 4-12% of people in developed countries would voluntarily adopt CBDCs. This is significantly lower than the current adoption rates for cryptocurrency. The fact that financial institutions are studying cryptocurrencies to recreate the same adoption curve with CBDCs is evidence of that. 

Secondly, the people who know how to create distributed ledger technologies are better off working on a blockchain than a distributed database. Creating a cryptocurrency coin or token that does something useful and valuable can result in astronomical profits and no shortage of social approval. Being involved in creating a CBDC will generate a six-figure salary at best and be seen as the enemy of society in the eyes of many.

Last but not least, central banks are losing the narrative on CBDCs. The awareness of the masses is continually increasing, with hoards of concerned citizens making their voices heard worldwide, physically and virtually, on thousands of truth-seeking internet media. 

The more people become aware of how dystopian these CBDCs are, the harder it will be for governments to roll them out. We're already starting to see politicians in the United States and elsewhere propose bills to prevent their central banks from issuing CBDCs, and it's because they are aware their voters don't want the Digital ID/CBDCs. 

The “pen is mightier than the sword” is an adage coined in 1839, and this phrase remains commonly known and used 182 years later. Or perhaps we can use a more updated version of a “post is mightier than a gun.” So, get the word out to the unawakened to ensure they know the difference between Central Bank Digital Currencies and honest-to-goodness Cryptocurrencies. 

Tim Moseley

What Have The Bureaucrats Planned To Save Banks In The Next Financial Crisis? 

The government bailed them out…Now you will bail them in

Financial freedom is often misunderstood as meaning that you have lots of money. In actuality, financial freedom means that you own your assets, and you decide how, where, and when they are spent. Another misconception is that your money in the bank belongs to you, but in truth, the banks own your money and can use it to bail them out during the next economic crisis. 

The first time I heard the term “bailout” was in 2008 when the global economy was hit hard by a financial catastrophe caused by the bursting of the housing bubble. More accurately, big banks invested in bundles of bad mortgages, which crashed in value when the housing bubble burst. Initially, the big banks thought everything was fine. That was until the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

The Lehman Brothers institution was well-respected and the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States. As such, the news of its bankruptcy sent Wall Street into a frenzy that eventually threatened the entire financial system. Ultimately, the US government had to step in to bail out Wall Street. 

According to CNN, the US Treasury gave over $200 billion in loans to hundreds of financial institutions. This is less than a third of the total cost of bailing out the entire financial system, estimated to be $700 billion. Meanwhile, the regular people affected by the economic collapse got essentially nothing. Everyone knew that Wall Street speculation was to blame, but only one person went to jail; Kareem Serageldin, a former executive at Credit Suisse; however, all the other big bank executives were given bonuses.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was supposed to investigate just how much the big banks were to blame for the 2008 GFC. However, the SEC allegedly destroyed the evidence it had been given as part of the investigation instead of exploring.

Image source: Satoshi Nakamoto Institute

Not surprisingly, the average person was not happy about how the GFC of 2008 was managed, even manipulated. And as many will know, the bank bailouts are why Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, which surfaced in 2008. However, the politicians had a different solution: passing a long list of new regulations. 

One of these was the Dodd-Frank Act in the United States, passed in July 2010 and infamous for being long and vaguely worded. It contains some questionable provisions, with the Act's primary focus being the enormous derivatives market.

For those unfamiliar, a derivative is an investment that derives its value from some underlying asset. One example is Futures; when you buy a Futures Contract, you're effectively betting that the price of some asset will be higher or lower at a future date without actually buying the asset itself. 

The total value of the derivative market is estimated to be as high as $1 quadrillion, or $1,000 trillion. The actual value is unknown because of poor accounting, but what is known is the 25 largest banks hold roughly $250 trillion of derivatives.

Image source: goldbroker.com 

There’s no doubt that this is a substantial financial risk. That's why the Dodd-Frank Act included a provision that states that in the event of an economic collapse, derivatives claims come first. In other words, if 2008 happens again, derivatives debt owed by big banks will be paid off before anything else. The difference is that bailouts won't pay off these debts; they’ll be paid off by bail-ins. 

Bailouts, Bail-ins; What’s the difference?

Whereas a bailout is when a big bank receives money from the government or institution to pay back its debts, a bail-in is when it uses its clients' money to pay back its debts. This includes people who lent money to the bank and people who have money in accounts with the bank, such as you and me. 

The Dodd-Frank Act opened the door to allowing big banks to use their client funds to bail themselves ‘in’ the next time there is a financial crisis. It's assumed that an issue in the derivatives market will cause the next financial crisis. And derivatives debt will, again, take precedence in the payouts. 

So, who came up with this crazy idea? Two now-former key executives at Credit Suisse, Paul Calello and Wilson Ervin coined the term bail-in in an article for The Economist in January 2010. Paul died a few months later, reportedly from cancer; however, in a presentation about bail-ins, Wilson revealed that the people in power had been working on alternatives to bailouts since 2008. He explained that the desire to develop an alternative to bailouts increased after the financial crisis started to affect Europe. 

In mid-2012, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a paper advocating bail-ins as the ideal alternative to bailouts. All the IMF needed was somewhere to test this new bail-in method.

Enter Cyprus

Cyprus was one of the European countries that were hit the hardest when the 2008 contagion spread. By the end of 2012, Cyprus was on the brink of default and begging for a bailout. In early 2013, the IMF and the European Union bailed Cyprus out for €10 billion. As with all IMF loans, the bailout came with multiple conditions.

One of the conditions was for Cypress's largest bank to execute the first-ever bail-in. Almost 50% of all bank account balances worth more than €100,000 were seized. Cyprus was also required to take 6.9% of all bank balances lower than €100 thousand and 9.9% of all bank balances higher than €100,000, regardless of the bank. 

Despite the social chaos and capital controls that ensued, the IMF and its allies declared the first-ever bank bail-in a success. In 2014, the G20 countries agreed to pass bail-in laws per the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) bail-in guidelines. The FSB's policies include issuing bail-in bonds, which should be sold to pension funds. This means your pension money could also be used to bail out banks. 

The United States was the first to legalize bail-ins in 2010, with the Dodd-Frank Act mentioned above. The UK followed suit in 2013 with the Financial Services Act, and the EU legalized bail-ins in 2016 with the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive. In my country, Australia, the Australian government's new bank bail-in laws were sneakily pushed through parliament in February 2018 with only seven senators present. So be sure to check when your country legalized bail-ins. 

The specifics of bank bail-in laws vary from country to country; however, all these laws follow the same three rules, likely because of their collective conformity with the FSB. 

The First Rule

The first rule is that bank bail-ins are only allowed for banks that are deemed to be domestically or globally important. It could be more precise which banks fall into the domestically important category, but it's safe to assume that this rule pertains to those with the most assets under management. 

As for globally essential banks, the FSB publishes a list of them yearly, along with their de facto risk of default due to derivatives debt. There are currently 30 globally systemically important banks, with JPMorgan being noted as the highest risk. JPMorgan reportedly has $60 to $70 trillion of derivatives debt.

Image source: FSB.org

What happens when a non-systemically important bank goes under? The answer is that they are acquired by a domestically or globally important bank. 

The Second Rule

The second rule of bank bail-ins is that they do not apply to bank balances below the deposit insurance threshold. In the US, the FDIC covers $250 thousand in deposits. In the UK, the FSCS covers £85,000; in the EU, it's €100,000 with various insurers involved. If you think this means your money is safe, think again. 

As pointed out by The Huffington Post, “deposit insurance funds in both the US and Europe are woefully underfunded, particularly when derivative claims are factored in." In short, insurers don't have enough money to cover all bank deposits. 

In the case of the FDIC, its 2021 annual report suggests that it only has around $120 billion in its Insurance Fund. This is chicken feed compared to the $19 trillion of bank deposits in the US and a drop in the ocean of the derivatives market, which could be in the $quadrillions. 

The Third Rule

However, a third rule of bank bail-ins states that you will be given some alternative asset in exchange for your lost deposits. Believe it or not, these alternative assets are typically shares in the bank you bailed out. I don’t think I would favor the bank taking my money and replacing it with its worthless stock in return. 

To compound matters, if governments passed laws to make Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) legal tender, you could be paid back in CBDC instead of cash. Incidentally, bank bail-ins would be the perfect way to force people to adopt CBDCs; perhaps that's the plan. 

Speculation aside, it's important to note that we could temporarily lose access to our funds during a bank bail-in. As we've seen with Cypress, banks could put limits on their hours of operations, limits on payments, transfers, and limitations on cash withdrawals until the bail-in process is complete. Can you imagine the social turmoil it would trigger if banks worldwide simultaneously imposed these bail-in restrictions on their depositors?   

Image source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Bail-In Simulation Phase

The ‘powers that be’ are hyper-aware of the looming unrest of ‘we the people’ because they've been coordinating bank bail-in simulations for years. The FDIC held the most recent high-profile bank simulation in November 2022. Several panelists from prominent financial institutions and regulators participated in the session, including Wilson Ervin, Chief Architect of the bank bail-in process. 

It was a tedious, lengthy discourse containing much financial jargon; the most exciting stuff began around the 1-hour mark, and snippets from this section went viral. At around 1:18 minutes into the video, one of the panelists speculates how the FDIC and its secret allies should maintain the public's confidence in the financial system when the bail-ins inevitably happen. She argues that transparency is the answer but that some entities should get more transparency than others.

This panelist also commented on ensuring the public understands that “prior compensation could be clawed back.” That sounds very much like the banks can take your money long after the bail-in process has been completed. She even asked the other panelists how they could “address excess cash use in such a crisis.” 

This suggests governments are planning on introducing a CBDC using bank bail-ins. Then again, it could reference the freeze on cash withdrawals mentioned above. The panelists also said they should “make the announcement on a Friday, ideally a Friday night.” For context, Fridays are famous for being one of the days when nobody pays attention to the news. Hence why bad news often comes out on Fridays.

The second panelist agreed with the first about being selective with transparency about the bail-in and specified that they should tell the banks and big investors first. He said they shouldn't tell the public until later because they would panic. The third panelist agreed with the second and said something sinister, akin to the public having more faith in the banking system than we do, let's keep it that way. The other panelists laughed. 

He continued to repeat that only institutional investors should know what's going on, and they should “be careful with what we tell the public.” But wait, there's more; a fourth panelist then said something even more sinister. The timestamp is around 1:27 minutes. She literally says, “the information should go out once we're moving out of the recession.” 

This fourth panelist explained that non-bank entities, including cryptocurrency exchanges, should be included in the bail-in process. This statement could mean that she wants them to be subject to acquisition by big banks or that she wants to use the crypto you hold on exchanges to bail them in. 

A little later, Wilson said they must ensure that disinformation about bank bail-ins doesn't get out before the fact-check-approved version of events. He even suggested that this online censorship should happen in advance so that people don't talk about their money being taken. Governments worldwide are rolling out precisely these kinds of online censorship laws, most of which will be going into force later this year or next year, as documented in this article.  

If you’re interested, the video of the entire simulation can be found on the FDIC website, but they haven't made it easy to find. Click on Archive, as shown in the image below, and scroll down to the video dated 2022-11-09, Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee.

Image sourced at: https://fdic.windrosemedia.com/

What Can We Do To Protect Our Money?

So the big question is what we can do to protect our money from being taken by the big banks when the next financial crisis hits us. You can do many things, and they all fall under one umbrella: keep your money out of globally and domestically important banks. Check the details of bank bail-in laws in your country or region first. 

The first hedge against bank bail-ins is to move your money to smaller banks that are not globally or domestically important and have minimal exposure. Or even diversify savings across banks and in different countries. Monitor banks’ and institutions’ financial stability and avoid banks with large derivative and mortgage books.

Financial institutions should be chosen based on the strength of the institution. Jurisdictions should be selected based on political and economic stability. Culture and tradition of respecting private property and property rights are also significant.

The second hedge is to keep enough cash on hand to pay for at least a few months of expenses, depending on your personal circumstances, although this may be challenging or even possible. However, remember that fiat currencies are losing value by the day due to inflation and will continue to do.

The third hedge against bank bail-ins is to have physical gold in allocated accounts with outright legal ownership. Have some physical gold and silver in denominations that could be used for payment if necessary. If you are in the United States, gold and silver eagles are technically legal; however, there’s a catch. Their face value is much lower than their actual value. You can thank the government for that. 

The fourth hedge against bank bail-ins, and one which is increasingly becoming more popular, is to hold cryptocurrency. To be clear, this means decentralized cryptocurrencies, not centralized ones like stablecoins. Ideally, these cryptos will be kept in your own personal crypto wallet. 

In Closing

If the deliberations at the FDIC simulation are anything to go by, the people in power will start doing bank bail-ins after the next recession. It’s all speculation about when the next recession will be official. Still, it doesn't seem to matter because they don't plan on telling us that our money has been used to bail in the bank until all the institutional investors have gotten out. 

At least we know the announcement will be made on a Friday when nobody's paying attention, as per the FDIC panelist. The unpredictable factor is what happens after the bank bail-ins are announced. Again, the social unrest will be unprecedented. This could create another crisis that the people in power could use as an excuse to exercise even more control and bear in mind the possibility of CBDC-based insurance payouts. 

The silver lining to this situation is that people are becoming increasingly aware of what's happening and what the elites are planning. With all this upheaval society worldwide is experiencing, many are preparing to protect themselves and participating in parallel communities and economies to counter bureaucrats and their inept, self-serving policies. 

By the Grace of God, we will prevail while the powers that be fall on their swords. Our increasing knowledge made available to us via decentralized media gives us the wisdom to remain calm and optimistic that the ignorant and arrogant decision-makers are very close to their complete demise in this time of tribulation. May God bless us all.  

This information is provided for informational purposes only. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice.

Tim Moseley