SUMMARY: Widening cracks in Central Bank Digital Currency Narrative.
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45m00s: CATO Institute report “Global policymakers are still pushing CBDSs despite their failures”
47m40s: Wallet security: Jamaica JAM-DEX currency uses wallet made by “JN Bank”. This bank has a history of being hacked (ransomware), systems unavailable.
48m30s: Usability: Nigerian eNaira CBDC has several wallet ‘tiers’; bronze wallet lets used withdraw 500 eNaira. Less than a dollar!
50m30s: UK parliament Treasury Committee “Digital Pound: still a solution looking for a problem?” – First report of 2023-24 session.
51m00s: UK Parliament Economic Affairs Committee: “We have yet to hear a convincing case for why the UK needs a retail CBDC.”, “challenges for protection of privacy”.
51m30s: Committee raised security concerns, hacking exploits etc. ALSO vulnerabilities to service outages (- no power/comms needed to transact in cash!)
51m50s: UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – new rules to maintain access to cash – Report from Dec2023.
52m20s: Payments survey (BRC) shows cash usage went up from 15% to 19% of tx from 2021-22.
53m00s: Sustained pressure and the campaign to keep cash can be seen to be working.
53m30s: Uptake: In Jamaica and Nigeria, uptake of the CBDCs is pitiful: 6%!
