I just completed reading two articles from coinmarkets.today. The messages of these articles seem contradictory to me. The first one covers the entire European Union and the other is specific to the situation in the UK. The first article appreciates the “privacy” features of the planned CBDC of the EU while the second article demonizes the privacy character of cryptocurrency.
The spoke person is Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank. He praised the privacy features of the EU’s CBDC and emphasized that the Euro system is not interested in monitoring the online financial transactions of digital Euro users. He even assured that there is no reason for digital Euro users to be afraid. The preparation for this project started in November last year and would require four or five years to be implemented. Source.
A piece of news like this is a big BS for me. I see this as an oxymoron. CBDC and privacy? Whom are they fooling? Saying they are not interested in people’s online transactions is the height of hypocrisy. The fact that they even give an assurance not to be afraid is all the more that people must be wary and vigilant. We already read enough of this kind of trash.
The second article reminds me of two K-dramas that I watched on Netflix. I forgot the title of the first. The second is Rugal. The plot is good though I don’t like the reappearance of the detective’s wife in the latter part, only “to die” for the second time. Watching these K-dramas, it appears that associating crypto assets with criminal activities is a favorite theme of film producers, the same theme that this article promotes.
The above article refers to a new law aiming to protect crypto users from criminals. My first impression reading the article, I see it is another dictat made by those who love to play gods in people’s lives. It must be followed without question. This to me perpetuates the authoritarian tendency of today’s governments that is something common in all parts of the world. Laws like this are unilateral imposition of order allowing no space for discussion or dissent.
Laws like this are prone to abuse. That's the typical character of laws that restrict life, freedom, and private property. They are incapable of stopping criminals. Instead, it tends to punish the law-abiding citizens they claim to serve. But of course, the formulators cannot reveal the true intent. They must hide it behind acceptable public rhetoric.
Imagine, that police can now seize crypto from suspects without the need to arrest them. And this law aims to punish even those based overseas. I wonder what happened to Bitcoins seized by the US government. Were they returned to their owners?