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Most central banks publish press releases and papers on their CBDC projects. They are working hard to
develop systems that do the same thing that existing crypto systems are doing. The big difference though is that CBDC systems are closed systems (wallet creation is tightly controlled) designed for centralized control whereas cryptos are open systems (wallet creation is free and available to anyone) designed for decentralized control (with democratic systems for governance of network development and management).
Centralized control means that the central bank controls the creation and ownership of wallets. For wholesale CBDCs (aka wCBDC), this means the central bank controls the dissemination of wallets to participating banks. For retail CBDCs (aka rCBDC), they control the dissemination of wallets to the general public. That's a huge task and in order to do it, governments are preparing to roll out
digital IDs that will be integrated with CBDC wallets.
In addition to the opportunity for total financial surveillance, CBDCs can be smart technologies. They can be programmed to reject transactions with specific wallets. The central bank can shut off access to anyone, anywhere, any time. That's total financial control. If you think
operation choke point or
algorithmic debanking are odious today, just imagine how central bank owned AI systems in the future will decide if you are allowed to buy a loaf of bread. Better keep your social credit in the green comrade!
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