Growing BRICS Spells Imminent End of US Dollar explains that several nations are applying to join or are considering joining the five BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) in a move away from the US Dollar. It pointed out that the Federal Reserve announced a July launch for the FedNow Service and that while FedNow is not a Central Bank Digital Currency, it contains many dangers.
The Federal Reserve pushed back against claims that its FedNow system is equivalent to a CBDC, but critics say the aim is the same: government control over the financial system.
The Federal Reserve wants everyone to know that its new FedNow instant digital payments system, which it plans to roll out in July, is not a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
“The FedNow Service is neither a form of currency nor a step toward eliminating any form of payment, including cash,” the U.S. central banking system said in recently updated statement on its website.
Last week, the Cato Institute, Associated Press and Yahoo all followed with articles echoing the Fed’s position — FedNow is “not a central banking digital currency,” with the articles dedicated to “fact-checking” the assertion.
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After reports about FedNow started circulating in November 2022, and after the Fed’s March announcement that the system would launch this summer, bankers, crypto experts and people concerned with personal financial autonomy lashed out, arguing that the system is a step toward a CBDC, or at least toward government control over the financial system.
A CBDC is a government-backed digital currency issued by a central bank — a purely digital form of money, promoted as a tool that could make transactions easy between individuals, companies and the state. But such centrally controlled digital money is also programmable. It could be set to expire at a given time, or restricted to particular kinds of spending — and all transactions would be trackable by the federal government.
The FedNow digital payments system is not a currency, like a CBDC, but it does make instant and trackable digital payments possible.
Read More: Dollar’s Destruction and Rollout of CBDC
