I'm going to tell you about how our central banks are on the right track technically with a CBDC but are terrified of change. How private and public sector lobby groups for and against a CBDC are blinding the central banks without realising it due to a systemic lack of understanding of the tech, driven as usual by a misinforming narrative. And how the innovators who fully understand how to solve the technical problems have yet to get on top of this and focus on that rather then shouting at a wall.
Recently I've been heavily engaged with the lobby groups for and against a CBDC - policy maker and regulator types. Plus all else interested such as commercial banking, narrow banking, big tech, stablecoin risky biz and crypto and fintech freaks. So far its been so much fun and very interesting analysis in psychological terms on how a great masse of people act on the whole when it comes to the production of wealth and to whom it finally gets distributed.
I'm observing a core technical misunderstanding within the halls of power: the Bank and Treasury have a deep rooted fear of using a public, yet permissioned, core ledger (blockchain or DLT) for registering what might one day be the people's CBDC transactions - the electronic cash transactions every citizen may be able to make in the future. On the face of it, it's easy to see why so much fear. Place billions of private cash transactions on a publicly distributed database, and obviously all security and privacy is lost. Right? Wrong! The core misunderstanding is that a blockchain protocol was designed at inception precisely to solve this problem and its already running perfectly well at scale for private sector applications - with additional security, privacy and transparency compared to the old world, while not needing to resort to crime and fraud inducing anonymity.
I've also noticed there is no one among these skilful, hard working and expert lobby groups who fully understands how a blockchain protocol works, to the extent they recognise the paradigm shift now possible for data communications and finance. Nor that all technical challenges are already resolved. Particularly the technical challenge of using a public ledger. Though these are good honest people, they lack the confidence so far to go deep and let go of their corporate reigns. I can find no one who understands the blockchain enough among this highly respected group of experts with the capacity to lobby for or against it authentically and with certainty.
My point is that the adoption of a CBDC is not a technical one at all and no one realises that yet. And that a powerful, highly funded and ideologically driven political, crypto and fintech narrative is driving the misunderstanding both with the authorities and the lobby. I'm not saying there is a malevolent force at play here. I am saying the force driving it is ***unconsciously*** yet ***collectively*** devoted to a full understanding never being discovered by those with the power to decide. The point is that this force is not conscious of its own activity yet. Thanks to the narrative possessing all concerned. And it is this which is holding back the advent of a sea change in how we exchange data and objects of value, financially. I speak about CBDC's here directly. Tokenised deposits and all other money systems are up for grabs. Think about the transition from before coins, and after coins.
What's most frustrating of all is that the few who do fully understand blockchain protocols are not putting any energy into this national futures and innovation winning road block. Seemingly to have given up after already devoting energy to it. They too have yet to recognise this is a narrative force of nations holding sway.
Breaking such a narrative is no mean feat. And this is where the development of a society always stands ready and willing for a long hoped for bright light. This is very much my territory to deliver on. Any guidance most gratefully received.