Finance
26 May 2025 · 17 min
CBDCs vs. Cash: Privacy and Freedom
Explore the critical debate between Central Bank Digital Currencies and cash, focusing on privacy, freedom, and financial control.
→An updated version of 1984
2024 is Orwell's
1984
— updated.
Winston Smith, the tragic hero of George Orwell's bleak vision of the future, had a son — a best-kept secret. He led a carefree life until he abruptly met the merciless surveillance machinery of the hidden powers: cyber-weapons like Pegasus, and the most ruthless control instrument of 2024 — CBDCs, Central Bank Digital Currencies.
This is his story. Welcome to 2024.
The warning
CBDCs can become the most dangerous control tool ever built.
Programmable money is money that can be switched off. Every payment seen, every transaction permitted — or denied.
Winston had a son
In 1984, only party members were watched. In 2024, everyone is.
Winston Smith was steadily aware of the omnipresent surveillance, yet grew careless over time. His son Win, in 2024, is completely unaware of the seamless layers of control around him.
While Winston was a tragic figure from the start, Win is a successful graduate of an elite university who may still fulfil his potential — something Orwell could not have foreseen.
We live in an illusion of freedom that is being narrowed year by year. 2024 is not dystopian fiction. It is an urgent warning.
1984→2024 Orwell updated
Watch
Conversations, explainers, warnings
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The essay
Digital Central Bank Currencies: the next frontier in the battle for privacy and freedom
In "1984" only party members are subject to total surveillance — and yet in the real world, communism ultimately failed. In present-day 2024, however, everyone is under surveillance.
I draw a picture of a reality which, within a few short years — not decades — could enslave people and lock them up with no easy escape. We seem to increasingly forget the value of democracy as we grow up in a world of casino capitalism, where a few individuals control the system thanks to arbitrarily generated currency.
As the monetary system collapses like a pyramid scheme, surveillance and control are sold as the only solution to the dilemma — and thus "1984" becomes a reality for all.
Read more about the danger of CBDCs →
Pay with euro or with bitcoin
Read the future. Make sure it won't be 1984.
"2024 — 1984 updated" by Joe Martin. With a foreword by Roman Reher (Blocktrainer).
Magazine
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