In the West there has been significant resistance to the concept of retail central bank digital currencies (CBDC) based on ‘Big Brother’ concerns. In other words, privacy fears that the government can monitor personal payment transactions. Or sometimes, even concerns that they might attempt to control behaviors. Hence, the Bank of England and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Digital Currency Initiative (MIT DCI) published a paper exploring privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) for a possible digital pound.
Before delving into the paper, there’s an overlap with another topical subject. In the United States, the FBI has suggested that people should use encrypted messaging apps instead of texts and normal calls, because allegedly China has hacked the major phone networks. WhatsApp provides end-to-end encryption, and even Meta does not have access to the data.
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