Leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) have announced plans to roll out “digital IDs” and “cashless societies” on a global scale.
G20 leaders have agreed to a plan to eventually impose digital currencies and digital IDs on their respective populations.
The move comes despite mounting concerns that governments will use the systems to monitor the public’s individual spending and crush dissent.
The G20 is currently under India’s presidency.
Following meetings between the world’s leading economies in New Delhi last weekend, world leaders signed a final declaration on the subject.
After the G20 Summit, member nations announced they had agreed to build the necessary infrastructure to implement digital currencies and IDs globally.
The group said that discussions were already underway to create international regulations for cryptocurrencies.
However, they claimed that there was “no talk of banning cryptocurrency” at the summit.
Many critics are concerned that governments and central banks will eventually regulate cryptocurrencies and then immediately replace them with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Unlike many cryptocurrencies, however, CBDCs lack similar privacy and security.
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that discussions were underway to build a global framework to regulate crypto assets.
Sitharaman said world leaders believe cryptocurrencies cannot be regulated efficiently without total international cooperation.
“India’s [G20] presidency has put on the table key issues related to regulating or understanding that there should be a framework for handling issues related to crypto assets,” Sitharaman said before the G20 gathering
The top items discussed at the New Delhi summit included “building Digital Public Infrastructure, Digital Economy, Cryptoassets, [Central Bank Digital Currencies].”
Gita Gopinath, the International Monetary Fund’s first deputy managing director, said in a video posted on Twitter/X that the G20 “helped shape a global perspective on how policymakers should deal with crypto assets.”
She also assured Business Today that there was “no talk of banning cryptocurrencies, indicating a global consensus against such measures” in the discussions.
However, some of the suggestions call for additional policing of cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrencies are decentralized and do not operate under central banks’ control, making them impossible for governments to track.
Critics say these proposals could allow government authorities to impose a social credit score system and decide how their citizens can spend their money.
Such a move would also allow governments to deny people access to their funds, enabling instant punishments for wrongthink.
At the summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for an international regulatory body for artificial intelligence (AI).
She also announced digital ID systems that have been developed using the EU’s vaccine passports infrastructure.
The unelected bureaucrat advocated for global cooperation to usher in digital IDs and address the challenges presented by AI.
She called for the United Nations to have a role in AI regulation and called the European Union’s COVID-19 digital certificate a perfect model for digital public infrastructures (DPI), which would include digital IDs.
“Many of you are familiar with the COVID-19 digital certificate,” said President von der Leyen.
“The EU developed it for itself.
“The model was so functional and so trusted that 51 countries on four continents adopted it for free.
“Today, the WHO uses it as a global standard to facilitate mobility in times of health threats.
“I want to thank Dr. Tedros again for the excellent cooperation,” she said, referring to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The European Union is currently trying to introduce a bloc-wide “digital identity” app that would consolidate various personal information, including passports, driver’s licenses, and medical history.
“The future is digital. I passed two messages to the G20,” said President von der Leyen in a post on social media.
“We should establish a framework for safe, responsible AI, with a similar body as the IPCC for climate.
“Digital public infrastructures are an accelerator of growth.
“They must be trusted, interoperable & open to all.”
The IPCC is the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The Cato Institute 2023 CBDC National Survey from May found that only 16 percent of Americans support the adoption of a CBDC.
At least 68 percent of respondents said they would oppose CBDCs if the government started to monitor their purchases.
Most Democrats and Republicans reported concern that the government could control what people spend their money on and potentially turn off access to their bank accounts.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva praised her Indian counterparts via Twitter/X for leading the way in “setting up a road map for crypto regulations.”
She said the IMF was also “contributing to proposals for a comprehensive policy framework.”
In a separate press statement, Georgieva said, “More work lies ahead, including in the realm of digital money and crypto assets.”
“To this end, the G20 has tasked relevant institutions to improve regulation and supervision of crypto asset—the IMF is contributing to proposals for a comprehensive policy framework—and advance the debate on how central bank digital currencies could impact the global economy and financial system,” she added.
The IMF chief suggested that rather than recognize cryptocurrency assets as legal tender, governments should instead create licensing and registration processes for crypto asset issuers and focus on treating their activities similarly.
Several major economies, including Japan and Russia, will roll out their pilot CBDCs this year.
Nigeria launched eNaira, the world’s first issued CBDC, but it has proved unpopular.
Less than 0.5 percent of citizens have said they had used the digital currency, and government efforts to encourage its use have failed.
Meanwhile, the World Bank also praised India’s use of digital public infrastructure to “enhance financial inclusion” and delivery of public goods and services in a report written for the G20 summit.
The nation’s India Stack DPI system, which comprises the Aadhaar digital ID and the interoperable UPI digital payments platform, has been cited as an example in the report.
The G20 believes that DPIs can serve people not just in the financial sector, but also in the domains of health, education, and social welfare.
“The India Stack exemplifies this approach, combining digital ID, interoperable payments, a digital credentials ledger, and account aggregation,” said Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, who wrote the foreword to the report.
“In just six years, it has achieved a remarkable 80 percent financial inclusion rate-a feat that would have taken nearly five decades without a DPI approach.”
The queen is the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) and was one of the speakers at the IMF’s World Bank annual meeting in Washington last year.
“If designed properly, CBDCs could hold great promise to support a digital financial system that works for everyone. But that is an important ‘if,’” Queen Maxima said.
“If designed and implemented with inclusion in mind, CBDCs could offer many options to expand access to the unbanked and to serve the vulnerable and the poor.”
However, her statements in support of the plan have come under criticism by some in the debate over digitalization in the Netherlands for violating the norm regarding the role of the Dutch monarchy in politics.
“Maxima openly advocates for programmable money; power in central banks, without parliamentary accountability,” said Dutch financial journalist Arno Wellens via Twitter/X.
Wellens continued by calling the queen “an unelected official who is outside politics under [Dutch] constitutional law.”
Her statements were “a serious attack on democracy,” Wellens warns.
READ MORE – WEF: ‘Digital Cash’ Will Force Climate Agenda onto Public
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