IMF publishes multi-year plan to implement CBDCs; it may spell the end of our financial freedom and autonomy

By Rhoda Wilson/The Expose

On 10 April, the International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) published the ‘IMF Approach to Central Bank Digital Currency Capacity Development’.  It outlines the IMF’s multi-year strategy for aiding central bank digital currency (“CBDC”) rollouts, including the development of a living ‘CBDC Handbook’ for monetary authorities to follow.

As it develops, and includes more details, chapters 8–11 will be of particular interest to us as they relate to the centralised control over our lives using CBDCs that we, the consumers, are most concerned about.

Chapter 8, for example, “will identify design choices, such as operating model, limits in holding, programmability, interest-bearing, and degree of centralization.” And Chapter 11 “will consider the trade-off between data use and privacy protection,” including “what data are generated by CBDC transactions and which institutions might have access to it.”

Programmable Money and Programmability

Programmable money does not appear to have a clear definition.

Last week, IMF Deputy Director Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Dong He, briefly mentioned at a seminar on CBDCs the programmability of CBDCs.  “It can be used as a fiscal tool; it can be used for the Internet of Things.”  But he doesn’t go into any detail as to what “programmability” means or what effects it has on consumers. 

Watch He’s presentation at the ‘Asia Pacific Regional Seminar on Central Bank Digital Currency’ from timestamp 12:54 in the video HERE.

Alexander Lee of the US Federal Reserve wrote in June 2021, the term “programmable money” remains ill-defined. Lee differentiates between “programmable money” and “programmability.”  He defines “programmability” as the “mechanism for specifying the automated behaviour of a digital form of money through a computer program.”  And he identifies two components of “programmable money”: a digital form of money and programmability.  However, Lee warns, “It is not clear whether these components alone are sufficient for a definition, given that various combinations of similar technology for payments automation have existed for decades.”