Adam Back believes that CBDCs are worse than Bank accounts

When regulators around the world are rushing to bring their own Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), believing that these products could prove to be the remedy for the ongoing situation in the unregulated crypto market, Bitcoin proponent and the CEO of Blockstream Adam Back believes that CBDCs are worse than bank accounts. 

well said @Excellion #bitcoin is apolitical, bearer, unseizable money. and that is what matters. stablecoins > CDBC. in fact CDBCs are systems of control, worse than bank accounts, certainly worse than paper cash, worse than stable coins, and much worse than #bitcoin. https://t.co/hzbRvlM1Zs

— Adam Back (@adam3us) July 21, 2022

In a recent tweet, Back called Bitcoin an “apolitical, bearer, unseizable money.” On the other hand, he believes that CBDCs are “systems of control.”

Back said that the digitized version of fiat money would be “worse than paper cash, worse than stablecoins, and much worse than Bitcoin.” 

The renowned cypherpunk has already stated that Bitcoin’s self-sovereignty feature makes it preferable to recently developed solutions. Back has stated that Diem, then known as Libra, might compete with online banking in 2019 but does not pose a danger to Bitcoin.

The most recent statement was made against the backdrop of Samson Mow, a former chief strategy officer at Blockstream, talking about CBDCs at the Asian Leadership Conference. According to Mow, the purpose of the CBDCs is not to promote transaction confidentiality.

He also emphasized the need to return to apolitical money, and the executive believes that the “best way” to do so would be to follow nations like El Salvador and accept Bitcoin as a legal tender.

CBDCs around the world

One of the leading contestants in the CBDCs market, China is said to have about 250 million registered digital wallets that use the electronic Yuan. In regards to pilot testing, other nations like South Korea and Japan are also setting the bar high.

The US, the UK, and Mexico, on the other hand, are taking their time and are still in the research phase. India is attempting to introduce its digital rupee as quickly as possible.

However, not everyone agrees that central banks should be the source of a CBDC. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s Philip Lowe recently defended digital tokens issued by private enterprises above those by central banks, arguing that the former is more innovative and may provide greater benefits.

Notably, in March, the financial services giant Deloitte conducted a new study that underscored the potential of Bitcoin to create cheaper CBDCs.