Slightly embarrassed to admit this, but there was about 4.2 seconds where I thought this alert said there was a liquidity problem with lightning

Curious about the Bank Secrecy Act? Or maybe just curious about what Norbert Michel and I talk about all day at Cato? Today, we kicked off the Cato Institute's new podcast series by exploring the rise of financial surveillance and the illusion of financial privacy. https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/illusion-financial-privacy

The ease of sharing long-form work on Nostr is unreal. View article →

Dictators regularly use the financial system to target opposition. @gladstein says Bitcoin offers a lifeline: "It's money that dictators can't stop."

"If you try to force people to adopt something they’re uneasy with, because they’re anxious about the power it would give you over them, the whole thing risks confirming the very concerns about coercion and control that touched off their resistance in the first place." - @npub12qxv...q8u9

Human Rights Foundation

House money

Brendan Hasenstab & Roger Huang Why are countries around the world developing virtual legal tenders? Roger Huang on the origins, implementation, an...

Maybe it’s just me, but seeing that the Bank of England can’t build a functioning menu bar doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for the digital pound. Luckily, the @HRF CBDC Tracker has you covered if you want all the latest information.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

It's fascinating that upon the BIS leaving Project mBridge, Agustín Carstens felt the need to stress that "mBridge was not created to cater to the needs of the BRICs" and BIS "products [cannot] be used by any countries that are subject to sanctions." https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/bis-leave-cross-border-payments-platform-project-mbridge-2024-10-31/

This is a thing?

"As long as the final decision on the digital euro has not been taken, it makes little sense for the Eurosystem to launch a large-scale public awareness drive." - Deutsche Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel I could not disagree more. People should know what their governments are doing. The need for this transparency is precisely why I have been working with the Human Rights Foundation on the @npub17xvf...c9as CBDC Tracker to document CBDC development around the world. Furthermore, the need for transparency is also why I wrote my book to provide everything you need to get up to speed on CBDCs. From the myths to the risks, this book will help you decode what "CBDC" means for the future of money.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

There's certainly good reason to celebrate the news of Julian Assange's release. However, it's important to not lose sight of just what has taken place over the years. As Patrick Eddington notes, "The US government’s successful multi-year pursuit of Assange was meant to send a message to any others considering exposing federal government wrongdoing in the national security arena: we will make the story about you, not our crimes, and we will get you, one way or another." So while the news was indeed welcome, there is still much to be done. https://www.cato.org/blog/assange-process-was-punishment