United States congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said that the GENIUS stablecoin bill creates a “backdoor” for the government to effectively create a central bank digital currency, veiled as privately issued crypto tokens.

The lawmaker said that regulated stablecoins feature “functional surveillance capabilities,” which make them indistinguishable from CBDCs. In a separate social media post, she added: 

“This bill regulates stablecoins and provides for the backdoor central bank digital currency. The Federal Reserve has been planning a CBDC for years, and this will open the door to move you to a cashless society and into digital currency that can be weaponized against you by an authoritarian government controlling your ability to buy and sell.”

Rep. Greene’s comments echo a growing tide of individuals in the Bitcoin and crypto communities sounding the alarm on regulated stablecoins and the potential for these privately-issued tokens to become captured by the state.

Related: GENIUS Act heads to Trump’s desk: Here’s what will change

The Bitcoin and crypto communities voice the same concerns

“The Genius Act forces stablecoins into CBDC compliance and control; functionally identical to a CBDC, without the scary name,” Bitcoin advocate Justin Bechler wrote in a July 19 X post.

Saifedean Ammous, author of “The Bitcoin Standard,” argued that the US dollar, in any form, is essentially a central bank digital currency that is already monitored by the state and increasingly digital.

“Governments realize that if they control stablecoins, they control financial transactions,” Jean Rausis, co-founder of the Smardex decentralized trading platform, said.

The executive added that the ability to freeze or rollback transactions and surveil centrally-managed stablecoins makes them indistinguishable from a CBDC.

The GENIUS bill was amended in March to include stricter anti-money-laundering provisions, sanctions compliance, and know-your-customer requirements, necessitating financial surveillance and the ability to censor transactions.

In October 2024, Curve Finance founder Dr. Michael Egorov told Cointelegraph that centralized stablecoins carry the risk of regulatory capture, including government seizure of the underlying fiat assets held in bank accounts or custodial institutions backing the digital tokens.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/us-lawmaker-sounds-alarm-on-genius-bill-says-its-a-cbdc-trojan-horse/feed/ 0 48598 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/bank-of-canada-identifies-technical-path-for-retail-cbdc-in-new-research-paper/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/bank-of-canada-identifies-technical-path-for-retail-cbdc-in-new-research-paper/#respond Sat, 05 Jul 2025 10:33:27 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/bank-of-canada-identifies-technical-path-for-retail-cbdc-in-new-research-paper/

The Bank of Canada took a significant step in exploring the technical feasibility of a digital Canadian dollar, proposing a specific system designed for a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) focused on simple, everyday payments, according to a new research paper.

The central bank’s research team examined OpenCBDC 2PC, a model developed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Digital Currency Initiative. This design prioritizes privacy, speed and decentralization by allowing users to hold digital funds directly, much like digital cash.

The new research comes after the Bank of Canada said it is shifting its focus away from a retail CBDC last year, saying that it was prepared if the people of the nation decide such a product is needed in the future.

Privacy issues

A major focus of the report is privacy, which isn’t a big surprise because CBDCs have sparked debate around the world, in part on concerns they could enable state surveillance of financial activity. Unlike cash, which is anonymous, a CBDC could theoretically allow a central authority to track every transaction.

The report suggested that the system separates personal identity from transaction data, allowing non-registered users to hold funds in self-custodied wallets. The users could then transact without sharing their identity with a bank or payment processor. Even for registered users, the central bank would not have access to identifying information or transaction histories.

The report goes further, proposing enhanced protection by potentially using cryptographic techniques such as zero-knowledge proofs to obscure transaction amounts from the core infrastructure. These features collectively offer a level of privacy that the authors say could exceed that of current electronic payment systems.

Bitcoin-like structure

In contrast to traditional banking systems, where money is stored in user accounts, the report suggests a design that uses “unspent transaction outputs” (UTXOs) — a structure more commonly associated with Bitcoin.

The system processes transactions in two steps: updating a core ledger and transferring funds from one user’s wallet to another. This approach supports real-time settlement and offers a higher degree of privacy from both banks and government institutions.

Challenges

While the report lays out a detailed technical solution to a potential digital Canadian dollar, it also identifies potential hurdles.

One of the main hurdles is that integrating the proposed architecture with existing retail payment infrastructure could require substantial technical upgrades, including in the way point-of-sale terminals handle digital cash-like transfers.

Additionally, while the system is scalable in theory, performance dips during audits and system recovery operations need further engineering work to meet production-grade standards.

The paper clearly states that this is not a commitment to launch a CBDC. However, the findings lay out a concrete technical foundation for what such a system could look like— one that balances user privacy, institutional control, and operational resilience.

Whether the central bank will implement it remains a question, given the controversy surrounding CBDC. However, the timing of the report could be right as Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, was quoted in his 2021 book as a supporter of CBDCs.

“The most likely future of money is a central bank stablecoin, known as a central bank digital currency or CBDC,” he wrote in his book.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) suspended its central bank digital currency project, Singaporean financial newspaper Business Times reported on Monday.

The project had reached the stage of developing a pilot program with participating banks.

The central bank told the banks it will pause discussions related to the initiative, according to the report, which cited an unidentified BOK official.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung, who took office June 4, courted the country’s cryptocurrency community during his election campaign. Among his promises was a pledge to support a won-based stablecoin market.

Earlier this month, Lee’s ruling Democratic party submitted a bill that would allow qualifying companies to issue stablecoins.

CBDCs are a form of fiat currency that are meant to act as a digital counterpart to cash. They have been criticized as a concept, particularly among the crypto community, over concerns about privacy, surveillance and state control.

The Bank of Korea did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

The trial, which runs through the end of June, allows shoppers to pay using the new digital money issued by the central bank. During this period, 7-Eleven is offering a 10% discount on all items purchased with the digital currency.

According to Moon Dae-woo, who leads digital development at 7-Eleven, the company joined the test to explore new technology and improve its systems. He said the goal is to help speed up the shift to digital tools in day-to-day operations.

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This trial is organized by several government bodies, including the Bank of Korea, the Financial Services Commission, and the Financial Supervisory Service. It officially began on March 24 and runs from April 1 to June 30. A total of 100,000 people will take part in the program.

Government officials said applicants eligible to join the CBDC trial must be at least 19 years old and have a deposit account at one of the participating banks. These include KB, Koomin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NongHyup, IBK, and Busan Bank.

Additionally, selected users must be able to convert money from their accounts into digital tokens, which are stored in a shared ledger and equal in value to Korean won.

The program sets a conversion cap of 5 million won, or about $3,416, per person for the duration of the test. This limit helps the central bank track use without high risk.

Meanwhile, shoppers on the Sony Store Online in Singapore can pay with cryptocurrency. How? Read the full story.

West Virginia’s Bitcoin (BTC) strategic reserve bill would give the state more sovereignty from the federal government and freedom from a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC), State Senator Chris Rose told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview.

“You hear these rumors that there are people at the federal government that will want to have a central bank digital currency,” Rose said. “And people don’t want that. People want decentralized currency. They want freedom.”

The bill, introduced in February, seeks to allow the state treasury to invest up to 10% of public funds in precious metals like gold and silver, stablecoins, or any digital asset that has had a $750 million market capitalization or higher over the last 12 months. Currently, the only digital asset with such a market cap is Bitcoin.

Rose, the bill’s sponsor, said that the reason they decided on the market cap requirement was to allow the state to have exposure to cryptocurrency, but not to get trapped “in any things like memecoins.”

Adopting Bitcoin on the state level would “give us a little more state sovereignty,” Rose added. “And I think that’s one reason why you see a lot of people who normally buy [Bitcoin] for themselves want to see their state government do the same.”

He added that a 10% allocation of state funds would be a “good way to introduce [Bitcoin] to the state” while avoiding any fear from people who don’t understand digital assets. “It’s a good way to cap that where they feel comfortable, but also give us at least a decent exposure as well.”

Bitcoin: “a very powerful” investment and freedom tool

Rose said that one of the roadblocks to getting the bill passed is fear, in particular among those who don’t understand cryptocurrency. “Just like any other state, we have people who understand it. We also have people that don’t understand it, and people are always afraid of what they don’t know.”

He added that “once they understand it, they realize it’s a very powerful investment tool and freedom tool for every one of us to adopt.”

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey, who has envisioned a future state economy powered by crypto and other tech, won’t be a roadblock, Rose said. And the state treasurer, whom Rose consulted before introducing the bill, won’t either.

However, according to WVNews, a West Virginia publication, some lawmakers and financial experts remain skeptical. Investing state funds into Bitcoin may be risky due to the asset’s volatility and price swings, which can cause financial instability and make Bitcoin a controversial choice for state investments.

Although Bitcoin strategic reserve bills have been popping up in state legislatures around the United States, some bills have failed to pass or have scrapped key provisions, including some of those in traditionally conservative states.

Currently, 47 strategic Bitcoin reserve bills have been introduced in 26 states according to Bitcoin Laws. While, in most of the states, the bills have only been introduced or referred to committees, some have made headway in three: Arizona, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Related: Texas Senate passes Bitcoin strategic reserve bill

Rose clarified that the 10% of state funds allocated to precious metals, stablecoins, or Bitcoin would be sourced from two key areas.

“It would be the assets under the pensions fund and under the severance tax fund,” Rose said. “They would be able to divest some of those ETF funds into these assets. We wanted to keep it separate from the petty cash fund, which is day-to-day, just paying the bills of the state. We wanted to keep it to our longer-term assets,” he added.

Magazine: X Hall of Flame, Benjamin Cowen: Bitcoin dominance will fall in 2025

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/west-virginias-btc-reserve-bill-is-freedom-from-a-cbdc-state-senator/feed/ 0 28646 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/bank-of-korea-to-give-100000-users-access-to-cbdc-in-real-world-pilot/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/bank-of-korea-to-give-100000-users-access-to-cbdc-in-real-world-pilot/#respond Tue, 18 Mar 2025 13:36:50 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/bank-of-korea-to-give-100000-users-access-to-cbdc-in-real-world-pilot/

The Bank of Korea (BOK) is gearing up to launch a pilot program involving 100,000 participants in early April to test its central bank digital currency (CBDC) in real-world transactions.

Project Hangang, a three-month initiative running through the end of June, involves seven South Korean banks, including KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NH NongHyup, BNK Busan Bank, and the Industrial Bank of Korea.

Participants will convert deposits from traditional bank accounts into deposit tokens, which can be used for daily purchases at selected merchants through banking apps that utilize QR code payments. Individual token holdings will be capped at 1 million won (~$690), with a cumulative value of 5 million won for the pilot duration.

Per Korea Times, participating merchants include 7-Eleven, Hanaro Mart, Kyobo Bookstore, and Ediya Coffee, alongside online platforms such as Hyundai Home Shopping. The initiative is structured to evaluate the viability of CBDCs in simplifying current payment and settlement systems, potentially reducing transaction fees by enabling real-time merchant settlements.

The BOK plans to publicly solicit participants for Project Hangang later this month. According to a BOK official cited by Korea Times, the pilot aims to minimize intermediary roles within transactions, thereby assessing the practical efficiencies of a CBDC model over traditional banking processes.

This real-world testing phase builds upon South Korea’s prior CBDC research initiatives and marks a significant step toward CBDC integration into daily economic activity. The pilot aligns with broader global efforts spearheaded by institutions like the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), projecting widespread adoption of CBDCs in both retail and wholesale capacities by 2030.

The experiment represents an escalation from theoretical modeling to practical application, situating South Korea among an expanding group of countries actively evaluating the viability of CBDCs for retail use.

The difference between the US and EU approaches to crypto has become evident as the European Central Bank (ECB) is building a blockchain system to process CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) transactions.

ECB President Christine Lagarde also nixed the idea of a European Bitcoin reserve due to $BTC’s volatility and frequent use in illicit activities (which isn’t entirely true–criminals prefer cash to crypto).

In contrast, President Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell are strictly against CBDCs, and 20 US states have proposed establishing crypto reserves (cries in European).

Let’s unpack what the EU’s anti-crypto stance means for the market.

Inside the ECB’s CBDC Plan

The launch of an EU-wide blockchain payment system is the first step toward rolling out a fully functioning wholesale CBDC, the digital euro.

This system will be compatible with TARGET Services, a platform that currently handles large-value payments, securities settlement, and instant payments across Europe.

After integrating the new system with TARGET, the ECB will focus on its interoperability with foreign CBDC infrastructures for exchange settlements.

ECB Board member Piero Cipollone deems this innovation, but European crypto investors would likely call it an attempt at surveillance.

ECB Is Against Crypto Reserves, Czech Republic Feels Rebellious

The ECB also disapproved of the Czech National Bank’s plan to allocate 5% of its reserves to $BTC purchases.

CNB Governor Aleš Michl argued he used to run an investment fund and ‘likes profitability,’ which suggests the Czech Republic might soon set a precedent for other EU countries.

It’s clear that the EU prioritizes safety and stability over individual freedoms and technological development.

However, this might change when multiple US states create crypto reserves, particularly if they prove this strategy to be fruitful. Non-eurozone countries like the Czech Republic would be the first to go against the tide, and others could follow suit.

When this happens, $BTC will rally to new heights due to broader adoption and legitimacy.

BTC Bull Token ($BTCBULL) Celebrates Crypto’s Historic Rally With $BTC Airdrops

While government officials remain cautious, retail investors can go for riskier opportunities like new meme coins on presale that might yield greater returns.

But not all new crypto have an equal chance in this bull run.

BTC Bull Token ($BTCBULL) is the only meme coin closely linked to $BTC. It supports the OG crypto on its way to $250K with regular $BTC airdrops.

All you need to get free $BTC is to buy $BTCBULL, hold it in Best Wallet, and wait for the world’s first crypto to hit $150K and $200K.

When $BTC reaches $250K, the project will reward its loyal holders with a massive $BTCBULL token airdrop.

$BTCBULL’s deflationary tokenomics model aims to support the token’s upward price action after launch. Whenever $BTC hits $125K, $175K, and $225K, the project will permanently remove a part of the tokens for circulation to create scarcity and drive demand.

$BTCBULL’s presale kicked off on February 11 and has since raised $2.5M. One token now costs $0.002375, but the price is increasing fast as the project progresses toward new fundraising milestones.

This means now is the time to take the bull by the horns and secure your share of $BTCBULL before everyone else does. Early adopters also benefit from a 172% APY, set to decrease as the staking pool expands.

Final Remarks

We aren’t just watching a battle of regulations–we’re watching two different philosophies play out in real time. While the US says, ‘let’s give crypto a shot,’ the EU is giving it a cold shoulder.

This doesn’t mean that the ECB is entirely against innovation, though. Its blockchain-based payment system could also support crypto like $BTC and altcoins in the future if the US and Czech Republic lead by example.

Institutional adoption will fuel this year’s $BTC rally, and $BTCBULL has positioned itself to capture investor appetite.

However, remember the old-school Wall Street saying: bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered. Don’t get greedy–DYOR, diversify your portfolio, and only invest as much as you can afford to lose.