The government doesn't need a cryptocoin to monitor transactions, or to make using paper currency illegal. It can already do what you think it needs a cryptocoin to do, and it doesn't do it because it supports wealthy people being able to launder money and avoid taxes. US politics runs entirely on laundered money and misdirected/avoided taxes. You're lobbying for the swamp.

I anticipate CBDC being something for the peons to use, not the elite. Yes, the government can monitor transactions, but it currently has to jump through a lot more loopholes to do so. I understand and agree with your sentiment, with the additional point that smaller banks are also going to be made obsolete if a CBDC is rolled out.

But the wealthy and connected will most certainly have their own way of getting around the system. Whether that means moving their money into physical assets, or onto the market, I don't know. I don't think cash is going to go away, but I do see the government incentivizing regular people to solely use CBDC, and once you're on that system, you are a serf.

At this point, if HN is any indication, they deserve it.

I migrated to https://stacker.news ; anxiously waiting for them to open other subs

I have seen a lot of resistance against GNU Taler so I think if any country adopts a CDBC it will be fully surveiled with no privacy for customers. After all that is what people want. They don't want privacy in their CDBCs.

Well, if that happens I hope they implement negative interest rates on them because that would end the need for surveillance and political corruption within a decade.