By Bitcoin 杂志 - 1 年前 - 阅读时间：5 分钟
数字美元是对公民自由的威胁
The U.S. CBDC could be a route to civil liberty erosion — the same liberties that Bitcoin inherently protects.
对许多人来说， Bitcoin is synonymous with freedom, decentralization, independence and the future. Some consider it akin to anarchy, an online revolution that began with the minting of the first block of Bitcoin that flipped the proverbial bird at central banks and government policy makers.
然而，对于政府来说，前景却有所不同。一般来说，治理他人的人通常将加密货币生态圈视为无法无天的地方，用于资助恐怖主义和其他非法活动、洗钱和逃税。
为了回应数万亿美元的投资者和商业利益，乔·拜登总统 发布行政命令 calling on the government to examine the risks and benefits of cryptocurrencies. The executive order's explicit aim is to explore a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC), which would be a digital fiat, backed by the United States government. But if the original purpose behind the creation of cryptocurrency was to eliminate government control and oversight over fiat and monetary policy, how far will the U.S. government’s control over its citizens' digital currency extend?
该行政命令称，“美国在数字资产方面的主要政策目标如下：我们必须保护美国的消费者、投资者和企业。”该政策继续阐明，数字资产对“犯罪”具有“深远影响”；国家安全;行使人权的能力；金融包容性和公平性；以及能源需求和气候变化。”该行政命令将该资产类别隔离为“非国家发行的数字资产”。据称，未来的监管、治理和技术措施将旨在“打击非法活动”和“增强我们国家安全工具的效力”。虽然不可否认加密货币的黑暗面及其可能的犯罪用途，但美国政府不仅想要监管加密货币，而且还寻求控制它。
It appears a sure bet that the United States government will (1) regulate private cryptocurrency while (2) issuing its own government-controlled digital token. And in the context of the world's leading liberal democracy founded on a rule of law based on limitation of government powers, this development warrants serious scrutiny.
追溯到美利坚合众国成立之初，国父们就对赋予银行和政府对货币的控制权持怀疑态度。在起草美国宪法期间，约翰·亚当斯利用了殖民者对政府发行的货币的不信任和 声明 that every dollar of printed fiat money was “a cheat upon somebody.” The drafters left the federal government with only the power to “coin money,” and forbade the states from making anything but gold and silver coin legal "tender.” Years later, in 1816, 托马斯·杰斐逊写道 that “banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies... [and] the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
的出现 Bitcoin appeared to be the antidote to the centuries-old problem identified by Jefferson. Bitcoin was specifically designed to obviate the need for a central bank or single administrator. In fact, Bitcoin does not need government support, or to be “backed” by gold and silver. Bitcoin was architected to comprise a store of value who’s value would be determined by the global population’s free market dynamics, via simply supply and demand arithmetic.
So why should any of this matter? At times, the U.S. government has historically suppressed the rights of Americans, and many Americans have shown that they are more than willing to give up those freedoms. It is only a matter of time before the United States issues a digital currency, and likely attempts to suppress, through whatever means, the value and utility of bitcoin, along with the rights of its citizens.
有了美国发行的数字硬币，政府将拥有技术能力，除其他外，可以限制美国人可以购买的物品并对其施加压力，跟踪和监控公民的支出，并对我们购买的产品的数量或数量进行限制。
在极端情况下，政府可以撤销或取消所有 CDBC 资金的流通或个人的控制。这在刑事案件中已经成为现实，但这里令人担忧的是，即使没有刑事指控或定罪，政府也有能力和意愿使用数字美元进行监控和控制。这些担忧不仅仅是假设。去年，加拿大政府命令金融公司 停止提供便利 34 个加密钱包中与资助卡车司机领导的针对 COVID-19 疫苗强制令的抗议活动有关的任何交易。
Examples in the United States are easy to conceptualize. If Congress believes that cutting down on gasoline would lower emissions enough to reverse climate change, they could put spending limits on the amount of gas one could purchase. Instead of raising taxes on cigarettes, the government could nullify all cigarette purchases made with digital dollars. While the "in party" will be temporarily satisfied at the expense of the "out party," fortunes can change fast. Constitutional questions (which often take years to resolve) notwithstanding, where a Republican administration might ban the use of digital dollars to pay for Planned Parenthood services for example, a Democratic administration could just as easily ban the use of digital dollars to purchase guns or ammunition. The reality is that both political parties may well be tempted to utilize digital dollars to influence societal behavior and punish transgressors by restraining the ability to use the currency for travel, education and other essential life activities.
那么，我们是否正以惊人的速度无情地迈向乔治·奥威尔那样的未来呢？ 警告, “nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters in your skull?" Will the United States government utilize digital coins to create a social credit scoring system on par with China's? That depends. Not only on the government's actions, but on the vigilance of lawyers in private practice and civil libertarians more generally. Careful attention must be paid to any efforts by the government to utilize digital dollars for surveillance, control or unlawful restriction of individual privacy and liberty. Because, after all, if "love of money is the root of all evil," then unconstrained U.S. government-issued digital dollars may turn into the "mother of all evils."
贝克·麦坚时 (Baker McKenzie) 的合伙人扎卡里·里夫斯 (Zachary Reeves) 也对本文做出了贡献。
这是布拉德福德·纽曼的客座文章。所表达的意见完全是他们自己的，并不一定反映 BTC Inc 或 Bitcoin 杂志.
原始来源： Bitcoin 杂志