Many nations are cashless to varying degrees and also seem to be moving in the direction of a total cashless system. China may very well be the first nation to do so as it has already started testing for its digital Yuan. While digital currency may be seen as the inevitable way forward, it is also raising alarms for its privacy or lack thereof as I’ve often expressed in previous articles I’ve done on the subject.
This push for digital currency by China, CBN News reports, could spell an end to privacy and be used as a control mechanism over its citizens by means of surveillance, “This is just another tool in the toolbox of the Chinese communist party to control…It’s a way of raising the high-tech prison walls a little higher on the Chinese people. China will not only know where they go and who they talk to. They will know every penny that they spend.”
What I’ve also noticed is that what starts in China doesn’t necessarily stay in China, a great example being 3 college universities created a contact tracing app (to combat the coronavirus) similar to China’s dystopian social credit system which grants you a positive score based on compliance or reduces said score based on defiance. The CBN News article goes on to state that “…China is not alone. At least 12 nations are reportedly going into or are considering Central Bank Digital Currencies.”
- Central banks are contemplating a world without cash
- Global central banks are partnering up to explore digital currencies
‘A Road Map of Persecution’: Why China’s Cashless Experiment Signals a Global End to Privacy
From CBN News: Experts say digital currencies are the future of money. And whether we like it or not, experts also say digital currencies will eventually replace cash. The nation pushing the hardest for digital money is also one of the world’s most oppressive – China. China has begun trials of a new digital Yuan, with the aim of becoming the first country in the world to offer a digital sovereign currency.
Unlike digital currencies like Bitcoin, which work outside the control of a governing authority, the digital Yuan will be the world’s first digital currency issued by a central bank. And it will be an international currency. Many in the financial world are looking forward to using digital Chinese currency in global trading. Wu Haifing of the Chinese University of Hong Kong says, “I believe the potential of that is going to be enormous.”
Chinese officials say their new digital economy needs digital money. But it’s already being seen as another way the Chinese government can track its citizens. Unlike cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin that offer anonymity, the Chinese central bank will be able to monitor every transaction of the digital yuan. This, of course, is a country where citizens are already tracked by hundreds of millions of facial recognition cameras and are given a social credit score and rewarded or punished according to their scores.
David Curry of Open Doors says, “China is building what I think is a blueprint, a road map of persecution for other regimes around the world and they’re doing it with surveillance.” The new digital Yuan is being sold to the Chinese public as convenient, but China expert Steven Mosher, the author of Bully of Asia, isn’t buying it.
“This is just another tool in the toolbox of the Chinese communist party to control,” Mosher says. “It’s a way of raising the high-tech prison walls a little higher on the Chinese people. China will not only know where they go and who they talk to. They will know every penny that they spend.” And China is not alone.
At least 12 nations are reportedly going into or are considering Central Bank Digital Currencies. Because it is largely untraceable, physical money has been called the “last bastion of privacy” in China, and that is likely to be one reason the Chinese government would like to get rid of it. Read More
Prophetic Implications
The bible clearly tells us in Revelation 13:16-17 that during the tribulation there will be a system put into place that will require every human being on earth to be a part of the “mark of the beast” system to freely engage in society (i.e. buy and sell). I don’t believe such a system could come into place if cash is still king hence why we’re seeing efforts to minimize it’s importance or get rid of it to varying degrees.
He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:16-17)
With cash, purchases and the activities of an individual remains anonymous. However, in a completely cashless system, not only can your purchases and activities be tracked, you can also be shut out of it if deemed necessary. I’ve already made my case previously as to how I believe a digital health passport system or at a very basic level, universal digital identities could coincide with this.
Over the months we’ve seen the likes of the Covi-Pass, Health Passport Ireland, and CommonPass Health Passports. I’ve also reported on the fact that Mastercard joined the ID2020 Alliance who’s goal is to get everyone on earth a digital identity. If a universal digital identity system in combination with currency is already in the books, how difficult would it be to add this with health as well as other aspects of one’s life?
If this all sounds strange to you, remember that we’re currently living in a world that requires you to wear a mask in order to enter many public establishments. No mask, no entry. This truly isn’t outside the realm of possibility keeping in mind what a cashless society via its digital Yuan would look like with China’s social credit system.
That, in my opinion, is the perfect blueprint for the system we see in Revelation 13:16-17. For the believer this should once again serve as excitement as we see prophecies concerning the tribulation period cast a shadow into our time now! It only means that the rapture of the church is truly around the corner!
Sources
- ‘A Road Map of Persecution’: Why China’s Cashless Experiment Signals a Global End to Privacy (10/30/20) – CBN News
- China hands out $1.5 million of its digital currency in one of the country’s biggest public tests (10/12/20) – CNBC
- Central banks are contemplating a world without cash (3/1/20) – Quartz
- Global central banks are partnering up to explore digital currencies (1/21/20) – CNBC