Rich Checkan, the President of Asset Strategies International (ASI) is apparently not a fan of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
In a recent interview with Michelle Makori, editor-in-chief of Kitco News, Checkan railed against the development and adoption of CBDCs. He said the digital form of money was a threat to individual privacy and opened the door to individuals having their transactions tracked and scrutinized.
He told Makori:
I think central bank digital currencies were concocted in hell by Satan himself.
Checkan continued, saying CBDCs would allow governments control over “everybody’s bank accounts” and would create a “void of privacy for every individual citizen.”
ASI’s president was also asked if Bitcoin posed a threat to fiat currencies and their digital counterparts (i.e. CBDCs). Checkan said it was too early to tell Bitcoin’s ultimate impact and that BTC has yet to be tested as a legitimate currency and it is behaving more like a speculative asset:
It’s not a threat, one of the options for Bitcoin is to be a form of currency, but there’s not widespread adoption and penetration […] so we really haven’t tested that model. Which is why I think it’s partially acting as a speculative asset.
Checkan went on to say that only if governments feel truely threatened by Bitcoin would we see what they are prepared to do to maintain their power.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
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Image by Jan Steiner from Pixabay
