TL;DR
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The Brazilian government has been working on its own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) – think: the Brazilian real (their local currency), but on the blockchain.
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Pedro Magalhaes took the liberty of checking out the Brazilian Central Bank’s Application Programming Interface (API) on Github.
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Pedro found that with the implementation of this CBDC, the Brazilian government would be able to freeze user funds and adjust their balance – as they please.
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What’s even crazier is… Pedro’s first thought was that the feature was only there to freeze funds as a security measure when making cash-to-crypto transactions.
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But the central bank’s official response was that it can do it whenever it wants.
Full story
You know how crime syndicates will sue local shopkeepers for “protection”?
…but what they’re really paying for is protection against it the same crime syndicate?
Blockchain technology’s “killer use case” may ultimately work in a similar way – where blockchain technology is used to protect against potentially malicious applications of blockchain.
Confused? This is what we’re talking about:
The Brazilian government has been working on its own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) – think: the Brazilian real (their local currency), but on the blockchain.
Enter: Pedro Magalhaes.
Pedro is the founder of the consultancy Web3 Iora Labsand he took the liberty of checking out the Brazilian Central Bank’s Application Programming Interface (API) on Github.
And he found something… unnerving.
With the implementation of this CBDC, the Brazilian government could freeze user funds and adjust their balance – as they please.
Sure, that’s still possible within today’s global banking system – it just is a lot of harder to do.
What’s even freakier is…
Pedro’s first thought was that the feature was only there to freeze funds while making cash-to-crypto transactions.
(So people couldn’t double their money by canceling mid-transaction → getting their money back → while also receiving the crypto).
But Pedro said the central bank’s official response was that it can do it whenever it wants.
YOU
So this is where our ‘crime syndicate theory’ comes in…
Perhaps the ‘killer use case’ of decentralized blockchains (which are tamper proof) will not be found in gaming, social media, art or collectibles…
But will it instead be best used as a ‘life raft’ – to protect people from potentially malicious applications of blockchain technology, such as CBDCs?
(Or maybe we should take off our tinfoil hats and touch some grass?)
Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯