Youtube Account: Niklas Gustafson

The Digital Euro: who controls your money? | Niklas Gustafson

In 2019 a Swedish company launched a Mastercard that blocked your purchases once you hit your personal carbon limit, and instead of outrage it won a Grand Prix at Cannes. Now the ECB is building the digital euro, with a pilot in 2027 and a possible launch in 2029. Today the proposed law says it can’t be programmed to control what you buy, and I’m glad that’s written down. But laws change, governments change, and the people who make these decisions eventually leave while their decisions stay. Meanwhile even Sweden, the most cashless country in Europe, now tells its citizens to keep cash at home and use it regularly, because cash has one rather wonderful quality: it doesn’t care how many steaks you’ve eaten this month 🥩💶 Would you trust a promise like that 10 years from now? Tell me below …