Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he’s losing hope on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which are turning into little more than the “front ends” of traditional banking.<\/p>\n
“As each and every one of those [CBDC} projects come to a certain maturity, all sort of fall away as the thing comes closer and closer to being a 1.0,” he told CNBC in an interview<\/a>. “We get systems that are not actually much better than existing payment systems because they just basically end up being different front-ends for the existing banking system.”<\/p>\n While five years ago he was hopeful around talk that CBDCs would become blockchain friendly and provide transparency, verifiability guarantees and thus a level of privacy, he said that’s all given way to their ability to monitor financial transactions and those who use them, he said.<\/p>\n “They end up being even less private and basically break down all of the existing barriers against both corporations and the government at the same time,” he told CNBC.<\/p>\n Buterin also said that he’s increasingly concerned about traveling to some countries and cited Russia specifically after it’s war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n “There’s definitely a bunch of countries that I would have very gladly visited three years ago, that I’m much, much more apprehensive about visiting today,” said Russia-born Buterin. “Even <\/strong>in countries that the mainstream considers to still be fairly normal places — I definitely worry about those more.”<\/p>\n WARNING: @VitalikButerin<\/a> reportedly said that CBDCs are not developing in the way he had once hoped for.<\/p>\n Honest question, are you IN FAVOR OF #CBDCs<\/a> or not?#Ethereum<\/a> #XRP<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/tM1YtjmGqg<\/a><\/p>\n — CryptoBusy (@CryptoBusy) September 25, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nButerin Concerned About Travel To Some Countries<\/h3>\n
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