Finally, on the last day of the Africa Bitcoin Conference, I've saved the worst CBDC experience in Africa for last: Nigeria. In the words of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the CBDC experience has not been a "rosy story." The central bank launched the eNaira in 2021, and it's basically been downhill since then. Initial adoption was stuck at just 0.5 percent. The central bank lowered the requirements for access and introduced discounts in response, but people still preferred cash over the CBDC. With adoption still struggling, Central Bank of Nigeria deputy governor Kingsley Obiora said that all the eNaira needs is a “a little push from the government.” That's when the central bank suddenly announced it was taking cash out of circulation. After lines turned to protests and then riots, the central bank described the eNaira as a "success" after adoption went from 0.5% to 6%. https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2023/03/06/nigerians-rejection-of-their-cbdc-is-a-cautionary-tale-for-other-countries Even the IMF admit the CBDC has largely been a failure. In a 2023 study, the IMF found that 98.5 percent of the wallets issued have never been used. And that's to say nothing of all the complaints on the app stores.

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Just look at the state of the negative reviews on the wallet app for Nigeria's CBDC...

The eNaira has largely fallen apart at this point. Speaking in Ghana a few weeks ago, one Central Bank of Nigeria official said that Nigerians were not interested in the CBDC, the central bank was not prepared to be a retail bank, and the market was already providing solutions. I've only just skimmed the surface, so be sure to check out the @npub17xvf...c9as CBDC Tracker to learn more about what's happening in Africa, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

In a moment of reflection, Central Bank of Nigeria official Musa Itopa Jimoha admit that the Nigerian CBDC experience had not been a "rosy story." Nigerians were not interested in the eNaira because the market was already providing solutions. He warned other central banks not to issue a CBDC unless there is a real problem that it will actually solve. Interestingly, he also advised creating a separate legal entity to handle the CBDC so that operations are not directly under the central bank. cbdctracker.hrf.org

While discussing the Bank Secrecy Act, Representative Patman said the quiet part out loud. He congratulated the Treasury for going "rather far" and "making a long step here" to establish capital controls. The Treasury quickly shot back saying not to call it that.

More than half of the authoritarian regimes across the world are publicly working on CBDCs.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

One of my favorite things about Bitcoin is that more people than ever are asking questions like, ‘What is money? What is privacy? What is sovereignty?’ It’s through that curiosity that people see what’s at stake. https://www.ccn.com/education/crypto/cbdcs-digital-euro-turn-money-into-control-nick-anthony/

Many folks are reporting that the digital euro's 2029 launch date is "breaking news." Real ones know that info has been in the @npub17xvf...c9as CBDC Tracker since July. 😉 🔗:

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

Remember, anon: You can just do things.

Governments force banks to report your activity, judge whether you are being suspicious, and close your accounts when you step out of the norm. How? It dates back to 1970. https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2025/10/28/55-years-of-financial-surveillance President Richard Nixon had not yet been caught surveilling his political opponents. Instead, Oct. 26, 1970 marks when Nixon signed the Bank Secrecy Act and set the foundation for a new regime of financial surveillance. Often abbreviated as “the BSA,” the Bank Secrecy Act was originally enacted over fears that the rise of air travel in the late 1960s would lead to Americans hiding their money in Swiss bank accounts. As the times changed, so did the concerns. Congress initially targeted tax evaders, but the Bank Secrecy Act was later expanded to also go after drug traffickers. Later, it would be expanded again to go after terrorists. Most recently, Congress has been weighing where and how to apply it to cryptocurrencies. https://www.cato.org/blog/warren-misses-details-bank-secrecy-act Yet, it hasn’t just been the targets that have changed. Congress has also steadily expanded who must report their customers under this regime. Even the @USPS and pawn shops are defined as "financial institutions" here. This ever-growing list of both targets and informants is partly why more than 27.5 million reports were filed on customers last year. https://www.cato.org/blog/reporting-fincens-suspicious-activity-again Congress has prioritized ever-increasing financial surveillance over protections for people’s privacy for 55 years now. It’s time for that to change. It’s time to respect financial privacy and stop treating ever-expanding surveillance as the norm. Reform needs to happen before the Bank Secrecy Act gets to celebrate its next big milestone. For more on how, check out my latest in @npub1x36y...lsth https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2025/10/28/55-years-of-financial-surveillance

At @Plan ₿ Network , @Efrat Fenigson asked me about the importance of financial privacy. And on a note of optimism, I shared why the rise of tools like @vexl 😎 , Cashu, Signal, and Proton gives me hope.

The @npub17xvf...c9as CBDC Tracker now has data on more than 145 different jurisdictions.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

It’s incredibly disappointing that the Department of Justice has denied my FOIA request and appeal. President Biden requested a report on how to create CBDC legislation, but the folks currently in charge have decided this information should be hidden from the public. The issue dates back to 2022 when President Biden placed “the highest urgency on research and development efforts into the potential design and deployment options of a United States CBDC.” As part of this effort, President Biden instructed the Department of Justice to put together an “assessment of whether legislative changes would be necessary to issue a United States CBDC.” Yet, the report never saw the light of day. When it became clear that the report wasn't going to be published, I submitted a FOIA request and members of Congress wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Still, nothing. https://www.cato.org/blog/white-house-doj-keeps-cbdc-legislation-secret-cato-rep-hill-seek-answers I thought the change in administration might mean I would get the documents faster given how vocally opposed President Trump has been to CBDCs. Yet, instead, the request still ended in rejection. In explaining the rejection, the Department of Justice says releasing the information “would harm the interests” of the government. Given how the rise of CBDCs has increasingly become a public concern, the American people deserve to know what the Department of Justice and the White House think needs to be done to create a CBDC.

It is absolutely wrong for the New York Times to say a CBDC has "no risk of frozen funds." The Vietnamese government reportedly just froze 86 million accounts, the Russian government froze the accounts of Alexei Navalny and his allies, the Canadian government froze the accounts of the Freedom Convoy protests, the Nigerian government froze the accounts of people protesting policy brutality... Do I need to go on? And this is to say nothing of the fact that private providers often freeze accounts because they have been deputized as law enforcement.

The ECB is now arguing that a CBDC is needed in case of power and network outages. How do they say it would help? 1. The infrastructure will have multiple servers 2. The CBDC will have a dedicated app 3. The CBDC might work offline This argument is far from compelling. At the risk of shocking the ECB, let me be clear: private businesses already use dedicated apps, multiple servers, and even *gasp* back up servers. In fact, offline payments might be tricky, but they are not impossible. Recognizing the value of connecting people in times of outages or disastors, the market has introduced solutions. You don't even need an internet connection to send bitcoin anymore. If you don't know what I mean, just check out all the work @calle is doing. Yet, even then, it's simply absurd for the ECB to suggest that the central bank must intervene to introduce alternatives. As George Selgin pointed out in 2018, central banks are just as vulnerable to outages, equipment failures, and hacking as others. https://www.cato.org/blog/computer-glitch-argument-central-bank-ecash History has shown that they too fall victim to these issues. Furthermore, as George noted, there are plenty of alternatives available. You can get multiple bank accounts, fintech apps, prepaid cards, cryptocurrencies, and more. And each one of these options has its own suite of subcategories. So the idea that central bank is needed to swoop in and introduce a long-missing alternative is too little too late. Arguements like the ECB's are why "a solution in search of a problem" has become the unofficial tag line for CBDCs.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

Admittedly, I did not expect this year to include speaking before the European Parliament on debanking and CBDCs, but here I am.

A "cashless economy is the preferred choice for the central bank." I mean... at least they are upfront about it. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/server/api/core/bitstreams/e74bc0c3-e866-4b31-a00d-3eebf8f83f03/content

CBDCs and stablecoins are not the same thing. It is correct that neither embodies truly open and free monetary technology, but the distinction is still important because only CBDCs give the government direct access and control over your financial activity by default. I explain at length in my latest article below. View article →

Everyone who uses money needs the digital euro? Wild take from Bloomberg. To their credit, the authors acknowledge that electronic payments are widely available. So why? Why do people need a digital euro when they are already served by a wide array of options? And there it is: Control. The authors do well to be upfront about one risk of CBDCs. Although the only one they mention is the risk that a CBDC could undermine banks and so they propose restrictions on how much people can own. However, there are many other risks at play with few benefits to justify the cost. https://www.cato.org/visual-feature/risks-of-cbdcs Check out the full piece in Bloomberg below. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-31/digital-euro-everyone-who-uses-money-needs-tech-forward-currency

Thank you to @npub17xvf...c9as for the shout-out in the Oslo Freedom Forum report!

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Paul Krugman argues that the U.S. should adopt a "partial CBDC" and points to Brazil as the example to emulate. Specifically, he points to Pix. Has he really not heard of FedNow? He says the "financial industry just has too much power, and would never allow a public system to compete with its products." Again, has he really not heard of FedNow? Or for that matter, the Fed's check and ACH services? Frankly, it's also strange that Krugman criticizes concerns about CBDCs but makes no mention of the fact that Pix was forced on people. The government forced banks to adopt it. For anyone interested in what's happening with Brazil's actual CBDC work. The HRF CBDC Tracker has you covered.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

Speaking on CBDCs, Representative Waters says anti-CBDC legislation must be stopped because "it's time for the US government to take charge" so "we don't have [cryptocurrency] or anything else without the federal government knowing and being in control."