Episode Details

In this episode, we present an audio version of Bitcoin Policy UK’s response to the Bank of England and HM Treasury on the Digital Pound, originally published on 31 May 2023.

This paper sets out why a retail CBDC represents a fundamental shift in the relationship between citizens and the state, raising serious concerns around privacy, financial surveillance, programmability, and democratic oversight.

Rather than modernising money, the digital pound risks embedding new forms of control into the financial system while failing to solve the problems it claims to address.

🔍 What This Episode Covers

• What the digital pound actually is, and how it differs from cash and commercial bank money
• Why privacy safeguards are insufficient, even when framed as “proportionate” or “trusted”
• The risks of programmability, including restrictions on spending and behavioural nudging
• Why intermediated models don’t remove state power, they merely obscure it
• The danger of normalising financial surveillance through everyday payments
• How a CBDC could crowd out private innovation rather than support it
• Why existing payment systems already meet most stated policy goals
• The importance of preserving cash, choice, and exit options

⚠️ Key Arguments from Bitcoin Policy UK

• A retail CBDC is not a neutral technical upgrade, it is a political and constitutional change
• Promises of privacy are policy choices, not technical guarantees
• Once built, CBDC infrastructure is easy to repurpose and hard to roll back
• Financial freedom depends on the ability to transact without constant monitoring
• The UK should focus on competition, open standards, and cash resilience, not centralised digital money

🧠 Why This Matters

As governments explore CBDCs globally, decisions made now will shape the future of money for decades. This submission argues that the digital pound risks undermining trust, freedom, and resilience, precisely at a time when those qualities matter most.

Bitcoin Policy UK urges policymakers to think carefully about second-order effects, long-term incentives, and the preservation of individual autonomy in the financial system.

📄 Read the full written paper here:
👉  Response to the Bank of England and HM Treasury on the Digital Pound

To find out more about Bitcoin Policy UK's work and how you can get involved, visit:

https://bitcoinpolicy.uk/