I became your enemy because I tell you the truth
From Europe to Australia to Ethiopia digital ID systems and digital currencies are being implemented, bit by bit and in various ways. Of course, Tony Blair and the World Economic Forum are doing their bit to push things along as well. And, it should come as no surprise that PayPal is one of the organisations working with the Bank of England to implement the UK’s central bank digital currency (“CBDC”).
Denmark’s new digital ID system risks locking some people out of society
Denmark has introduced a new digital ID system (MitID) that became the default on Thursday, 22 September. However, there are concerns that the rushed phaseout of the previous system (NemID) will negatively impact Danes that do not own smartphones and the digital illiterate.
Danes will need to use the MitID system to access financial and government services. When accessing services like tax filings, they will be prompted to use the MitID app to generate a code for secure access.
The NemID system also had a mobile app, but had alternatives for those without smartphones, including a physical code booklet and a handheld code generator. There are alternatives to the MitID app but Finans Danmark (which runs the system in collaboration with Denmark’s Agency for Digitisation) said that those alternatives will not be available until next year.
Finans Danmark Director of Digitisation Michael Busk-Jepsen told local outlet Politiken that the situation is “regrettable” and explained that “the code displayer and code reader has unfortunately proven to need a larger amount of analysis work than we originally anticipated.”
The lack of offline solutions will be a problem because digital IDs are required for online shopping in Denmark, and the NemID will no longer be usable for online shopping on 31 October. Thousands of Danes could be left without access to online stores, including grocery stores.
Republished from Reclaim The Net
Are you ready for digital euro currency?
The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced they are working with five companies to develop prototypes for a DIGITAL EURO. One of these companies is none other than Amazon.
The other companies involved are the Spanish CaixaBank, the French Worldline SA, the Italian Nexi S.p.A. and EPI.
“The aim of this prototyping exercise is to test how well the technology behind a digital euro integrates with prototypes developed by companies. Simulated transactions will be initiated using the front-end prototypes developed by the five companies and processed through the Eurosystem’s interface and back-end infrastructure.”
Bloomberg reports that the European Central Bank will likely be among the first advanced economy central banks to issue a digital currency.
The digital Euro project is currently in a two-year investigation phase and officials say it could arrive as early as in a few years.
It would not be surprising if we will see digital currencies being tied to your digital ID. Perhaps to access your digital wallet, you would need to log in with your digital ID using facial recognition. This is not far-fetched.
Read the full article HERE
iProov contributes face biometrics to consortium piloting payments with EU digital ID wallet
The EU Digital Wallet has been in the works since mid-2021. In mid-September 2022, iProov joined a digital ID wallet consortium to participate in the launch of a pan-European payments pilot utilising the EU Digital Wallet.
The exact role of iProov is not specified, but presumably, its face biometric authentication will be used to secure onboarding, and possibly the payment transactions.
Technology partners in the consortium also include Thales, Signicat, and others. The consortium is led by NOBID, the Nordic-Baltic eID Project, with members in Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia and Norway.
The NOBID Consortium’s pilot is intended to be a large-scale test of wallet issuance, payment means issuance through a financial institution, and payment acceptance, such as to a retailer.
The organisation is separate from the EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium.
Read the full article HERE
Multi-country Consortium Comes Together to Launch Pan-European Payments Pilot for EU Digital ID Wallet
A new multi-country consortium of Europe’s most trusted identity experts has today, 14 September, announced its proposal to deliver a large-scale, cross-border payments pilot strongly aligned with the aims of the European Commission’s EU digital identity wallet program. Six countries (Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia and Norway) are part of the consortium, led by NOBID (Nordic-Baltic eID Project).
Read the full article HERE
Bank of England: Membership of CBDC Engagement and Technology Forums
Announcement made by the Bank of England on 29 September 2021
The Bank of England and HM Treasury announced the membership of the central bank digital currency (“CBDC”) Engagement and Technology Forums. The creation of these groups was announced in April 2021, alongside the CBDC Taskforce which coordinates the exploration of a potential UK CBDC.
The Technology Forum met for the first time in late September, while the Engagement Forum had its inaugural meeting later in the year, 2021. Agendas and Minutes from meetings will be published regularly.
See a list of the members of the CBDC Engagement Forum and CBDC Technology Forum HERE. Paul Bances, Head of Global Market Development of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currencies, PayPal is a member of the CBDC Engagement Forum. PayPal has recently launched a coordinated attack on free speech in the UK.
The Tony Blair Institute in Ethiopia is Looking to Hire Digital ID Strategic Communications Advisor
Extract from the job advert closing date for applications 2 October 2022
The Strategic Communications Advisor will provide technical and strategic advice to Ethiopia’s National ID Program Office (NID) and support its engagement with internal and external stakeholders, including developing a comprehensive Communications Strategy to drive consumer trust and adoption during the rollout of the National ID Program. This is a full-time, 12-month contract based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Two of the key responsibilities for the role are:
- Collaborate with international partners (e.g., the World Bank) to develop Communications Strategies and toolkits for the National ID program.
- Monitor the ID program’s international and local presence and mention, and ensure effective representation of NID in local and international stages.
About the Tony Blair Institute – Policy Futures. Our Policy Futures work encompasses three broad areas:
- Renewing the Centre: developing a bold and innovative domestic policy programme to help renew the centre ground of British politics;
- Tech and Public Policy: exploring the policy challenges and opportunities presented by the technological revolution; and
- Extremism Policy Unit: creating solutions designed to tackle the threat of extremist ideologies in the UK and around the world.
Read the full job description HERE. As it is common practice for job adverts to be removed after the invite for applications has been closed, we have attached a copy below for future reference.
Tony Blair has been pushing for IDs since at least 2004. And from early on in the “pandemic” had been pushing vaccine passports like nobody’s business.
Read more:
- Blair’s back – and advising Tories on vaccine ID cards, The Spectator,27 February 2021
- ID Cards by Peter Hitchens, The Spectator, 2004
Google to invest $1 billion to lift Africa’s internet access
In October 2021, Google announced it was investing US$1 billion in Africa over the next five years.
Why does Google really want to invest such a large amount in Africa? Is it because they want to see African people thrive? No, Google is not being charitable or spreading goodwill.
Nearly 7 months after the tech giant revealed a US$1 billion investment plan, Google opened its first product development centre on the continent in Nairobi, Kenya. Google had already opened an artificial intelligence centre in Ghana’s capital Accra in 2019.
Read the full article HERE
World Economic Forum – A billion people have no legal identity but a new app plans to change that
Ensuring everyone has a legal identity, including birth registration, by 2030 is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It prompted the World Bank to launch its Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative in 2014.
Joseph Thompson’s digital app uses blockchain to preserve the user’s digital identity from interference, making it accessible only to the person whose ID it holds. As a digital solution, it goes with the grain of how many people in emerging economies manage their finances using smartphones.
Read the full article HERE
Read the WEF article mentioned in the tweet above HERE
Transport Canada has blown through nearly 700K on the digital ID plan with no start date for the scheme
There is no anticipated launch date for the Known Traveller Digital Identity project that was first announced in January 2018, nearly five years ago.
According to the return tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 20 September, Transport Canada has to date spent $428,671 on salaries and $220,830 on non-salaries.
Read the full article HERE
Australian Senator Proposes Crypto Bill Targeting China’s Digital Yuan
Australian politician Andrew Bragg wants to prepare the country for the widespread use of China’s central bank digital currency, the digital yuan, according to a draft digital assets bill introduced on Monday, 19 September.
China is currently running cross-border trials of a digital version of its sovereign currency.
Bragg’s draft “Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill 2022” identifies seven Chinese banks, including the Agricultural Bank of China and the Bank of China, that have branches in Australia and can potentially facilitate the use of a digital yuan in the country. The bill establishes disclosure requirements for those designated banks including reporting the number of Australian businesses that have accepted payments using digital yuan facilitated by the bank, and the total amount of digital yuan held in digital wallets by Australian customers of the designated banks. Individuals or entities that violate the reporting requirements will face fines, according to the proposed rules.
Australia needs to be prepared for the widespread use of a digital yuan in the Pacific, or even within Australia because it would give the “Chinese state enormous power, economic and strategic power that it doesn’t have today,” Bragg said during an interview on RN Breakfast on Monday.
Read the full article HERE
Digital Yuan comes with an expiry date: Spend or it will vanish
Report from April 2021
China is exploring expiration dates with its upcoming digital yuan, or DCEP, which means the currency will expire if not used in a certain timeframe.
The digital yuan is programmable to the point that the currency can be made to expire, thus forcing consumers to use it up by a certain date. This is a twist on an obscure, unconventional monetary policy innovation known as a Gesell currency: expiring money, which gives the issuing government a heightened degree of control over money velocity.
The reason for Expiry. Programmable money, tied to real-world identities, and universally tracked by a central bank, is like a substitute for the consumer of last resort. Every year that China gets richer, domestic consumption plays a bigger role (exports were 26% of China’s GDP in 2010, and 18% last year). If domestic consumption can be tightly controlled, then it’s a way to not just increase the volume of consumption but to control the variance of demand for the goods China produces.
Across the World, Digital IDs and Digital Currencies Are Coming Unless We Put a Stop to Them
Michael Loyman