After months of even a good year of speculation of the Fed releasing FEDNOW it’s finally here and has been released to the world. The big promise of it is to allow businesses and households to transfer funds near instantly instead of days which is often the case.

On the banking front it also means that banks no longer will be sending each other IOUs and instead that money will be verified and checked instantly to transaction from one bank to another.

The big benefits for everyday people would be the following

• Instant payments no longer 3 day waiting periods or longer on transactions
• Paying invoices is now instant and no longer has a hold time
• Sending money on holidays and weekends
• Send money at any time of the day

At the moment there are currently 35 banks taking part in this listed below

• 1st Source Bank
• Adyen
• Avidia Bank
• BNY Mellon
• Bridge Community Bank
• Bryant Bank
• Community Bank of the Bay
• Consumers Cooperative Credit Union
• Corporate America Credit Union
• Eastern Corporate Federal Credit Union
• First Internet Bank of Indiana
• Global Innovations Bank
• HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union
• INB
• JPMorgan Chase
• Mediapolis Savings Bank
• North American Banking Company
• Peoples Bank
• Pima Federal Credit Union
• Salem Five Bank
• Star One Credit Union
• United Bankers' Bank
• U.S. Bank
• U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service
• Veridian Credit Union
• Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

What Exactly is FedNow?

and

What Does FedNow Do?

FedNow takes over for a 5 year old system called RTP which stands for real time payments and banks have been using it for the last few years. At the moment over 350 banks are currently using the RTP program while currently on launch day 35 banks are using it.

So what’s the difference between these two systems and what does it matter?
RTP allows up to $1 million dollars per transaction while FedNow currently limits this to $500,000 (Most likely to go up after further testing) RTP was great for bank to bank transactions but it didn’t do much for things like payroll.

With FEDNOW payroll checks should instantly appear in bank accounts supporting FedNow. RTP is owned by clearing houses which represents 26 of the worlds largest banks. While the FedNow system has one own the Federal Reserve.

Is A CBDC Next?

We saw just a few months ago China roll out their first digital currency in which would not be printed but only exist in cyberspace. The Fed has been looking over the possibilities of launching their own.

While of course the government won’t come out and just say it I predict that FedNow was the start of it. FedNow will not be the CBDC but instead a version of it that exist only within the borders of the USA. Once all the testing and kinks are fixed in that platform I do speculate that a CBCD would launch under a new name and be used for global transactions only while the FedNow payment system would only be used here at home. If you don’t believe me then search for Project Cedar Phase II x Ubin+

Transaction Costs
Just like we see expensive fees for platforms like Bitcoin and Ethereum there are other options but still these two remain at the top despite that. That’s mainly because of the programs that run on these applications and high price point demand for them which of course increases even more app development.

Well the governments and banks of the world have this same issue. For example If a bank wants to transfer money from within the USA to overseas it currently takes two days and gets verified by three banks before the transaction closes out. It’s not safe, it’s expensive and there are flaws. With the CBDC system it makes those transactions now 10 seconds or less with a cost of just a few pennies.

A CBDC system is just another version of DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) which bitcoin and other blockchains have been using for years. Of course no credit is given to these system nor do they talk about using that tech of course not this is the government here lol.
At the moment 11 countries have already launched CBDC with 32 countries in development and 46 others are researching it.

*Image pulled from https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/

Conspiracy Theories

The funny thing about conspiracy theories is years after they are often true and prove to be fact. At the moment speculation and conspiracy theories are currently flying around about this new payment system being worked on.
This of course is pretty commonplace now. In fact trust in the USA government nose dived in the 1970s as the Vietnam war raged on and people continued to be lied to about the war coming to a soon end. Instead it escalated and then escalated more.

Nixon also had the Watergate cover up scandal and his vice presidents corruption in accepting bribes as a Maryland governor.
This was also a time with crazy high inflation and then years later finding out what horrible tests the government does on its soldiers ya know agent orange, and countless other coverups.

The trust in the US government came back a bit during 2001 just above 50% which let’s be honest a lot happened in that year that really brought people together. However as the years moved on we are starting to see more and more that the government is most likely behind these events and lies such as the second golf war. To the point of where nearly no trust was given to the government at 18%.

That was until Trump came into office and the trust in government climbed to a whopping 27% and since then has fallen back to just 20%. Yep that’s right 20% or less people trust their government but for some reason put up with the BS. Most likely because they feel powerless over it. The last results came in 2022 and honestly I expect it to be even lower now maybe around the 15% range.

Conspiracy Theory 1

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, Is a government big enough to take away everything that you have” - Thomas Jefferson

The thought is if the government fully controls a CBDC they then have the power to direct those digital dollars, block those digital dollars and have full command over how that money is used. At least with paper money you have somewhat of control but better yet gold and silver… or maybe not…
You see in on April 5, 1933 the government pushed an executive order that ALL gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificated had to be surrendered to the Federal Reserve Bank.

Yep, this happened! You either gave up your gold or otherwise you where fined. In fact a very recent example of this would be Canada in 2022 when they thought it would be a great idea to lock accounts of truckers who went on strike and froze all of their assets.

When you think about it this gives the government full control over it’s population now by holding their money hostage in bank accounts. So is it really so much a conspiracy theory or something to actually be very concerned about. Another reason why Crypto is a powerful asset to also be holding of which they are attempting to try and control as well. However it’s fair to say that banks have always had this power and we saw it a few years ago when banks would block payments and lock out accounts because you were buying crypto with your Fiat bank money and they didn’t like that. Yep the banks and government telling you what you’re allowed to do and not do with your OWN MONEY!

This brings into the spotlight of the real concern and that’s if the government tries to attack and phase out things like paper money, gold, silver and cryptocurrency. That’s when you know it’s about to get really bad!

Conspiracy Theory 2

Oversight and control by banks, Fed and the government.

It’s thought that if we go to an all digital currency that every transaction we might from $0.01 to whatever amount will be fully tracked, audited and be used against people for taxes, lawsuits and other oppressive means. You see, before the 2001 terrorist attacks you had the right to financial privacy. Meaning the government agency or authority figure had to get a search warrant and have probable cause for doing so. But an executive order which STILL to this day 22 years later is still in effect which allows them to currently look into anyone at any given time without any such warrant a clear violation of your freedoms.

Now sure you might say if you don’t have anything to hide why should you care. That’s way beyond the point and you’ll see it in cases where they will pull records that have nothing to do with cases or would have been used otherwise to get dirt on you for a mistake on your taxes in the past or any transaction you made that might look sus to them.

By moving to this system and that executive order still intact it means they have FULL and most likely AI screened transactions that will go over everyone. If you thought tax audits were bad before they are about to get even worse and while you did your hardest to make sure you paid everything you should have in taxes the AI system might screen over and spot a mistake and flag your account even though you honestly didn’t realize you did anything wrong. But do you think they are going to care?

Another factor of this is they could pull something like China where the digital Yuan has an expiration date. If you don’t use that digital money by the expiration date you lose it. So forget about saving up money to buy something big if the government deems it that you’re not allowed to they can issue expirations on your digital money. You might think they wont do this but it’s a powerful way to control and beat inflation which is something we are currently dealing with. See 9% inflation return and you might end up seeing that government handout come expire and you lose it all.

Also come tax time in theory you wouldn’t have to do your taxes anymore. Instead the government will tell you you own them money and to pay up based on what the CBDC ledgers shows and was tracked.

“Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” - Benjamin Franklin

Talk about an oppressive government, a controlling one and one that pretty much destroyed your freedoms overnight and that’s exactly what you get with this system.

What we people need to do is make sure Crypto in particular and other assets like gold and silver can still be used for payments and will be honored. If those start to disappear (like we have been seeing the SEC try to do by crushing crypto) we are in for a seriously huge world of hurt. I’m talking about the book 1984 stuff and it’s something we all need to fight back against.