During the weekend, discussions about central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, trended on social media as many people believe the idea will result in increased financial surveillance and a totalitarian monetary system. In a recent interview, Lynette Zang, the chief market analyst at ITM Trading, warned that CBDCs will “take the world into a full surveillance economy that can be controlled directly by the central bank.”

Not everyone opposes the concept of CBDCs, and in a recent opinion editorial, the Keynesian economist Paul Krugman criticized Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s recent opposition to a central bank digital currency.