EU is heading down the path of total financial surveillance through its allegiance to CBDCs. Some would argue that this is no different to what already exists in the US. The argument goes like this: US already has a suveillance-based, highly centralized financial system, with the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) wielding significant power over private citizens. SWIFT is heavily influenced by U.S. authorities, enabling transaction monitoring and sanctions enforcement. The PATRIOT Act allows the government to monitor and freeze assets of individuals or entities under the suspicion (or pretext) of terrorism or money laundering. Digital Payment Surveillance: Platforms like PayPal, Venmo and banks are required to report "suspicious activities" to authorities, but suspicious activities is an ill-defined subjective term that can be (and has been) repeatedly weaponized by unelected government officials to deplatform political enemies. So how are CBDCs different. The difference is that a CBDC is like putting the whole centralized surveillance network on steroids because it because it becomes frictionless to monitor, surveil, freeze, deplatform and even adjust the bank account/ social credit score/ interest rate of any private citizen you want. That makes the capacity for surveillance 10x, 100x, or even 1000x more powerful. Saying "we already have something bad" is not a justification to turning a blind-eye to the rise of something even worse.