With digital currency such as Bitcoin emerging, there are several reports of governments stating their intention to introduce digital currencies at a national level, replacing cash.

However, many have raised privacy concerns about such a currency, as it will be programmable and could easily be associated with your identity through such things as a social security number.

As a result:

1. Governments will be able to track every purchase you make.
2. Governments will know automatically know how much money you have in your accounts without having to go through courts and a bank

But there are other concerns about the programming aspect of this digital currency, because not only will governments be able to monitor your spending, they will also have the ability to control it, if they so choose.

For example, it could be set to restrict a person’s purchase of a weapon if they haven’t completed the proper application forms, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

But it could also be used to limit a person’s ability to purchase other items if the government doesn’t agree with your stand on vaccines or, as in the case of Communist China, restricting purchases of anyone critical of the regime, which the Chinese Communist Party is already doing even without a digital currency.

As well, higher taxes could also be embedded into the currency on purchases frowned on by the government. If the state doesn’t like people buying sugary foods, it could embed higher taxes on such items and lower taxes on healthier items through the currency. It could tax items based on their carbon emissions if it wanted.

The government would also have the ability to tax purchases in regions of the country at higher rates, than other regions. The central government could also limit how much you can spend on items such as cars and a home.

All this can be programmed into the currency itself. It is Big Brother like we have never seen it before.

Reports indicate that Communist China is planning to introduce the world’s first national digital currency at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. Some speculate that international companies wanting to do business in the communist regime will be required to use this currency.

For now, private digital currencies such as Bitcoin remain outside the control of government, but I suspect the Apostle John was seeing something very similar to this in his vision of the end times when he spoke of governments being able to control people’s buying and selling:

¹⁶ It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. (Revelation 13:16-17 NIV)

John was living at a time, when the most advanced weaponry were bows and arrows and if he was seeing events taking place in the 21st Century, John would have no idea how to describe them. All he could see was the result.

READ: Programmable Digital Currencies Are Coming – Here’s What That Means