
Puppet Masters
As reported by Coin Telegraph, the bank issued a report on Thursday -- "Technical Hurdles for CBDC" -- that noted upcoming experiments with a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could provide an alternative to the traditional Yen.
The bank has no plans -- as of yet -- to issue a digital currency, but says the organization is willing to explore the concept due to the increased use of digital payments, potentially adopted at a higher rate than expected due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and the shift by many vendors to contactless or card-based transactions.
The BoJ wants to research two specific areas which the financial institution believes are the main hurdles to adopting digital currency: resilience and access.
Resilience relates to scenarios such as a loss of power or access to IT systems -- an important concept in a country that experiences earthquakes frequently. If there is no means to access a currency when systems are down, this could provide economically damaging.
In addition, a full shift to digital currencies could be a disaster for vulnerable or elderly members of society, who may need to use cash on a daily basis and who may not have access to the mobile technology or apps used to access funds.
Local publication Nikkei estimates that as of 2018, only 65% of Japanese citizens owned a smartphone.
As a result, the Japanese bank not only needs to find a feasible digital currency that can be used widely, but also one that can be accessed offline, in any environment, and not necessarily require reliance on a mobile device.
The start date for the experiments is yet to be announced, but the bank intends to work with other financial institutions and technology companies soon to find a balanced way forward. In particular, offline payments that do not encourage or exacerbate fraud are a topic of interest.
Japan's announcement follows China, a country that has already begun testing its own CBDC. Touted as a potential rival to the US dollar, China's ruling party intends to trial cryptocurrency across Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou, and Beijing.
Latest News
- Boris Johnson confirms 'red list' arrivals face new quarantine measures
- Homeland Security issues 'national terrorism alert' - because 'domestic terrorists' are very scary
- Back to normal? More like new normal! Beijing tightens Covid restrictions before New Year, deploys ANAL swabs
- Trump impeachment DOA in Senate
- Disagreeing with Biden's transgender policy is 'incitement' now?! Facebook says so...
- Biden signs more executive orders in effort to advance US racial equality
- Professor who used Nazi salute in 'free speech' protest retires after being canceled by university
- Meet Antony 'Blinkered' - Biden's choice for America's top diplomat
- Israel's top general says its military is refreshing operational plans against Iran
- US looking to build new Saudi Arabian bases as Biden is pressured to end support for Riyadh's Yemen war
- Biden climate czar Kerry admits zero emissions in US wouldn't make difference in climate change
- San Francisco school board agrees to remove names of 44 Americans on schools including Lincoln
- Goya Foods board silences pro-Trump CEO for questioning election results. He called the election 'unverified'
- US strategic bombers fly over Persian Gulf, first show of force under Biden
- China to expand tests of digital yuan in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen
- SOTT Focus: The Inanity of RNA Vaccines For COVID-19
- Life and disease from space confirmed by unusual suspects
- Putin warns "gloomy dystopia" threatens world at Davos
- London police descend on and break up BABY SHOWER for violating Covid-19 restrictions
- Best of the Web: Not the Bee! If 2 masks are good, 3 masks are better, CNBC claims - echoing notorious satire site
- Boris Johnson confirms 'red list' arrivals face new quarantine measures
- Homeland Security issues 'national terrorism alert' - because 'domestic terrorists' are very scary
- Back to normal? More like new normal! Beijing tightens Covid restrictions before New Year, deploys ANAL swabs
- Trump impeachment DOA in Senate
- Biden signs more executive orders in effort to advance US racial equality
- Meet Antony 'Blinkered' - Biden's choice for America's top diplomat
- Israel's top general says its military is refreshing operational plans against Iran
- US looking to build new Saudi Arabian bases as Biden is pressured to end support for Riyadh's Yemen war
- Biden climate czar Kerry admits zero emissions in US wouldn't make difference in climate change
- US strategic bombers fly over Persian Gulf, first show of force under Biden
- SOTT Focus: The Inanity of RNA Vaccines For COVID-19
- Putin warns "gloomy dystopia" threatens world at Davos
- Delingpole: 'Trussst usss! We're not evil' claims Davos WEF Great Reset promo video
- Long lockdown? New Zealand's borders closed all year, UK sees no summer holidays & lockdown next winter, Singapore threatens restrictions for 5 years
- Rand Paul calls Trump impeachment trial 'dead on arrival' after 45 GOP senators vote against it
- Texas Judge blocks Biden's plan to pause deportations
- DC National Guard commander says Pentagon restricted his authority before riot
- Following the Woke Orthodoxy: 85% diversity on Biden people team
- Best of the Web: After COVID, Davos moves to Great Reset
- Time ripe to end 'illogical hostility' between Tehran and Tel Aviv, former Iranian Ayatollah says
- Disagreeing with Biden's transgender policy is 'incitement' now?! Facebook says so...
- Professor who used Nazi salute in 'free speech' protest retires after being canceled by university
- San Francisco school board agrees to remove names of 44 Americans on schools including Lincoln
- Goya Foods board silences pro-Trump CEO for questioning election results. He called the election 'unverified'
- China to expand tests of digital yuan in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen
- London police descend on and break up BABY SHOWER for violating Covid-19 restrictions
- Best of the Web: Not the Bee! If 2 masks are good, 3 masks are better, CNBC claims - echoing notorious satire site
- Holding Parler & Gab accounts apparently cost New York literary agency employee her job... after ONE Twitter complaint
- The lunacy spreads: Pennsylvania DENTAL SCHOOL declares war on anti-LGBTQ bias with new fund
- Melissa Carone, star witness in Dominion fraud investigation, announces campaign for Michigan Senate
- Interesting: Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was 'prolific' informer for law enforcement
- Florida offers to host Summer Olympic Games if Japan bails
- Death toll of traffic accident in western Cameroon rises to 53
- Moscow mayor lifts ban on nightclubs and drops curfew for bars amid falling coronavirus cases across Russia
- Video game retailer GameStop stock doubles again with no let-up in amateur interest
- Google won't donate to members of Congress who voted against election results
- Two ex-Israeli soldiers sue colleague for revealing their Gaza crimes
- Wisconsin Senate greenlights measure to kill governor's statewide mask mandate & ALL Covid-related emergency orders
- House GOP wants to add Facebook, Twitter to Parler probe of Capitol siege
- Pro-Trump 'WalkAway' campaign founder Brandon Straka arrested by FBI on federal charges linked to Capitol riot
- Matthew Ehret: How the FBI created 'domestic terrorism' through 80 years of psychological warfare
- 25 ancient tombs with encased skulls found in China's Guizhou
- Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Plasma petroglyph cave art deciphered in S.E. USA
- How many early human species existed on Earth?
- Burial practices point to an interconnected early Medieval Europe
- Rare 5,000-year-old crystal dagger found in prehistoric Iberian gravesite
- Learning the Star Knowledge of First Australians
- Ancient indigenous New Mexican community knew how to sustainably coexist with wildfire - even during climate shifts
- Looking Through An Adversary's Eyes: A KGB Agent's Prophecy
- The origins of America's secret police
- Maurice Strong and the roots of the Great Reset agenda
- 'Book of the Dead' scroll found in burial shaft in Egypt
- Stone Age plaque with realistic animal engravings unearthed in cave in Spain
- An OrWELLSian purge? Why H.G. Wells' 'The Shape of Things to Come' has arrived today
- Ancient Egyptian funerary temple unveiled south of Cairo
- Debunking pseudoscience on Gobekli Tepe
- "Exceptional" 2,000-year-old remains of infant and pet dog uncovered in France
- Chinese inventions: The compass, gunpowder ... and Critical Social Justice?
- Teeth pendants speak of the elk's prominent status in the Stone Age
- New insights from original Domesday survey revealed
- Life and disease from space confirmed by unusual suspects
- What if ... a perfect CME hit Earth?
- UAE observatory detects impact events on the Moon
- Puzzling six-exoplanet system with rhythmic movement challenges theories of planetary formation
- Company plans mass rollout of humanoid robots to replace workers in healthcare, education
- Crystallization of salt on the atomic scale filmed for the first time
- Flashback: Bill Gates sails into the future on an $860M hydrogen-powered superyacht
- China debuts train prototype that can hit speeds of 620 kilometers per hour
- 'Plumelets': Dynamic filamentary structures in solar corona and their impact on space weather investigated by NASA
- Quarter of known bee species have not been recorded since 1990
- How Catnip gets kitties high and helps ward off mosquitoes
- Earth's outer shell ballooned during massive growth spurt 3 billion years ago
- Saturn's tilt angle is changing due to its moons
- Honeybee microbes shape colony's social behaviour
- Statue of Liberty-sized space rock among six asteroids set to make 'close approach' to Earth on Biden's inauguration day
- Newly found Comet Leonard might become 2021's brightest
- No stopping AI? Scientists conclude there would be no way to control super-intelligent machines
- The quantum leap forward: On birthing the world's fastest, most advanced internet network, China claims supremacy over the US
- Shocking discovery: Electric eels hunt in packs in Amazon rivers
- NASA fails test of mega Moon rocket, unknown issue causes engines to shut down prematurely
- Heavy snow and ice in the Midwest and Ohio Valley - up to 14 inches
- Snow blankets sun-kissed Arizona, Nevada and California - 18 inches deep in Prescott
- Indonesia volcano eruption: Merapi ejects new ash cloud
- 4 Gray's beaked whales strand on Ruakākā Beach, New Zealand - one dies
- 1 dead, at least 17 injured after tornado strikes Alabama town
- Madrid's record-breaking snowstorm killed half a million trees
- Over 100 gannets found dead after high tides believed to have pummelled breeding colony in New Zealand, 10-metre swells
- Snow falls on Maunakea, Mauna Loa summits in Hawaii
- Deadly floods, landslides in Santa Catarina, Brazil - 3 inches of rain in 3 hours
- Migratory birds wintering in northern Iran increased by 30% due to severe, premature cold in Siberia
- Winter storms alerts in effect for 23 US states
- Powerful 5.8-magnitude quake hits Auckland Islands, New Zealand, USGS says
- Strong activity at Russia's Klyuchevskoy volcano
- Desert snow makes winter wonderland in Joshua Tree National Park, California - up to 6 inches deep
- Monarch butterfly population getting closer to extinction - less than 2,000 of western population counted wintering in California
- Clouds fill snow-dusted Grand Canyon
- Kruger Park floods as Eloise strikes South Africa, roads under water in north of country
- New split in Mount Etna's crater dissects the volcano
- Winter storm brings rare snowfall to Malibu, just one week after temperatures were in the 80s
- Heavy snowfall in Skellefteå, Sweden
- Loud boom in Bali's Buleleng allegedly due to exploding meteor fireball
- Meteor fireball lights up Northern Hungarian skies
- Green meteor fireball reported over the Netherlands and Belgium
- Meteor fireball lights up Madrid's night sky
- Bright meteor fireball observed over wide areas of Japan
- Meteor fireball booms over eastern USA as witnesses report being 'scared' by burst of light
- Watch meteor fireball streak over Sydney, Australia - 'Most insane thing I've ever seen'
- Suspected bolide observed over Spain's Galicia region, loud boom reported
- Several meteors and a bright meteor fireball reported over Puerto Rico
- Bright meteor fireball over the Mediterranean Sea (Jan. 13)
- Meteor fireball over San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico
- Meteor fireball captured over Irkutsk Oblast, Russia
- 'Loud boom' sounds reported in several North Carolina counties
- 'Sonic boom' possibility on loud noise heard in Southern Ohio
- Bright meteor fireball explodes over Norway
- Daytime meteor fireball filmed over Hiratsuka, Japan
- Meteor fireball filmed over the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia
- Nest camera captures meteor fireball in Bedford County sky in Virginia
- Meteor fireball streaks over US East Coast
- Meteor fireball lights up night sky over Antipolo, Philippines
- Pregnant women warned not to take Moderna Covid vaccine
- SOTT Focus: Objective:Health - Synthetic Biology
- Newly discovered subset of brain cells fight inflammation with instructions from the gut
- Best of the Web: Tip of the iceberg? Thousands of COVID vaccine injuries and 13 US deaths reported in December alone
- Peer-reviewed Medical Journal Data: Can Flu Vaccine Increase COVID Risk?
- Blockbuster: CDC quietly removes website headline that claimed "Vaccines do not cause autism"
- Pfizer vaccine 'less effective than presented' - Israel's coronavirus chief
- Twenty reasons mandatory face masks are unsafe, ineffective and immoral
- New form of African swine fever identified in Chinese pig farms, likely caused by illegal vaccines
- Thousands of Israelis test POSITIVE for Covid-19 despite receiving Pfizer/BioNTech jab
- Best of the Web: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: Are all the vaccine deaths a coincidence?
- 5G may not be completely safe; so why are all concerns around it dismissed?
- SOTT Focus: Objective:Health - The Covid Vaccine Lottery: What Side Effects Will You Get?
- California recommends to suspend Moderna vaccine batch due to high number of adverse events
- 13 Israelis suffer FACIAL PARALYSIS after taking Pfizer Covid jab, amid influx of reports detailing adverse effects
- 55 people died in US after receiving COVID-19 vaccines: Reporting system
- Nearby wind park blamed for health issues and cow deaths by French farmer
- At least twenty-three people die in Norway within days of receiving Pfizer coronavirus vaccine
- Stolen Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine data leaked; UPDATE: EMA says leaked data was 'manipulated'
- Norway links 13 deaths to Pfizer vaccine's side effects
- Study finds neural benefits of early music training
- Study: Generational trauma can change brain circuitry of an unborn baby
- Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies offers prize money to find out if there is life after death
- The death of critical thought by 1,000 cuts
- Scientists shed light on how and why some people report 'hearing the dead'
- Brain paralyzes you while you sleep
- The Woke Breaking Point
- SOTT Focus: MindMatters: Dr. George Simon: The Character Disturbance Epidemic and What We Can Do About It
- The failed strategy of lockdown sceptics: We appealed to reason, not emotion
- Level 3 Thinking: A unified theory of self-improvement
- Study finds 4 psychopathic personality traits linked to racial prejudice, right-wing authoritarianism
- General anesthesia and normal sleep affect brain in an amazingly similar way as consciousness fades
- The 'F Scale': Theodore W. Adorno's 'authoritarian personality' revisited
- Have we got it all wrong? Depression as a survival strategy
- SOTT Focus: Psychopathy and the Origins of Totalitarianism
- The 16 facial expressions most common to emotional situations worldwide
- Researchers could induce illusions on demand
- How close is too close?
- Dissenting voices: Finding courage to speak against your assailant
- 'Collective traumatic experience': People report more anger and sadness in their dreams during pandemic
- US Government paid millions to chase UFOs and werewolves
- CIA releases UFO 'Black Vault' documents early: How to see them online
- The truth is in there? 'All' of the CIA's files on UFOs are now available for download
- US agencies have less than 6 months to reveal what they know about UFOs thanks to coronavirus relief bill
- Harvard professor says alien technology visited Earth in 2017
- Large blue UFO startles Hawaii residents: Appeared to plunge into ocean
- FAA notified after large blue UFO seen above Oahu, Hawaii appeared to drop into ocean
- Best of the Web: Ex-CIA boss Brennan says Pentagon's declassified UFO videos are 'eyebrow-raising,' advises 'to keep an open mind'
- Jeremy Corbell interviews author of piece on former Israeli Space Program Director, professor Haim Eshed's UFO revelations
- Best of the Web: 'Fast Movers' and Transmedium Vehicles - The Pentagon's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force
- 'Humanity not yet ready' - Aliens asked not to be revealed says former head of Israel's Space Program
- Best of the Web: Leaked photo surfaces of purported unidentified aerial phenomena
- Jet on approach to UK airport almost collides with mystery object, shocking report finds pilots had 'no time to act'
- Another Chicago Mothman sighting? USPS employee reports seven-foot-tall, red-eyed creature at O'Hare International Airport
- The Phenomenon: New UFO documentary
- 'UFO' seen being 'followed through sky' by mysterious orbs in Japan
- Were ghosts caught on film at Gettysburg Civil War memorial?
- Eyewitness in Odessa, Ukraine: 'I filmed UFO over the Black Sea'
- UFO response protocol sent to Japanese military after Pentagon video release
- Mysterious lights in South Carolina sky spark UFO debate
- 'You can reopen now!' Governor Newsom shouts at row of abandoned, dilapidated buildings
- Triple-masker looks down on people who only double mask
- Democrats Successfully Prevent Military Coup By Occupying D.C. With Military
- 'Skynet is a private company, they can do what they want,' says man getting curb-stomped by Terminator bot
- Another Biden miracle! CNN covid death counter begins counting backward
- Biden tells freezing troops sleeping in garages to be patient until he can get them shipped to Iraq
- Appropriate: Biden to be sworn in on copy of The Communist Manifesto
- Depressed Brian Stelter spends all day hitting refresh on Trump's Twitter page
- Most popular US President ever in history, to be inaugurated in secret behind giant wall guarded by thousands of soldiers
- AOC declares Stalin was actually center-right: No Green New Deal proves it
- Flashback: INEQUALITY! Woman makes $13 a day selling Pet Rocks on Etsy, MALE Robert Downey Jr. made millions playing Iron Man
- Jonathan Pie: Acting Gay!
- Evil fascist dictator censored and voted out of office
- An honest victory speech by Joe Biden
- Ignorant Republicans riot and don't even get any big-screen TVs
- Trump sneaks back on Twitter by disguising self as PR rep for Chinese Communist Party
- Congress upset as they're the only criminals allowed in the Capitol
- CNN gravely reports on 'first violent protest in recent memory'
- Not satire: Masks for cows aim to filter burps to curb greenhouse gas emissions
- Biden promises nationwide mask mandate and womandate
Quote of the Day
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.
Recent Comments
Inanity of inanities; all is inanity. RCclesiastes. R.C.
This is a claim, not a proof and it was probably done by 'fudging' the numbers. Moderna's jab, which has proven to be 94% effective against the...
SOTTites: An extract from a sadly funny classic anal -ysis by A. Anglin/DS on where it was going from early last fall: Listen: later this...
I think Putin is again outsmarting the idiots who claim to represent what used to be the West: Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer....
Great article...koodos to the author
Comment: A cashless society is a controlled society. But as with coronavirus lockdowns, the population seems to be asking for it.