Our Story - Submission on CBDC Design
Submission to the Bank of England on CBDC Design
In March 2020, the Bank of England released a discussion paper on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), inviting responses from the public and other interested parties. As a Church that deeply values the role of cash, we at the Church of Burn believe that a cashless society would be detrimental in many ways—not least because it would deprive us of a physical medium to burn in our Rituals. We felt it was essential to respond to the Bank’s request for engagement.
Rev. Jonathan composed a letter outlining our concerns, which you can read below. Our central argument is that CBDCs should be designed to allow their bearers to destroy them. This is effectively the case for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, where the loss of a private key is equivalent to the destruction of a banknote—in both cases, the bearer can no longer access the value represented.
We were heartened by the level and quality of support we received for this submission. The late Nigel Dodd, then Professor of Sociology and Department Head at the London School of Economics, was the first to offer his co-signature. Nigel is the author of one of the greatest contributions to knowledge on theories of money with his 2014 book The Social Life of Money.. Noam Yuran from Bar Ilan University also quickly endorsed our letter. His book What Money Wants and the forthcoming "The Sexual Economy of Capitalism" are regarded as some of the most significant contributions to the field of Libidinal Economy in the 21st century. Co-signatory Rachel O'Dwyer's debut book Tokens, which explores Money Burning and Rev. Jonathan's ideas, was longlisted for the FT Book of the Year award.
Our submission also received strong backing from the artistic community—the beating heart of our Church. In short, there was resounding support for our simple proposal: that the bearer of a CBDC should have the ability to destroy it, effectively removing it from circulation permanently. You can find the full list of co-signatories below.
Despite our letter being endorsed by such prominent voices, it appears to have been overlooked. The Bank's published 'Summary of Responses' makes no mention of our contribution or the idea we believe is essential to ensuring that CBDCs serve as instruments of liberty rather than tools of repression.
